The Art of Anointing: A History of Women and Sacred Oil

Anointing the body with oil is an ancient spiritual-sensual ritual that was passed down through the hands of wise women and priestesses for aeons. Found across cultures from Sumer to Egypt, from Greece to India and from early Christianity to indigenous European traditions, the act of anointing the body with sacred oil was more than a cosmetic or healing gesture: it was a consecration of the body as a temple.

The art of anointing ourselves with sacred oil forms a precious and powerful part of my work. In honour of my upcoming 4-Week Sensuality Temple, The Wellspring, let me take you on a journey through ancient cultures to look at the ways that our way-back ancestors worked with oils as a sacred feminine art.

 

 

Before Religion, There Was Ritual

For thousands of years, women throughout ancient cultures used oils not just for beauty, but for healing, initiation, mourning and spiritual power. These oils were infused with herbs, resins and prayers and used to bless the body, to honour the sacred and mark rites of passage. The history of anointing with oil threads itself through tombs, temples, shrines and homes. It is a history handed down by priestesses, mystics, mothers and witches. And it’s a thread of wisdom which those who love the earth, the body and the feminine are choosing to pick up once again. 

 

The Spiritual and Sensory Power of Oil

Anointing was a prayer made through the senses. It was believed that oil could hold the breath of the gods, capture the memory of plants and deliver the touch of the sacred. When applied to the skin, oil softens and heals, but it also sanctifies. For women especially, oiling the body was considered an act of devotion – as if it called to the soul under the skin. In the art of annointing, touch, scent and intention worked together to nourish the soul through the senses.

 

Temple Oils and the Priestesses of Inanna

In the temples of ancient Sumer, priestesses known as entu or nadītu were perfumers and healers. They were trained in the art of using sacred fragrance for ritual purposes. They blended oils with cedar wood, myrrh and cypress. Perfume vessels made from alabaster and stone have been found in temples at Ur and Mari. Some contained the residue of myrrh and cedar. The oils were used to anoint statues of gods, offerings and the human body – especially during sacred marriage (hieros gamos) rites. Tablets from Mari (pictured below) describe the use of aromatic oils by priestesses while they performed ritual acts.

Goddess Inanna, who stood at the centre of Sumerian spirituality, was described as being bathed in oil before her descent to the underworld. In the ‘Hymn to Inanna’ by priestess Enheduanna it is written:

“You bathe in sweet oil. You adorn your body with the noble dress of ladyship… Like the moon you shine.”

Egypt: Oils for the Living and the Dead

In Egypt, sacred oils were used in life and in death. The act of anointing for the ancient Egyptians was both a way to prepare the soul and body for the next world and to connect to the divine in this one.

An excerpt from the Pyramid Texts, written around 2400 BCE, states: 

“The oil is poured on your head. It runs down your body. You become divine.” 

Priestesses of Hathor and Isis used aromatic oils for ritual baths, fertility rites and healing work. And Egyptian women used oils for erotic, ritual and devotional purposes – what the Greeks would later call ‘mystikos’: “secret rites”.

Alabaster jars filled with myrrh, blue lotus and frankincense have been found in tombs in the Valley of the Kings – still fragrant thousands of years after they were poured. The embalming process itself was a form of divine anointing intended to preserve the body for eternity.

Reliefs at the Temple of Hathor at Dendera show priestesses anointing the pharaoh in ritual. And in the famous myth, Isis was said to anoint Osiris, resurrecting him through touch and scent.

The Pyramid Texts written around 2400 BCE state:

“The oil is poured on your head. It runs down your body. You become divine.”

 

 

The Magdalene: Anointing as Transmission

A famous story of anointing within early Christianity came to be associated with Mary Magdalene. In the Gospel of John it is written: “Then Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet and wiped them with her hair.”

The story, as it’s been told, is that Mary anoints Jesus with spikenard oil in an act of radical love. Jesus interprets the anointing as preparation for his burial, lending the act profound spiritual significance.

However, in other gospels, the woman who anointed Jesus was either not named or was named as Mary of Bethany. Later on came the attribution to Mary Magdalene. 

The early gospels describe anointing as a mystical act. The Gospel of Philip in the Nag Hammadi codex describes anointing as spiritual initiation:

“The anointing is superior to baptism… he who is anointed possesses everything.”

Early Christian texts suggest the use of spikenard, myrrh, olive oil and frankincense for healing and sanctification. Spikenard was an expensive perfume derived from the root of a plant found in the Himalayas. Its use signifies the preciousness of the offering.

In early Christian communities, it was often women who performed these rites, revealing their position as spiritual authorities during the new religion’s infancy. 

In ancient Jewish culture, anointing with oil (mashach) was a common ritual for consecration, healing and burial preparation. It is said that King David was anointed by the prophet Solomon. Unguentaria (small ceramic or glass perfume vessels) have been found throughout Israel in early Christian burial sites.

After Jesus’s death, a group of Myrrh Bearers came to the tomb with oils to anoint his body as per traditional burial customs. Different gospels cite various people being present at the tomb, but all four gospels attest that Mary Magdalene was present.

The word Christ comes from the Greek word Χριστός (Christos), which means ‘Anointed One’. Christos is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word מָשִׁיחַ (Mashiach), which also means Anointed One — Messiah.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem preserves a Stone of Anointing, which is believed to be where Jesus’s body was anointed by the women after crucifixion.

In Eastern Orthodox tradition, the Third Sunday after Easter is dedicated to the Myrrh Bearers. The Myrrh Bearers embody the archetype of women as keepers of sacred rites and guardians of the life-death threshold.

The tradition of women working with myrrh oil can be traced back to the Egyptians, for whom it was a favourite. Myrrh was at one time more expensive than gold and was much-loved for its healing as well as spiritual benefits. But, as Felicity Warner writers in ‘Sacred Oils’:

“The most famous myrrhophore (woman who works with myrrh and sacred oils) is Mary Magdalene.” ​

The word myrrhophore comes from the Greek myrrha meaning “myrrh” and phoros meaning “bearer”. The earliest known use of the word in English dates back to the 1840s in the writings of Anna Jameson, who used the term to describe the women who brought myrrh to Jesus’ tomb.

Over the last decade, as more women have felt the call to the priestess path, the idea of the myrrophore as a lost feminine wisdom keeper has grown in popularity.

 

Fragrance, Sensuality and Transformation in Ancient Greece

Like Egypt, in ancient Greece, oiling the body was both a part of daily life, and – within its mystery schools and goddess cults – a profoundly sacred act.

Oiling the body was considered a way to strengthen one’s life-force (“thymos”) and maintain balance between the body and the soul.

At the Eleusinian Mysteries, initiates were thought to have been ritually bathed and anointed as a way to mark the thresholds between life, death and rebirth. Ritual vessels found at Eleusis like the kernos may have held – among other ritual offerings, including the mysterious psycho-active brew Kykion – sacred oils.

One myth of Aphrodite tells that she was bathed and perfumed with rose (a flower long associated with her) and myrtle oil by her attendants. Ointment containers with inscriptions dedicated to the goddess have been found in sanctuaries on Cyprus (her birthplace) and in Athens.

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter (7th century BCE) states:

“She [Demeter] anointed the skin of the mortal boy with ambrosia, like a balm… to make him immortal.”

Statues of goddesses containing perfume residue, including the statue of Artemis at Ephesus, suggest that ritual anointing practices took place.

A large black meteoric rock located in Paphos is said to have been an early aniconic form of Aphrodite. The stone is layered with a film of oil as a result of the millennia of offerings applied to it.

 

Ayurvedic Anointing and the Female Body

In India, the ritual of oiling the body – abhyanga – is a practice of nourishment and spiritual alignment central to Ayurvedic medicine. The Sanskrit word ‘sneha’ translates both as “to oil” and “to love”.

In Ayurveda, oils are used to balance the doshas, increase vitality (ojas) and regulate the nervous system.

In Tantric practice, oiling is an aspect of sacred intimacy and ritual. The Kāma Sūtra describes ritually oiling the body as part of sensual and spiritual practice, especially for women engaged in devotional rites. The yoni (vulva) and lingam (phallus) were anointed, both for pleasure and as an act of worship.

Remnants of terracotta oil flasks have been found among the remains from Indus Valley civilisations.

Temple carvings, like the ones at Khajuraho, show women thought to be priestesses in oiling and bathing scenes.

 

European Folk Traditions and Cunning Women

Across European folk traditions, anointing oils were made by cunning women for use in folk medicine, midwifery, blessing the dead or seasonal celebrations. 

Medieval Irish Brehon Laws record “ointment-women” (Ban Leighis) – often midwives or healers – using ritual oils in childbirth, initiations and blessings. Among them are listed infused oils made with mugwort, calendula and St John’s Wort.

Herbal-infused oils were massaged into the skin for protection or to assist with journeys in the dream time. The anointing of infants, brides and elders was a form of blessing.

These practices were often persecuted or driven underground during the rise of the Church and the witch trials. Yet the knowledge persisted in secret: in kitchens, gardens and through a lineage of whispers.

Unguent pots and herb-infused oil vessels have been found in many Anglo-Saxon and Celtic burial sites, often placed near the pelvis or chest, implying they were once applied to the root or heart centre.

In Demark, the Bronze Age burial of the ‘Egtved Girl’ included remnants of oil made from birch bark and calendula – likely applied to her body during a burial ceremony.

 

Healing Benefits of Anointing with Oil

Now that we’ve journeyed through ancient culture’s anointing traditions, I’d like to explain some of the many benefits you can enjoy from your own body oiling practice.

Oiling the body with slow, rhythmic touch activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Touch receptors in the skin (especially C-tactile fibres) respond to nurturing touch by signalling safety and reducing cortisol. This practice surges oxytocin (the love hormone) and is particularly helpful for women who experience menstrual cycle challenges in their Luteal phase. 

Your skin is a sensory organ and is connected to your emotional brain. Oiling stimulates interoception (the awareness of your internal state) and helps you feel yourself . The skin contains a high density of nerve endings, including those that communicate directly with the limbic system (emotion centre of the brain). Oiling the body can restore a sense of containment, especially during times of sensitivity like in postpartum, the Luteal phase and peri-menopause.

When done with awareness, anointing becomes a form of ritualised touch, helping to rewrite neural pathways around safety, worth and embodiment. Repeated ritual touch forms new associations in the brain. Over time, the body begins to expect care, softness and ease, becoming a practice of re-patterning and reconnection to self.

The warmth and texture of oil creates a physical boundary. This is comforting for people who are highly sensitive, energetically porous, or are currently experiencing grief, trauma or overwhelm. Self-oiling helps bring tonic immobility back to movement, guiding the body back into a harmonious flow. Oiling the body reduces inflammation and stimulates oxytocin and progesterone production, which can help to relieve menstrual cramps, tension and breast tenderness.

Regular oiling of the belly, breasts and feet is a method within many traditional medicine systems for balancing hormonal shifts, and supporting menstrual and fertile health. Gentle abdominal oil massage supports lymphatic flow, blood circulation and digestion.

Oiling is also a practice of sensual connection to the body and makes a beautiful ritual of self-love, bringing nurturance and, if desired, arousal. It can become a foundation of a woman’s self-pleasure practice or can be enjoyed with a partner before deeper intimacy. 

 

 

Reclaiming Anointing as Ancestral Practice 

To anoint ourselves is to remember that the body is sacred; ritual self-care is a form of prayer; and scent and touch are doorways to the spirit. 

When women reclaim the ancient art of anointing, we are reclaiming the lost feminine wisdom which lives in our bones and is waiting to be remembered and honoured once more. 

This is living wisdom and it asks to be returned to our daily lives as a thread honouring our ancestors, reminding us of the pace of sanity and the role of ritual, beauty and sensuality in a meaningful life.

In the Wellspring we will practise the art of anointing with breast and yoni massage practices, combining sacred sexual wisdom with body-oiling.

Join me on May 9th for the Wellspring: a 4-Week Mystery School for Sensual Women. Read more here.