The Sacred Wood: An Olfactory Journey Through Aloeswood (in person)

For over two thousand years, aloeswood—known as oud, agarwood, gaharu, jinkō—has been burned in Buddhist temples, Sufi gatherings, and traditional healing practices across Asia and the Middle East for centuries. This session offers direct encounter with one of the world's rarest aromatic materials, exploring its cultural histories, spiritual significance, and contemporary challenges.

Participants will experience carefully curated specimens including wild and cultivated woods, oils, incense materials, and traditional burning implements. Through guided comparison and traditional burning demonstrations, the session will trace how aloeswood has functioned as medicine, meditation aid, sacred offering, and cultural medium across multiple wisdom traditions.

What Participants Will Experience:

• Olfactory exploration of wild and cultivated aloeswood from different regions, understanding grades, origins, and processing methods
• Traditional burning techniques using authentic implements, discovering how heat and preparation transform raw material into experience
• Cultural and historical context tracing aloeswood's role in Buddhist, Islamic, and medical traditions from the Silk Road to contemporary perfumery
• Contemporary realities including sustainability, authentication, and the tension between traditional use and luxury markets

Why Now:

As wild aloeswood sources become nearly extinct and cultural contexts are often lost to commercial marketing, this session will provide what few can offer: access to extraordinary materials paired with deep contextual knowledge. Participants will develop not only refined olfactory awareness but understanding of how scent has served as a technology of presence, healing, and connection across cultures.

Note:
Select aloeswood materials and natural perfumes from Oudimentary will be available for purchase following the masterclass.

About the Presenter:

Micah Anderson is founder of Oudimentary, specializing in rare aloeswood and natural perfumery for over twenty years. As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT #104709) and Clinical Director for the Mind Body Awareness Project, Micah brings a unique perspective to the intersection of scent, psychology, and spiritual practice. His clinical work with justice-involved populations and trauma survivors has deepened understanding of how olfactory experience can serve healing and grounding in contexts where other approaches fail. This masterclass emerges from decades of studying aloeswood's botany, trade routes, and cultural applications—combined with lived experience of how scent operates as a somatic anchor and doorway to presence.

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Host or Publisher The Institute for Art and Olfaction