Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (BPAL) Lupercalia : 2021 Limited Edition Perfume Oil (Limited)
For the past several years, it has been increasingly challenging crafting Lupercalia. How difficult it is to think of love or lust or beauty when we are slowly suffocating in the grip of an increasingly authoritarian regime! Objectively and intellectually, I know that we all need joyful release and rest from care, and that a series like Lupercalia is traditionally a balm for grief and sorrow, but emotionally... it’s sometimes hard to shift gears towards romance and passion when you’re being confronted daily with so much grief and suffering. I want to craft a series filled with laughter, silliness, and joy, but sometimes it’s so hard.
I’m reminded of a snippet of a poem of WH Auden’s: September 1, 1939 –
All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages;
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Belaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
I offer you some smut and a few lines of love and longing in the hopes that we can keep our affirming flames burning during these dark and tumultuous times: white rose, muguet, white sandalwood, ambrette seed, vetiver, and smoke.
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