For Breast Cancer Awareness Month we want to honor the breasts. Associated with the heart chakra—the 4th chakra, the chakra of self-love—they are a place where spiritual and physical meet. Today, we pay homage to these mysterious mammaries, which uniquely conjure both sexual and maternal response. In fact, there are no other mammals in which breasts are sexually selected.

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Massaging your breasts stimulates healthy lymph nodes and blood flow, but it also helps you connect with your inner sensual goddess. 

This unique duality has been recognized throughout time. Minoan Snake Goddess figurines, found in an archeological site outside of Crete, depict a goddess and priestess with tight bodices that accentuate their bare breasts—adorned with a sacral knot—the most important Minoan religious symbol that portrays holiness. Some scholars relate the snake goddess to the Phoenician Astarte (virgin daughter), the goddess of fertility and sexuality. Our founder, Julie Elliott, actually visited the Palace of Knossos in Greece, on the island of Crete, where she learned of their priestess matriarchal society. The priestesses would anoint their breasts with saffron, which is one of the reasons you will find it in our Décolleté balm.

Minoan Snake Goddess figurines

You’ll also find jasmine in our Décolleté balm, and in many of our sumptuous body balms, as well—all perfect for paying reverence to your breasts with a nighttime ritual of self-massage. Jasmine is considered an important breast remedy as it promotes the connection between mother and baby and the production and flow of milk. A monument to human evolution, breast milk is the only food on the planet that’s really meant to be eaten by humans. “Mother’s milk is food; mother’s milk is medicine; and mother’s milk is signal,” said Katie Hinde, an assistant professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard, to Slate.

Mothers literally imprint on their fetuses with pheromones during pregnancy so that when their newborn is skin-to-skin the first time, baby instantly "recognizes" momma and goes straight for the nipple. However, not all mothers breastfeed, which is why Florence Williams writes in "Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History" that a wet nurse was one of the earliest professions. Breast milk is currently such a valuable commodity that it sells online for 262 times the price of oil.

Judy Chicago, Birth Story, 1984

The breasts—being so crucial to early childhood development, and, later on, to sexual identity and self-image, and being adjacent to the heart which is the emotional and spiritual center—are a primary repository for emotional wounds which can serve as the foundation for the central disturbance of a disease process. Thus, it is not surprising that the breasts so frequently become the site of physical manifestation of painful dysfunction and virulent cancer. 

Breasts are the most tumor-prone organ in the human body. They "soak up pollution like a pair of soft sponges,” writes Williams. Breasts store known toxins in their tissues, originating from everyday items like personal care products, sunglasses, rubber gloves, faux leather, and car seats—so a regular detox is a must.

Massaging your breasts stimulates healthy lymph nodes and blood flow, but it also helps you connect with your inner sensual goddess. Follow this nightly ritual for breast health and pleasure.

DRY BRUSH

Before showering, start at the tops of the feet and move in the direction of your heart in long, sweeping strokes, to move your lymph, increase blood circulation, and flush toxins, bacteria, and waste from your system. 

BATH

Banish toxins via your bath by adding two cups of sea salt or kosher salt, each with over 60 trace minerals including potassium and magnesium, as well as two cups of baking soda, which assists in detoxification, alkalizes the body, and softens the skin.

MASSAGE

Annoint your breasts with a body balm of your choice. Massage around the breasts in a clockwise pattern and continue out to the armpits to ensure lymph drainage. From there, allow desire to instruct.