✦ Our Method

How a chartbecomes a scent.

Every Vedra match comes from a documented tradition of planetary correspondence. Here is the whole method, its table, and its sources, laid open.

The idea

One principle runs through the whole system: sympatheia, the old idea that like resonates with like. A material is linked to a planet because its character, its warmth, its sweetness, its sharpness, echoes that planet's nature. Each planet in turn connects to the zodiac through classical rulership and the four elements.

The chain is simple: material, to quality, to planet, to sign. Read it backwards and a sign points to the note families that suit it.

The seven planets

Each classical planet carries a family of scents whose character mirrors its own.

  • Sun

    Radiant, warming, heart-centred. Leans Citrus, Aromatic, Amber.

  • Moon

    Cooling, watery, night-blooming. Leans Floral, Aquatic, Musk.

  • Mercury

    Light, sharp, clarifying, airy. Leans Aromatic, Green, Citrus.

  • Venus

    Sweet, floral, attractive. Leans Floral, Gourmand, Fruity.

  • Mars

    Hot, spicy, pungent. Leans Spicy, Aromatic, Woody.

  • Jupiter

    Expansive, rich, warm. Leans Woody, Amber, Spicy.

  • Saturn

    Cool, dry, grounding, structural. Leans Woody, Chypre, Leather.

The twelve signs

Every sign inherits its leading note families from its ruling planet, weighted highest, blended with its element. This is the table our reading joins on.

SignElementRulerLeading note families
AriesFireMarsSpicy, Aromatic, Woody, Amber
TaurusEarthVenusFloral, Gourmand, Woody, Fruity
GeminiAirMercuryAromatic, Green, Citrus
CancerWaterMoonFloral, Aquatic, Musk
LeoFireSunCitrus, Aromatic, Amber, Spicy
VirgoEarthMercuryAromatic, Green, Woody, Citrus
LibraAirVenusFloral, Gourmand, Citrus, Fruity
ScorpioWaterMars (Pluto)Spicy, Aromatic, Aquatic, Woody
SagittariusFireJupiterWoody, Amber, Spicy
CapricornEarthSaturnWoody, Chypre, Leather, Green
AquariusAirSaturn (Uranus)Woody, Chypre, Citrus, Leather
PiscesWaterJupiter (Neptune)Woody, Amber, Aquatic, Spicy

Where a sign has a modern co-ruler in brackets (Pluto, Uranus, Neptune), we read from the classical ruler and treat the co-ruler as colour, not the spine.

Where this comes from

The note-to-planet links are drawn from the Western tradition of planetary correspondence and the doctrine of signatures, a lineage running from Dioscorides through to Culpeper's English Physician (1652), Agrippa, and the modern practitioner Patricia Davis.

Your birth chart itself is read in the Vedic sidereal system (Sun in Western tropical, Moon, Rising and Venus in sidereal Lahiri). The scent correspondences are this separate Western tradition. They are two different layers, and we keep them honest about which is which: the Vedic texts hold no perfume table of their own.

What this is, and is not

This is an authored, coherent system drawn from a documented tradition, not a claim of cause and effect. A correspondence is symbolic: a way of choosing and understanding a scent, never a promise about what a perfume will do for you.

We compute at the level of note families, the fragrance wheel, never by taking a perfume apart into single oils. A finished scent is more than the sum of its parts, and the wheel holds true even for modern synthetics. It is a lens for self-exploration, offered in the spirit of the tradition it draws on.

Sources