More than 'Fair' and the honest choice - our story
Our History
The mission of Mère Cie is to promote commercial cooperation between India and the USA, to generate funds for international programs fostering world peace, development and spiritual evolution, and to serve as a means for the personal development of its staff.
Mère Cie was established as a company in Los Angeles in 1974 by a group of American spiritual aspirants working with The Mother's Service Society in Pondicherry, India. The Mother's Service Society is a tax-exempt recognized social-science research institute seeking to apply and practice the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother in all fields of life. Its research activities focus on economic and social development projects in India and internationally, and the formulation of spiritual approaches to issues in politics, economics, management, psychology, and literary criticism. The Society operates a rural development project in Tamil Nadu, India and supports a variety of activities to accelerate social development, including projects to promote education, entrepreneurship, employment and economic growth.
Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) was born in West Bengal, India. His parents sent him to England with his brothers at a young age to be educated. He graduated with honors from Cambridge University before the turn of the century, and returned to his native India to lead his country's struggle for independence from British colonial rule. In 1907 he turned from political life to dedicate himself to the spiritual quest, moving to Pondicherry, then a small French colony on the Bay of Bengal in South India. In 1912 he was joined by Mira Richard (1878-1973), the wife of a French diplomat who came to India in search of a spiritual teacher. Sri Aurobindo recognized her as an incarnation of Divine Shakti, and she has since been known as The Mother. Together they formulated the practice of Integral Yoga and founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry.
The Integral Yoga is based on the premise that "All Life is Yoga"; that every activity and aspect of life can be made a means for psychological and spiritual progress, leading to an evolutionary ascent of humanity to a higher consciousness. The ultimate goal of the Integral Yoga is a transformation of the human mind, life and physical body to express the Divine Consciousness.
Mother’s Fragrances are More than “Fair”
Our products are not only fairer because we meet all the criteria of Fair Trade: They meet all the criteria of Honesty.
Fair to Nature: Since 1975, our Floral Incense has only been made with Natural Oils, rolled with Sustainable Bamboo from Assam (the fastest growing grass in the world, at 1 cm per hour), with charcoal from sustainable coconut bark, with environmentally friendly butter paper and hand marbled and handmade paper made from recycled cotton and shipped with 3 million sticks per Sea Container at a time.
Honest to the Producer: More than 200 (mainly women) have permanent work (due to the handmade nature of our products) with good pay, including medical insurance, retirement, and loan options.
Fair to the Consumer: We offer fair products with the best price/quality ratio, due to the lack of brokering and the use of fair margins (this gives the consumer at least twice as much value for money in comparison to the other products). Moreover we are the only brand that delivers incense guaranteed without chemical additives such as phthalates & musk compounds (which can disrupt our health and in particular, our hormone balance).
Honest to the World: 5% of our Gross Profit, goes to the development projects in the broadest sense of the word.
Our incense creates the most beautiful atmosphere: Relaxing, supportive, comforting, bringing happiness, and happiness with beauty & memories.
Mother’s Fragrances – The Honest Choice and Just the Real Thing
In Memory of Dan and Larry Andrews
We started our business Mere Cie Deux in 2016 in the memory and dedication of Dan & Larry Andrews and their lifetime commitment to Mere Cie, originally established in 1975. Since then, we've grown our product line and expanded our reach, but we've never lost sight of our commitment to quality and customer satisfaction.