Associations and energetics of rose:

• Drying
• Associated with water element
• Astringent
• Associated with the moon
• Rose hips are more sour, the rest of the plant can be neutral/cool and sweet in taste,
• Indicated in inflammation – digestive or respiratory inflammations or even skin inflammations
• Good for Pitta-type hot diseases and pains
• PMS, especially indicated in cases of high tension
• Nervine
• High in vitamin C (rose hips)

Who is rose?

Rose dives deep into the waters of the personality

Rose is all about ego busting. Why? Because rose is all about love. A simple way to think of the ego is to think of it as your personality and who you think you are. The ego is not bad – you need it to be human! But it can also be limiting and unhealthy at times. Love has no limits but your idea of who you are and what you think love is can create limits. So rose really pushes for authenticity and deep diving. It is the energy of love piercing through the projections you want others to see and down into your true core.

The skin goes deep, the heart is bitter

A rose petal is skin like. Have you ever wrapped a fresh rose petal around one of your fingers? The rose sits on top of the skin and feels very soothing. This soothing feeling stays on the surface, but rose goes deep. Have you ever let a rose petal sit in your mouth?The longer you taste the petals the more bitter they get. In TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), bitterness is the flavor that works on the Heart. The more bitter the flavor becomes, the deeper the medicine seems to go. The longer you sit with rose, the deeper the healing goes. Many seek out healing solutions to help with surface symptoms, but do not do the work deep enough, or work with the medicine long enough to get true holistic results. This actually happened while I was meditating with rose. I found some unhealthy energies in my energy field and did some visualization work. After a time, rose told me that was not enough and i would need to look deeper into my heart in order to heal what was there. I ended up going much, much deeper than I intended to that day but I ended up healing some serious issues I have around love, relationships, and being seen.

The fact that rose has an affinity for the skin and acts like a bandage speaks of its ability to help with boundaries. Here is this beautiful flower but it is covered in thorns! Beauty, gifts, and boundaries connected. The rose is not aggressive with its boundaries. The rose is not scared. The rose simply has its boundaries there and knows it will be fine, and only the right people will be able to access its medicine.

The human heart has boundaries as well. In TCM we have the concept of the Pericardium, also known as the Circulation Sex. The Heart is like the emperor of the body, and the Pericardium is like a guard around it. The inner Heart is like a sacred and important place so only appropriate energies and influences can be allowed in. Like the rose we have our thorns but we have to take care of ourselves and stay tuned into our defenses – lest something slip by unnoticed. What good is having a guard if we do not pay attention to what the guard is showing or telling us? When things slip past our boundaries we need to take note of how and why it happened. We need to complete the necessary shadow work to discover why unhealthy things have been let into our hearts.

Rose as Two of Cups

Energetically, rose reminds me of the Two of cups. Harmony, connection, healthy relationship between humans and other humans, healthy relationship between humans and their environment. I don’t think of the phrase “We are all one” very often, but that is what I thought of when I tuned into the energy of rose. When there is love there is harmony, balance, and respect. And speaking again of boundaries – when there is love boundaries are not an issue. The boundaries are just there and then you move on. Rose helps with restoring love, healing, friendship, promoting true intimacy, and harmony. The energy of rose helps you open up to love and open up to healing.

When I spoke with rose, I asked who can really benefit from rose’s medicine. The quick answer I received was “Everyone – who does not have a heart?” But this is especially true for spiritual unions and connections. Are you done with the false intimacy game on earth? There is no real connection. Rose would like to help us do away with that. Similarly to rose quartz, rose teaches about vulnerability but it is also so protective. Rose is like a mother to those who have none. Rose is the nurturer to those who have no nurturing, and no one nurturing them. Rose is for people with emotional loss, and a great addition to grief, grounding, and trauma remedies.