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Petals, whole flowers and wreaths of roses have been found heaped upon the oldest tombs in the pyramids. It was the most revered flower in ancient Egypt, sacred to Isis herself. The atmosphere of a spiritual being pervades the air like the perfume of a rose.Īs well as being a symbol of mystical union, the Rose is particularly associated with the numinous beauty of the goddess and the love her presence evokes within the human heart. The rose has a beautiful structure, and the personality which proves the unfoldment of the soul has also a fine structure, in manner, in dealing with others, in speech, in action.
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The qualities emit fragrance in the form of a spiritual personality. Just as the rose consists of many petals held together, so the person who attains to the unfoldment of the soul begins to show many different qualities. The Sufi teacher, Hazrat Inayat Khan writes: In medieval Europe, the Rose as a symbol of union with the divine may have been influenced by Arabian and Persian teachings from the time when Spain was an Islamic country. A 12th century Persian poet wrote, “Mystery glows in the rose bed, the secret is hidden in the rose.” Not surprisingly, the rose has long been recognized as the western equivalent of the eastern lotus as a symbol of the unfolding of higher consciousness. Indeed the symbolism of the Rose is even more complex than the Grail, given the beauty of its form, the number and arrangement of the petals with their velvety texture, the intoxicating perfume and, deep inside, the hidden golden heart enfolded within the petals, concealing the Mystery of the Centre. Both these symbols suggest the receptive vessel of the soul, opening to receive the in-pouring of Divine influence. The word ‘chalice’ comes from the Latin word, calyx, which means cup, and is the name given to the cup-like sepals of a flower which support the petals. The Rose and the Grail share many spiritual resonances. The tag in Latin or English is still to be heard, especially among people who prize confidentiality.One of the most beautiful and significant symbols of the Western Mysteries is the Rose. The rose was used in medieval times and later much as the Romans did, and at one time appeared as a symbol in the confessional.
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The first use of the English translation of the phrase occurs in the State Papers of Henry VIII in 1546 (though the writer had to explain what it meant). The symbol of the rose was well-known throughout the post-classical period and is recorded in particular in old German writings, which is how it may have got into English. The ceilings of Roman dining rooms were decorated with roses to remind guests that what was said there under the influence of wine ( sub vino) was also sub rosa, under the rose, privileged and not to be made public. So the rose became the symbol of confidentiality in the classical Roman world. There’s a famous story from those times in which Cupid - the Roman god of love - was said to have given a rose to Harpocrates as a little thank-you bribe for not letting on what his mother Venus, the goddess of sensual love, was up to (very filial, that). He became popular among Romans once the cult had been officially sanctioned during the reign of Caligula in the first century AD. The Egyptian hieroglyph for a child was a seated boy sucking his finger the Greeks thought this showed him with his finger to his lips and so made him the god of silence and secrecy. The Greeks had taken him over as Horus the child (whose name in Egyptian was her-pa-khrad), Greeking his name to Harpocrates. The Romans adopted the Egyptian sun-god Horus as part of a cult of Isis and Serapis that reached them through Greece. Q From Noah S Baer: How did a rose come to mean confidentiality, as in sub rosa?Ī The allusion goes back to classical times.