‘Tis the season for roses, and so it felt like the perfect time to finally distill the roses that I’d gathered this summer. Now, you might think: a rose, is a rose, is a rose. Or maybe you'd expect that all roses are about love, and while that's kinda true (there's a reason for the folklore) there's much more, and many different properties to these amazing blossoms than you might've known. (Scroll to the bottom if you want to get to the punchline right away!)
I love working with the wild roses, and I do it a little differently. It takes a lot of time, and patience, but our process is about capturing the essence and spiritual properties of the rose.
Wild roses with five petals are the original roses and we’re sooo lucky to have several species that grow wild here in Alberta (Rosa acicularis and R. woodsii are two species that make up the familiar pink emblem of the province).
These roses are tiny compared to the cultivated Bulgarian (Rosa damascena) and Provence (Rosa x centifolia) roses. But for such a small flower they have the most amazing and pungent spicy aroma of pepper, cardamom and nutmeg. It’s such a beautiful scent, but it was tricky at first for me to distill the energetic essence of the rose along with this beautiful fragrance.
Commerical distillations are efficiently set-up to capture as much of the delicate fragrance (essential oil) as possible, and they do an amazing job! Did you know that it takes sixty Bulgarian rose blossoms to create just one drop of pure essential oil!! It’s unbelievable what some of these growers and producers are able to achieve when you consider they will produce gallons and gallons of essential oil every year! (One of my fav distillers here).
My distillation process is a little bit different. Where the commercial distillers are after fragrance, I’m after essence and energetics (with a touch of fragrance too because it’s just so intoxicating!).
The first step is to gather with honour and respect. This means asking permission from the plant to gather the blossoms. The roses (and all plants) are forms of life that deserve respect and honour. Asking permission recognizes this, raises the vibration of the roses, and allows the plant a choice to participate or not. We only gather volunteers!
This way of gathering plants isn’t new, nor did I invent it. It’s one-part of a set of principles widely understood by many Native American, and Canadian Indigenous nations called the “honourable harvest”.
When these special roses have been harvested and it comes time to extract the oils from the roses we use a press to extract all of the beautiful oils, and energetic essence. If the energy of the rose is not maintained (or raised) it’s spiritual properties will not be present or very effective. But if you can capture the fullness of its essence you’ll be amazed at the potential gifts these amazing blossoms have to offer!
Why all the effort to capture the energetic essence of a rose? Well, let me tell you a little bit about the spiritual properties of four types of roses (they are wildly different) and I think you’ll agree the effort is well-rewarded!
Rose Otto (Rosa damascena):
This is the gorgeous, heady smelling rose most often used in perfumery and aromatherapy. The pure essential oil is amazingly expensive, but soo worth every penny. But the essence of Rose Otto (when properly harvested and prepared) is even more amazing.
Rose Otto has the energetic capacity to bring forward the memories of being in the totality of spirit. It brings forth into the reality of thinking the eternalness of the true self of who you are. It is an embracing remembrance of the Divine, and therefore feeling embraced by eternity.
The fears of limited life disappear. The reality of eternal life is understood and held as the natural way of existence. It assists to diminish the idea of limitation on any level and allows you to see the perfect flow and unification of all things. And rise above the tides of the changing emotions of humanity to witness the perfect sequence of Divine flow in all things.
Prickly Wild Rose (Rosa acicularis):
An original five-petal rose! I’ve seen this gorgeous rose growing in the most amazing abundance in Boulder canyon in Colorado. If you live in Alberta, you’ve likely seen it growing along the hiking paths and replicated on the back of your license plate :)
You can distinguish this rose by it’s smell—to me it is sweet and spicy like garam masala. Each blossom is about the size of a walnut and light pink like cherry ice cream.
The spiritual properties of this rose allow a person to have a clearer understanding, and deeper wisdom from their own divine nature. It replaces the messages within the cells to promote greater physical resiliency, and a deeper rooting the of the soul into the physical body.
Wood’s Rose (Rosa woodsii) and Burnet Rose (Rosa pimpinellifolia):
These two are also original wild roses with very similar spiritual properties. The Burnet Rose is pictured here from blossoms I harvested last summer. They are excellent for healers, energy workers and scientists; allowing them to see the energetic inner workings of life. (The ability to see however does not come with permission to interfere with those inner workings.) It blends the physical eyesight with the third eye, and energetically balances the pineal and pituitary glands.
Provence Rose (Rosa x centifolia)
This gorgeous rose is also cultivated for essential oil distillation and the perfume industry. It's lighter and sweeter smelling that the deep rich Rose Otto. On a recent visit to Grasse, France I saw fields and fields of these amazing roses growing as far as I could see!
The spiritual potential of this rose is to develop within an individual a strong intuiton about when to go forward in life. It does this by clarifying your mental, emotional and energetic guidance about moving forward. This can be moving forward in any way: through a day, an opportunity, a job, an investment, anything. It creates a very strong energy about moving forward (or not) that comes through as a deep knowingness, or confidence. This communication ultimately comes from your soul and spirit that has far-reaching sight. The Provence Rose facilitates a connection with your soul communication that can not only identify your green-lights, but also understands what that decision will mean in your life.
Found in: Thursday Soap
"There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
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