Petal Talk

I adore frangipanis – however, the flower I truly resonate with is the white rose.

The spiral unfolding of white rose petals represents for me the lessons we encounter in life, each one revealing more of our essential nature.

I’m reminded of a story about a student who asks his spiritual master how he can know his destiny – what life has in store for him. The master hands him a rosebud and tells him to open it. The student is left with only a pile of petals. Finally, after repeated attempts, he ‘gets’ the lesson – we cannot force growth and attempting to unfold something before its time destroys its beauty and purpose!

We are all in various stages of unfolding who we are … and our destiny.

I think of the white rose as symbolising not the ‘romantic’ love of the red rose, but the unselfish, unconditional, accepting, devotion that the ancients called ‘agape’, more akin to the love a parent has for their child. It has equally come to symbolise new beginnings, innocence, purity, unity, and spirituality.
Even after the petals have wilted and the last ones drop, the rose exposes yet another gift – tiny seeds enclosed within, revealing the potential for new life. The white rose shows us that ‘endings’ are an illusion – that the spiral dance of blossoming simultaneously spirals us back to our buddings once more.

Historically, the scent of the rose has been associated with the Divine Feminine – and pure essential rose oil has the highest known frequency of any natural essential oil – up to 320 MHz – so it’s no surprise that the rose is associated with the highest vibration emotional state – Love – or that its fragrance can literally induce feelings of love when we breathe it in.

May each day of your life unfold with the infinite grace and beauty of the rose.