I Am a Magdalene Priestess
and wisdom keeper of the Rose.
I honour my path and lineage.
And so it is.
“Older than human beings. Older even than hominids. Dig as deep as you can in the fossil record, and roses are there already.
In the beginning was the Word, says the Gospel of John. But the truth is, words came later. In the beginning was the rose."
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What is it about roses that makes us associate them with the divine feminine?
Why, for five thousand years, and probably a lot longer, have we gathered these delicate, aromatic flowers as an offering to the Mother Goddess in spring?
Roses are very old. Fossils of five-petaled roses have been found in the archaeological record from 35 million years ago - which means they were already there long before hominids evolved. In fact, roses (and plants like them) were the only way hominids could evolve.
Roses are angiosperms, flowering plants that propagate through sexual reproduction and hold their seeds within themselves. Before angiosperms, there were no plants rich enough in nutrients to feed the bodies of larger warm-blooded animals. Angiosperms led to an explosion of biodiversity - and an explosion of colour - into our world…..
…. that is the only explanation for why we offered roses to the Mother Goddess in spring, and why we pray the rosary today:
we are in love
we have always been in love
what more is there to know?
From “The Way of The Rose”
by Clark Strand & Perdita Finn
“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things.”
― Mary Oliver
