The Rose

I have run across references to

roses several times in the last

few weeks.  Three of the references

came to me in the last few days: 

1)  A reference in Judith Heartsong's

journal and 2) A link sent to me by

someone who reads my journal but who

does not know me.  Nor does this person

presently post to my journal frequently. 

Thus, the person has no knowledge of my

interest in roses or rose imagery.  The

link was to an e.e. cummings poem and

3) A random search for something else

brought up William Blake's poem,

"The Sick Rose, which

I hadn't read in years.

 

Why this is relevant:  This month,

a short story of mine is published in

The Sun.  It is called "Rose's."  The

story is about two young teenage girls

who have a bad encounter with two men,

leading to a reassessment of their

attitudes about their bodies, their

sexuality, themselves.  The story

is called "Rose's" for the store the

girls like to visit, but symbolically,

the rose emphasizes the girls' budding

sexuality:

From The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols

and Sacred Objects by Barbara G. Walker:

ROSE WINDOW

The rose window of a Christian cathedral typically

faced west, the direction of the Goddess's paradise

 in ancient pagan tradition:  that mysterious sunset

land that medieval mystics converted into the land

of faery, ruled by its divine queen.  The Gothic

cathedral opposed this primordial female symbol

in the west to its male symbol (cross) in the east,

that is, in the apse.  Christian congregations turned

their backs on the great female rose, yet they were

bathed in her multicolored light.  A rose window was

generally dedicated to the Virgin Queen of Heaven,

and the whole cathedral was described as her "palace." 

The rose window was essentially a female-symbolic

mandala, expressive of the spirit of Mary as mystic

rose, Wreath of Roses, Mother of the Rosary, or Queen

of the Most Holy Rose-Garden.

Roses, rosaries, and rose-shaped mandalas had represented

the ancient Goddess in Oriental countries from time

immemorial.  Her Rose-Apple Tree in the western paradise

had been the sourceof the fruit of eternal life from India

to Ireland in the oldest myths.  Worshipers of Aphrodite

used to call their ceremones the Mysteries of the Rose. 

Even medieval churchmen understood that the rose

was a female sexual symbol expressing the mystery

of Mary's physical gateway, source of the Redeemer's life.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Here is Blake's poem, "The Sick

Rose."  The poem is never mentioned

in "Rose's"; however, I think this

poem describes the girls' dilemma well;

that is, the fact that their innocence,

their confidence in themselves as

sexual beings has been violated:   

"The Sick Rose," William Blake

O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That brings me to the e.e.cummings

poem, which illustrates the beauty

and the power of the feminine in a

most intriguing way:

"somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond,"  e.e. cummings

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

any experience,your eyes have their silence:

in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,

or which i cannot touch because they are too near

 

your slightest look will easily unclose me

though i have closed myself as fingers,

you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens

(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

 

or if your wish be to close me, i and

my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,

as when the heart of this flower imagines

the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals

the power of your intense fragility:whose texture

compels me with the color of its countries,

rendering death and forever with each breathing

 

(i do not know what it is about you that closes

and opens;only something in me understands

the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)

nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This poem seems to me a powerful

evocation of female power.  It is

the kind of power the narrator of

the story clearly thinks she has

lost.  The poem is sensual, spiritual,

and profound.

 

I'm a believer in meaningful

coincidences, and I believe this

pile up of rose imagery is an

occurrence of a meaningful coincidence. 

I felt that not to do an entry on it

would be to deny some mysterious

power in the universe at work in my life.