Rose is the timeless embodiment of beauty, sweetness, and love. Rose opens the mysteries of the heart, the gates to our inner temple. Rose never forces anything. When met with her many petalled grace, we can’t help but soften. And there’s never a rush with rose- she makes all stages of the journey worthwhile. With Rose, we open petal by perfect petal….
The sweetness of Rose gives this medicine a very special place in the Traditional Taoist pharmacopeia, where we use it to gently open the flow of stagnant qi. We often look to stronger treatments to galvanize stagnant qi into action- Chai Hu (Bupleurum), Xiang Fu (Cyperus) and Zhi Ke (Bitter Orange) are a few of these. These herbs are acrid and bitter and excel at powerfully breaking up stagnation and scouring out the Liver. We use them when a person’s qi is so stagnant as to cause ribside pain, anger, headaches, constipation, abdominal pain, digestive issues, or severe menstrual cramps. The strong acrid and bitter flavors of these herbs are dispersing, moving, and draining. They pack a punch and get things going.
But there are other presentations of qi stagnation which might ask for a more gentle hand. Qi stagnation can also show up more emotionally, and the ancient classics tell us that the smooth flow of both qi and emotions are mutually dependent. Emotional stagnation can show up as a feeling of tightness in the chest or throat, an inability to speak one’s feelings, or a vague sense of disconnect. There might be sadness, irritability, or unresolved trauma. In these cases the sweetness of Rose is the perfect medicine. One of the actions of the sweet flavor is to moderate our experience. So rather than forcing stuck qi and emotions, Rose gently softens us, using her sweetness to moderate and balance. It’s a different approach to moving qi- pacifying rather than forcing. Soothing and smoothing rather than pushing. This is the medicine of sweetness. It softly allows us to open and unwind as we need to. The sweet medicine of Rose can be an ally anytime there is an emotional component to our condition, acting as a spiritual harmonizer. In traditional Taoist herbal formulation we often use an envoy herb to harmonize or guide the formula to a particular part of the body. In this way Rose can be considered an envoy to the spirit.
Sometimes, a person can be averse to Rose due to exposure to synthetic Rose fragrances. After too many assaults by artificial chemical rose, they equate the unpleasant experience of synthetic rose with the real, natural Rose. In this case, finding an actual live Rose bush and having the person meditate near the plant can be of great benefit.
Happy Rose Season!