This week we meditated with rose hips, Rosa spp. As usual we meditate with the herb prior to learning its identity to avoid overlaying it with preconceptions.
Taste, Smell, Feel
This herbal tea reminded us of red zinger--sort of sweet and tart, floral like hibiscus. It tasted a bit "generic" to some--which makes sense given that association. It felt warming.
Meditation 1
• Very warming, increasingly so. Calming, centering, reassuring. A sense that "everything is as it should be."
• There is a red/orange/yellow vintage convertable mustang--inside sits a cartoon twig with a bunch of leaves on it. He is trying to get another twig, this one with a rose bud on it, to get into the car. She was reluctant, but got it. They flew, in the car, to the moon, on a rainbow.
• I feel my nose a lot (the nose is associated with both heart and lungs). I feel warm, red all over. There is a sense of pungent lushness. It looks like a closed-waxy, deep-red flower. It touches me in places inside. It is large. It goes to my yoni and then is in my chest, then all over my body. It says, "Right now, you need as much of me as you can get." It explains (perhaps related to grief/the nose and lungs) sometimes tears fall down your face and into your lungs--they get caught and I can help out."
Meditation 2
• Again, very warming...this spread throughout my body. It looks like red honey spreading from top to bottom. Then I had a really deep meditation.
• There were some popcorn pieces* with grass growing on top of them. The grass looked a little like weed, but it wasn't. The two twigs were sitting on these very large popcorns, holding hands, orbiting the moon. Many other popcorns were orbiting the moon too.
*This person could not help but eat some popcorn between meditations and it snuck in.
• This time it tastes more sour/tart. It has a distinct flavor the reminds me of something, but I can't remember. My heart is spinning oddly. It asks, "What's this?" I say, "Those are the rings of Saturn going around my heart chakra." It understands, but it says "Now we want to see you fly." Some solutions come to me that are very straightforward. They lighten my load.
Traditional Use & Summary
Rose hips are wonderfully nourishing, being an excellent source of vitamins and minerals (40x the vitamin C as oranges!), antioxidants and they are a traditional treatment for anemia. This herb is not warming but rather cooling. As not uncommonly happens in plant medittion the herb can share what it is good for as well as how it cures. This herb is excellent for treating inflamation in the digestive tract, which one participant is experiencing. Rose also helps eliminate waste through the kidneys. Rose is wonderful for relieving cold and flu symptoms like post nasal drip and "blocked chests. (Bruton-Seal & Seal, Backyard Medicine, Skyhorse Publishing, 2009--a sweet book with lore and several rose hip recipes). I use rose hips in my General Health Tonic herbal tea--it is very effective at treating the common cold, among other things. Rose, of course, is also wonderful herb to healing hearts, grief, and...love. Rose is said to be a perfected plant, it is pleasing to so many people--hence it may be seen as a bit "generic". This plant is such a joy to work with, bringing light to health ailments as well as reminding us of the nearly otherworldly joy of romance-weeee!. This is such a great herb to play around with, I encourage you to find a recipe and test it out for yourself.
Invitation
Have you worked with rose and/or rose hips...or rose flower essence? Share in the comments :)
