Roses For Magick

• Ruler: Venus, Oshun, Taurus
• Type: Flower
• Magickal Form: Flowers, Oil, Thorn

Roses are a metaphor for the human heart. No flower represents love more vividly. Perhaps nothing does. Roses are sacred to the most powerful spirits of love: Aphrodite, Juno, Isis, Kybele, Maitresse Ezili, and Maria Padilha. Oshun loves yellow roses.

Cleopatra, the living embodiment of Aphrodite and Isis, seduced Marc Anthony in a scented bedroom, packed knee-deep with rose petals.

This scent is generally worn as a perfume to attract love. Often the dried flowers are added to success formulas. This flower is always a good choice to adorn your love altar. Keep the flowers fresh and change them every Friday.

Use white roses for cleansing and to heal problems in love.

Use yellow roses – for friendship, though they can also denote jealousy if not given by a true friend. The Yoruban goddess Oshun loves these flowers. Float five ( or any multiple of five) fresh yellow roses in a river and ask Oshun to fulfill a wish concerning fame, wealth, admiration, or love. Promise to give her more after she fulfills your request.

Red roses symbolize passion and true love. Drink a tea of dried red rosebuds to increase your passion. Prepare a bath with red rose petals and a cup of rosewater or three drops of rose oil to infuse your aura with sexuality.

No other plant is as intimately linked with love as the rose. When selecting healing roses, seek out the old-fashioned scented types such as those listed below, rather than the more neutral tea roses:

• Apothecary’s Rose: the fragrant rose from which a very high quality of rose water is made.
• Belle de Crecy: considered by some to contain the purest rose scent.
• Celestial: a rose with a crisp and clean aroma.
• Kazanlik: a Bulgarian rose oil also called attar of roses is made from this rose. It throws off a potent smell – very heady.
• Maiden’s Blush: is considered to be a more refined scent.
• Madame Isaac Pereire, Guinee, and Souvenir de la Malmaison: are stunning and highly fragrant.

Roses are beautiful and like the lotus, they suggest female genitalia in the height of passion. The blush of the rose is often compared to the blush of a bride or a sexual partner during orgasm. In parts of Africa and the Middle East, holy temples are spiritually cleansed, entirely with highly potent Bulgarian rose water typically called rose hydrosol or simple rose water. Rose hydrosol enhances the sacred environment.

Fresh roses, rose water, rose otto (attar of roses), rose cream, and rose incense all cast a magical spell, binding love and romance.

A little-known fact is that roses are a systemic nervine – translation: they calm and soothe your nerves. Whatever you need – calm, balance, stimulation, an aphrodisiac, cooling off after an argument – rose otto or attar of roses can help. Rose otto is very expensive, but it is also very powerful – a few drops will do the trick! Add 2 drops to a full bath, to a dream pillow, sachet, or mojo bag. (Note: Pregnant women should avoid the use of rose otto.)

Bulgarian roses are widely available in East Indian shops and health food stores, prepared as a rose water that can be put into a spray bottle. Rose water is considered cleansing, a blessing oil that also purifies the environment.

Found in:

• Four Seasons of Mojo
• Encyclopedia of Magickal Ingredients