Roses are the quintessential flowers when someone asks to describe a flower. Beautiful, fragrant, and elegant, it is no doubt why the Rose has been purposefully chosen to be bred by cultivators the world around. Even in the ancient times, Roses held a special place in human culture. With many Roses originating in places known to be birthplaces of modern humanity, the Rose has not left our gardens, kitchens, or apothecaries.
Now when we talk about Roses, there are so many varieties of Roses that the magical properties are often applied to the large umbrella of this flower. Rarely in my experience will a spell working ask specifically for a Mr. Lincoln cultivar instead of a Rose ‘La France’ so you can use Roses interchangeably.
In Roses, we often think about Roses just as the petals and flowers themselves, but in reality a Rose consists also of their thorns as well as their fruit, the Rosehip. Owing to their long history beside humans, Roses and their components have been used for foods as well as traditional medicines. Rose water and associated foods are very common in the Middle Eastern culture and even in other cultures, Rose and Rosehip jam is often common. In my past experience with Chinese herbalists, they’re favorite pun or saying for those trying to beautify themselves “drink lots of flowers so you can become a flower” which echoes the idea of food therapy and the old concept of the Doctrine of Signatures, where a plant’s appearance or behavior mirrors their medicinal quality.
Another very big Rose product out there is Rose water and Rose oils. Rose waters denote either a basic Rose tea made from the petals or the byproducts of steam distilled Rose oils. Now Rose oils come in a few forms, either called a Rose Otto which is made from the traditional steam distillation, Rose Absolutes which are made through solvent distillation, and some use other methods to other forms of Rose extracts. They are fragrant, but expensive so think wisely before investing in these oils.
Now magically, most people only think about the obvious love and sexual properties often associated with Rose. That is not to say the Rose is not one of the best and easiest to procure herbs for love, but it is also utilized in protection, luck, healing, and peace work. The Rosehips can also be used for abundance work and the thorns can be utilized for protection as well as other more unsavory workings.
For example, a great bath for love magic and beauty with Rose is as simple as taking a handful of fresh Rose petals, or a half cup of dried Roses, and throwing them into a bath with milk and honey. Soak yourself in there with the intention to become more alluring as a simple beautification spell that will assist you when you go out into the dating world.
If you are confident in your cooking capabilities, you can also make candied Roses by coating Roses with whisked egg whites, coating them in sugar, and then letting them dry. You can also make Rose sugar but placing sugar and Roses in alternating layers to infuse the sugar with the floral scent. In addition to sugar, you can steep honey with Roses to create a sweet Rose flavored honey. Of course I recommend you look for thorough explanations but these are great ideas as Rose infused foods allow us to add magical infused food into our cooking. You can feed your arguing family and disgruntled in-laws Rose flavored desserts to sweeten them to one another or to you. A delicious mix of Rose in food can also allow your lover or partner to be sweeter to you or loving to you when done right and well.
For altar work and keeping Roses to draw in love, it is always wise to remove thorns from those Roses as a representation of love with little to no hurt as thorns often represent harm or pain. When harvesting Roses for love, if you are hand picking Roses and you seem thorns, remove them as well. For abundance magic, typically we recommend that you add Rosehips to any collection of money herbs to help draw and protect your money.
The Queen of Flowers is a fantastic addition to anyone’s magical apothecary and we hope this sheds some more light into the Rose garden and all of her different uses.