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Rose

In ancient Rome, the rose, the flower of Venus, was the badge of the sacred prostitutes. The rose additionally symbolized silence. Eros, in Greek mythology, presents a rose to the god of silence. Things spoken under the rose or sub rosa were the secrets of Venus' sexual mysteries, later generalized to refer to keeping any secret. The use of red and white roses symbolized the sexually active and virginal goddess respectively and set the stage for the later Christian sexual symbolism possessed by the rose. That symbolism survives today in the predominate use of roses at weddings and as gifts for Valentine's Day.

In Christian Rome it was the custom to bless the rose on a certain Sunday, called Rose Sunday. The custom of blessing the golden rose came into vogue about the eleventh century. The golden rose thus consecrated was given to princes as a mark of the Roman pontiffs' favor. The Christian use of the older rose symbolism achieved its most artistic expression in the rose windows of the medieval cathedrals.

In the East, it was believed that the first rose was generated by a tear of the prophet Mohammed, and it was further believed that on a certain day in the year the rose had a heart of gold.

In the west of Scotland, if a white rose bloomed in autumn it was a token of an early marriage. The red rose, it was said, would not bloom over a grave. If a young girl had several lovers and wished to know which of them would be her husband, she would take a rose leaf for each of her sweethearts, and, naming each leaf after one of her lovers, she would watch them until one after another they sank, and the last to sink would be her future husband.

Rose leaves thrown upon a fire gave good luck. If a rose bush was pruned on St. John's Eve, it would bloom again in the autumn. Superstitions respecting the rose are more numerous in England than in Scotland.

The rose became a prominent symbol in occultism at the beginning of the modern age. It appeared on the family crest of Martin Luther, seemingly the ultimate source of the Rosicrucians ' juxtaposition of the rose and cross. Earlier it had been used in the symbolism of alchemy. Both pagan and Christian folklore cites the rose as a symbol of regeneration and love.