Roses in Alchemy

Good day dear community, first of all I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you had a day that brought numerous positive experiences into your life! In this post, I would like to talk a little about alchemy and hope you are able to expand your knowledge.

You can see here pictures of different two colored lenten roses which are also known under the scientific name Helleborus orientalis and I think it's great to see that they grow in such a considerable number this year. I would like to use these pictures to go into the meaning of roses in alchemy where it has acquired an important symbolic meaning and from a spiritual point of view it was an important sign of wisdom or enlightenment and a diverse meaning has emerged around this plant. The transformation to a higher being goes hand in hand with roses, which is why it is one of the most important symbols of the inner alchemy which is linked to the unification of opposites and the rose has also strongly shaped the Arabic in addition to the European alchemy and the importance can be found in numerous old writings or works of art. In addition to the important goal of enlightenment, the rose was also linked to the creation of the philosopher's stone and depending on the color, different currents of meanings have developed and in general there was also the view of the closed roses with their layers would also embody the 7 metals which are associated with the 7 planets. The important philosophy of the view of the whole was embodied in the form of roses and the combination of different colors of the roses have its own meaning and when white roses can be seen, this is often associated with mental and female aspects and red roses embody the male principle as well as the physical aspects and the union of these colors results in the whole.

White roses embody the active and red the passive things and there are even more connections and in general it is an important expression for the duality such as black and white, light or dark and so on and this principle is also strongly related to the principle of solve et coagula which means as much as dissolve and coagulate and if you want to learn more about it I can recommend this post here. Roses were also often associated with alchemical steps in practice and white ones were also a well-known symbol of albedo, which is an important step of whiteness and red roses were often linked to tinctures that had a red color and it was a typical symbol for the element fire or blood. Old alchemical works of art are often associated with mythology and here there is often the view that some substances could have emerged from the blood drops of the gods and also in this context roses often appear in alchemical works of art. In old writings, elixirs also appear again and again which were made of roses and were strongly linked to the transformation and the rose often embodies infinity and can be considered essentially as one of the most mystical symbols that have strongly shaped the alchemy and whoever should see a rose next time should think of alchemy.

Thanks a lot for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about alchemy! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.