by D. N. Carter
“I am listening. I truly am beginning to see things differently already… all my father’s work now falls into place…so please continue,” Paul explained.
“Good. Now one of the most beautiful and significant symbols of our mysteries is, as you now know, the rose. The rose and the Grail romances, such as your father is so keen to write up, share many spiritual resonances. The word ‘chalice’ comes from the Latin word, calyx, which means cup, and is the name given to the cup-like sepals of a flower, which support the petals. Both these symbols suggest the receptive vessel of the soul, opening to receive the pouring in of divine influence. Indeed the symbolism of the rose is even more complex than the Grail, given the beauty of its form, the number and arrangement of the petals with their velvety texture, the intoxicating perfume and, deep inside, the hidden golden heart enfolded within the petals, concealing the Mystery of the Centre. A Persian poet friend of your father wrote this; here, read it,” Niccolas said and passed over a small velum parchment strip. Paul took it and read it.
3 – 6
‘Mystery glows in the rose bed; the secret is hidden in the rose.’
“Gosh, simple but very poetic. It is lovely, isn’t it?” Paul remarked and read it again.
“It is, yes. Not surprisingly, the rose has long been recognised as the western equivalent of the eastern lotus or lily as a symbol of the unfolding of higher consciousness. The lily itself has in turn become France’s Fleur de Lys. Here in Europe, the rose has become a symbol of union with the divine, in part influenced by Arabian and Persian teachings from the time when Spain was mainly an Islamic country. Just as the rose consists of many petals held together, so the person who strives for the advancement of the soul begins to show many different qualities. The qualities emit a fragrance in the form of a spiritual personality. The rose has a beautiful structure, and the personality which proves the enrichment of the soul has also a fine structure, in manner, in dealing with others, in speech, in action. The atmosphere of a spiritual being pervades the air like the perfume of a rose. Now note that St George’s flag is white with a red cross. That is also the flag of England. Note also the Goddess and the rose. As well as being a symbol of mystical union, the rose is particularly associated with the numinous beauty of the Goddess and the love her presence evokes within the human heart. It was the most revered flower in ancient Egypt, sacred to Isis herself. Petals, whole flowers and wreaths of roses have been found heaped upon the oldest tombs in Egypt. The famous Latin work, Metamorphoses or the Golden Ass, by Apuleius, is an allegory of the trials of an initiate, Lucius (Light) who seeks liberation from his unfortunate transformation into a donkey. He is finally initiated by Isis and returned to his human shape by virtue of her roses. Now, Paul, these connections to Isis and Egypt may seem totally irrelevant, but if you follow the path of a true seeker of knowledge, you will in time learn the true importance of these connections and where they will lead…Did you know that it was Alexander the Great who is believed to have brought roses to the West, and they can be discovered in profusion in the mythology of classical Greece? Hecate, goddess of the crossroads and the underworld, was sometimes depicted wearing on her head a garland of five-petalled roses. Roses are particularly associated with Aphrodite, the goddess of love. One legend tells that the first roses sprang from her tears while another says that it was a gift for the gods to celebrate her rising from the sea. Yet another story goes that the rose was originally white, but became red when the goddess pricked her feet on the thorns as she sought her slain lover. In Rome, an effigy of the goddess Cybele, known as the Magna Mater, ‘Great Mother’, was celebrated by being carried in procession covered with roses. A Greek legend tells that it was Cybele herself who created the rose, as she was jealous of Aphrodite and wanted to make something on earth more beautiful than her in their rivalry for Adonis. The priestesses of Aphrodite wore wreaths of white roses, and the paths of her sanctuary were strewn with roses. In the Roman era, Aphrodite became Venus, to whom the rose was also sacred. It was also in Rome that the ancient expression, sub rosa, ‘under the rose’, as already explained originated, referring to the ancient custom of hanging a rose over a council table to indicate that everything spoken was to remain secret. This custom derived from an ancient Egyptian image of Horus, the divine son of Isis, called Harpocrates by the Greeks, sitting within a rose with his finger to his lips, ordaining silence about the mysteries. Remember that, Paul, it is significant! Pagan flower festivals, so soundly denounced when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, celebrated the connection to the rose. The Church Fathers regarded roses as damnable, because of their association with Venus, and even banned them from graveyards. The Faery Rose, as the rose was sacred to the Goddess, it stands to reason, should also be sacred to the Faery Queen. Her rose is the original wild variety which had five green sepals and five petals in a circle. Her other special flowers, the apple-blossom and the hawthorn, also have five petals apiece, and belong to the same family as the rose. Perhaps you can see now why the rose and apple are sacred and why I depict and explain them to you together. It was believed that Fairies are attracted to rose oil,” Niccolas explained, his last comment being an almost last minute thrown-in comment, but it solicited an immediate look from Paul.
“Rose oil! But that is exactly what Rick gave me with that little box, remember?” Paul said with raised excitement in his voice.
“I remember, do not worry. It is why your father took it as a sign that perhaps now was indeed the right time that you are taught the initial basics and background to your family and its associated symbols,” Niccolas answered. “But back to Fairies…for they too are something not many people now choose to believe in, but it is the symbolism and allegory behind them that is important. In Germany, the rose belongs to the dwarves and is under their protection. In many places it is customary to ask permission of their king before picking lest one lose a hand or foot. In the famous story of Beauty and the Beast, Beauty’s father plucks a rose for his daughter, which angers the Otherworld denizen of the land. In the Scottish ballad of Tam Lin, the heroine, Janet, plucks a ‘double rose’ at the well of Carterhaugh and attracts the attention of its Guardian, Tam Lin. Once a human knight, this young man had been held in captivity in the Faery realm by its queen. Tam Lin became the Guardian or Genus Loci of the sacred well, and was angry that his roses had been picked by an intruder. Yet, as the flower of love, the rose in this ballad is also a prelude to the coming union between Janet and Tam Lin. Although laced with some heavy Christian moralising, the story is essentially the same as that of the Scottish legend of Thomas the Rhymer, whose meeting with the queen of Elfland and his journey with her into the Eildon Hills is one of the fundamental stories of the Under Realm and Faery tradition. As your father is busy trying to get the message out about the rose, he has written many poems and romances to carry the hidden codes of antiquity and the rose. He and Firgany both know, as does that Rick, I suspect, that the rose is indeed the chief symbol of the newly re-emerging feminine principle, for it represents romantic love, and especially the beloved lady herself, Mary. But mark my words carefully when I tell you there are even greater mysteries to learn about the many Marys as you will in time discover. Under Christianity, the foremost personification of the Divine Feminine is, of course, the Virgin Mary, so it was inevitable the rose became her special flower as it had been for the goddesses of old. The mysterious rose, sacred to Venus in earlier times, has become the flower of the Virgin Mary, who herself became the Rosa Mystica. The temple of Jupiter Capitolinus became St Peter’s, the temple of Juno Lucina the church of St Maria Maggiore, and the processions honouring the Mother of God walk on rose petals, just as the processions carrying the images of the pagan gods had done. And as a consequence, so Mary became the Mystic Rose, just as she had become an image of the Grail. One legend states that the Archangel Gabriel wove a hundred and fifty roses into three wreaths for Mary. Red roses became the symbol of Mary’s sorrows, as they had once be
en for Aphrodite, only now the reason given was that drops of Christ’s blood spilled upon a thorn bush. Joseph of Arimathea is said to have used his staff to seed sacred rose bushes at Glastonbury, but that we shall leave for another day. White roses signified Mary’s joy, and the golden rose her glory. So similar were these devotions to the pagan Goddess of old, that in AD 440, Isidore of Pelusium warned: ‘We should really be more careful in marking the difference between the heathen Magna Mater and our Magna Mater Mary’. Mary was given many rose-names, including Rose of Sharon, the Rose-garland, the Wreath of Roses, and Queen of the Most Holy Rose-garden. The litany of Loreto called her ‘Rosa Mystica’, the Mystic Rose. She was often addressed as the ‘Rose without a Thorn’ because she was as pure as the original rose that grew in the Garden of Eden. According to Christian legend, the thorns came only when it was planted on earth after Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden after eating the apple, the symbol of knowledge and wisdom. Mary was regarded as a ‘second Eve’ whose purity restored her to the paradise from which Eve had been driven. She was considered the perfect example of our union with God, so the rose became a symbol of the union between Christ and Mary. Today, many of the magnificent Gothic cathedrals that now soar above the skyline of our cities, display ‘rose windows’, beautiful circular mandalas illuminated with richly-coloured stained glass. Most are dedicated to Mary and situated at the west end, the direction of the Feminine. Perhaps the most famous is the ‘Rose of France’ window at Notre Dame de Chartres Cathedral, where your father took you when you were a child. It was built on what was once the most important centre of the Druids in ancient Gaul. Mary is seated at the centre, holding the Christ Child, surrounded by circles of doves, angels, kings and prophets. The famous eleven-circuit labyrinth below has the same dimensions as the window, which is as high up on the western wall as the labyrinth is away from it. If you could fold the wall over onto the floor, the rose window would be perfectly superimposed upon the labyrinth, the centre of which is called the rosette.”
“Yes of course I remember well that trip even though I recall little else of the time. I know it was the first time I saw maps and plans…it is why I find these so beautiful now I suspect,” Paul explained as he pulled the parchment drawings closer again.
“Most likely. Did you know that the earliest gardens of the desert lands of the Middle East were designed to emulate Eden, with four streams flowing out to the four directions, and a Tree of Life in the centre? From Persia came gardens laid out like mandalas, surrounded by four walls, suggestive of seclusion and completion, with a fountain of crystal water in the centre. Tree and fountain are both feminine symbols of the creative source of life that emerges mysteriously from the unseen world that lies behind our own, continually renewing and being renewed. In fact, our word ‘Paradise’ comes from the Persian word for a garden. All of our rose gardens are purposefully laid out in this four-square design, making it a mirror of the original primal harmony of Eden, so that nowadays the rose garden has become the standard image of paradise. The Cistercian monks create beautiful rose gardens in the cloisters of their monasteries, and the Cistercian monk Alanus de Insulis described the earthly paradise as a place of the eternal spring, flaming with roses that never wither or die. One of the greatest works your father has completed, though he refuses to release it at this time, he has entitled ‘The Romance of the Rose’. It is an allegorical tale of courtly love that tells how a young man dreams of a beautiful rose which he desires above all else. He enters a four-square rose garden in search of the rose that is held captive within. But this is not a romance extolling romantic love, but is more esoteric, for ‘The Romance of the Rose’ is in fact a treatise on spiritual initiation, whose true purpose your father has deliberately concealed in allegorical images to avoid the censure of the Church. You should ask him to let you read it for it is truly an epic and a profound work in a trivial guise, as learned an exposition of the mysteries of occultism as that of Apuleius. It would touch your soul I am sure.” Niccolas sighed and took a long slow drink of water.
“I had a rough idea about Father’s writing, his interest in all things connected with the Holy Grail legends and the Knights of the Round Table, but I was not aware just how strongly passionate he actually is about all of this,” Paul said, shaking his head in surprise.
“Well, be proud of him. He can teach you far more than I can. But he fears that the knowledge and responsibility it would lay at your feet would be great. A massive burden he does not wish to saddle you or your brother with,” Niccolas explained.
“That is what my father keeps telling me. But I feel guilty that I have deep concerns that trouble me. For why is he so guarded about his past? What has he got to hide? I know that Firgany knows and is part of it all… but I cannot fathom how or why. I know that mention of the Isma’ilis, Ashashin or Assassins, however you call them, is often whispered between them but they always cease discussing them as soon as anyone else enters. I have overheard them several times discussing them. Do you know what the connection is there?” Paul explained, then asked.
“Paul, those are questions you cannot and must not ask of me. But what I can tell you at this moment in time is that the Ashashin as we know them today are Islam’s equivalent of our own Knights Templar. They share much in common and it has even been rumoured that they are in fact in the Templar employ. But it is all hearsay and rumour, and remember, as I keep telling you, you must always check your sources and validate them. That is all I am able to tell you; anything else on the matter can only come from your father himself as I am sworn by an oath never to reveal the full extent of what I do know, and that is not much really,” Niccolas answered looking at Paul directly, studying his reaction. He could see the disappointment and frustration register across his face, but Paul held his tongue as he pondered Niccolas’s last statement.
“I understand that…and I respect it, but please, what then of all these connections to the Holy Grail romances Father keeps writing about…for I am certain it connects to all this information about the rose and apple symbolism for I know it is part of our family tree,” Paul responded quickly.
“That was a great pun there and you did not even realise it.” Niccolas smiled broadly.
“Pun…what pun?”
“About apples and your family tree.”
“I do not think I understand this word pun properly,” Paul replied quizzically.
“Never mind, in time you shall. But I can inform you a little on the Grail details if that will help?” Niccolas stated. Paul immediately looked at him and he nodded.
“If you have the time, I would indeed love to know everything…please,” Paul half pleaded. Niccolas smiled again pleased to see the eagerness to learn in Paul’s eyes.
“Paul, let me say as simply as I am able to explain that many have heard about the ancient Isle of Avalon, which features so prominently in the Arthurian saga of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, Morgan Le Fay and The Lady of the Lake. Have you heard of these too?”
“Yes of course. My father has told me stories about them ever since I can remember,” Paul answered and sat up straight.
“Well, the Isle of Avalon was reputed to be an island of witches or Priestesses of the Mother Goddess, and they followed the old craft at a time when Christianity was starting to overtake Western Europe. Avalon is an ancient Welsh word that stands for afal or apple. The Isle of Apples.”
“My Lord, I did not realise that,” Paul said surprised.
“Even in the Old Testament, in the Book of Genesis, early Christians took the fruit of knowledge and made it an apple. Yes, yes, I know that considering the locale of the Garden of Eden would have been in the Middle East many insist and believe the fruit of knowledge was most likely a pomegranate, but it’s important to understand that the early Christians made the fruit an apple. Actually ‘apple’ was a term given to most fruits except for berries in ancient times. So ‘apple’ was a generic term that stood for fruit. Fruit has long bee
n associated with the essence of the Goddess, whereas wheat and grains have long stood to represent the male aspect of God. You must understand that our early Christian forebears did not do much by happenstance, at least to my understanding. They chose an apple because it was a fruit, and fruit was closely associated with the Goddess and the serpent in the Garden, which by the way was no accident either. The serpent or snake had for centuries before Christianity represented women’s knowledge and power, so all the better to make it the antagonist in the Garden of Eden story. The apple itself as an allegorical symbol was ‘forbidden’ just as the old religion became forbidden. The serpent represented women’s power at a time when women and their power were being denigrated and forcefully put down so that the religion of the one male god could reign with no competition. This is something very complex to understand and learn about, but in time I will teach you that mystery also. The apple as a fruit of the Goddess has loving energies associated with it, as well as healing energies. Apple cider is credited with all sorts of healing, cleansing, disinfecting and astringent abilities. We see the fruit as a sign of the sacred divine feminine. You can see this also. As you have seen earlier, when you cut the apple horizontally, you can see the seed pod dissected across, itself forming a five pointed star, a five pointed star which just so happens to also be a symbol of the Goddess, women and protection. The five pointed star is an ancient symbol that has been seen for thousands of years as a representation of the Great Mother,” Niccolas explained and again pointed to the cut in half apple still on the plate near Paul. “Sadly, the symbol of the apple is being denigrated and turned to appear as an evil one by those who fear and do not understand what the true sacred feminine principle is. It is why the delicious apple is being turned evil in fairy tales by being poisoned and used to cause harm and even death. It is one reason why the rose is now being pushed forwards in its place. Its red colour now so often represented on the crimson threads, or cords such as your father and Firgany wear. But it also represents a blood line; your blood lines that stretch throughout your family tree or through the branches of the rose bush. It has also been associated with the wine grapes, more specifically the grape vines because with grape vines, you can intertwine them and produce better grapes,” Niccolas explained. He stopped talking as he noticed Paul suddenly raise his finger in realisation of something.[5]