[UMB066]
ctephin - The Limitation ov Tone IV - The Rose ov Sharon
After the fall of the Roman Empire the rose's pagan symbolism gradually
changed and was incorporated into the Christian symbolism of the Middle Ages. Although the
many gods of the pagans were countered by the three-fold godhead of the Christian Trinity
- of which a very old and secret tradition reckoned the Holy Ghost as feminine - the
Christians yet lacked a female deity to whom they could channel the devotion which had
hitherto been shown to the Goddesses of the Ancient World. They lacked a symbol
representing the different aspects of femininity - innocence, purity, sexuality, fecundity
and motherhood, as represented by Aphrodite and other great Goddesses. This dilemma gave
rise to the Cult of Mary, the Mother of God. Marianism adopted the rose as her symbol, and
Mary was addressed as the Mystic Rose in her litanies, as the perfect symbol of love and
beauty. The rose was incorporated in many works of art and literature, and by association
with the myth of Christ and the acts of the saints was associated with pain, death and
martyrdom. It became the chalice of redemption or cup of blessings. The Mary Cult revered
the Virgin as the symbol of purity and motherhood simultaneously. The paradox of the
virgin birth was accepted as a mystery. As Mary herself declared in the apocryphal Gospel
of Bartholomew: "Son of the Father, thou whom the seven heavens hardly contained, but
who was well-pleased to be contained without pain in me ...".
Solomon 2:1
"I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys."
[umb066] ctephin - The Limitation ov Tone - The Rose ov Sharon
1. The Rose ov Sharon ( 82,952 kb) Album Cover Art : Front Cover ( 341 kb)
