Rosa Mundi, the Festival of the Rose of the World, begins the magical Season of Fire and Rose.  The season is not of a fixed duration, but is generally held to be between Rosa Mundi and the end of the month of Rosea (vide the Aristasian Calendar).

During this season it is a custom to place a single rose on shrines and before statues and pictures of the Mother.

Last year at the Rosa Mundi service, Lhi Raya Chancandre Aquitaine spoke about the Midsummer Solstice as the Southern Gate of Heaven, and told how its symbol is the lark, which ascends vertically from the ground into the clear blue sky, even as the soul may ascend toward Dea.

She also told us the old saying that “the veil between the worlds is thinner at this time”, for midsummer is one of those times of the year when the subtle realms draw closer to the gross realms. That is why a play about the encounter of mortals with fairies was entitled A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

We learned about the Rose as symbol of the Mother and also of Sai Sushuri, who is the Divine Love; and also the Rose as symbol of the world, whose many petals are the many different things of the world, and whose single heart, from which all petals grow, is Dea Herself, “from Whence all comes, to Whom all must return”.

The service for Rosa Mundi will take place at The White Rose Room this Saturday: see The Blue Camellia Club for details