Crown of Thorns
Rose says~
Expand. Tendril out. Touch everything that lives between you and that edge of wonder where your prayers are hovering for answers from beyond the bounds of ever understanding. Standing with inner stillness, present, perfumes more landscapes than running around trying to prove your beauty. Know, without doubt, you are rooted to something stronger than the thick matter of your thoughts.
Step forward and claim what you know to be true because you have seen it with your eyes and felt it’s many shapes dancing your body. Let yourself unroll the scrolls from your heart that you tucked deep long ago until the day the tongue was safe for the gospel again. You have always kept Love at the center. Yet, here you are tangled in your own riddle as you wait for permission from the hand you, yourself birthed. You know exactly what to do.
Everywhere you stand your life is. How do you carry the torch of presence child, as you wander? How does it cast light upon what is always here and never, but always, around that next corner. Seek for reflection only, let yourself bathe in beauty. Sit courting the peace that is always, for as long as it takes, knowing that eventually a choice will be made to either love yourself or keep fighting for love -and that will determine your life path.
~ On the last new moon I completed a month long diet/courtship with Rose, Nootka Rose to be exact. I opened the portal on the Solstice with a ceremony. It was a maze of complications and doubt to arrive at my commitment to diet her. As any good initiation, there may be tests to challenge my faithfulness. I was crowned with thorns at the end. An honor.
Rose is a teacher of incorruptible, unconditional love, beginning with self love. She teaches boundaries, truth, alignment and balance in the heart. Her thorns can feel wicked as they illuminate the mind’s addiction to fear and false perceptions. The volume was turned up on all of the voices for me. I was in limbo between worlds. As though my DNA was being negotiated, because it was. I was in the womb being shaped; how I emerged was determined by my choices.
I was brought face to face with the disease of self doubt. I was cleaning up the debris of disbelief in my highest truth that was strewn through time by way of much inherited fear. It was harrowing as I was shown how addicted to my old stories I still was/am. And how those kazillions of voices still play their broken records of sorrow and depression and illness and limitation and loathing and blame and fear. And then…
Daughter, you’ve been taught that life is a thorn bush, all thorns, all sharp points and tangles and painful surprises as you dare to reach in for the beauty you seek. Your mind is addicted to it- your mind is sick, drunk, with it.
I had to come to terms with mental illness. Because any mind that is running on a program of nefarious voices and believing them, even subconsciously, is sick. And this shows up in the most unassuming ways- chronic autoimmune/mystery diseases, pain, depression, anxiety, addictions, famine, war etc.
These voices evolve and embed themselves through repetition of the stories based we tell ourselves ie. “there’s not enough, I am not enough (scarcity) and I am all alone, there is no one, I am never going to…(separation).” These stories have been the bedrock narrative of our society. The remedy is discovering one’s personal cosmology and absolute truth. Then, aligning with it, choosing it, integrating it and from that place discerning the needs of the body-mind.
However, Rose has thorns for a reason. Her whole body is a teacher of boundaries, balance, beauty and the beast. She is a master of dancing in duality, the power of choice and perception.
Thorns (fear) out of balance~ control, addiction, hierarchy, manipulation, chronic illness, dominance, war, scarcity.
Thorns in balance- instinct, boundaries that enhance sovereignty, protection without fighting, intuitive guidance away from harm, discernment.
Flower (beauty) out of balance~ naïveté, damsel in distress, gluttony, excess, lust, bypass, imposters, unrequited seduction, masks.
Flower in balance~ faith, peace in the heart, embodied fragrance, aligned with the gift of Life, I bloom for me, strong rooted, conscious intoxication, unconditional love, belonging.
*The pathological applications of Rose are used mainly for inflammatory conditions in the respiratory and digestive tract creating mucus and heat.
As I breathed Rose, sipped Rose, bathed in Rose- I was intimately engaged with my ecology. I could taste it, see the intricate universal matrix that connects all life, smell it. My skin tickled by the billions of tiny hands that are always caressing me, shaping and responding to my humanity. So many forces of love busy making each moment so- trying to make me aware of how much love has made every moment of my life so. This moment, and this one, and I can’t believe I am still alive after that one, wow.
Plants help me remember that there is no me without we and in this I find my true sovereignty. I center my Self in my life from a place of understanding that my Self is because of all living things. Therefore when I am being Self-centered I am automatically a valuable resource as reciprocity and embodied memory of belonging flows to me and through me.
Wholeness is an integration of all of our lost parts into Truth. Plants help our wholeness as they are a direct link to natural law, unobstructed sacred reciprocity and unconditional love. When we invite them into our bodies, as I did Rose, they attempt to remove what is not aligned to natural laws, which can be uncomfortable to say the least. To engage with a plant is no different than entering a relationship. There is an exchange of information, a spark of creation, a codex of evolution, that are unique to that particular coupling. There are negotiations, still unprocessed wounds, tremendous gifts, support and Love.
Are you really ready to learn about Love? Then you must be willing to sit with all that is not Love and love it free. Then you too can be crowned with thorns and take your rightful place on the throne of your Life.
Rose Says:
In every moment of my life cycle I have every resource I need. In every moment of my life cycle I am not only sufficient but perfect in form and function for that exact moment. I love myself here as a little brown seed when the worms speak of bright blossoms and light in that land far above and away. I love myself here as a green sprout so tiny next to that tree so mighty. I love myself here curled into a tight bud ready to burst wondering if I will be fragrant enough for the bee. I love myself here flowering fully fragrant in the Sun. I love myself here as my petals wrinkle and fall and the bees stop calling. I love myself here blown down, back to the ground for the safe keeping that keeps the dream weaving and growing another day. Loving myself at all phases as perfect and whole connects me to the First Sacred Flame that can never burn out. Love is always, just is.
Thank you for reading.
Love, Shira Starfire
ROSE ELIXIR~ (Nootka Rose flower and thorn, organic gluten free vodka, honey) I only have a very small batch. I typically never sell this as harvesting Rose is such a little labor of love. And, I want to share with you. Each bottle is infused with a prayer. What does she have to teach you about Love? First come first serve. $25 includes shipping except to HI and AK.
HEART CENTERED MENTORING AND INTEGRATION SESSIONS~ embodied integration of personal truth, breath work, mirroring, medicine work (if you are working with one of my medicines), loving support. $125/hour $475/4 sessions.
Send me an email: Shira@theoriginalmedicine.com. Share!
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*References: The Earthwise Herbal (Matthew Wood)