Man and his symbols: the Rose (Selection # 2)

Yeats tells us, in one of his most significant works (1), that its petals served as a carpet for the bare feet of Christ, in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He also tells us that his fragrance accompanied him to the grave: the same one on which centuries later, the Arabs erected the Dome of the Rock, also known as the Al-Absá Mosque.

That same mosque, with an octagonal plan and ambulatory, which is imitated in the Navarrese temple of Santa María de Eunate and which was the Mother House of the Order of the Temple.

It is not surprising, then, that the Rose is one of the most symbolic and extraordinary flowers of all those that exist on the face of the planet.

To the point that even attacked by the furious rigors of that evil Aquilón, the north wind, who in the Middle Ages also identified with the Devil, still seems, paradoxically, sovereign and beautiful.

Notes, References and Bibliography:

(1) William Butler Yeats: 'Rosa Alquímica', Mondadori España, S.A., Madrid, 1992.

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