A Garden of Imagination
The Rosarium is a dedication to planet Earth, and an invocation of her glorious plant queendom.
The plant realm is the bridge between Earth and Cosmos, enabling us to deepen into the microcosm of our bodies and the macrocosm of the Universe. We have filled the Rosarium with earthly delights to nourish and nurture you. We invite you to step into this sacred space.
21 MAY - 21 JUNE
SYMBOLISM
The symbolic language for Gemini is a fractal of fellow mutable sign Pisces. See how there are two lines, connected in some way?
Gemini is the sign of duality. Where seasonally perhaps, we have sunshine and rain. A subtle energy for the perfect storm. It’s non-binary, where ones and zeroes make an advanced algorithm.
Where Gemini is the twins. Pisces is the two fish. We’re reminded of our dual or twin-like nature; our mortality and immortality.
SOLAR ENERGY
Leap
In early June the Rosarium responds to the archetypal energies encapsulated in the language of ‘hasten, jump, bound, leap’.
Nature is bursting forth all around, expanding and exploring, fearless and adventurous.
If we watch those fledglings in the cherry tree, we see this archetypal energy in all its glory, as the young birds take a leap of faith and fly.
They do not fall, and they do not fail; they do not need a safety net as they fulfil their potential. This is such a life-affirming metaphor.
What is ready to take flight for you? What seeds that you sowed earlier in the year are beginning to flourish, what adventures are awaiting you?
Tulsi
(Holy Basil, Ocimum Sanctum)
Another wonderful plant to pep you up is tulsi or holy basil which in south-east Asia is often planted around the perimeter of houses so that as you go about your daily chores, you can pick and eat a few leaves to awaken your soul purpose.
It is a herb of protection and insight, revered by many cultures not least because it is delicious used liberally in cooking.
In fact, holy basil is so good for you, being anti-inflammatory, anti-viral and anti-fungal, that it is called ‘a herb for all reasons’ – so what better reason to eat it than to improve your vitality.
LUNAR ENERGY
Spark
The moon’s energy in Gemini as it waxes and wanes is full of sparkling light that dances off the ocean like fireflies on a warm night. If you have never seen moonlight on the ocean, then it is worth making a pilgrimage to the coast for this very purpose. Just as the golden path of the setting sun is magical, the silver path of the moon as she traverses the velvet night skies of summer is transcendental.
Bathed in her light, we are immediately transported to the land of faery, myth and legend. The sparkling moonlight informs our dreams and reminds us of our deepest desires.
At the Gemini New Moon, Mercury will be showing off a bit. As the ruler of the Moon, and in their home-sign of Gemini, things will feel fast. Our minds may be messy and muddled, and our moods may be small wavelengths of ups and downs, especially with Neptune squaring the New Moon.
Mercury may deliver incredible clarity and insight for you at this time.There could be some movement or momentum building where things had felt stuck whilst Mercury slowed in Taurus. But our wager is it’ll be a heady time. Feel-into whether the herbal wisdoms, healing medicine and rituals with crystals and colour can support you during this cycle.
Poppy
You cannot not have spotted the poppied fields, banks and verges.
The bright, tomato-red flowers are fleeting but stunning signs of summer’s blooming energy. It’s so sad that a strong gust of wind can whirl their petals off onto the floor or across the field, but perhaps this makes them even more precious.
If you watch them dance in the summer breeze, they look like they’re all head-bopping to the same beat.
Though brief, they will light-up any Rosarium altar. Poppy seeds are also super-seeds, with many health benefits, and the pressed seed oil is used in skin and hair products. This oil is high in anti-oxidants and rich in fatty acids typically used to condition skin and hair.
ROSARIUM RITUALS
Invigorating bath
Sometimes, despite the Gemini energetics, we can still feel uninspired, or not quite fully awakened to the budding possibilities that currently abound. If this is how you are feeling, then immerse and indulge in a sprig of rosemary, adding it to soups or its pale blue flowers – full of phytochemicals – to salads.
Rosemary is renowned for stimulating brain function, even helping with memory(!), and vitalising the third eye chakra, opening our mythic selves to insight and intuition.
Sometimes just the smell of rosemary is enough to clarify the mind, body and spirit. Take a cutting and rub it between your hands then hold your hands to your mouth and nose and inhale the soul of this sacred plant. It cannot fail to revive you.
We highly recommend adding rosemary to your bathtime ritual. As the hot water steams the stems, a mix of fresh pine forest air, an almost eucalyptus-like uplift and a herbaceous grounding energy takes hold.
It’s both clearing and clarifying.
Lunar bathing
For that spark of creative energy, the lightning rod that fertilises the soil of your dreams and causes your imagination to flare, why not try lunar bathing, the nighttime equivalent of sun-bathing? Your inner spark illuminates your path and lunar bathing is a perfect way to reignite it.
If you are lucky enough to have your own garden then choose a warm, still night preferably when the moon is waxing towards full and spend an hour or so bathing in its luxuriant light. Empty your mind of all thoughts and be in the moment with the Moon.
If you don’t have a garden or outdoor space, even just sitting by a window with the moonlight on your face imagining the beauty of a Rosarium full of perfumed flowers is enough to suspend your worries and anxieties for a few blissful moments of sparkle.
CRYSTALS
New Jade
(Serpentine)
Fluorite
(Watermelon)
New Jade is actually a type of Serpentine crystal, and not formerly classified as a type of Jade like those associated with ancient Eastern cultures.
Because of its similar metaphysical profile with actual Jade, this smooth turquoise-green gem earned it’s ‘New Jade’ name.
In Gemini season, our minds can get the better of us, overdriving in ways that get in the way of the Leap and Spark energies Lorna mentions above.
I asked for guidance on what crystal we could work with for this Rosarium and New Jade presented itself - my polished, uneven crystal ball not looking too dissimilar to the one you see here.
It’s cool to touch. Deceptively heavy and yet it lightens the load instantly. The coolness on your skin brings you out of your mind and into your body. There’s ease, and a gentle peacefulness that raises you out of stuckness.
This is a perfect stone to help maintain balance with the mind busies itself.
As is Fluorite, especially the ‘watermelon’ kind as pictured. When you stare at this beauty, you are lost in its mosaic of deep greens, pool-like turquoises, striking pinks and bold purples. I shouldn’t have favourites but this is one of my top picks.
It is known for mental enhancement and stimulation, improved clarity and decision making, and clearing our energy fields - perfect if Gemini season gets the better of us.
As the rainbow of greens and purples unite, so too do our crown and heart chakras.
The duality here is of a balancing yet activating energy.
AURA-SOMA
Turquoise
Keynote: speaking from the heart.
In the Aura Soma (and many other) system blue is related to the throat chakra and green, the heart. So when these colours are combined, so too are the subtle bodies.
There is the “Ananda Khanda chakra, located on the right side of the chest, which stimulates the opening of the heart”. This chakra is linked with this rich, enticing colour.
I love that, following this logic, the insight we receive from the skies filters through this energy centre before meeting our heart. I feel this chakra is often overlooked, but is where our voice and heart’s will merge.
This is a colour of emotion, the feeling-body and divine individuation. It enlivens the subtle senses and inspires a creative awakening.
In a Gemini way, it aids communication, especially if we’re speaking from our own Divinity.
Listen to your inner voice and inner guide.
Aura Soma also associate Turquoise the ‘Age of Aquarian’, as it’s the balance of collective love and individual spirit.
Turquoise
Pomander
Clearing our fields so that we can express ourselves in heartfelt ways
Equilibrium B43:
Creativity
Creative communication through the feeling side of being as the process of individuation unfolds
About Aura-Soma
Harnessing the vibrational powers of Mother Nature, Aura‑Soma is a system of colour, plant and crystal energies that enhance happiness and vitality. VRCs Founder, Jemma, is a qualified Aura-Soma practitioner (level 1) and works with them in her coaching and facilitation. Jemma is not a representative for Aura-Soma, more a student of this amazing system. This is not a sales or commission piece (at all!). To learn more, you can visit aura-soma.com.
ROSARIUM ORACLE
Clarity of heart and mind
Like a razor-sharp lightning bolt crackling across the thundering clouds, clarity comes to you now.
You have the clearness and spaciousness to tune-into your inner guide and lovingly listen to your inner voice. Though the logical mind has a present power, it is our heart intelligence that will guide us along our purpose pathway.
A Garden of Imagination
The Rosarium is a dedication to planet Earth, and an invocation of her glorious plant queendom.
The plant realm is the bridge between Earth and Cosmos, enabling us to deepen into the microcosm of our bodies and the macrocosm of the Universe. We have filled the Rosarium with earthly delights to nourish and nurture you. We invite you to step into this sacred space.
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Imagine a garden filled with roses and lavender, jasmine and honeysuckle, thyme, mint and strawberries; where the faint buzz of bees and the melancholic song of the blackbird fills the air, where the sun’s rays bathe all in golden warmth and breezes gently stir the perfumed air. This is a place where your soul can rest from the busyness of life, where you can return from your cosmic explorations to an embodied experience of the celestial body we call home – our beautiful blue planet Earth.
The Rosarium is filled with myriad species of plants that offer foods, medicines, visions, nourishment and comfort.
It’s an elemental alchemy of herbalism, astrology and poetics that offer the gentle medicine and wisdom of the natural world, homely rituals and soul remedies, and the archetypal energies that we can choose to work with for each Sun season.
We invite you and your mythic mind to wonder a wildflower meadow, self-care with ancient apothecary, and explore the chambers of a crystal cave.
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Lorna a writer, garden-witch, herbal queen and dreamweaver. She has history with the editorial world (including editing the Resurgence publication!), journalism and publishing. Her words are magic.
She co-authored The Soulistic Journey, with Genevieve Boast, a metaphysical pilgrimage of exploration into the archetypal and mythic realms. To find out more check-out www.lornahowarth.com
Jemma Jackson is the founder of the VRC community and the one that’s constantly going on about Astrology. Back in the day when she thought she’d start an all-natural beauty company she researched the cosmetic benefits of plants and their gifts. And in her coaching and space-holding, she’s working with the techniques of Gua Sha, the energies of crystals and the intelligence of the Aura-Soma system.
For the Rosarium, Lorna and Jemma are combining their passions and their natural knowledge in this beautiful creating. We’re excited for how it will unfold. ❤️🌹
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The Rosarium is a natural unfolding. If you’d like to bring a sensory skill or wisdom or embodiment to this cauldron, please get in touch at hello@venusrose.club or DM us on Instagram @venusroseclub.