Ward | ورد | Rose | Rosa spp.
“When ancestral work and healing efforts become dense and difficult, lean on roses to aid you.”
rose
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rose 〰️
Plantcestor: Rose, ورد / Ward, Ward Jouri, Rosa Damascena, Rosa Canina, Rosa spp.
Also known as: Rosa Gallica, Rosa Californica, Rosa Nutkana, Rosa Rugosa, Rosa Spp…
Plant family: Rosaceae
Parts used: All parts. Typically flower, bud, petals, fruit (rosehips), and leaves.
Energetics: Cooling. Drying.
Herbal Actions: Anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-microbial, refrigerant, emmenagogue, aphrodisiac, astringent, tonic, nervine, diuretic, diaphoretic, hepatoprotective, and analgesic.
Constituents: Vitamin C, Vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, Vitamins K and E, Niacin, Bioflavanoids, Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Polyphenols and heart healthy Pectin. Rose petals contain as much or more Antioxidants as green tea.
rose and the body systems
Maward, ('Ma' for water, and 'ward' for rose), meaning rosewater, is one of the first and most important herbal distillations from the ancestral traditions of our region, used similarly in the context of desserts as well as a common facial toner, an eye wash, and a potent medicine for nearly every organ in the body. Of all the beloved plants in my apothecary, rose is amongst the ones I reach for most often, incorporating it into numerous formulas and leaning on it often as a singular remedy of its own. Rose is an underrated panacea of medicine for the body and soul, with several wild species growing across the region and world, as well as important heirloom species cultivated by our ancestors specifically for medicinal use and applied through generations by our stewardship and care.
NERVOUS SYSTEM: Nervine, anti-anxiety, anti-depression, helpful in calming anger and rage, and for survivors of violence, sexual abuse, betrayal. Regulates emotions. Roses are deeply healing to the nervous system and spirit, helping to ease mood disorders and restore deep internal balance. They can bring support through low times of depression, constricting states of stress, irritability, and anxiety, and hot emotions like anger and rage.
REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM: Affinity to reproductive body systems. Tonic to ovaries and uterus. Blood mover, general pelvic congestion resulting in scanty menses, cramps, water retention, irregular periods, cysts and mood swings. Labor pains. Rich in the building blocks of hormones, nourish the endocrine system through its provision of these basic hormonal elements. Aphrodisiac, libido, sexual dysfunction such as impotence and frigidity, opens the heart. Threatened miscarriage. Metritis- inflamed wall of uterus. Used in postpartum context to both bless babies and protect postpartum bodies from excess blood loss via baths and steams. They are pain relieving, and using topically as an oil has been found to effectively relieve lower back pain associated with pregnancy. Their aromatic oils as a birthing aid can relieve both anxiety and pain during labor. Roses are used as a gentle but effective plantcestor for restoring hormonal balance and regulating menstrual systems, as well as aiding the menopausal body. They ease premenstrual syndrome and dysmenorrhea, help relieve menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, mood swings, anxiety and depression, and generally endow balance to the reproductive system when utilized regularly.
CARDIO/CIRCULATORY SYSTEM: Rose’s association with the heart is not merely symbolic, it has tonic usages for the cardiovascular system. Blood tonic for those experiencing fatigue, anxiety, vertigo, pallor, dry skin and hair and other signs of blood deficiency (if signs of coldness, add warming blood tonics such as blackstrap molasses). Strengthening and healing to the heart and circulation, cardiovascular tonic, high blood pressure and/or poor circulation in individuals with inflammation, constipation, headaches, feverishness, red face, heart palpitations and hot flashes. Anxiety related palpitations. *Note that several of these symptoms can also be caused by a congested or inflamed liver, which Rose also serves to relax and cool.
URINARY/KIDNEY: UTI’s, kidney and lower urinary disorders, fluid retention/swelling, gout.
DIGESTIVE: Gallstones and gallbladder ailments. Diarrhea, constipation, gastric inflammation, IBS, hyperacidity and conversely, food fermenting in the stomach from sluggish digestion. Rose can help these symptoms through addressing and cooling the liver stagnation at the root, as well as cooling, healing and protecting the gut lining, assisting the digestive process, and generally nourishing the mucosa as well as the intestinal bacteria. May apply externally as a salve for healing hemorrhoids.
MUSCO-SKELETAL: Anti-inflammatory. Osteoarthritis, dislocated discs with swelling, pain, tension, etc, traumatic injuries, chronic musculoskeletal pain- liniments and infusions. Sciatica, back and leg pains.
SKIN: Rashes, itchy inflamed areas. Skin tonic- astringent. Eczema, hemorrhoids, bug bites, scratches, etc. Burns, ulcers, and sun-burns (in apple cider vinegar). Good for wound healing, redness, swelling. Helps to tonify and moisturize the skin, retraining our cells to hold the right amount of moisture. This has made them a globally favored remedy in facial products, but may also support menopausal discomforts in which hormonal fluctuations lend to more dryness vaginally and elsewhere.
EYES: Sore, inflamed, or strained eyes. Eye-wash with rosewater. Cataracts.
BRAIN: Fragrance used to clear the mind and strengthen mental faculties. Enhances memory, strengthens the brain, and inhibits Alzheimer dementia building plaques in the brain. May support with headaches.
OTHER: The whole plant, but especially the root, has pain relieving properties when used externally, and is also a very good antibacterial agent for treating nearly any kind of infection, inside or out, including UTIs, yeast and vaginal infections. Petals can be used for mouth and gum pain/infection. Indigenous people of North America use the hips for severe infections externally, making a mash of the hips and using as a poultice. Baby safe- good for teething and general fussiness, diarrhea, and irritability and digestive upset in children.
energetics and spirit
In addition to supporting the nervous system on a physical level, rose carries an energetic quality of softening, creativity, and connection. They embody a vibrational wisdom that heals and emphasizes the sanctity of relationship and its various and central impacts on our lives. This makes rose a foundational ally in my own practice for the reconfiguration of relational and traumatic wounding of many kinds, especially that which occurred in the context of intimacy such as sexual trauma, heartbreak, familial conflicts, betrayal, or other painful ruptures between loved ones.
Heart and Nervous System: Heart softening and opening with a healthy sense of self-protection/boundaries, self love, cools anger and rage, apathy, enlivens and restores life in depressed states, calms anxious ones.
Creativity and Sensuality: Creative power- reconnecting you with your own true nature, self-expression and self-trust. Opens heart and sexuality. Opens vulnerability while empowering good boundaries, freedom, and personal power. Love conjuring. Seeing the beauty and love in self and others. They are also an aphrodisiac, reconnecting us with our capacity for pleasure and the power inside our bodily senses. They may help restore the bridge between our bodily senses, our emotional expressions, and our creative joy, spacious to the multiple layers involved with healing and re-membrance from life experiences that have jolted us profoundly. Rose plants are as tenacious as they are sensual - blooming delicately as their petals unfurl, thorny and rugged enough to withstand dry and hot environments with minimal care. Their dynamic spirit and aromatic beauty reconnect us with the fundamental creative capacity and well-source unique within each of us. Their power reminisces a deeper intelligence of our interdependent earth and the loving web of our life tending matriarchs in all their resilience, grace, and grit alike.
Cleansing and Transforming: Purification and healing of difficult, stagnant, and negative emotions and energies- used in spiritual and healing cleansing rituals throughout the world. Forgiveness and unconditional love. Supportive in states of grief, depression, heart-break, trauma, anger, tempers, and emotional imbalances of many kinds. Sexual and domestic abuse/ interpersonal relationship wounds. Sacred heart- sacred fire.
Healing Trauma: Healing traumatic wounds centers around repairing relational integrity, restoring security with the self, if not with others. As these intimate parts of the body and spirit are activated, I have found roses equally helpful in recovery from birth trauma or postpartum integration more generally. Roses cool and mend the energetic body, helping us reclaim lost and suppressed parts of the self, supporting the expression and digestion of authentic feelings, and helping us to process strong emotions within their gentle embrace.
rose ecology, cultivation, and harvesting
Native roses grow in many temperate parts of the globe, but most species are native to SWANA and Asia. Other native species grow in North America, West Africa, and Europe. Its ancient medicine likely has origins in Iran and it has been historically used throughout India, China, and SWANA as a primary medicine.
Thousands of wild and cultivated heirloom varieties of roses exist around the globe. Of them, is the beloved Rosa Damascena, otherwise known as Ward Jouri or Damascus Rose. This rose was bred by our ancestors specifically for its medicinal use and fragrance. It is the traditional rose used in our rosewaters, or ma ward.
Roses enjoy full sun and may grow in many different environments from alongside riverbeds to rocky and dry terrains. They typically do best in moist and well-draining soil that is slightly acidic. Giving them a good haircut (deadheading) encourages more blooms.
Harvesting: don’t be afraid to prune or deadhead when they’re in full bloom!
Best harvested in the early mornings before the sun hits too hard, as it can pull from the medicinal oils from the plant.
Roses can be harvested the entire time they are in bloom. They produce abundantly so harvesting can be done generously but be sure to share with the pollinators who love them too. Rose hips only fruit from the flowers still in tact on the plant, but you can harvest petals without removing the full flower and allowing the fruits to grow.
Buds are harvested for tea before blooming, petals can be harvested anytime.
Rose hips are typically harvested during the fall time, when they’re full and plump. Note that rose hips have small, irritating hairs inside the fruit that can cause minor skin reactions like dermatitis, itchiness, or stinging. For medicine making, you can spoon out the irritating hairs or keep the rose hips closed.
Rose seeds can be found in fully mature rose hips. Dry them out and separate from the hairs for saving and planting, although they are not easily started from seed (do best from cuttings).
They like to be pruned in the wintertime. You can use these cuttings to propagate new plants by placing directly in the soil and watering consistently or by placing cutting in water.
Folklore & Traditional uses:
Early cultivations and trading of rose:
Evidence of a fossilized rose suggests that the rose is 35 million years old, possibly originating in Iran (imagine, this plantcestor records memories of our region on earth for over 35 million years). Its cultivation is thought to have originated in China over 5,000 years ago but the earliest written accounts of rose gardening come from the Sumerian records at Ur (present day Iraq). Rose’s documented use as a medicine is noted in Mesopotamian tablets aging over 5000 years old. Roses have also been discovered in the tombs of ancient Egypt and on Minoan frescoes on the island of Crete. Roses were grown, used (medicinally and otherwise) and traded extensively across the Roman Empire and beyond.
Upon the fall of the Roman Empire, cultivation continued in European monasteries and in the Middle East. In Europe the popularity of the rose did not take off until the Crusades in the 12-13th century, when returning Crusaders brought back varieties of the Damask rose. During the 1600’s the flower was in such demand that both rose plants and rose water could be used as legal tender by royalty. Rose cultivation and gardening grew so widespread, that by the 1800’s there were over 1000 varieties of rose. This practice has continued today, with over 30,000 varieties.
Early and traditional uses of roses:
While rose has become consumed with cliche tropes and commercialized symbols of love, it remains potent in its applications as a medicine globally in the hands of grandmothers and beyond all across this earth. I have met curanderas in Mexico who exclusively heal with roses, understanding their energetic capacity to purify and elevate the spirit.
Ibn Sinna noted that the rose “addresses the soul”, with a calming effect on the heart, mind, and spirit alike, strengthening the brain and capacity for comprehension and sharpening the senses. It may be helpful in the treatment of anxiety that causes heart palpitations as well as other mood disorders such as depression and nervous stress. The smell of rose was understood as a primary vessel of its medicine in the old world, where it has been regarded as a spiritual medicine with purifying qualities to the heart, and associated with the Prophet Muhammad as well as the Virgin Mary, who now and again performs miracles of apparition by crying rosewater tears out of her statues tended as altars all across places like Lebanon.
In the Crossroads (SWANA), the rose carries special associations to the Venusian goddesses of ancient times, and the purity and holiness of the Prophet Muhammad and Virgin Mother Mary. In fact, rosaries used to pray to the Virgin Mother were traditionally crafted from the flowers of this divine plant, hence their name.
Pliny the Elder, the Roman natural philosopher in the first century, may have been the first to document its medicinal properties. In fact, he described 32 different medicinal uses for the rose in his encyclopedia, Natural History. The flower was a symbol of much of the excess of the Roman Empire, as peasants were made to grow roses rather than food so the upper classes could engage in such actions as filling baths and fountains with rose-water, sitting on carpets of rose petals for their feasts and orgies, and using them as confetti at celebrations. In the next generation, the Greek physician Discorides wrote about using the rose for headaches and as an external pain reliever.
Folklore and mythology involving rose:
The rose has a rich history in its more esoteric relationship with humans, holding a central place in the mythology of many traditions and celebrated throughout as a symbol of love in its many forms, and of beauty and perfection. Many sources record these stories.
The rose was dedicated to the goddess Ishtar in Babylonia, for the ancient Egyptians it belonged to Isis, for the Greeks, Aphrodite, and the Romans, Venus.
The Greek myths hold many versions of the rose’s story, among them that as Aphrodite, the goddess of love, emerged from the sea, roses grew from the foam. A yet more romantic story tells how Aphrodite ran, in vain, to save her lover, Adonis, from a wild boar sent by jealous Ares to kill him. She became entangled in thorn bushes in her haste and roses grew from her spilt blood. Another Greek myth claims the rose was created by a goddess of flowers and nymph, Chloris. Upon finding the body of a nymph in the woods, she turned her into a flower. She called upon the gods, and Aphrodite gave the flower beauty as her gift while Dionysus added nectar to give it a sweet fragrance. Zephyrus, her husbands and god of the West Wind, blew the clouds away so that the sun could make the flower bloom.
Romans are said to believe white roses grew where the tears of Venus fell while she mourned her lover Adonis. The thorns of the rose have grown in response to the “sting” of a stray arrow shot as Cupid was stung by a bee stung and let one fly in surprise. These thorns were later said to cause Venus to prick her foot on a thorn as she walked through the garden, turning the roses red with her blood. Roman mythology also tells the story of a beautiful maiden named Rhodanthe whose beauty caused suitors to pursue her against her will. On the run and exhausted, Rhodanthe took refuge at the temple of Diana who became jealous. When the suitors broke into her temple grounds, it was the last straw, and she turned Rhodanthe into a rose and her suitors into thorns. Yet another myth has Cupid offering a rose as a bribe to the God of Silence. He made the flower into a symbol for secrecy and dining room ceilings were often decorated with roses, as a reminder to keep things sub rosa (literal meaning “under the rose”) or confidential.
In Islam the rose is said to come from the sweat and tears of the prophet Mohammed and obtained its red color from his blood.
In a Christian context roses are strongly associated with the Virgin Mary. The rose is associated with Christ too, representing attainment of perfect love through suffering.
A Hindu myth tells of Brahma (the creator of the world) and Vishnu (the protector of the world) arguing as to which flower had the greater beauty: the lotus or the rose. Vishnu was in favor of rose, and Brahma supported the lotus, having never seen a rose, and doubting anything was as beautiful as the lotus. Upon viewing the rose, Brahma agreed with Vishnu and created a bride for Vishnu she was created from 108 large and 1008 small rose petals, and she was called Lakshmi.
Tradition holds that Cleopatra carpeted the floors of her palaces with rose petals.
Confucius was rumored to have a 600 book library specifically on how to care for roses.
The compass rose is a design often used to display the cardinal directions, it takes its name from the flower that it resembles. The predecessor to the compass rose was called the wind rose and it names the Greek names of the winds as the compass points.
medicinal & culinary Preparations
Tincture: (best tinctured fresh)
5-15 mL (1:2, 50%) per day (fresh herb) (Pole, 2012);
5 drops – 2 mL (1:5, 40%) 3x/day (dried herb) (Easley & Horne, 2016)
Infusion: 1-10g dried petal/day (Pole, 2012). May drink an infusion on its own or blended with other herbs. Infusions can be made with whole flowers, petals, buds, or rose hips.
Decoction: Decoctions are best made with rose hips. Simmer for 15 mins-30 mins.
Rosewater / Ma Ward hydrosol is one of the oldest and most potent ways of extracting rose medicine. Commonly used as a flavoring for drinks and desserts. Used medicinally on the face, eyes, and other parts of the skin. It is not uncommon to find a bottle of rosewater on the bathroom sink of Tetas all across Canaan for use as a facial toner. My Great Aunt used to add a dash of lemon and vegetable glycerine to her bottle for added benefits.
Rose infused oil can be used topically for toning and healing the skin.
Rose jam can be made with the petals or rosehips.
It can be made into a delicious floral sharab (syrup) colored with beet juice for a bright pink coloration. Sharab is diluted in water to make a refreshing summer drink, which I personally like to mix with a splash of pomegranate water for extra tanginess and refreshment.
Additional Resources
K. Hüsnü Can Başer, “Rose Mentioned in the Works of Scientists of the Medieval East and Implications in Modern Science,” Natural Product Communications 12, no. 8 (August 2017): 1934578X1701200, https://doi.org/10.1177/1934578x1701200843.
Karim Dolati, Hassan Rakhshandeh, and Mohammad Naser Shafei, “Antidepressant-like Effect of Aqueous Extract from Rosa Damascena in Mice,” Avicenna Journal of Phytomedicine 1, no. 2 (September 1, 2011): 91–97, https://doi.org/10.22038/ajp.2011.127.
Seyedeh Atefeh Koohpayeh et al., “Effects of Rosa Damascena (Damask Rose) on Menstruation-Related Pain, Headache, Fatigue, Anxiety, and Bloating: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials,” Journal of Education and Health Promotion 10 (2021): 272, https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp.jehp_18_21.
Qamar Riazi et al., “Effect of Rosa Damascena on the Severity of Depression and Anxiety in Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial,” Evidence Based Care 11, no. 1 (April 1, 2021): 35–43, https://doi.org/10.22038/ebcj.2021.57608.2506.