In some ways this plant medicine practice I call Moon Cat Magicals is an ongoing love affair with rose. Wild rose is not only available as a honey-sweetened tincture in honey rum and as a vegan glycerite but wild rose also helps hold the medicine in other Moon Cat potions such as Love and Boundaries and the purity of white wild rose is in Hope potion. Wild rose also makes an appearance as one of the three skin-nourishing plants in Skin Soother salve and in Moon Cat herbal smoking mix.
For my personal, friend and family use I also make many batches of wild rose cordial every year (recipe at the end of this post) and I make rose infused honey to last me the winter. Wild rose harvest season evokes a love and joy I look forward to all year.
Wild Rose Potion & Wild Rose glycerite:
For deepening connection with the spirit of Wild Nootka Rose (Rosa nutkana). Take a few drops in the mouth, in water, or externally rubbed on heart and third eye chakras. Rose has inspired love and beauty around the world. Tributes to the essence of this majestic plant have been created in abundance and she has been celebrated throughout human history for her divinity. She is known as a healer, a teacher, a protector, associated with goddesses and the sacred feminine. Rose is plant of love, of the heart, of magic, a master plant like no other. Rose petals, delicious, soft, smooth and fragrant invoke a true vibration of love and a deep opening, petal upon petal, of the heart. Rose brings in gentleness and caring, vibrancy and embodied sensuality and show us that opening the self to love, in all it's forms, is both beautiful and sacred. Rose thorns remind us that love has boundaries, and that self-love is intertwined with knowing our edges and protecting them with strength and, when needed, sharpness. Rose thorns bring in awareness of where our boundaries are, how important they are, and a protective energy. It is from a place of embodied safety that we can truly allow our hearts and beings to open. Honey, infused with wild rose petals brings in a golden sweetness and an abundance of rose. The Rose potion is held gently in a base of local honey alcohol and the Wild Rose glycerite is in a naturally sweet glycerine. Wild Rose Potion contains: honey alcohol, wild rose petals, wild rose thorns, rose-infused honey.
Rose Glycerite contains: organic vegan glycerine, wild rose petals, wild rose thorns.
Recipe for Rose Cordial
You need: large jar, rose petals, lemon, honey or other sweetener.
Fill a jar loosely with wild rose petals, the more petals the stronger the flavour.
Cover with a large dollop (1/4- 1/2 C) of honey or other sweetener
Squeeze in half a lemon
Cover with boiling water, cap the jar, and let sit for 24 hrs
After a day strain the cordial and enjoy with fizzy water or as a warm drink with hot water. Keeps in the fridge for up to two weeks, though in my home it usually doesn't last more than a few days at most.