Rosa Mundi

Today is the High Festival of Rosa Mundi!

This is a moveable Festival, as it is marked on the first full or new moon that comes after the Day of All Helati on 9 Rosea. As 9 Rosea landed on a new moon this year, the full moon tonight marks today as Rosa Mundi. This festival is primarily one of realizing our connection with Our Mother, the Rose of the World, and spending time with Her.

This first of the Three Fire Festivals is traditionally marked with a large bonfire. If you cannot light one, you can always light a candle or ritually turn on a certain lamp or light in your household or make a point of letting in some of that warm summer sunshine. Roses, as the name implies, are a big deal to this holiday; and are honoured through the giving of roses to those you know and love, adding them to altars and shrines, and burning them on the bonfire as a symbolic burning away of our own false selves. If you don’t have the actual flower (or are allergic!) this is a great time to experiment with crafts, and try making your own of cloth or paper or coloring in an image of a rose while meditating on the many profound meanings this festival holds.

Rosa Mundi is also one of the two Great Gates of the Year (the other being Nativity). Known as the “Janua Coeli” these two seasons are said to be marked by the ability of spirits to cross into our world or out of it (sort of how we perceive Halloween). Rosa Mundi is the Gate of Dea, symbolizing leaving the world behind to reunite with the Mother. Some, as on the Mother God website, who believe in reincarnation see this gate as the one that leads out of the cycle of rebirth. http://www.mother-god.com/heavens-gates.html

In many ways, the celebration of this festival, with the large fire, the joyous atmosphere, and fireworks, is similar to independence day celebrations in many countries, or to new year around the globe. This festival can be a very weighty holiday as I’ve mentioned before, but it doesn’t have to be – coming out of the seriousness of the past few months, we can also take this moment to simply celebrate the time and have a moment of levity for ourselves – to remind ourselves that the Mother is always reaching out to us, no matter where we are.