The Soul of the Rose and my Soul

By Lian Brook-Tyler

I’ve shared before the significance this painting, The Soul of The Rose, has for me – and I’m understanding that now more deeply than ever.

The first time I saw it, many years before I lived the kind of life I do now, I knew it was “home” somehow and fell utterly in love with it.

A print of it hangs upon our bedroom wall, a wedding present from my husband, and it has guided and inspired my life for over a decade since.

(As testament to that, when my daughter was younger she used to ask if it was a picture of me!)

But even when I last shared how it’s been my North Star, I didn’t quite realise then how it was showing up in my life, both divinely and materially (which of course, are really the same thing in disguise)…

 My work is focused on guiding people to liberate themselves to live from their Soul.

 Roses… blooms, oil, water… show up in almost all of my many rituals.

 The rose is one of the symbols of the archetype I’ve been called to work with and have dedicated the past year (and a lifetime) to.

 The way she buries her face in the rose evokes the union of the soft animal of her body* and nature, in other words, embodiment and rewilding, core elements of my work.

 Recently as part of my shamanic work, I was asked to make contact with a spirit representative of the Earth, it was… you guessed it… the rose.

 Her complete submission to the grief and praise** of the beauty of the moment (you can feel it, right?) is the same energetic submission to the mess and magic of the Soul, to True Will, that I teach.

 Lastly, the rose is symbolic of the Divine Feminine, the embodiment of which is the devotion of my very Soul (and something I would have kicked, screamed or died laughing at not so many years ago.)

Soul of the Rose, indeed… I guess my Soul knew long before I did.

How has your Soul illuminated your path?

And are you heeding it… are you unfolding your own myth***?

Or are you waiting for someone or something to give you permission first, beloved?

Art: The Soul of The Rose by John William Waterhouse

Quotes:

*from the poem Wild Geese by Mary Oliver, one of my favourites

** from The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise Book and a talk (search on YT) by Martín Prechtel

*** from the poem Unfold Your Own Myth by Rumi

Want to become more intimate with us? If YES, click any or all of the buttons below.