My study of the imagination began several years ago. The more I learn, the more mysterious this faculty becomes. I mean this in the original sense, from the ancient Greek mysterion for what is sacred and hidden. From the start, I’ve sought symbols to help convey what words alone cannot. One spring evening, as I lay half asleep, a blue rose came to mind out of nowhere. In the twelfth century Attar wrote the secret is hidden in the rose. Dante described it as the divine word made flesh. If the rose is queen of flowers, the blue rose is sublimity, for it lives only in the imagination.
The Blue Rose Society
The twentieth century dawned with a global revolution. Traditional order was overthrown and modernity emerged in the carnage. It wasn’t simply that empires collapsed. Explorations in science and the arts challenged every fundamental notion and belief. Powerful, invisible forces were brought to light such as microbes, X-rays, and the unconscious. Nowhere was this revolution felt more powerfully or violently than in Russia, straddling the great fault line between the West and Asia.
Against this tumultuous backdrop, a number of St. Petersburg artists and philosophers banded together in 1907. Guided by a radical political doctrine called Mystical Anarchism, their aim was to reconcile individual freedom with social harmony. They called themselves The Blue Rose Society. Nicholas Berdyaev, one of its illustrious members, later wrote Man is not a unit in the universe, forming part of an unrational machine, but a living member of an organic hierarchy, belonging to a real and living whole.
Nicholas Roerich was another prominent member. Among other achievements, this artist, explorer, diplomat, and mystic helped establish the first Tibetan Buddhist temple in Europe. Also located in St. Petersburg, it was dedicated to the ancient teachings of the Kalachakra Tantric School. In Sanskrit, Kalachakra means the Wheel of Time and Tantra means the everlasting thread. These teachings aver that the outer conditions of our world are the reflection of the inner condition of our state of mind collectively. Our goal is therefore to strive for enlightenment and to serve all who suffer. No doubt these teachings also profoundly influenced the society’s members.
Why they chose the blue rose for its symbol is unknown. There’s a possible clue in Slavic myth of Baba Yaga, the goddess of death and rebirth, which the members likely knew. Sometimes a friendly guide and sometimes inimical to humans, she was believed to live in the darkest, deepest forest, far removed from civilization. Baba Yaga could only be renewed drinking tea brewed from the blue rose. She’d also therefore grant the wishes of those few brave souls who brought her one.
This depiction of the sacred feminine in her light and dark aspects is primal. So is her association with the rose, with its own duality of beautiful fragrant bloom and painful bloody thorn. Indeed, its Sanskrit root wrdho means thorn, from which rose and red derive. A beloved teacher once said to me: The nightingale cannot sing until the thorn pierces its breast. And so, only the blue rose can renew Baba Yaga, goddess of death and rebirth. Curiously, two famed British authors of that era, Maurice Baring and Rudyard Kipling, each touch on this theme in their writings. Baring was actually a journalist in St. Petersburg when the Blue Rose Society was founded and likely knew its members. He penned a charming story about the daughter of an ancient Chinese emperor who desires a blue rose for a very clever reason. Kipling’s poem is about a silly love that dies seeking one with her last breath. Whatever the inspiration for choosing the blue rose as its symbol, the member’s intention is unmistakable. This is echoed in the society’s credo, coined by Viacheslav Ivanov another of its luminaries. De realibus a realora, meaning from the real to the more real.
The Scientists
The reason that blue roses don’t exist in the natural world is molecular. Simply put, roses don’t have the gene pigment needed to produce blue petals. Over the centuries, there’s been a sustained effort to grow one, without success. For the past several years, a flurry of costly scientific activity has been devoted to growing the worlds first blue rose. The first news story appeared 2002. -
Biotechnology aiding pursuit of blue rose... Breakthrough in research on plants, human liver provides clues. For the past several years, a biochemist by the name of Elizabeth Gillam has been working in the labs of Vanderbilt University's Medical School. Her research is focused on how drugs metabolize in the human liver. One day, during an otherwise routine experiment, a human liver enzyme she had inserted into a flask of bacteria unexpectedly turned the bacteria blue. Making an imaginative leap, she thought that perhaps this human enzyme might be similarly inserted into the genetic material of a rose to turn it blue too. Now she and fellow biochemist Peter Guengerich are talking to biotechnology companies to help them to do exactly this for commercial purposes. Guengerich in an interview with the Associated Press stated that: I would have called you crazy five years ago if you told me I would be pursuing a blue rose. [Associated Press, November 25, 2002]
This initiative appears to have ended without success. Then, in 2005, another news article appeared. Again it promised the creation of a blue rose, this time from a different company using different scientific methods.
Today A Lavender Rose, Tomorrow True Blue? A promising tactic in biotech called RNA interference may succeed where gardeners over the centuries have failed -- creating blue roses that grow "naturally" on the bush. Although more than 25,000 rose varieties exist, growers have never been able to create blue ones, other than by dying them, because rose petals lack the gene that codes for delphinidin, the enzyme that produces blue pigment in flowers. An Australian company, Florigene, says its RNA-i technique has produced lavender roses, and the company's bioengineers are closing in on blue ones. Florigene, which is 98.5% owned by Suntory of Japan, first tried splicing blue genes from petunias into roses, but powerful red and orange enzymes drowned out delphinidin. Florigene then used RNA interference to silence the enzymes that compete with delphinidin. Florigene says it could be selling blue roses within three years. [BusinessWeek July 18, 2005]
In fact, scientists have only produced a dark blue-violet bloom thus far. This perennial quest has aptly been compared to that for the Holy Grail. We have ever been driven from the beginning to materialize our dreams and deepest longings. Sometimes these are noble and sometimes base. Certainly the creation of a true blue rose would have enormous financial reward for the owners of the genetic code. Suntory’s sale of alcoholic beverages runs in the billions. Its management therefore understands how to cater profitably to our universal thirst for intoxication. The company’s success first began in 1907 when it produced the first Japanese red wine. In a strange synchrony, the Blue Rose Society was also founded the same year. Its members that the imaginal realm is well beyond the grasp and measure of the rational mind. So it is this sublime bloom. De realibus a realora
Appendix - Rosa Mundi
The domestic rose likely originated in Asia five thousand years ago. Its name derives from the Sanskrit for red. With their ineffable bloom, haunting perfume, and prickly thorns - roses have enchanted humans from the dawn of recorded time. And for as long, it has been used as a spiritual metaphor and sacred symbol. The rose has been especially associated with the feminine aspect of the divine. Ancient Hindus, for example, believed that the goddess Lakshmi, most beautiful in the pantheon, was born of a rose. Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of Heaven was also depicted with roses. The rose also prefigures in narratives about Aphrodite and Mary.
Rose wreaths have been found in Egyptian tombs dating back thousands of years. The first known painted roses appeared in Minoan wall frescos about1450 BCE. A seventh century Babylonian cuneiform tablet describes a wild rose. The Torah contains three notable references. In Ecclesiastes, it is written, "Wisdom grew up as a rosebush in Jericho" [24:14]. In the Song of Songs, Solomon rhapsodized, "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys" [2.1-17]. In Isaiah it is written "when the kingdom of righteousness shall be established on earth, the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose" [35.1]. There is also a Cabalistic legend that Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden to grow roses.
The rose also played a prominent role in ancient Grecian thought. It was believed, for example, that when Aphrodite sprang to life from the ocean, white roses grew wherever sea foam fell. Homer sang of its perfume in 800 BCE. In the Iliad, Aphrodite anoints Hector's body with rose oil. In another tale of Aphrodite, while helping her wounded lover Adonis, she is badly scratched by the thorns of white roses. The blood she sheds turns the roses red. The Greeks also believed that Cupid bribed the God of Silence with a rose. When they conducted a secret meeting, a rose was always suspended from the ceiling. The meeting was therefore called sub rosa, a term still in use today. The Greek philosopher Epicurus had his own private rose garden in Athens, where he taught students about the highest pleasure.
Grecian rose symbolism was transplanted to Rome. Major Roman military successes, for example, were celebrated by wearing rose wreaths. During a festival called the Rosalia, rose buds were left as offerings to the deceased. Many frescos have been discovered featuring roses including at Pompeii. The Romans were so avid for roses they developed hothouse technology that allowed them to speed up the blooming process. They also imported massive quantities of roses from Egypt. In the 1st century CE, Pliny the Elder recorded thirty-two different medicinal uses of the rose. Roses were used in official medicine well into the 1930s when a tincture of the Apothecary’s Rose was prescribed for sore throats. They were also widely used as mild astringents and to flavour other medicines. Their use in alternative and non-western healing has continued to this day.
Both Arab and Persian society cultivated roses with ardor. They also represented it in their literature and artwork with great sensitivity and subtlety. The Persians, for example, believed that when a nightingale sees a rose plucked it sings mournfully. In the twelfth century CE, Fariduddin Attar wrote that 'Mystery glows in the rose bed, the secret is hidden in the rose". Sa'adi of Shiraz wrote, "I shall pluck roses from the garden, but I am drunk with the scent of the rose bush." Shabistari wrote The Secret Rose Garden. Abdelkadir Gilani, yet another contemporary Sufi, was called the Light of the Rose. The rose also played a central role in the Tale Of The Genjii, a classic of Japanese literature from the 11th century.
Given such ancient roots, the domestic rose came relatively late to the West. During the middle ages, Christian knights brought home rose-cuttings they’d plundered in the Middle East. These violent and crude warriors, who had bathed the streets of Jerusalem in the innocent blood of Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike, could not help becoming enchanted. Roses were cultivated in secret sacred gardens called Hortus Conclusus designed to promote contemplation and prayer. These gardens also generally featured a small fountain, well, or spring. As the rose garden spread so did its influence. In the fourteenth century, Dante wrote that, the rose is “the divine word became flesh." This sensibility is perhaps best expressed in the exquisite stained-glass rose windows featured in Gothic cathedrals.
In the early 1400s, paintings began depicting the Annunciation in a new way. For the first time, this is shown occurring in the Hortus Conclusus. Some paintings also featured Mary in the act of fetching water. This image echoes ancient beliefs about the divine feminine as the source of all life. The Song of Songs, for example also uses images of an enclosed garden, a fountain, and roses, to celebrate the divine feminine, or Shekinah. With the rose’s advent in the West, men slowly started to become gentler and women accorded more respect. Courtly love, took the relation between men and women to a more idealized and symbolic level.
This symbolism was elaborated upon, century after century. In 1476, the artist Froment painted an ancient legend that God spoke to Moses through a burning rose bush. The 1500s saw the widespread introduction of the rosary, initially made from dried rosehips or carved from rose wood. In the 1600s, Rosicrucians circulated images of a rose at the center of a cross. This illustrated a then popular maxim, "as the rose blossoms under the sun, I shall blossom under the eyes of God". And, Shakespeare penned, “by any name a rose would smell as sweet.” No wonder that Christian theologians and mystics called it Rosa Mundi, or soul of the world.
Today hundreds of varieties of roses featuring thousands of colours are grown around the world. Moreover, horticulturalists are always growing new types. However, perhaps our greatest delight comes not from the rose but from its essence, called attar. To produce one pound of attar some four thousand roses must be distilled. One ounce of attar sells for $700 US. By comparison an ounce of gold sells for less than half. Adding to its rarity, practically all attar is produced in a very small region in Bulgaria.
