rose marinus

“Rosemary is for remembrance

Between us day and night,

Wishing that I may always have

You present in my sight.”

Calling in Rosemary. Dew of the Sea. Rose of Mary. Birth of Venus. Her gifts both ancient and magical. She has much to teach.

Legend has it that Aphrodite herself was cloaked in and only in this herb when she was born of the sea. Her sea birth caused by Titan Cronos cutting off his Father Uranus’ penis and tossing it into the Mediterranean, only to create our Grecian goddess of beauty, fertility, and love, arriving on shore, in a seashell, draped in nothing but rosemarinus. The medicine of rosemary lives on as a representation of Venus and an ancient symbol for love and fertility.   

I’ve always had a thing for Rosemary. It reminds me of my grandmother, it was one of the first herbs I ever really knew. And in the early stages of my last relationship, I gifted a terracotta pot that I painted and planted a beautiful rosemary bush inside. I accidently harmed the roots in the transfer and the plant didn’t last long, but it was his first time seeing her little blue flowers and that felt special enough.

Special because there is magic in her flowers too. The name “Rose of Mary” comes from the believed tale that the Virgin Mary placed her blue cloak over a rosemary bush with white flowers and when her cloak was picked up, the flowers had turned blue.

Part of Rosemary’s magic was also believed to be in her ability to help tell the future, or at least who you might marry.  I didn’t know that about the plant when I gifted it back then, or I would have taken the herb’s early death as a sign. “Plant and name two small bushes in the same pot and whichever grows the strongest is the one you should marry.”

Rosemary knows all and remembers it too. She helps us get clear on what’s important in life. The scent of the herb itself stimulates memory boosting capabilities. Worn in ancient times by Greek scholars while taking exams to improve clarity and memory.

 The climate in the Andes (aside from the salty air + humidity) is not that unlike the Mediterranean, so there is an abundance of figs, bay leaves, + our dear rosemary. In fact, I have the pleasure of living a few feet away from a 12-year-old Rosemary bush. Never been cut. Not once. And while I have been tempted to sneak a clipping, I wouldn’t dare disturb this perfectly untouched plant, and the beauty of rosemary is that I don’t have to because her medicine is in her beauty and her scent.

The scent alone deemed powerful enough to ward of evil spirits and protect against nightmares in Egypt, Spain, Sicily, France.

In this very Venusian moment in time, in her retrograde, when the planet is closer to earth than ever, before she is born again a morning star. I call on the dew of the sea, the cloth of Aphrodite, and I make her medicine. Rosemary infused olive oil, a medicine that celebrates my Mediterranean roots.

I told my curandero that I have been working with rosemary and her response was, “Romero para su cabello”, so I told her I would make her some Romero hair oil.

I infused a couple of bottles and gave them to her as gifts for her and her daughter. A couple of days passed, and she asked me for more, if she could buy 4 more bottles from me. Of course, I wouldn’t dream of having her pay but the fact remains that this medicine woman of the Shipibo curandera lineage is my first official herbal remedy customer.

Thank you, my rose marinus. Your flowers are the things of magic and folklore, your taste nourishing and savory, your scent so comforting and familiar it reminds us, your beauty is that of a goddess.