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The Scent of Love
It’s only
natural that flowers are in the news surrounding this spring’s royal wedding
and the love story of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle—those two deeply soulful
romantics! The prince has been open about the memory of his late mother having
“an important role in their relationship,” even requesting that their wedding
florist (London-based decorative designer Philippa Craddock) include white
garden roses in their ceremony, a particular favorite of Princess Diana.
According
to goddess legends, the beautiful and resilient rose, with its intoxicating
fragrance, is celebrated as the flower of Venus, the Goddess of love in Greek
mythology. (“In her love nest,” historian Marina Heilmeyer writes, “Cleopatra
had pillows filled with rose petals.”) Affectionately called “the queen of
flowers,” inspiring sensuous poetry and close admiration, no other bloom in
nature has such a histoire as the
rose.
In
turn, the rose is most treasured by brides—especially for the intimacy of their
bouquet—its scent seems to tap into the memory of the heart. No wonder, as perfumer
Mandy Aftel explained: “Scents come in without language and go directly to the
emotional center of the brain. That’s why scent is so connected to memory.”
Aromatherapy
connoisseur and writer Christopher Bamford reveals that smell is the “most
ancient and magical sense, acting as a sort of sensual medium between heaven
and earth. A scent or perfume was thought to express the ‘inner essence’ or
spiritual nature of a thing.” Therefore, when we smell a rose, it’s the scent
of something truly divine.
In early
Christian lore, the “mysterious” rose was so cherished (despite its sensual past)
that it came to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary; red roses symbolized her
suffering, white roses her joy. Did Diana intuitively know this? According to the former head gardener at Kensington
Palace, the princess always favored white flowers over red ones. Unfulfilled in
her own search for love, yet Diana found joy in the love of her sons and encouraged
them to be true to their heart’s desire. As though she was leaving them with an
inner directive to move thoughtfully through the ‘suffering’, then live
gratefully inside the ‘joy’.
The memory
of love, indeed—with the lingering scent of roses.~
[Bits of this column excerpted from The End of the
Fairy-Tale Bride: For Better or Worse, How Princess Diana Rescued the Great
White Wedding, available on Amazon.]
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