The Book Of Symbol 12...

IRIS

A low bridge zigzags through a stand of blue irises with fresh green stalks. On a golden Japanese screen, the irises are are perpetually alive, a vivid reminder of both springtime's renewal and absent love. In the painting, the artist alludes to an episode in the tenth-century litterary classics, the Tales of Ise. After a failed love affair, the story's hero, accompanied by a group of friends, leaves the capital for the east in order to start life anew. At a bridge that passes through blooming irises, they compose a poem about nostalgia, love and loss (ARAS, 1:367).

Irises and Zigzag Bridges, by Ogata Korin, painted 

screen, ca. 18th century, Japan.

The iris is a genus of about 300 species of flowering plants that for millennia have been prized for their daxxling colors. The number of the iris' stunning natural varieties has been augmented by the extensive use of selective breeding. The flower ranges in color from near black to blue and violet through vermilion, orange, yellow and white, and is often variegated with strongly contrasting hues (Westrich,17). It is this multicolor display of the iris that is responsible for its appellation. Iris, meaning "reainbow" in classical Greek, was the messenger of the Olympian gods. Her emblem was the rainbow of many colors, the bridge by which she traveled between heaven and earth with her divine messages. Analogously, the "iris" is what gives the eye its color.

Lusty mysterious, this iris reflects the deep 

reproductive patterns underlying romance and life.

Black Iris, by Georgia O'Keeffe, oil on canvas, 1926.

United States.

Striking not only for its colors, however, but also for its sensual nature, the iris has phallic, sword-shaped leaves surrounding distinctive blossoms consisting of three erect petals and three larger outer petallike sepals. The latter suggest, as in Georgia O'Keeffe's Black Iris, the form and enticement of the feminine genitalia, even if the artist denied that she had such imagery in mind (Wright, 65). While the flower of the iris is not noted for its scent, "essence of violet" perfume is made from orrisroot, derived from the varieties of iris that grow, not from a bulb, but a rhizome, a creeping underground stem (Enc.Brit. 6:384).

Medicinal properties accompany the sensual pleasures of iris. On an Egyptian hieroglyph of an iris carved in stone 3,500 years ago was a list of medicinal plants. The ancient Greeks documented the flower's internal and external uses (Westrich, 9, 12). Traditionally, Japancelebrates an Iris Festival in May, when the flower is publicly displayed and men and women wear bulbs and take baths in which irises have been floating, in order to insure good health and virility (ARAS, 1:367). The iris is also believed to protect against disease and evil spirits (Baird, 85).

The goddess Iris was a messenger of the gods, and 

traveled on a rainbow between Olympus and the earth.

Iris was honored by the planting of her flower on the 

gravees of women, since it was she who led their souls to 

the Elysian Fields (Lehner, 64). The Niobides Painter,

5th century B.C.E., Greece.

The diverse, exquisite hues of "iris," reflected in flower, rainbow and eye, correspond, in the alchemical fantasy, to the "peacock's tail," the brilliant omnes colores that represent the integration of all qualities in the Stone. Just as Iris heralded the approach of the gods, so, psychologically, the show of "many colors" heralds the transcendent self in which the many facets of the personality, once opposing each other, are brought into a unity (CW 14:388ff).

Baird, Merrily C. Symbols of Japan. NY, 2001.

Lehner, Ernst and Johanna Lehner. Folklore and 

Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees. NY, 1960.

Westrich, Josh and Ben R. Hager. The Iris:

The Rainbow Flower. NY, 1989.

Wright, Susan. Georgia O'Keeffe: An Eternal Spirit.

NY, 2009.

~Bella

The Book of Symbols 6...

Flower

The ancient Greek counterpart to Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, was named Chloris, meaning "green." Zephyr, the gentle west wind, enamored of Chloris, pursued her, and as he overtook the maiden, flowers spilled from the lips, and they were subsequently married.

Mayan whistle depicting most probably Xochiquetzal

or "Flower Feather," goddess of love, erotic pleasure

and spiritual transformation. Ceramic, ca. 550-850,

Jaina Island, Campeche, Mexico.

Flowers are the hallmark of springs. There is no surer sign of renewal in the world, of awakening and rebirth. The young, budding shoots of violets, snowdrops and crocuses push up even through the impacted earth and late snows of winter's end. Delicate, fragrant cherry and apple blossoms signal anticipated fruits; other flowers are themselves vegetation's radiant, culminating bloom. Their ephemeral blossoms have associated flowers with all the brilliant forms that quickly fade. The transitory soul, for example. Or Kore, the divine maiden who, picking flowers, was herself plucked by Hades and carried to the underworld to become its queen. Or the lovely, short-lived mythic youths of antiquity: Narcissus, who wasted away, spellbound by his own reflection; Hyacinthus, felled by Apollo's misguided arrow; Adonis, for whom the briefly petalled anemone memorializes the blood of his mortal wound from a boar. Yet flowers are, in truth, remarkably resilient. Their aggressive roots invade rough, inauspicious soil. They assert their bright growth on the rocky banks of highways and out of asphalt cracks. Wildflowers gloriously latch onto walls and railings and fill jungles, deserts, and woods. Rare species of orchid thrive in swamps.

Possibly a figure of one of the Graces, Thalia (bloom)

evokes springs; virginal, feminine beauty and all that is

 lovely and fleeting. Primavera, painting from a 

bedroom of Villa Arianna, 89 B.C.E.-79 C.E., Stabiae (near

Pompeii),Italy.

All of nature is enticed into the flower's proliferation. The stamen forms golden pollen grains that produce male gametes. These sperms are transferred to the stigma or tip of the pistil and burrow down through the pistil to ovules at its swollen base. In the fusion of sperm cell and ovule a seed is formed. Most flowering plants are hermaphroditic, but some have either a stamen or a pistil. Cross-pollination of flowers is provided by bees, wasps, butterflies and moths, birds, bats and other mammals, water, and the fructifying wind: "There's April in the west wind and daffodils," said the poet John Masefield. Color, fragrance and sweet, golden nectar in the cup of the flower invite and guide the many pollen carriers.

Is anything more sensual than the flowers? Its green sepals forming the calyx, its shy buds unfurling to reveal a corolla of velvety petals, its heady perfumes, the edible and cosmetic essences of rose, jasmine, lily, freesia? In Pampore, India, the lavender-blue crocus sativus that flowers for just two weeks in October is plucked at dawn and the stigmas carefully removed to make saffron, that costliest spice with which the Hindu deities Krishna and Radha were traditionally anointed (Bharadwaj, 36-7). Flowers are incorporated into ritual and sacrament the world over, as emblems of eros, beauty, perfection, purity, fertility, joy, and resurrection. The simplest form of the flower with a radial shape is a natural mandala linking the flower symbolically with the wheel and eternal, cosmic movement around a mystic and orienting center. The flower's hermaphroditic qualities suggest the joining of opposites in self-becoming. Visible above yet rooted in the invisible below, the flower symbolically bridges the manifest and unseen worlds, realms of latency and potentiality and those of active generation. The poppy, for example, associated with the grain goddess Demeter, combines bright, many-hued blooms with narcotic properties inducing painlessness, slumber or death. The four-petalled "blue flower" of alchemy signifies both the darkness of the prima materia, as the shadowy, unknown self and the quadratic, unifying totality of the lapis.

Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. Primavera,

detail, by Sandro Botticelli, tempera on panel, ca. 1482,

Italy.

We flourish in concert with the flower. It is an emblem of the hidden "seeding-place" within ourselves, supported by multiple, participating energies. The Holy Spirit makes itself known in the secret redolence of flowers. The lush rose intimates the presence of Aphrodite and the Virgin Mary. In Buddhism, the lotus signifies enlightenment and the "golden flower" of Chinese alchemy the achievement of the "diamond body" through the interior circulation of light. A European alchemical text describes the synthesis of the four elements, the hoped for unity in multiplicity of nature and psyche as the goal of the opus: It is " as if it were a meadow decked with colours and sweet- smelling flowers of divers kinds, which were conceived in the earth by the dew of heaven" (CW 14:389).  

~Bella

Wedding planner.... Just kidding...

Let's go back to Wednesday the 11th, 2016...

I talked about love and being a hopeless romantic. I explained how we, hopeless romantics, dream and have a picture of our wedding if it ever happens. 

So here is a little idea of what I imagined my wedding be like. Not everything will be stated as it's a long process! 

Let's start with the most important thing which is the cake... That's obviously just my opinion! 

Traditional cakes are rather boring for me and the only thing I can arrange of having is a Tiramisu. It's my favorite and I don't care what people think, I will have one at my wedding! 

The wedding will be in Fall as I LOVE fall! I'm sorry but I cannot think of a better time, not too hot nor cold and the trees are beautiful!

Not too many people as I cannot stand too big of a crowd if I invite you it's because you are a part of my life and I don't think I can make it without you there. So the invitations will be drawn by my brother, and a really sweet photo of my partner and myself will be on it... 

The flowers... 

Alright it's not my cup of tea and to be fair I ain't an expert on it either! 

An arrangement of dahlias, scabiosa, astilbe, veronicas, lisianthuses, hypericum berries, roses, dusty miller, and millet. 

The dress! 

I can only show you the one I've fallen a while ago... Italian wedding dress... 

Bridesmaid: I love navy blue, but it will be in fall so burgundy colors would be more appropriate...

For the reception, I wanted to spend it at a big garden with lanterns and candles to illuminate the night. Have a friend be the DJ or someone we knew, and not care too much about the time. I've spent a lot more time in Europe and my wedding will need to make me remember where I come from. 

I think I need to stop here, but you've got a bit of an idea about the wedding I would love to have... Little and sweet.

And hopefully, I can spend time in Italy after...

"Two souls but a single thought. Two hearts that beat as one."- John Keats

~Bella