Rose
From the earliest times the rose has been an emblem of silence. Eros, in the Greek mythology, presents a rose to the god of silence, and to this day sub rosa, or " under the rose," means the keeping of a secret. Roses were used, in very early times as a potent ingredient in love philters. Rosen, Paul In Greece it was customary to leave bequests for the maintenance of rose gardens, a custom which has come down to recent times. Rose gardens were common during the middle ages. According to Indian mythology, one of the wives of Vishnu was found in a rose. In Rome it was the custom to bless the rose on a certain Sunday, called Rose Sunday. The custom of blessing the golden rose came into vogue about the eleventh century. The golden rose thus consecrated was given to princes as a mark of the Roman Pontiffs' favour. In the east it is still believed that the first rose was generated by a tear of the prophet Mohammed, and it is further believed that on a certain day in the year the rose has a heart of gold. In the west of Scotland if a white rose bloomed in autumn it was a token of an early marriage. The red rose, it was said, would not bloom over a grave. If a young girl had several lovers, and wished to know which of them would be her husband, she would take a rose leaf for each of her sweethearts, and naming each leaf after the name of one of her lovers, she would watch them till one after another they sank, and the last to sink would be her future husband. Rose leaves thrown upon a fire gave good luck. If a rose bush were pruned on St. John's eve, it would bloom again in the autumn. Superstitions respecting the rose are more numerous in England than in Scotland.
Rosen, Paul: A sovereign Grand Inspector-General of the 33rd degree of the French rite of Masonry, who in 1888 decided that Masonry was diabolic in conception, and to prove his strictures published a work called Satan et Cie. The Satanism credited to Masonry by Rosen is social anarchy and the destruction of the Catholic religion. Rosenberg, Count: (See Dee.) Rosenkreuze, Christian: (See Rosicrucians.)