5 Ways to Embody the Rose Through Yoga & Ritual
“The new humanity will be universal, and it will have the artist’s attitude; that is, it will recognise that the immense value and beauty of the human being lies precisely in the fact that (s)he belongs to the two kingdoms of nature and spirit.”
— Thomas Mann
I first encountered these words, before I began teaching yoga. At the time, I didn't know whether my path would lead more deeply into dance or yoga, yet something in this idea of belonging simultaneously to nature and spirit stayed with me.
It still speaks to the heart of how I experience both practices today.
The Rose has been present in my life for as long as I can remember. Yoga came to me through my father and his practice of Iyengar Yoga; movement through a childhood of dance; and Roses through my mother, an artist, and the gardens and natural world that surrounded me.
Perhaps somewhere within these roots began my own way of seeing — an instinct to look with curiosity, to feel into what is present, and to sense the potential of what something might become.
For me, yoga has never been only about arriving in the shape of a posture. I am interested in the experience of being inside it: what the architecture of an asana might reveal, what we feel, visualise and remember through the body, and how our physical form can become a meeting place between nature and spirit.
The Rose offers a beautiful mirror for this inquiry.
Before a Rose can flower, it must root. It grows towards the light, responding to the conditions around it, gathering itself before gradually revealing its fullest expression. There is strength in its stem, protection in its thorns and extraordinary softness in its petals. And when her flowering is complete, she descends again — fading, decaying and returning to the earth, seeding herself into the eternal cycle of life.
Our yoga practice can follow a similar journey.
The five practices that follow are therefore not intended simply as directions into poses. They are invitations into an experience — reflections on the metaphorical relationships between body and spirit, nature and imagination, the Rose and yoga.
I am inspired by how yoga can help us experience something of the beauty and brilliance of who we already are, while simultaneously revealing possibilities we may not yet have imagined for ourselves.
Through the physicality of movement, energetic awakening and a growing openness and clarity of mind, different layers of our being can begin to unite in the act of creation. We may find ourselves moving into places we once thought impossible — and through that lived experience, something within our perception begins to open too.
If possibility can reveal itself here, within the body and within this present moment, perhaps life itself can become exciting and new again — alive with possibilities we have yet to imagine.
Practice can gather and propel us into life through positive, creative action:
It is here. It is now. And it is ours to participate in the making.
Yet beneath all this becoming is something quieter — held within the stillness of the heart, a deep presence behind the witness.
So allow these words to enter through the heart as much as through the thinking mind. Take what resonates, remain curious, and let your own experience reveal the rest.
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Sankalpa — Honouring the Rose
Before stepping onto your mat, create the space in which you will practise.
This needn't be elaborate. A single Rose, a few petals, a candle, or an object that holds meaning for you can transform the beginning of practice into ritual.
Let the beauty and scent of the Rose envelop you, drawing you into the presence of her unconditional, eternal love.
Witness the Rose. Allow yourself to really see her.
Let her beauty become a reflection — a remembrance of the sacred divinity that also lives within you.
Place the Rose into water, the conductor of life, and honour this outer altar with your presence.
Place the hands on the heart. Before moving further, consider who or what you would like your practice to serve.
Perhaps you dedicate it to someone you love; an animal or being who has touched your life; the lands that have held and supported you; a relationship asking for strength or healing; or something within your own heart.
In this way, practice becomes reciprocal. The energy we cultivate does not need to end with ourselves.
Bring the hands into Lotus prayer ‘Padma Mudra’ Allow a simple sankalpa — a heartfelt intention — to form. You do not need to force it. Listen for what is already quietly asking for your attention.
Then begin to turn inward.
Follow the breath towards your own inner altar of being.
Slowly draw your awareness from the crown of the head down through the body, allowing every part, every cell, to be embraced by the warmth of your loving attention.
Feel how the body is in this moment. Be curious. There is nothing you need to change.
Within the stillness, feel the continuous flow of inhale and exhale. Gently meet what is here through breath and awareness.
Notice sensation. Notice feeling. Give both the space to unfold, move and change.
We are here to witness, to tend, and to heal.
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Supta Baddha Konasana — Rest into the Heart
An invitation to rest back and receive.
Allow the body to settle into the support of the bolster, beginning with a gentle opening across the front body.
Draw the breath deeply into the front of the spine, feeling the arc of the ribcage and sternum broaden and open, like the petals of a flower. With each exhale, soften a little deeper, allowing the spine to lengthen and surrender into the support beneath you.
Soften the skin of the face, the space around the eyes and the jaw, and begin to bring your attention towards the spiritual heart centre.
As you inhale, become aware of the very top of the breath — the quiet moment before the exhale begins. Breathe out fully and notice the space at the bottom of the exhale, before the next breath naturally arrives.
Begin to experience the breath in four parts:
Inhale · top of the inhale · exhale · bottom of the exhale.
Movement and stillness. Receiving and releasing.
Let yourself rest within this cycle for a while without needing to change it.
Then allow your awareness to settle more deeply into the heart and quietly ask:
How can I best serve you?
Give space.
Let the words gently land and be listened to by your body.
There is no need to search for an answer. Allow yourself to receive what may arise — perhaps returning to, changing or deepening the sankalpa planted at the beginning of your practice.
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Adho Mukha Svanasana — Root & Awaken
From stillness, begin to gently awaken and move through the body, gradually arriving into Adho Mukha Svanasana — Downward-Facing Dog.
This is one of my most beloved asanas.
In its apparent simplicity, it holds the foundations and possibilities of so many other postures.
Allow yourself first to explore. Bend one knee and then the other. Move through the hips. Feel the placement of the hands and feet. Notice where effort is needed and where something can soften.
As the hands and feet root into the earth, feel how this grounding creates the possibility to rise — lengthening through the spine, awakening the body and allowing the heart to subtly soften and open.
There is something of the Rose here. Its expression does not need to be forceful; its beauty emerges through the intelligence of its form.
Downward-Facing Dog can become a kind of sacred portal within the practice — a foundational shape carrying within it an embodied code for so many other asanas.
As we root through the hands and feet, lengthen the spine and awaken the whole body, we begin to discover patterns of alignment, strength and spaciousness that reveal themselves again and again throughout the practice.
Like the Rose, there is something profound held within its simplicity — a structure from which infinite expressions can unfold.
Allow the physical structure of the pose to create a loving limitation: the hands placed, the feet grounded, the bones aligned, the breath moving within form. Rather than restricting us, these boundaries can become the conditions for liberation.
Through structure, we discover space.
Through rooting, we rise.
Through form, we find freedom.
Rest within the simplicity of being fully here, inside the body.
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Natarajasana — Rise & Express
Find an equanimity between Earth and Venus.
Wild Thing becomes a bridge between two worlds — the rooted world of form beneath us and the formless energy of the heart opening into space.
Imagine a constellation of stars, the Milky Way flowing through the spine, pouring into the heart and onwards into the vastness of the night sky.
Surrender the heart into this suspended moment of beauty and openness.
Like the unfurling Rose, petals spread open above the rooted structure of thorn and stem — softness held by strength, beauty supported by stability.
Here, there is a feeling of freedom, potential and sweetness.
Often when I teach this pose, smiles appear. There can be something wonderfully playful about finding ourselves upside down and looking at the world from underneath — a little wave, a moment of unexpected joy.
Camatkarasana can embody fun, courage, sensuality, receptivity and a lightness of being.
Allow yourself to be witnessed in bloom.
How does this pose feel for you?
Return through centre and allow the Rose to unfurl through the other side of the body.
Returning
When your movement is complete, return to the earth.
Balsana Child Pose.
When you are ready. Sit up crossed legged. Press your hands together at your heart center in Anjali Mudra prayer hands.
Return also to the awareness to the heart & gentle allow the sankalpa or dedication with which you began with rest within you.
Visualise the rose flowers of your practice resting at your feet honouring your life and presence. Bless your body with your awareness from head to toe.
Let this feeling radiate outwards from the heart, enveloping the person, being, relationship or land held within your opening prayer. May they receive something of the bliss, love and medicine awakened through your practice.
Allow the offering to travel beyond you, like the fragrance of the Rose — given freely into the space around her.
Then gently return to your own being, following the offering back to its source: the quiet centre of the heart.
The Rose does not flower for herself alone.
She offers colour, fragrance, nourishment and beauty to the world around her — a magnificent existence, while remaining entirely rooted in her own nature.
May we remember something of this within ourselves.
To root deeply.
To listen.
To rise.
To create.
To reveal what is ready to be revealed.
And to recognise that beneath all our becoming, something beautiful was already here.
The Rose begins to reveal herself, moving as one organism, arranging herself subtly into the air — taking up space, budding into the open promise of life.
Root through the standing foot and feel the integrity of the body's central line. From this centre, begin to create.
As the lifted foot presses back into the hand, feel the counterbalance naturally draw the heart forward and open. The free hand reaches into space, the gaze softly following its direction. Gradually, the foot behind moves back and rises, inviting a deeper expression of the pose.
There is something of the bow and arrow here — gathering our energy and directing it towards where we wish to go.
Where are we taking ourselves?
The actions we choose in the present are already creating the person we are becoming.
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Camatkarasana — The Rose Unfurling
Be curious. Be with the uncertainty. Find clarity and poise — and allow the wobble to be there too. It is all part of the divine movement.
From the inner world, we begin to express outwards. The internal fire reveals itself through the body as Nataraja — Shiva, the cosmic dancer of life.
I once dreamt of Shiva and Shakti together in divine dance, rising into the sky until their forms disappeared and dissolved completely.
What remained was love.
Love is all there is.
Love is my fragrance, said the Rose.
For me, there is such grace and devotion in this posture — a devotion to the self that is emerging. There is vulnerability in allowing ourselves to be revealed, but strength too.
Moment by moment, the Rose opens.
What are you ready to bring into expression?
Return to centre, then explore the other side — noticing how the same shape may reveal an entirely different experience.
