Rosa Mystica - 'Holding Roses'

Roses are loaded with symbolism, since ancient times they have been associated with love and seduction. A trail of rose blossom runs through classical myth and history from the poetry and rituals devoted to the Greek goddess Aphrodite to the legends of the last Ptolemaic queen of Egypt Cleopatra (who famously used a carpet of rose petals to seduce Mark Antony). Through the millennia roses have continued to flourish inspiring artists, poets and authors, taking on new meaning, layers of symbolism, myth and cultural significance

One such artist to delve into the deep roots of this burgeoning trope is Twenty-six-year old Connecticut native Rosa Mystica who uses the image of the flower on her new single  'Holding Roses' to artistically interrogate her own experiences with “fallen musical men", in a bluesy electronic interrogation of groupie culture which is seeped in enigmatic symbolism at the centre of which is of course the rose.

What does the rose symbolise? Is this Blakean ambiguity, are the roses held taken from the garden of innocence or experience? Is it a Faulknerian rose of some shrunken, preserved ideal?  Or is the Lynchian blue rose the symbol of enigma itself?  "Pack yours bags and I’ll meet you there..."

[*photo credit: JoLeaha Larke]

Rosa Mystica · Rosa Mystica- Holding Roses