Beauty & The Bead: Rose Petal Mala

In the last year became addicted to having roses on my kitchen table.  I had never liked roses in the past. They always symbolized for me some human trying to apologize for something inconsiderate they had done with an unsuspecting bouquet of paper wrapped bribery.

Once I started to dive deeper into my inner divine feminine work, I realized that I loves roses, just not the associations that I had placed upon the. So, I released the blame on the flowers and welcomed them with open arms and started lovingly placing them in my home.

But what to do with them when they begin to wilt? Some are used while fresh in altars, in sacred circle or in decoration. Some are destined to become dried petals that I use in offerings, flyting freely scattered on the winds. And some are destined to become mala beads.

It takes some practice to find out what type, texture and freshness that roses work best at to become mala beads, but the experimentation is worth it. Beads seem to dry in the dark red to black to brown hues. Every recipe is different for the amount of time needed to dry the beads, so be patient. You will be well rewarded.

I found using the petals when they were still quite fresh produced the best beads by far. They do tend to shrink so allow for that dependant on what you will create with them. Here is the complete tutorial that I had fond online and that I followed in order to make these beautiful beads http://www.rosebead.com/beads-from-rose-petals-step-one/.

I was so happy with the results of the second batch that I created (pictured in the photos). Not only do they still look beautiful after more than a year, with the metal allergies that I have that keeps me from wearing jewellery, I can actually wear these. Hooray!!

Being from the plant kingdom, I find these beads have a lovely and deep Earth energy to them, bringing a soft sense of grounding to the self when worn and when used in meditation and ritual.

I strung them on a thin red cotton cording and made a little tassel out of the same cord to match using small red beads as spacers. You can create dedication rituals to your beads and malas, you can use altar roses or roses from an occasion like a funeral or wedding for significance and to add to the meaning.

You can incorporate the lunar energy, the sabbats or deities in ritual of making your beads and mala adding to the magic and intention. You can implant each bead with an intention while creating them. You can charge your mala in the moonlight to intensify it's energy.  The sky is the limit.

I hope you have as much fun making them as I did!

Top Photo: Rose petal mala beads © Ara