Sometimes it looks like we are in a deep thick fog. Everything looks monotonous and difficult and our hearts get so upset. It's the dark night of our souls.
It was my birthday and one of those strange days, when a voice coming from inside of me said: "You should take a Rosemary tea". I went to the garden and there was a live green Rosemary bush. It's funny but most people who visit our gardens show great affection and respect to the Rosemary plant.
I confess I never gave it too much attention but, especially that day, I respectfully fully picked up some little branches, prepared some tea and served it in a beautiful cup. The smell was very pleasant and each sip I took I felt my mind going clearer and clearer. A very good sensation and happiness took care of my whole body and my heart became greatly delighted.
I got very impressed at its capacity in transmitting happiness. By the way, the name of this plant has lot to do with happiness...
I decided to make a research on this plant and -- what a marvelous surprise! Rosemary (Rosmarinos officinalis), native plant from the Mediterranean Region, very appreciated in Middle Age and during the Renaissance period, was presented in several formulas, including a Renewal Solution known as "Queen of Hungary Water".
Elizabeth of Hungary was advanced in age, paralytic and gouty when she received a prescription from an angel (a monk?). Using the remedy she recovered health, beauty and happiness. Besides, she became younger and younger looking. The king of Poland asked her for marriage when she was seventy-two!
Madame de Sevigne used to prescribe Rosemary water against the sadness, to recover happiness. Rudolf Steiner stated that Rosemary is, above all, a heat plant that fortifies our vital center, acting thru the whole body. Besides, it balances blood temperature and consequently the temperature of the whole body. It fights anemia, insufficient menstruation and blood circulation. Thus, it also helps the liver and a better irrigation of the organs stimulate metabolism.
A former addicted revealed me that he had a vision of Jesus which enabled him to get rid of drugs. In his vision, Jesus had suggested that he should take Rosemary tea to regenerate and clean his cells, since the Rosemary plant had all the colors of the rainbow.
Rosemary tea has digestive and perspiring purposes. It helps sugar assimilation (in diabetes), is indicated for skin care and to restore the nervous system after a long-term intellectual activity. It's recommended against hair fall, scarf, wound and burnings; it cures flu, asthma; it fights mental stress; helps memory and increases learning ability.
There is a gracious legend about Rosemary that says: When Virgin Mary escaped to Egypt, carrying baby Jesus in her arms, every flower would start opening as the sacred family passed thru their way. The Lilac proudly rose its branches and the Lily opened its cups but the Rosemary, with no petals or beauty, got so sad and moaned for not being able to please the holly baby.
Tired, Virgin Mary stopped by the river shore and while the holly child was sleeping, she washed his clothes and after, she looked around for a place to spread them to dry. "The Lily will break down due to the weight of the wet clothes and the lilac is too high". So she put the Jesus clothes on Rosemary branches, which gave a sigh of happiness and thanked, from the bottom of its heart, for the opportunity of sustaining them under the sun thru the whole morning.
"Thank you, gentle Rosemary" -- said Virgin Mary -- "From now on you will hold blue flowers to remind the blue cloak I'm wearing. And not only flowers I'll give to you in thankfulness, but all the branches that sustained little Jesus clothes will be perfumed. I bless your leaves, branches and flowers that from now on will have the perfume of the Saints and will emanate happiness."