Symbol of rose cross

The rose cross was and is a symbol of the rosecrucian stream, and will be the symbol of true Christianity in the next sixth cultural age

The symbol consisting of a black wooden cross carrying seven red roses has deep meaning related to the higher development goal of Man. There are multiple variants with only a single rose in the center, or roses in a different colour.

The wooden cross represent the dying part of the lower Self and bodily principles from which are born and emerge the pure spiritual principles (see Man's higher triad) represented by the red roses.

Aspects

the seven roses of the rose cross are a symbol for the influences of the planetary spheres and their spiritual influences; divided into two parts by the Christ circle: a lower one with four circles whose forces work from below, and an upper spiritual one with three circles that work indirectly. This maps to EDN - ICM - PSSR whereby EDN (reborn in the Holy Spirit) applies to the upper spiritual part, EDN holds for the lower part, and ICM Christ makes the connection between the two. (1913-05-18-GA266/3)
a symbol of Man's development from his present stage to his purification ( 1910-03-28-GA119, see Symbols#1910-03-28-GA119)
More background on the origin of the Rosecrucian stream and teachings on: The Michaelic stream and Individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz

Inspirational quotes

1913-02-08-GA265

Consider how at the Mystery of Golgotha a cross was erected of dead wood from which hung the body of the Christ.
And then we see that wood of the cross in the etheric world as budding, budding wood, green, living wood, charred by the flames of hatred and on which alone appear the seven blooming roses, representing the sevenfold nature of the Christ
... then there we have the image of the second Mystery of Golgotha, which has now taken place in the etheric world.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.095

The two illustrations on the right are versions of the rose cross symbol, the right one is one carried by Rudolf Steiner. The right part of the schema makes the link to the Lord's Prayer.

Lecture coverage and references

1910-GA013

as example for meditating on a symbol (SWCC)

.. an example of inner immersion in a symbolic visualization in the mind. We visualize a plant as it roots in the earth, as leaf by leaf it sprouts forth, as its blossom unfolds, and now we think of a human being beside this plant. We make the thought alive in the mind of how he/she has characteristics and faculties which, when compared with those of the plant, may be considered more perfect than the latter. We contemplate how, according to his feelings and his will, he is able to move about hither and thither, while the plant is rooted to the earth. Furthermore the human being is indeed more perfect than the plant, but also shows peculiarities that are not to be found in the plant. Just because of their nonexistence in the plant the latter may appear to me in a certain sense more perfect than the human being who is filled with desire and passion and follows them in his conduct .. his being led astray by his desires and passions. The plant follows the pure laws of growth from leaf to leaf, that it opens its blossom passionlessly to the chaste rays of the sun. The human being has a greater perfection than the plant, but has purchased this perfection at the price of permitting instincts, desires, and passions to enter into his nature in addition to the forces of the plant, which appear pure to us.
Now visualize how the green sap flows through the plant as an expression of the pure, passionless laws of growth. Then visualize how red blood flows through the human veins and how it is the expression of human instincts, desires, and passions. All this arises in the mind as vivid thought. Then visualize how Man is capable of evolution and may purify and cleanse his instincts and passions through his higher mental powers. How, as a result of this, something base in these instincts and desires is destroyed and how the latter are reborn upon a higher plane. Then the blood may be conceived of as the expression of the purified and cleansed instincts and passions.
In my thoughts I look upon the rose and say: In the red rose petal I see the color of the green plant sap transformed into red, and the red rose, like the green leaf, follows the pure, passionless laws of growth. The red of the rose may now become the symbol of a blood that is the expression of purified instincts and passions that have stripped off all that is base, and in their purity resemble the forces active in the red rose. I now seek not merely to imbue my intellect with such thoughts but to bring them to life in my feelings. I may have a feeling of bliss when I think of the purity and passionlessness of the growing plant; I can produce within myself the feeling of how certain higher perfections must be purchased through the acquirement of instincts and desires. This can then transform the feeling of bliss, which I have felt previously, into a grave feeling; and then a feeling of liberating joy may stir in me when I surrender myself to the thought of the red blood which, like the red sap of the rose, may become the bearer of inwardly pure experiences. It is of importance that we do not without feeling confront the thoughts that serve to construct such a symbolic visualization. After we have pondered on such thoughts and feelings for a time, we are to transform them into the following symbolic visualization.
We visualize a black cross as the symbol of the destroyed base elements of instincts and passions, and at the center, where the arms of the cross intersect, let us visualize seven red, radiant roses arranged in a circle. Let these roses be the symbol of a blood that is the expression of purified, cleansed passions and instincts.
Such a symbolic visualization should be called forth in the mind in the way illustrated above through a visualized memory image. It has a soul-awakening power in intense inward meditation.

1913-02-08-GA265

(machine translation)

All those who, in an important time like ours, turned against what they could have achieved as a spiritual movement, who - no matter how clever they were in and of themselves - still refused to take up the spiritual, who thus gave themselves entirely to materialism, they also, after their death, turned against everything spiritual and developed a certain hatred there, which they then threw back into the physical world as a force (or forces). This has actually always been the case since the 16th century, and these hatreds make themselves felt in the physical world and have their effects there. The worlds are not separate, they permeate each other.
The new thing that will now gradually reveal itself to Man is a memory or repetition of what Paul experienced at Damascus. He saw the etheric form of the Christ. That this will now become visible to us is because a new Mystery of Gogotha has taken place in the etheric world. What took place here in the physical world at the crucifixion, as a result of the hatred of people who did not understand, has now been repeated on the etheric plane because of the hatred of people who entered the etheric world as materialists after death.
Consider again how at the Mystery of Golgotha a cross was erected of dead wood from which hung the body of the Christ. And then we see that wood of the cross in the etheric world as budding, budding wood, green, living wood, charred by the flames of hatred and on which alone appear the seven blooming roses, representing the sevenfold nature of the Christ, then there we have the image of the second Mystery of Golgotha, which has now taken place in the etheric world.
And through this dying, this second dying of the Christ, it has become possible for us to behold that etheric body. The condensation, the dead part of the etheric body of the Christ Jesus will be seen by men.

1913-05-18-GA266/3

[moon forces]
…. we got our physical body from forces that work down through the incarnations, and these forces work on us from the circle that's described by the moon' orbit.
What goes from one generation to the next like this is like a second letter.
We can draw this schematically. We draw the I that becomes conscious through memory as the Earth or a point, and around it the moon's orbit as a circle.
If the moon would be moved to another place by some force, what would result for the Earth thereby?
The reproductive forces working through the generations would dry up. Men would no longer reproduce and would die out.
So a real esoteric must look up to the beings who work on him through moon forces from outside full of reverential thanks and must tell himself that he owes his development through the generations to them.
[reunion]
Mankind will have reached the end of its physical evolution when the moon is attracted by the Earth's forces so much that it goes into it, as is supposed to happen later.
[sun forces]
We receive the forces that strengthen our I from the sun, and we shouldn't just stare at the sun but should let these ideas arise in us:
You marvellous world body, it was through you, through your sun grace forces that I received my I and all the forces that are connected with it. I thank you in shy reverence.
We can draw the sun forces as another circle.
But so that what comes from the series of incarnations and generations can come together, forces are at work above the moon forces - the mercury forces. We also got our intellect that's bound to the brain from them. And when we look towards mercury and generally whenever we use our intellectual forces we should fill ourselves with thanks to these beings who gave them to us.
But there's something still higher than mere intellect. If new, creative ideas hadn't flowed in, evolution would always have stayed at the same point. School children learn things today that wise Pythagoreans didn't know yet, and these new things that are continually flowing in come from a sphere above mercury, from venus . The creative thoughts that become manifest in inventions flow into evolution through it. This is the only thing that makes progress possible. This thinking isn't brain bound, it's lighter and has more feeling to it.
[influences of higher planetary spheres]
Then there are sublime forces above the venus sphere that no longer work on mankind directly. They work through the venus forces and fertilize them. These are the mars forces.
To prevent them from working in a warlike way in their interaction with venus a sublime, divine light force streams in from jupiter, a spiritual light that's imperceptible to ordinary men and is darkness for them.
An esoteric can get a feeling for this when he looks up in thanks to these sublime world beings who let their grace stream down on us. And one feels this inner spiritual light that one can only grasp inwardly, as warmth, if one can concentrate on still more distant heights—on the saturn periphery, whose beings let warmth stream down through the other spheres.
[threefold sun]
Now between the interaction of mars and venus is the circle of the third sun. They spoke about the third sun in all the mysteries.

The first sun is the creative physical one that sends us its warming rays.

The second sun is the spiritual one that stands behind it and that gave us the I.

The third is the high bearer of the Christ principle ,the Christ, who gives us the higher I with his grace-sun forces. This third sun has been making a connection with the Earth since the Mystery of Golgotha. It's the sun of which Paul said: “Not I, but Christ in me,” the Christ whom every Man since then can receive. This third sun became manifest to Christian neophytes through initiation, and the tragedy that's connected with Julian the Apostate's fate is that he knew about the third sun but couldn't identify it with the Christ.

.
We should remember these seven spheres when we look at the seven roses of our rose cross; they are a symbol for them.
The spheres' effects are divided into two parts by the Christ circle, into a lower one with four circles, whose forces work from below, and an upper spiritual one with three circles that work indirectly.
The saying:

I'm reborn in the Holy Spirit applies in the spiritual, upper part,

Ex Deo nascimur holds for the lower part and

Christ makes the connection between the two. In Christo morimur.

1915-05-18-GA159

(SWCC)

He who tears the roses from the black cross and has nothing left but the black cross (and would fall into the clutches of Ahriman). The black cross in itself represents life when it strives to embrace inanimate matter. If one were to separate the cross from the roses, keeping only the latter, one would nor find the proper thing. For the roses, separate from the cross, tend to elevate us to a life of selfish striving toward the spiritual (editor: Luciferic), but not to a life in which we reveal the spirit in a material world. Not the cross or roses alone, but the cross carrying the roses is the proper symbol.

From theosophy.wiki

(SWCC)

The symbol also links to Man's past evolution, his present constitution and future development, together with the method of attainment. When the cross is represented with a single rose in the center it symbolizes the spirit radiating from itself the four vehicles: the dense, vital, and desire bodies plus the mind; where the spirit has drawn into its instruments and become the indwelling human spirit.
There was a time when the threefold spirit hovered above its vehicles and was unable to enter and then the cross stood alone without the rose (Atlantean epoch). There was even a time when the upper limb of the cross was lacking (Lemurian Epoch) when man had only the dense, vital and desire bodies, but lacked the mind. Then the animal nature was paramount and man followed desire without reserve. At a still earlier time (Hyperborean epoch) man was without the desire body and possessed only the dense and vital bodies. The man-in-the-making was like the plants: chaste and devoid of desire. The symbol for that was a straight shaft, a pillar. The plant is innocent, but not virtuous; it has neither desire nor choice. Man has both.
By means of his physical body, man is nailed to the plane of suffering appertaining to terrestrial existence. The animal elements are to die upon that Cross, and the spiritual man is to be resurrected to become united with the Christ. Death upon the Cross represents the giving up of one’s own personality and the tearing into eternal and universal life.

Goethe in 'The Mysteries'

Who put the Roses on the Cross? Who united Love and Knowledge?
When we meditate on the passage from the black Cross of suffering and death to the living Rose+Cross of the Resurrection;
When the seven red roses that were previously shy buds sprouting on the black mineralized wood blossom in ourselves;
When the seven metals are sublimated into each other, from sacrifice to sacrifice, and all together in the Philosophers’ Gold;
Then and only then will Love be joined in marriage to Knowledge and so inwardly as outwardly.
… A new feeling penetrated him when the image rises before his eyes: he sees the cross wrapped in roses.
Who placed those roses on the cross?

Discussion

Note 1 - Interpretation of the rose cross symbol

red rose:

wooden cross: wooden cross of Jesus, life passing into death but also bearing power to bring forth new life, symbol of Easter

Related pages

References and further reading

Rudolf Steiner: The Rose Cross Meditation (an archetype of human development)