What is Rose of Jericho?
Rose of Jericho is a desert plant that dries up and goes into a dormant state when it is not in direct contact with water. When it is in this dormant state, it looks like a small brown, dried up tumbleweed. However, when you place it in water again, it will start to unfurl, miraculously seeming to come back to life very quickly. The whole process could take anywhere from just a few hours, up to a few days.
It’s because of this awesome ability that this little plant has earned the nickname of “The Resurrection Plant”. It’s important to note that, technically, when a Rose of Jericho goes into a dormant state, it is not actually dying every time it dries out. In fact, it can survive for several years in dormancy.
There are two types of Rose of Jericho…
The first one is known as the “true” Rose of Jericho and is called Anastatica hierochuntica. This one is native to the Middle East and Northeast Africa and this type is rather elusive. If you come across one, hold onto it as they are nowhere near as common as the second type.
The second type is known as the “false” Rose of Jericho and is called Selaginella lepidophylla and it is technically a type of spike moss. This type is native to the Chihuahuan desert, being found in Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona and West Texas. This is the one most commonly used in Southern folk magic practices as it is extremely common and easy to find throughout the Southwestern United States.
Aside from both types of this plant being able to be revived after long periods of dormancy but being completely different plants altogether, there is a rather big difference between them. The difference is that the “false” Rose of Jericho doesn’t need to be planted in soil in order to resurrect, it only needs to be in contact with water.
A Rose of Jericho in its dormant state – Credit: Bayou Root House
A ‘resurrected’ Rose of Jericho plant – Credit: Bayou Root House
How is Rose of Jericho Used in Folk Magic?
The Rose of Jericho’s ability to be resurrected lends itself really well to many different folk magick workings around renewal and growth.
For instance, if we look at this plant from a Christian viewpoint, the Rose of Jericho is a representation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the power of resilience that can be found in faith. It can also often be found scattered amongst other decorations at both Easter and Christmas where it serves as the perfect symbol of birth, death and resurrection.
Now if we view those same attributes through the lens of Southern folk magick, we will see that we can readily make use of Rose of Jericho for some specific types of magickal work. The symbolism of something being dried up but then refreshed, opened up, made to quickly blossom again… all this symbolism is relevant to just about any sort of magickal work you are performing with the goal of increasing something, attract things to you, or opening your roads.
Generally, you will see Rose of Jericho being used mostly in the ways I describe in this blog post. It usually involves placing the plant in a vessel of water, often with various other herbs, coins, dirts, petitions, etc. But I want to use this as an opportunity to let you know that when you work with this plant, you are working with a living being. It only looks dead and shriveled up when it is dry. All plants, including this one, should be respected, honored and cared for when worked with in a spiritual or magickal capacity. In order to access the spirit of your plant materials, you need to build a relationship with them, just as you would with any other living being or spirit.
With that said, while the Rose of Jericho is a fairly hardy plant, it is also highly susceptible to issues like root rot.
Since most of the magickal work with this plant revolves around rejuvenating it with water, it’s important to give it even more time out of the water in-between works. So if you want to keep your resurrection plant alive, leave it out of the water for a week or two for every few days that you have it in water.
Road Opening Work with Rose of Jericho
We all experience times in life when it seems like nothing is going right and we cannot seem to get ahead. It happens to all of us from time to time and it can be due to a lot of different things. But it always feels the same regardless of the source; it feels like all the doors and roads in life that once lead to good opportunities has all of a sudden become blocked to you.
In Southern folk magick, when this happens, we may do a type of work that is often referred to simply as “road opener”. Essentially, road opening work is a type of spiritual work that is aimed at removing blockages from all areas of your life. To open your roads of opportunity back up.
So if you find yourself feeling like no matter what you do you just cannot seem to get ahead, it may be time to do some road opening work! And if you have a Rose of Jericho laying around, I’ve got a trick you can do with it to open your roads…
Performing the Road Opener Work with Rose of Jericho
First, you will want to go get you some dirt from a crossroad. Take a small handful from all four roads or a large handful from the center of the crossroad where they all meet. Whichever is most convenient for you is fine. You will use that dirt to draw the form of an equal-armed cross on the floor where you will be performing your work.
Now, pour a little bit of fresh clean water in a small dish and you place that dish on top of the crossroad pattern you’ve made with the crossroad dirt. Put the Rose of Jericho in the dish and let it unfurl completely over the next couple of days.
When it is completely unfurled and alive, take the water from the dish and pour it into a bucket. Replace the old water with fresh water, filling the dish up so that it just covers the roots of your resurrection plant.
Then you take a clean white cloth and soak it in the water from the bucket. Use that cloth to wipe down the entirety of your front door as you pray for blessings of wealth, love, good health and good luck to enter your home. Do this by first wiping the door from the bottom to the top and then do it again but wiping from the top of the door to the bottom of the door.
You can even add a little more fresh water to the bucket along with any other herbs and spiritual colognes to it if you’d like. If you save some of this water after feeding your door with it, you have a road opening floor-wash so you can mop your floors, scrub walls, etc.
After a few more days go ahead and remove your Rose of Jericho from the water and set it aside on a clean plate or towel to let it go dormant again. Gather as much of the dirt as you can that you used to make the crossroad pattern under the bowl. Make that same pattern on the ground directly outside the front door of your home using that dirt and let it naturally get washed away or blown away over time.
Attracting Customers with Rose of Jericho
If you have a business that could use a few more paying customers, working with a Rose of Jericho might be helpful to bring in more foot traffic to your storefront. I even have a trick I can share with you that is extremely simple to perform. I have a habit of opening businesses myself and this is one trick I have performed countless times over the years and it always seems to do the trick when business is a little slower than usual.
How to Attract More Customers with Rose of Jericho
If you have a physical location for your business that customers can actually visit, just grab yourself a clean bowl and add 4 coins to the center of the bowl. These coins can be any denomination or currency that you prefer. When you place the coins in the bowl, you do it such as to make a square pattern with them. The reason for doing this is because the shape of a square is a good representation of the four walls of your storefront made of the very thing that you want to attract. You want your store to be surrounded with money.
In the center of the coins, place a few pinches of Gravel Root (Eutrochium purpureum). Around the coins, create a circle with some Five Finger Grass (Cinquefoil), moving in a clockwise motion as you spread it. Then you will place your Rose of Jericho in the center of the bowl so that its roots are in the center of the coins and then slowly pour some fresh water into the bowl.
Place this bowl near the front door of your shop. Drain the water every morning when you walk into the store by pouring it outside the front door. Replace it with clean water.
After five days have passed, remove the Rose of Jericho from the water and set it aside to let it go dormant. Let it remain dormant for at least one week before performing work with it again. Pour the water and herbs outside the front door just as you have been doing every day. Take the coins from the bowl and place them in your register to give to customers as change when they make purchases. This will send the money out into the world to bring more money back to you.
Do you want to really amplify this work? Pick up a bottle of our Money Drawing Oil and dress the coins with a dab of it before handing them out!
You can get yours here: Bayou Root House Money Drawing Oil
Saving Money with Rose of Jericho
While you can rejuvenate areas of your life, open your roads and attract more money with Rose of Jericho, you can also use it to save money and spiritually protect it.
To do this, the next time you work with your Rose of Jericho to attract money or customers, before you set it out to go dormant again, write a petition and wrap it up inside some paper money and place it in the center of the plant. This can be as simple as writing your intent to save money over time on a slip of paper and then writing your name over that statement. But how you write your petition is up to you. When I do this, I like to use a pen from my bank to write my petition on a deposit slip from the bank. I then fold that up and place it in the Rose of Jericho.
Now, when the Rose of Jericho closes itself up, it physically covers and holds onto your money.
With the plant closed up around your petition, place it somewhere above head level in a room where it will not be disturbed until you are ready to work with the plant again.
I also like to keep a Money Drawing Mojo Hand near my Rose of Jericho as the energy of it opening can also rejuvenate the mojo hand.