House of York basis. Edward Plantagenet became Edward IV in 1461, thus merging the title of Duke of York with the crown. The most popular symbol of the house of York was the White Rose of York. The Yorkist rose is white in colour, because in Christian liturgical symbolism, white is the symbol of light, typifying innocence and purity, joy and glory. During the civil wars of the fifteenth century, the White Rose was the symbol of Yorkist forces opposed to the rival House of Lancaster. The red rose of Lancaster would be a later invention used to represent the House of Lancaster,
To the Rose upon the Rood of Time Rood of Time” is firstly one that is constant, binding past and present through its spiritual and romantic referents. Stephen Coote notes that the rose on the rood was a symbol worn around the neck of those belonging to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: the “female” rose is impaled upon the “male” cross. The union of these two elements was intended to help the wearer transcend beyond the physical and into the spiritual: “the rose could also be seen as intellectual, spiritual and eternal beauty impaled upon the world and suffering with mankind as transcendence becomes immanence." As