Certain flowers have long been symbols of enlightenment. Notably there is the Sunflower, which literally turns its face to follow the light of the Sun. The ancient Greeks spoke of it as representing the love of the nymphs Clytie and Daphne for the Solar deity Apollo. The Chinese have used it to represent life-force and intelligence, while some Christian churches have chosen it to symbolise divine love. In Native American symbolism, it is a sign of the Sun, and thus likened to the life-giving force of the Great Spirit.

The Lotus is often used as a sign of illumination by Buddhists and Oriental teachers. In the Chinese Taoist tradition the highest stage of enlightenment is pictured as a lotus growing from the top of the head. The mantra Om Mani Padme Hum means the Jewel in the Lotus (padme = lotus and mani = jewel, which in turn is a metaphor for enlightenment).

The Rose is to the West what the Lotus is to the East. It is symbolic mystically and is the emblem of the Rosicrucian Fraternity to which I belong – their name being derived from the words Rose and Cross. The rosacea, as a carved ceiling panel or stained glass rose window, was designed by artists to represent the Sun-disk, when it is shown with eight open petals.

Consider photosynthesis - the process used by plants to make glucose and oxygen from Sunlight. Some flower parts, especially green sepals, can photosynthesize - this is termed ‘floral photosynthesis’. While the rest of the air we breathe consists of nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon dioxide, we owe the oxygen supply on planet Earth to its Flora. Plants, like the Sun itself, participate in the life-giving process for humans, and so flowers really are an ideal symbol for both physical vitality and spiritual unfoldment.

Myth Encyclopaedia says, “The shapes of flowers also have significance. Blossoms with petals projecting outward like rays of light from the Sun have been associated with the Sun and with the idea of the center—of the world, the universe, or consciousness.” (Read more at: http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Fi-Go/Flowers-in-Mythology.html#ixzz41FxYCoZB)
The ancient Indians, Egyptians and Sumerians all saw eight- petal flowers as signs of union and reproduction by the creative deities from the sky.  In a video by author Ev Corchoran, posted on the Watchers website this month, he talks of the rosette pictogram that he calls a DIGIR as representing the union of ‘deities.’ (see: http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/02/16/ev-cochrane-planetary-catastrophe-ancient-myths-modern-science/).  And of course there is Drunvalo Melchizedek’s well-known Flower of Life symbol.

I have spoken before about using symbols to meditate on, as tools of illumination. Pictures are helpful but, if you have a meditation area, what better aid than living flowers, with their beauty and scent. Their form illuminates two essential movements of thought – the movement from the periphery to the centre, and from the centre to the periphery. In them you will see the cycles of life.
 
Credit Source for Images Featured at Top of Page:
(Top Left): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Sunflower_sky_backdrop.jpg
(Top Right): http://onehdwallpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Lotus-Flower-HD-Wallpapers.jpg
(Below Left): http://www.briderose.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/red-roses-flower-rose-pictures-393.jpg
(Below Right): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Rosace_gothique.jpg