It’s always came naturally to me — the desire to want to create beauty. To soften spaces with warmth and heart. To adorn people, places and spaces with resonant objects that add meaning, depth and intention to our lives. I am notorious for re-arranging my home and transferring rooms from what was one chapter in my life into a burgeoning new start. For me, the space always came first, even without my conscious awareness, of the rebirth that was just around the corner. This pattern has lived so long within me now that I have begun to recognize its appearance, as it slowly percolates into my awareness that a new season is upon me. The Temple of the Rose was no different. What started as a casual idea to add some stairs to a fire pit so we could burn things on the full moon, morphed into a full-blown temple space that told me what she wanted to become.
Discovering the Moon
With a shifting idea barely in place, I set out for the gem show this February with a little more excitement and a precious stack of bills in my pocket, slowly saved each time someone offered me cash for a session. I had been slowly saving away for a special new statue or crystal to share with our community, but now with the opportunity to build a space specifically designed as its home excited me to no end. Tennis shoes on and backpack in tow, I set out on a mission to scour multiple gem show locations in search of something to dictate and anchor this new space I was envisioning. My enthusiasm at getting to bring home one of the gorgeous giant crystals I admired each year overcame my questions about how we would move and place it in the space. Not to mention investing a wad of cash into something that would forever stay with my property! I debated over several pieces, including crystal chairs and benches I had envisioned encircling “The Starlight Tree”. Ultimately however, it was a pure quartz crystal moon I couldn’t take my eyes off that beckoned me to bring it home. Suddenly I knew, this piece would ground our intentions each new moon and help us to release old patterns during a full moon burn. She was like a telephone line up to the divine and our cosmic brothers and sisters and I wondered what knowledge was stored in her crystalline architecture.
Listening
Later that week, I could hardly wait for her arrival, while I met with my landscaper to inform him of the purchase I had made and to further our ever-evolving plans for the project. One thing I am deeply grateful for is how the temple herself coaxed me into her becoming. You see, if I had known from the beginning the scope and breadth of what was becoming, I may have shied away and not had begun at all. In all honesty, it would have felt too indulgent and simply way too much money to invest into a communal space. You see there was no master plan, architectural renderings, cost budgets or anything that really spelled out what was becoming. Instead, it unfolded like a flower in bloom, softly and gradually opening to another layer of its beauty. She told me what she wanted to become each week as plans evolved and grew and thankfully, I had a contractor who was willing and able. So, it will come as no great surprise how divinely guided this project was and is as it continues to unfold and reveal her mystery. Fittingly, I woke one morning to my magical moon sitting on my driveway! I ran outside so excited that she had made it but also scratching my head wondering how the driver got through my gate, who paid for the delivery, and whether someone else had assisted in bringing it home? But I know not to question the miraculous and instead smiled gently at her safe arrival.
The 8-pointed Star
With such a large anchor piece the project really took off and I began to want to create a more inviting space for us to gather rather than just transit through. I created an altar for the moon, walls to cocoon the space and create resonance, and a secondary platform for a statue of the goddess Kuan Yin (goddess of the heart). As I tried to assemble all the materials I would need for the space, I remembered a tile I had come across years earlier.
The black and white concrete tile had a “star” motif on it I knew would be perfect for the space. I hurriedly returned to the store, hoping the product was something still in production! It was and what pleased me even more, as the sales rep returned with the sample, was that the tile was named “Stella”. (For those that do not know, The Starlight House is located on Stella Lane. Stella, from its Latin origins meaning star. Also, my previous brand’s name Stelari coming from the root word Stellar). Furthermore, I was delighted when I noticed that the star on the tile, matched the same 8-pointed star rug I had also purchased at the gem show to adorn the space. With a multitude of synchronicities now under tow, I began to recognize that this project wasn’t ME creating anything, I was simply being used as a channel to bring what once was back into this time space reality.
Kim Roach laying on the Star of Venus surrounded by over 500lbs of rose quartz.
Divine Assistance
This arc continued as an idea emerged to embed the floor with crystal, as I had already done with many of the statues that surround the outdoor spaces of The Starlight House. With the vision of using the crystals to also create grids in the space which could easily be swept back into their spaces, I rushed back to the gem show to secure more! I had purchased similar size stones a year prior, and this time knew exactly where to go. Back at the show, more divine assistance showed up proving to me how supported I was in this project. After a brief conversation with one of the vendors, he directed me to an off-site location where it was possible to secure the quantities needed. I called the location and after talking with the manager I faced a little sticker shock, wondering should I move forward? But much to my delight, as we continued our conversation and discussed wholesale, suddenly the cost become a third of what I anticipated! I quickly agreed while they loaded my car down with over 500lbs of rose quartz!
A Garden Space
Pink and orange roses line the walkway of this space devoted to the divine feminine.
It seemed now things would have been complete but as the space began to emerge, I realized what an injustice it was to leave the pathways and extensive additional area unfinished! I worried a bit in the back of my mind as the project continued to mushroom, but by now it was clear to me I wasn’t just building an outdoor gathering place, this was a sacred temple intending to be wrapped in beauty, harmony and reverence. It was a place for activations and sacred remembering and a place of listening. So, I allowed my yearnings and synchronicities to carry on, adding six small fruit trees to one end of the site. Fruits to nourish us, to create with and to give in devotion. Even this was bigger than I had envisioned as the four trees I purchased became six, when the nursery was called out for some shady practices by my landscaper and they offered up two additional trees free of charge! I laughed as the call came through declaring, ‘well I guess the goddesses wanted an orchard too!’ Lastly, I needed to line the path leading into the Temple with some plants or flowers. With Kuan Yin and the rose quartz crystal humming to me I knew there was no other choice but to line the walkway with roses, the flower known to have the highest vibration. So, I chose delicate pink and orange roses, settling into the soft feminine energy the space held.
The Rose
As the construction continued, I pondered on what was becoming. With my new clarity that this was a temple, my original name “The Starlight Lounge” just wasn’t synching. At first, I thought well that will be its public persona, but my inner circle and I will really know – it’s a temple. So, what should I name the temple I thought? However, I felt apprehensive about naming it after one goddess or tradition, so I sat with it. Meanwhile, we set off on a family trip to Europe. My son playing soccer in Spain and then continuing to celebrate my 20-year anniversary in Florence. While on the trip, I never stopped thinking about the temple, and in fact, had a dream on the Spring Equinox of the goddesses filtering through the space. Ironically, my akashic reader had earlier commented that the opening of the temple would be on the Equinox, so I couldn’t help but giggle when I realized the date of my dream. The night before the dream, I had looked at all the gorgeous jewelry that lined the famed Pointe Vecchio bridge. Knowing my husband would want to purchase something to celebrate our anniversary, I allowed myself to try on some of the luxurious baubles. One designer particularly called out to me and so I even tried on a GIANT rose ring just for fun! It was definitely over the top, but it called me in a weird way! A big purchase I decided to wait on it and I’m so glad I did, because that night after my goddess dream I woke up and said ‘I am only buying a rose ring if I find something simple and dainty that can be worn all the time. It somehow felt connected to the dream but that’s all I could remember.’ It wasn’t but a few hours later, the last day of our travels, that I passed a store window with exactly the ring I had envisioned. I promptly walked in and tried it on! It was just what I was longing for and on top of that a fraction of the price and only a couple hour wait to have it sized. I left the store glowing and feeling complete. We spent the rest of the afternoon picking up small gifts for friends and family and of course the last gelato! I picked my flavor and slid to the front to pay. When the woman behind the counter handed me my gelato, I laughed again as I noticed my scoop had been meticulously scooped into a rose!
How could she have known?
On the lengthy flight home, I eagerly anticipated returning to the temple to see the progress that had been made. Despite my fatigue, when the gates opened I tore down the driveway to see my true crown jewel. I walked her paths and relished at what was becoming. Once inside I began to unpack and gathered the goodies I had collected for myself and others, when all of a sudden it hit me! With all the goods compiled it was impossible NOT to see that everything had roses or owls on it! I mean I know I can wear out a theme but wow, the name I had been pondering on suddenly became crystal clear. Of course, it’s the Temple of the Rose, the perfect dedication and declaration to the divine feminine.The rose motifs, the actual roses lining the path, the goddesses, the rose quartz crystal, Kuan Yin it all pointed to the now obvious fact that there WAS no other name and that’s when it really hit me! You see the day of my return trip wasn’t just an ordinary day astrologically, it was the Venus cazimi—the day when the Sun merges with Venus, illuminating our inner knowing. But it wasn’t just that, you see the orbit of Venus and Earth forms a sacred shape, it creates a ROSE!! I almost fell over as the puzzle pieces began to assemble now at a heightened pace. Could this even be real? It all felt too perfect and clearly way beyond my little self to plan. The gratitude for this blessing completely overwhelmed me as I realized the distinct honor I have to champion this work and space into the collective. I have always felt connected to the Venus cycle and had noted other events in the past the synched up with the transit and now I knew it was part of a much larger picture. Which leads me back to the star tile and rug. The 8-pointed star is known as “the star of Venus” or the Star of Ishtar (also known as Inanna) and a goddess who must give away much of her power and earthly possessions as she descends into the underworld before being reborn (like the transition of Venus from an evening star to a morning star).
If you are still reading this, thank you for allowing me to share this brilliant story with you because it relates to not just my waking dream, but to each of our own individual stories. It relates to the methodical, miraculous and completely unique way each and every one of us receives guidance every day. It isn’t that I am special or uniquely guided, we are all guided, but it requires the divine feminine aspect of slowing down and being receptive to sense its sometimes subtle nature. It is in the noticing, that we start to tune into the divine web interconnecting all things, events and beings.You’ve probably acted as a messenger in someone else’s divine dream without even knowing it. Perhaps you smiled at a stranger right when they needed it or said something in passing that contained just the right “buzz” word needed to activate someone else’s knowing. We are literally surrounded by beings in this dimensions and others who are offering us nudges, psychic hits, opened doors (or sometimes closing) and otherwise rooting for our success and evolution. Waiting for us to ask, notice and otherwise tune into the magnificent complexity that it weaving together every cell in our body, every animal gracing the earth, each event, meeting, heartache, birth, death and everything in between. As Albert Einstein once said, “there are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other us as though everything is a miracle.”
I choose the later.
Temple of the Rose Construction
Introducing The Temple of the Rose