Spikenard is an aromatic hardy herb, from which a much valued, precious and costly perfume and fragrant anointing oil is produced.
It has intense, warm, fragrant and musky notes. Spikenard speaks of the Bride’s extravagant adoration of and intimacy with the bridegroom, in total abandonment, without regard to cost.
It is sometimes called “The Fragrance of the bride”, for it symbolizes the bride who has made herself ready, as it is written in Song of Solomon 1:12 “While the king sits at his table, my spikenard sends forth its fragrance.” In the Gospels, it becomes a symbol of revelation during one of Scripture’s most poignant, bittersweet scenes where Mary of Bethany anoints the head and feet of Jesus. John 12:3
Spikenard speaks of intimacy and extravagant worship.