Communicate.

Prepare your participants.

Prepare yourself and your assistants.

For the past 27 years, one of NordCoG’s major goals has been to serve both our gods and our community by providing incisive public ritual four times a year.

But lately it’s become clear that something has changed. Attendance at rituals is down, and increasingly it feels as though we’ve lost the creative edge we once had.

So this year, we’re trying something new.

Under the overall artistic direction of veteran liturgist Steven Posch, Northern Dawn has invited several of our most gifted local ritualists—Paul Rucker, Stephanie Fox, Robin Grimm, and Magenta Griffith—to create our roster of rites for 2010.

In preparation for each sabbat, one of our guest artists will work with community volunteers to craft and enact the ritual. This should not only provide us with some topnotch ritual, but will give us all an opportunity to work alongside, and learn from, some of our community’s most creative and experienced priests and priestesses.

Lighting up the dark nights of Oimelc 2010 will be visionary artist Paul B. Rucker’s “Welcome, New Fire: The Rite of the Three Bredes” on Saturday, February 6 at Newell Park in St. Paul (http://mn-stpaul.civicplus.com/facilities.aspx?search=1&CID=1&pagenum=4&RID=76&Page=detail for more information).

If you’d like to get more involved with the ritual itself, come to the walk-through and rehearsal on Sunday, January 24 (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=248916736543&index=1 for more information).

“I’ve been percolating this ritual for years,” says Rucker. “It takes its inspiration from the first genuine drawing-down that I ever witnessed, at a NordCoG Oimelc in the mid-80s. ‘Three Bredes’ will be primal, experiential, and iconic, accessible to neophytes but with the depth to satisfy the experienced.”

Upcoming events (tentatively) include: the Marriage of Leaf and Horn (Bealtaine), The Passion of the Harvest (Autumn Equinox), and the Rite of the Three Crones (Samhain).

Omega Artworks is owned and operated by Gary and Suzy Zahradka. All work is done by us in our studio in St. Paul, Minnesota. For over 25 years we have been designing unique and original swords, knives and sculpture. We offer a wide range of options for custom designed swords and knives, but also maintain an inventory of items you can purchase today!

Our objective is to combine beauty with functionality — to create a work of art that is beautiful to the eye, thrilling to the hand and inspiring to the imagination. As you look through our website let you imagination go, then contact us and let us know what you are thinking.

We're thankful to see they are working again!

I also have to mention that there is also a Pagan Forge which has been firing up the forge, training up apprentices, and creating ritual tools which you may have seen at various festivals or at Pagan Pride.  Founded and guided by long-time priest and smith Ken Ra, it's called Underhill, and we will be doing a full feature on them in the coming months.

The answer was simple: Not knitting would have felt like a waste of time.  I want to be clear that the motivation here is not to be a mindlessly productive multi-tasking achiever. Remember, she does this really slowly. I think it's much more than that.  I think to know that the blanket is truly hers, each and every loop, provides an added layer of value the materialistic and instant culture we live in just doesn't seem to get.

She's not focused on the result. She's focused on the action. She did not just say "let there be blanket" and there was blanket. It may be mundane, and not magical seeming, but I think the method of taking things stitch by stitch is true magic. Thought becomes will becomes action becomes manifestation. Over and over and over again. The manifest action of knitting a blanket uses the same core principles used in magic.  The practice of those principles in the mundane teaches us that there are no short cuts. For magic to happen, action must be taken. So often, we go from thought, to will, skip action and expect results.

Action is where life happens. Think about it. Live is a verb. Living is not an end result. Neither is magic. I think that's where a daily practice really comes in.  Whatever we do, on a consistent basis, day in and day out creates the links with life (aka magic) that, when we need it, we can call on to help us bring into being that which we need or desire.

That's one heck of a security blanket.

© 2009, Jane R. Hansen

Love is indeed heaven upon earth;
since heaven above would not be heaven without it;
for where there is not love, there is fear;
but, “Perfect love casteth out fear.”    ~Penn

How shall I do to love? Believe.
How shall I do to believe? Love. ~Lord Leighton

Perfect love and perfect trust…we have all heard those words many times and yet we all still ponder and wonder at what they may mean. They are simple words, love and trust, but how simple is it really to feel them in anything approaching a perfection of grace. Though, when it comes right down to it, what do we really know about love or trust.

Countless movies have been made about love, numberless books, articles, essays, plays, songs, both secular and spiritual. But, despite all that, love itself remains a mystery. This should be clue number one—that Love, capital letter “L” Love—is not something that can truly be understood, because it is something that in its totality is beyond mere human comprehension.

All that we see and call love, is not truly Love, but an extension into our world of a more than physical power. Not that it can’t be a beautiful, even joyful thing to know here in the material world, and not that it cannot lead to opening yourself up to an experience of the greater Power that all physical expressions of it but represent, but it is fundamentally so much more than that. Like the Divine, Love wears many masks in our world and though it is all around us, we cannot experience it fully while yet in the flesh. Though, we may at times come close, or glimpse it for but the briefest of moments.

The same holds true for Trust. For a perfect form of Trust is also a great power, one that we may only hold shades of in our normal everyday life. For a perfection of anything means that it is pure, complete, and utter—and who may claim to have an utter trust in anything, one where not a single doubt creeps in ever. We live and so we doubt, for that is part of being in a physical body which ages and will eventually die.

But Love, perfect Love, may be felt within the spirit. And when one feels that perfection of Love, then one also knows perfect Trust, for the two go hand in hand. This is not the love of romance, the kind of love which needs to possess, which involves making demands or fearing eventual loss or betrayal, though that is the form that most love takes in life today. This is the Love which is modeled after Divine Love, which is also called agape. Agape is Greek for “love feast,” and it means a form of brotherly love, the plural of which is the love of the brethren for each other. And certainly, we are all brothers in the Craft (although some of us are more properly sisters) and we do feast together.

Agape is the pure power of Love. It is the sort of Love that is the essence of the Divine presence in our lives, which gives life to our very spirits. And so this kind of Love can only be properly felt when you are in accord with your innermost Divine nature, when you stand in the sphere of the spirit that resides within you. The key to accomplishing this is to open your heart, for only then can you touch your soul and feel that Divine Love, feel agape for all, and know utter Trust, which is but another way to describe having absolute faith.

Perfect Trust, Divine Trust, is having a pure and utter confidence and faith that all of your expectations and desires will be fulfilled. Which means that there can be no doubt, none at all, inside you, for perfection of trust is a complete and accomplished fact. It is not a hope, it is not a wish, it is not something you think about and ache for…for if you have such an unalloyed Trust, then you just know it will be. It is having a true faith in the Divine Will, of which you are an integral part, a simple and perfect knowledge that what must happen, will happen. And that it will be a beautiful and joyous thing.

Knowing Love and Trust in their Divine forms within your heart means being at one with your own self as spirit, and so being at one with the world around you and all that happens and does not happen. It’s being absolutely aware that, when it comes right down to it, that “it’s all good.” Though, when you think about it, it does rather sound like a spell—to feel and know with utter certainty that you are one with everyone else and the whole of creation, and that the connection between it all is the power known as Love. While, at the same time, you have an utter certainty of Faith that all you truly desire will be fulfilled. Of course, it must be what you truly desire as an incarnated soul, not the desires born out of fear or anger or shame, to name but a few, all of which throw you out of yourself, out of your center, and involve something rather less than perfection.

But then who among us can know this complete and utter Love and Trust so long as we do not know our own center of being? To achieve this perfection of Love and Trust, you must enter into a different state of consciousness, an altered state of consciousness, and that involves opening your heart, which is the doorway to your spirit. For in our daily lives, we all know doubt, we all know pain and fear and loss and many of us do not know where we are going, let alone trust that we will get there. Some of us do not even know for a certainty who we are. When you open your heart to your own spirit, your own personal spark of the Divine, then you will know…for your spirit does not doubt and is not swayed by any outside influence, good or bad. That is perfection and purity; to be completely and utterly yourself, to be who and what you were born to be.

The words faith and fate are intimately connected, and fate is what is meant to be. When you are in this altered state of consciousness, you know peace and joy, for you also know that all that happens is what is meant to happen. You know that you are immortal, for both life and death are but passing phases. You can see the beauty in all things and in all people, even the one who may be sitting with a crabby face over their coffee at the next table at Starbucks. You wish them all well, but you know that they must each discover their own path for themselves, perfect themselves. You are not moved from your own center by either their happiness or by their fear or anger, even if it is directed at you.

This is Perfect Love and Perfect Trust—and it is not dependant on anyone or anything else in the universe, except existing in your own heart and soul. It does not mean that you need to find just the right people to be in a coven with or to circle with. It has nothing to do with another person’s ability to love or trust you, or with having to find people that you can love and trust. Anything that comes from outside of your self, that is dependent on what someone else does or doesn’t do, is not and can never be perfect.

A pure and complete Love can only come from being absolutely removed from and yet infinitely attached to the world, both conditions to exist within you at the same time. This may sound impossible or contradictory, but when you are in the altered state made possible by being at one with your heart and spirit, then you can and will feel this form of “dispassionate compassion.” You care for the world, for the people around you, but yet this depth of caring can neither hurt nor alter the essential you in any way, for you are complete unto yourself. You know who you are. You know you are the center of the universe. You have Faith. You have Knowledge. And you know peace and joy beyond any earthly measure.

All of which does not mean that you just sit there, communing with the Divine inside you, and do not act. It only means that you act in accord with your own perfect nature and with the Divine Will, which you have placed your own will in alignment with. When you have Perfect Love and Perfect Trust, you will do what you are meant to do, what the Divine put you here in the world to do.

If we are all to stand in Perfect Love and Perfect Trust in our circles, then we need to come to stand there within the boundless circle of our own hearts. It means that our hearts have to be open, so that our spirits may express the Divine light through our bodies…so that we may be Shining Ones. Bright stars come down to the earth to show the way to the Gods. We must be truly free, and yet still be bound to our flesh, for there is a reason we are born to it and we all chose that reason. We all chose to come here, to return again to the world of man.

When we kiss each other in the circle the kiss has ever been more than a sign of simple affection; it is a declaration of loyalty, love and spiritual unity, a hail and a greeting and a mutual sharing of the magickal Powers that give life and form to the universe. One of which is Love and one of which is Trust, two sides of the same coin, the minted gold of which is the Will of the Divine.

© 2009, Veronica Cummer

Celebrating Samhain Saturday

Note that the Sorgitzak Ritual will be in the gallery at the Eye and they request you call 612-872-1292 to RSVP due to limited space.  If you just show up, you may not be able to participate. If this is too late of a notice for you, remember that, day in and day out, the best source for local events is the Twin Cities Pagans group. You can hook up with them in two places. You can

• Find them on Facebook
• Join the Yahoo Group

Europe was conquered over a thousand years ago by a faith which was not its own, that did not spring naturally out of its forests and hills, its mountains, rivers, and valleys. For the Gods of old Europe were the Gods who belonged there, who were native to the land and the people that they served. They were and they remain the Gods who best speak to the spirits of those with European ancestry and Who still reside in our very blood. We belong to Them and They belong to us, and that has always been the relationship between God and Witch.

And so we ache and long for a rebirth from the ashes of the restless dead. We hope and pray for the Old Religion to return to us and be renewed in the coming Age. We reclaim and rewrite our rituals time and again, finger through book after book and search the internet, hoping to stumble across the way back to what was taken from us. We seek after the heart and breath and bone of our own selves and of the faith of our ancestors, for the two are intimately intertwined. But, perhaps, the problem is that we are looking in all the wrong places.

The religion of the witches, the religion known as Wicca, is not Christian in any way. Its roots have nothing to do with Christianity, for like all native religions, its symbols, rites, stories, and traditions spring from the land from whence it came. It speaks to those who yet live in Europe and Britain and to those whose heritage is of that place, for it is our overriding archetypal spirit. And so, to truly understand Wicca, one must come to understand that inborn heritage. We must find within us that which speaks to us, what stirs our blood and moves our souls.

Those of us who are reborn as Witches, we seek the powers which once resounded through those ancient rites, and they are here to be called upon. The connection only lies in wait to be renewed. The key is in finding the doorway within ourselves, the road back to what was once thought lost. If we come to know our true selves, what lies below the surface of what is laid upon us by the culture and dogma of centuries of Christian faith, then we shall come to know again the Old Gods, the Old Ways, and the fourfold powers shall rise. For these powers lie within us, as much as without.

No religion can truly satisfy that intense longing for meaning, unless it is one that makes sense not only to the mind, but to the body, heart, and spirit. Just as the powers of the Four Quarters of earth, air, fire, and water come together to make the circle, so our bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits need to be in accord. If they are not in accord, then it is all the more difficult to make the leap to that which lies beyond them, the spirit that moves within the religion itself. The living faith of the living Witch.

We have dreams, visions, desires, and this longing, this feeling that something is just there, just over the horizon, and if we could but find the words for it, we could summon it into being. If we could only find the way to reconnect to that source, to the spiritual beginning place of the Old Religion, then we would know where and how to begin again for ourselves. We would know what building blocks need to be set in place for the world to be made anew, the world we all long to live in.

But it is not a simple or an easy task to shake off the beliefs of the non-Wiccan religions that many of us were raised in, let alone the constraints and of a cultural mindset heavily invested and built up by those same beliefs. It can be a slow and even painful process to shed the skin and be reborn as what we were truly meant to be. The process is made even more frightening by the fact that we are not even entirely sure what we desire to replace it with.

The clues to this new-old world are as buried treasures in what has come down to us from the past. Despite the fact that some today, even those use the name of Wiccan or Witch to describe themselves, now deny or doubt that anything has survived. It must be said, though, that all must make their own choices on this matter and if they so wish to believe that nothing has survived from that ancient heritage, then, for them, nothing shall.

But as we all have been born from the past, as we all have lived many lives, it does live on. It lives on in us. It lives on because we are those self-same witches from centuries ago, though we are now born to different bodies. It lives on because their blood did not die, but spread itself down through the many generations who have come since. And so the ways of the Old Religion have not been truly lost, nor ever can be, for they can only be forgotten.

We are the children of the past and the progenitors of the future, and it is an unbroken chain. What makes a Witch is remembering this, remembering who and what we are and all that being a Witch means. No book can teach you that if you cannot touch what lies inside you already, if you are not ready and willing to look for that spark and incorporate it into your life.

For as we are the descendants of those who once danced within the forests and upon the sacred mountaintops, who lifted up the flame of their own bodies and hearts to work magick for the good of the land and the prosperity of the people, as we are their descendants and we are them, no one can take that from us. Only if we deny who we are, if we turn away from what stirs in our blood, will we have no past. And those who have no past, have no future, for time goes not a straight line, but a circle.

We are all “hereditary” Witches if we but wake to what was given to us by virtue of our birth. It lies dormant within us, occasionally turning over in its sleep and throwing off dreams of what was and what can be again. To wake fully as Witches is to reclaim our birthright, our heritage, our powers and our place.

It is not a light matter to state that those of today’s religions that base themselves upon the struggle of duality, of light versus dark, good versus evil, have finally had their day, but that they have. They have run their course and now too must face a choice—to change or to fade and die. That is the way of things. Some might like to deny it, to deny the transformation of the Piscean paradigm to that of the Aquarian, but the slow grind of the wheel of the sky, the wheel of the Ages, is inexorable. All the prayer in the world cannot stop it. Though, no doubt, a few would like to try.

We have lived in the shadow of those who wanted us to be as they would have us and not as we desire to become. But now the light of the rising dawn will serve to reopen the doors to what was and what may be, and we stand in the middle, as always. We as the world’s Witches can sense it as other worlds draw close, as magicks and the Old Gods converge upon that inner door. As the secrets stir within us, the secrets that many in Christianity had hoped we would forget. Secrets about who we are and where we come from and what we may do. Secrets of the world and secrets of the stars and secrets of our own nature.

We have only to walk through that door to know again our heritage. We have only to give ourselves over to the living faith of our past to find again ourselves, our Gods, and our purpose. All the rest will come in time, once we have laid the foundation for it.

Veronica Cummer © 2009

Walking a labyrinth takes us on a spiritual journey where we experience release, increase our receptivity and return in the healing presence of our Higher Power. Standing at the entrance of a labyrinth, our eyes trace the path before us, turning back and forth, ever taking us inward to the center.

It is the journey, not the destination, that is the ultimate goal of walking a labyrinth.

With your first step, you begin to leave the world you know behind, seeking to travel through layers of self-exploration. Breath joins with movement as your awareness of the NOW increases, leaving past and future behind. The first turn commits you to shedding your ego, and listening to Spirit as you pause and contemplate your surroundings. What sounds do you hear? How does the earth feel beneath your feet?

Experience each breath as you continue on, open and receptive as you shed another layer of misconceptions, softening your heart to fill with self-love.

Each gentle arch in the path carries you like a river, flowing easily at it’s own pace. There is no beginning, no end, only the placement of your feet one in front of the other. With every turn, every pause, every segment of the labyrinth, we discover the unity of the universe. For our life path is that of the labyrinth, ever folding and unfolding, repeating the pattern each time a little differently. It is familiar, and we learn our lessons through the repetition.

By constantly changing directions, we look at our challenges with a new light. Sometimes we walk towards our own shadows, sometimes we walk towards the sun.

Adjusting our orientation as we walk, our breath moves in and out, bringing in new energies and releasing all that does not serve our highest good. Deep into the labyrinth now, our intention becomes experience as this initiation takes place on every level. Body, mind, and spirit unite as we turn towards the center which has appeared before us. Giving thanks for clarity, the sense of wonder increases as we become the center of the labyrinth itself. The curving folds of our whole selves surround us, as we are enfolded in the arms of the joy of life.

Beginning again from the center outward, you may be inspired to leave a trail of joy-crumbs on your return journey.

Sharing the healing and love with your fellow travelers, you know that you’re in the presence of those who have gone before in the NOW. Folding and unfolding, your steps deepen your memory of the moment. Every turn is a new beginning, every entrance becomes an adventure in the discovery of the god/dess within. There are no wrong turns on the path to the center. As you leave the physical presence of the labyrinth, you take the center with you and all its layers.

In Relationship

The reality of relationships with our surroundings gives rise to another Nordic value to add to cleanliness and orderliness. Simplicity. The more things you have, the more attention you must pay these things. In most Scandinavian households in Minnesota you will find few things. But those things will be of highest quality, well maintained and serviceable, and full of the charm of life. There is a free flowing energy in homes like this. Not a barren and cold feeling but rather a clean and well used feeling. I found these principles alive and well in Norway this past May while visiting farms and homes. It is prevalent in Scandinavian design as well, natural materials in clean lines, easy to keep clean. Just look into any Ikea! Throughout history, humans have understood their environment as a balance between seen physical reality and the energy that holds our physical world together. In Norse tradition we personified the energy of the things and places in our lives. In the best barns lived the Nisse, the “little folk” who help keep order and energy in the barn. There are house wights or vaettir who help keep things in order in the home. These creatures must be given attention as well or they might just start messing with the energy of the place.  These days, homage is given to them by placing their likenesses around the house and gardens. Some homes have little altar areas for the good folk that are kept, yes, very clean. Some areas of the land are still honored by prayer ties in trees or offerings of crystals or other trinkets. All this is in the hope of creating good energy with balance and flow that helps us live well and do good work. As I began studying the Chinese art of Feng Shui, it became clear that my grandmother practiced perfect Feng Shui. In reading the five principals Destiny, Luck, Feng Shui, Education, and Philanthropy that create enlightenment in humans, I easily understood these things in light of my Nordic background. I will elaborate on the five principals here and correlate them to Nordic philosophy.

Five Principles

Destiny is your predisposition, genetic material, astrological chart, what we understand to be our ultimate purpose for having come to Earth. In Norse tradition this would be our oorlag as it relates to the web of wyrd. My great uncle was emphatic that each of us would find “God’s highest will and purpose in our lives.” Evaluating ourselves, determining what our best gifts are, and then aligning our daily choices to this is what creates our destiny. Flowing with our highest purpose creates the most interesting luck! Luck, the second principal, is neither good nor bad. Everyone is given a certain amount of luck. The more present and in the moment we are, the more we experience serendipity. It is our attitude and perception which determines whether our luck will be "good or bad." It makes a huge difference if we see the glass half empty or half full. They are not the same thing, though they are similar. What makes them different is the observer. Expectations create reality on the subatomic level. So if I choose to see the glass as half full, I am excited because it's almost there! Only half to go until it's completely full. If I see it as half empty, then I am depressed because half is already gone and it won't be long until the rest is gone and I am left with nothing. These perceptions will color my actions and create very different outcomes. Luck, in Norse tradition, the head of the household holds the luck for the family. As the head of my household, I know that I can generate luck for my family by keeping everyone clean, healthy, happy and full of motivation for the future. Feng Shui is the third principal and means literally wind and water. It is the awareness of the flow of energy or Chi. Chi flows like wind and water through our environment. How we arrange our internal and external environments can enhance the energy flow or block it. Our sensitivity to the subtle energy flow increases as we practice manipulating our environment. This art pertains to everything from cleaning out junk food from our internal environment to cleaning out the junk drawers in our kitchens. The practice of Tai Chi, the martial art, has assisted me greatly in my ability to detect and direct the energy of life towards harmony and balance and to my benefit and that of the community. My grandfather used to be the well finder in Polk County, Wisconsin. He would use willow sticks and divine the flow of water beneath the earth. They would dig where he told them to and would always find water. Scandinavians maintain a deep connection to nature’s energy. There are places where construction has been called off due to the area being inhabited by huldre or other land vaettir. Education is the fourth principal. Scandinavians are emphatic about education. The Norwegian immigrants set up schools and colleges in Minnesota faster and more prolifically than any other group. When my great grandfather ordered the dictionary for the schoolhouse in rural Wisconsin, he ordered a copy for the family as well. It was an amazing thing for a household to have a dictionary. It had a special place next to the family Bible and was read with reverence and care. Woe to the one who had not washed their hands! From the Ming Dynasty in China to the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, education was liberal arts oriented. Music and art, history and language, medicine and science, martial arts and nature studies were included in all superior education. The more education we have the more choices we have in the direction of our lives. The more self knowledge we seek, the less likely we are to repeat past mistakes and carry forward learned dysfunctions. Philanthropy, the fifth and final principal, means much more than corporate donors giving money to public radio. Philo means love and anthropo means humanity. It is the most important principal of all in my view because it can not be achieved by an individual unless they first love themselves. My grandmother used to read the New Testament passage "Love your neighbor as your self." It entails that we love ourselves first. In a way, the first four Feng Shui principals strive to create in each person a strong central core of self. A pledge to this that I grew up saying was from 4H, "I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service and my health to better living for my home, my club, my community, my country and my world." In the Havamal we find many passages supporting these five principals. Philanthropy is a way of applying our destiny, luck, feng shui and education to the betterment of our family, friends, neighbors, community and world. In this way, to paraphrase this Old Norse text, men die, cattle die, friends and family die, but our reputation lives forever. Incidentally, my grandmother also taught me to roll a mason jar under my feet every night to relieve the stress of the day,  Norwegian Reflexology. © 2009, Kari Tauring

Language of Flowers

The Victorians rather famously had a whole language of flowers. What blossoms you chose to send to someone or to put in their May Day basket related a message to that person. You would put several flowers together, for example gorse which means endearing affection, with heart’s ease (also known as the pansy) which means think of me, add in jonquil which stands for return my affection and lemon blossom which represents discretion, and finally, put in nutmeg geranium which means I expect a meeting, and you have made an attempt to set up a quiet rendezvous with the one you love and whom you hope loves you. We no longer use flowers in quite this deliberate a way, but picking them by their meaning for ritual or divinatory use, or simply for good luck, can certainly add to any magick.

Eventually, flowers became associated (along with gemstones) with each month of the year or birth sign, and can be used in conjunction with regular astrology techniques. For example, the carnation is the flower of January, the primrose is the flower of February, the daffodil of March, the daisy is the flower of April, the lily of the valley for May, the honeysuckle for June, the water lily is for July, the poppy for August, the convolvulus for September, the dahlia for October, the chrysanthemum for November, and finally the holly stands for December.1

In Victorian flower language, the carnation means disdain, the primrose means early youth, the daffodil means chivalry, the daisy means beauty or innocence depending upon the color it is, the lily of the valley means return of happiness, the honeysuckle means the bond of love, the water lily stands for eloquence, the poppy means consolation or sleep of the heart also depending on the color, the convolvulus (or bindweed) means uncertainty, the dahlia means forever thine, the chrysanthemum means in love or truth also color dependant, while at the last, the holly stands for foresight. Certainly, the holly would be a good choice then to use in conjunction with scrying or some other means of divination, most especially at Yuletide.

Flower Lore

But flowers have greater and more ancient mystical associations than those from Victorian times or months of the year. Flowers have long had a link to the land of the dead; shamans in the past and those still practicing today often relate experiences of seeing blossoms of incredibly vibrant colors in their journeys to other planes of existence. The smell of flowers has also been linked to travel to the Otherworld. Quite often, these flowers of the dead and of the land of the dead were said to be roses.

Roses

Roses have a history involving death and magick. Roses were grown in little gardens on the graves in ancient Rome as symbols of resurrection and were also involved in the rites of Egypt sacred to Isis and Osiris.2 Roses were also emblems of Aurora, the Goddess of the Dawn, and sacred to Dionysus and the nine Muses.3 During the Middle Ages, legend has it that the rose was first created when a maiden was accused and sentences to die on the pyre. Through her prayers, the fire was extinguished and the brands which had caught fire turned into red roses and the unburnt brands into white roses.4

A circle with eight spokes coming out of it, thus forming a wheel, was sometimes called The Rose of the Winds,5 and is clearly related to the compass rose or the compass found in certain lines of Traditional Craft. Roses were also considered emblems of secrecy. Hence sub rosa meant to keep your silence beneath the rose. As a result, roses were often carved or painted in chambers where secrets were meant to be kept, thus making it a fitting symbol for the power of silence inherent in Witchcraft.6

Lily

The lily, oddly enough, is also linked to death and to the lands of the dead. However, lilies were also considered to be flowers sacred to the Goddess Queen Hera where they represented the sacred marriage. Their white color came from the fact that they were said to have grown from Hera’s own milk.7 This probably has ties to Hera’s other symbol being that of a cow, the same as the Egyptian Goddess, Hathor. Lilies, especially white lilies, are said to represent innocence and pureness and some consider that their use at weddings may be linked to this idea, but quite possibly it actually hearkens back to Hera who was, after all, the Goddess of marriage. Still, there is another old tradition that lilies came from Eve’s tears as she and Adam were driven out from the Garden of Eden.8 Either way, lilies have long been emblems of France, seen in the golden fleur-de-lis, in much the same way that roses have been linked to France’s ancient rival, England.

But while lilies are said to stem from milk (or tears), the rose traditionally has its source in blood, particularly the blood of Adonis. It shares this history with other flowers created by spilt blood such as the violet, stemming from the death of Attis, and the hyacinth, from the death of Hyachinthus. As one story goes, Attis was the most beloved of the goddess, Agdistis (a Goddess who was both male and female) and She made him go crazy in order to try and keep him all to Herself. Attis, in his madness, castrated himself and from this the violet first grew.9 Violets, probably due to this, are considered to presage death if they are seen blooming out of season, though they thought to be good luck if you dream of them.10

Poppy

Poppies also have their beginnings in blood and battle. Poppy Day or Remembrance Day was created on November 11^th to honor the those who died in WWI on the battlefields of Flanders, where many poppies grew, and artificial flowers are sold to mark the occasion.11 But, primarily, the poppy remains a flower of magickal properties, in particular that of divination, as poppies represent the “sleep of death.” This can even been seen in the movie The Wizard of Oz when the Wicked Witch of the West tried to stop Dorothy from getting to the Emerald City by creating a field of glorious yet deadly red poppies. They also symbolize the Great Mother because of the “sleep” of plants during the winter and so are tied to Demeter, Persephone, and Venus, as well as to various sleep deities such as Hypnos and Morpheus.12 Clearly, this “sleep” was tied to shamanic journeying and achievement of various altered states of consciousness. An altered state that the poppy can readily provide so that you might travel to the land of the dead.

Other flowers also have their links to death.

Periwinkle

In Italy, the periwinkle was one such blossom because they “used to adorn dead babies with garlands of periwinkle and in former times heretics burned at the stake were given periwinkle crowns.”13 In Wales, picking periwinkles from a gravesite was said to result in nightmares about the person who was interred there.14 Not to be outdone, the Lily of the Valley, while it represented sweetness and humility, also originated from spilled blood or from the sorrow for the sacrificial victim. Accordingly, they have an alternate French name, “Our Lady’s Tears.”15 Daisies are also said to stem from tears, in particular those of Mary Magdalene, and there’s even a story that they came from seeds scattered by the spirits of still-born babies.16

Flowers in Alchemy

The meaning of the particular flower could change, though, in conjunction with the color of the bloom. For example, white flowers in alchemy represented silver and so were sacred to the Moon and the Goddess. Red blossoms represented gold and the Sun and the God. Blue flowers, on the other hand, were basically considered to be a “flower of the wise.”17 Just as when a violet was white it meant innocence and when the violet was blue the meaning changed to that of faithful love,18 so the virtue of a rose also changed in accordance with what color it might be. The golden rose meant perfection, the red rose denoted passion and desire and blood, particularly the blood of sacrifice, and the white rose symbolized purity and spirituality.19 White roses were “planted at the graves of virgins, while red roses on the graves of lovers.”20

Flowers for Seasonal Festivities

In the past, how you went about gathering the flowers was also of import. For example, flowers that were specifically for festivities on May Day or Midsummer both had rituals attached to how they should be picked. Sometimes, it was specified that they should be picked while still fresh with the morning dew, as dew represented both blessings and fertility and was considered sacred water from the sky.21 May flowers should be gathered early enough that the dew was still on them or, if that was impossible, they should be dipped in dew. People would also wash their faces in dew on May Day. While, on Midsummer, people used to roll in the dew in order to promote fertility.22 Of course, today, that all becomes rather more difficult unless you own a garden or know someone who does as bouquets at the grocery store or florists usually don’t come with a ready supply of fresh dew.

Flower Numerology

The number of flowers also was important. For example, the daffodil, which is an excellent spring flower, was considered good luck, but only if you picked them in bunches and never as a single flower.23 Like the daffodil, primroses were bad luck if you only had one of them—foretelling a death in the house—and so should only be gathered in bunches of thirteen.24 Long tied to love as well as to blood, roses could also be used in divination and magick. For example, a girl would fold up a rose in paper on Midsummer Eve, keep it until Yule, and then unwrap it. If the petals were still soft and fresh, then she would wear the blossom and the very first man to “admire the rose or remove it” would be the one to marry her.25

A few other May Day flowers included the marigold—a flower tied to death and remembrance of the dead in Mexico—which was even called “the herb of Beltane.”26 The honeysuckle and the hawthorn blossom were made into a wreath for the Queen of the May.27 She would wear the wreath much as the ancient Gods did when they were carried around in processions before their worshippers, a tradition you can still see today in some countries where they carry a flower-bedecked statue of the Virgin Mary through the streets. Another flower linked to pagan celebration was the yellow blossom of St John’s Wort, though its name underwent a change when Midsummer became associated with John the Baptist.28

Though some Witches do pick any stones to be worked with or colors of candles or altar clothes for ritual use with a certain amount of forethought and care, the language, meaning, and mystery of flowers has been given less consideration of late. Yet, flowers are a powerful and ancient symbol, one well worth taking account of. They are tied to love, life, and resurrection—which isn’t at all surprising since the vast majority of them appear in the spring—yet they are also of long association with sacrifice, sorrow, loss, and death. In many ways, they bridge the veil between the worlds; they are the blood of the king and God who makes the ultimate sacrifice and they are also the tears of the Goddess who had to give Her love up to death.