Posts Tagged lily

We use flowers to adorn our homes, our altars, ourselves, often with little regard for what types of flowers we are choosing. It’s simply that they are this or that color or that they look pretty (or even are just the ones on sale at the store), and so we pick them or buy them, bringing them into our ritual space unknowing for the main part of what message they are bringing or what story they might be telling. Yet flowers have a long and distinguished history in paganism, with many links to various Gods and Goddesses throughout the centuries. They have symbolism and virtues all their own and old superstitions attached to them, ones that may or may not lend themselves to our purposes.

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. Read the rest of this entry »