Floromancy

Like plants, most men have hidden properties that chance alone reveals.
---Maxims La Rochefoucauld

For ages, man has looked to plants for help in making decisions or
using them to attempt to tell the future, especially in love.
Nowadays, it's mostly children who use flowers or plants this way--
for instance, the game of picking petals of a daisy and reciting 'He
loves me, he loves me not'.

Many make a wish as they blow on dandelion seed heads. Holidays,
especially Halloween, are favorite times for these divination games,
especially love divination. Holly could be used on Christmas, New
Year's, Midsummer, or Halloween to help you dream of your true love.
Bay leaves were used for this same purpose on Valentine's Day. St.
Luke's Day was once the appropriate time for this ritual:

'Take marigold flowers, a sprig of marjoram, thyme, and a little
wormwood; dry them before a fire, rub them to powder, then sift
it through a fine piece of lawn; simmer these with a small quantity
of virgin honey, in white vinegar, over a slow fire; with this anoint
your stomach, breasts, and lips, lying down, and repeat these words thrice:

St. Luke, St. Luke, be kind to me, In dream let me my true love see!
This said, hasten to sleep, and in the soft slumbers of night's
repose, the very man you shall marry shall appear before you.'

Almost all cultures have had some form of plant divination. Ancient
Anglo-Saxon folklore says that if you offered an expectant mother a
rose and a lily, if she chose a rose, the baby would be a girl. If
she chose the lily, the baby would be a boy. On the other hand, the
Victorians believed that if the pregnant woman went into the garden,
closed her eyes, and spun around to pick a flower, the hue of the
flower would tell her the sex of the baby. If it was a dark color, it
was a boy, and a light color indicated a girl. In Korea, carnations
were used by girls to tell their future. A girl would place a cluster
of three blossoms in her hair. If the top one died first, the girl's
last years would be difficult. If the middle one died first, her
earlier years would be hard. And if the bottom one died first her
entire life would be miserable. (I guess no one in Korea had an
entirely happy life.) Poppy petals were used in the east: a girl
would place a petal in her lover's hand, and then hit it with the
edge of her own hand. If it broke with a loud pop, her lover was
true; if it broke silently, he had been unfaithful. Gypsies used
chives for fortune telling.

Flower Symbolism in Dreams
The appearance of certain plants in a dream was considered an omen of
things to come. To dream of white flowers foretells death, as does
dreaming of birch. Plants which are good omens in dreams include palm
tree, olive, jasmine, lily, laurel, thistle, thorn, wormwood,
currant, and pear, Plum, cherry, walnut, hemp, cypress, dandelion,
and withered roses in dreams denote misfortune. Oak, apricot, apple,
box, grape and fig foretell a long life. Dreams of elder, onion,
acorn, and plum presage sickness. Beans are supposed to produce bad
dreams and portend evil.

A significant amount of dream flora is related to love and marriage.
Roses, of course, indicate success in love, as does clover, which
indicates not only a happy marriage but also wealth and prosperity.
Raspberry, pomegranate, cucumber, currant, and box all augur well for
love affairs. If you dream of being picked by briars, it means you
have and ardent desire, and the young in love often dream of being
pricked by a thorn while trying to pick a rose. To dream of cutting
cabbage means your lover is jealous, and if you dream of someone else
cutting cabbage, it means that someone is trying to plant the seeds
of jealousy in your lover's mind. Dreams of walnut indicate
unfaithfulness, and dreaming of cutting parsley means that you'll
eventually be crossed in love.

Dreaming of passing through brambles indicates trouble ahead, but if
you pass through unhurt it means you will triumph over adversity. A
dream of eating cabbages augurs illness for your loved ones and money
loss, but dreams of oak, marigold, pear or nut denote riches. If you
dream of gathering nuts you should be receiving unexpected wealth.

Dreaming of fruit or flowers out of season is bad luck, and the
reverse is also true: dreams of plants currently blooming is good
luck. Dreaming of yew means the death of an old person who will leave
behind considerable wealth. Violets or vines indicate advancement in
life and prosperity. Eating almonds in a dream signifies a journey,
and whether they are sweet or not indicates how successful the
journey will be. Fresh, green grass in a dream is a good
omen, but withered and decayed grass signifies misfortune and
sickness, as does dreaming of cutting grass.

Many dream plants have more than one meaning, which don't seem to
have much to do with each other. For instance, yellow flowers can
mean love mixed with jealousy or that you will have more children to
maintain than what justly belong to you. Garlic can mean the
discovery of hidden treasures or that a domestic quarrel will occur
soon. To dream of the juniper tree itself is unlucky, especially if
you are sick, but to dream of gathering berries in winter can mean
you'll achieve great honors and become an important person,
and if you are married it foretells the birth of a son.

Pansy Divination
This was a method of fortune telling supposedly used by the Knights
of the Round Table. Randomly pick petal off pansy and look at its
markings: Four lines is a sign of hope Five lines from a center
branch is hope founded in fear Thick lines bent to the right means
prosperity Thick lines bent to the left means trouble ahead Seven
streaks means constancy in love (and if the center streak were
the longest Sunday would be the wedding day)Eight means fickleness
Nine means a changing heart Eleven is disappointment in love and an early grave

First Flower of Spring
In spring, the day you find the first flower
of the season can be used as an omen.

Monday means good fortune
Tuesday means greatest attempts will be successful
Wednesday means marriage
Thursday means warning of small profits
Friday means wealth
Saturday means misfortune
Sunday means excellent luck for weeks

Daphnomancy
Place fresh laurel or bay leaves in an incense burner or open fire
and concentrate on a question. If the leaves crack loudly and burn
brightly it means the time is favorable, and if they smolder and die
out it's not. Throw a handful into a fire and watch the flame. The
flames rising up together is a good sign. Three flame points means a
harmonious conclusion, two flame points means you need a friend to
help you, a single flame means single-mindedness.

Tea Leaf Reading
This is probably the most famous method of using a plant for
divination. The tea needs to be prepared without an infuser, and
allow the leaves to settle in the bottom of the cup. Think on your
question while drinking the tea.

Leave just enough tea to cover the leaves, take the cup in your left
hand, swirl it three times, and turn the cup upside down on a saucer,
draining it. When you then look into the cup, look at the pattern the
residual leaves form (much like how you would envision pictures in
the clouds). Allow your mind to wander until a strong impression
comes rather than focusing on a single point.

The cup itself figures into the interpretation, with the handle of
the cup representing the questioner. Symbols furthest from the handle
are also the most distant from the questioner. Symbols closest to the
rim of the cup represent the near future, while those in the bottom
of the cup are in the distant future. If both a negative sign and a
positive sign are present, it usually means success only after a
delay or difficulty. Stars, leaves, triangles, and crowns mean good
luck, while swords, ravens, or churches mean bad luck.


The vast majority of this information was taken
from The Folklore of Plants by T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
and A Victorian Grimoire by Patricia Telesco.


Special Thanks
chandralin
Culpeper's Apprentice


BANNER

<<<< HOME >>>>