Magickal Language of Flowers

Magickal, mystical, and absolutely fascinating. Who cannot be but mesmerized by flowers.

Just run your mind over the barrenness of a winter landscape. To think that below the bleakness, tiny miracle buds are forming to burst out into color at the first welcoming signs of spring.

No matter how many times we witness it, the splendor of spring's arrival never disappoints.

Whether they bloom in spring or dazzle throughout the summer months and into autumn, humankind has always seen symbolism in flowers.

In 1800s Europe, a communication system through floral bouquets, known as the language of flowers, became popular. Specific flowers were used to convey feelings and messages. Various codebooks offered guidance that users had to follow closely to get the elaborate language right.

From the 1800s to the mid-1900s, it was also trendy to give babies, particularly girls, flower names taken from codebooks.

While it worked back then, it's as restricting as the norms of society were in the day. Considering people have been entranced by flowers since the beginning of time, individual flowers have multiple associations.

Today we live in a diverse, multi-cultural world. This allows us much more freedom to create our own flower language to express our intentions and emotions.

This article explores the meanings attached to flowers so that you can decide what works for you.

Flowers Throughout History

Whether through myth, superstition, or intuition, flowers have connotations beyond their visual appearance.

These are only a few, so if you have a favorite flower that isn't mentioned, do some online research to learn more.

Carnation

In Europe, pink, red, white, and yellow carnations represented devotion, dedication, and pure love. In other cultures, however, they had vastly different meanings.

Mexican culture viewed them as flowers of the dead. These delicate and fragrant flowers were packed around bodies as they were prepared for their funerals and buried with them.

In Korea, carnations were used for divination to predict the future life of little girls. Three flowers were placed on the child's head and allowed to wilt. If the top flower wilted first, she would suffer challenges later in life. Conversely, when the center one was first to wilt, her youth would be filled with difficulties. The bottom flower wilting first indicated a life filled with trial and tribulations.

Children in Korea gave their parents carnations as a symbol of gratitude as well.

In Flanders, red carnations symbolized romantic love, and pink carnations decorated wedding ceremonies.

In the 20th century, pink carnations became closely associated with Mother's Day in the United States.

Daffodil

Also known as narcissus, they represented self-absorption in Europe.

Have you heard of the term 'narcissist' in modern psychology? Well, that word comes from Greek mythology that tells of how a stunningly handsome young man met the wrath of the gods.

His name was Narcissus, and he had no doubt of how his looks attracted the admiration and love of others. However, the problem was that he scorned their advances and didn't care if his rejection hurt them.

Eventually, the gods tired of his heartless behavior. They decided to punish Narcissus by making him fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. He became so infatuated and caught up in self-adoration that he reached out to embrace the mirror image and fell into the water and drowned.

Where he'd sat staring longingly at his own image in the pool, a flower appeared. Nymphs, including one named Echo, who'd loved him dearly, named the flower narcissus in his memory.

Lily

Flower language from Europe linked the lily to happiness. Although lilies are mostly trumpet-shaped, they come in a vast array of shapes and colors, each bringing different insights.

To the ancient Egyptians, the lily was an icon of Upper Egypt.

In Mesopotamian religion, the goddess of creation, fertility, sexual desire, and war (including lightning and thunder), Ishtar, was associated and depicted with lilies.

Greek and Roman mythology related lilies with the queen of the gods, known as Hera to the Greeks and Juno to the Romans. The Roman goddess of love, Venus, was symbolized by lilies too.

Christian culture adopted the lily as an emblem of the Virgin Mary. Many renaissance painters portrayed the angel Gabriel giving Mary a lily to signify her limitless purity.

Hyacinth

Hyacinth is another member of the lily family that features in Greek mythology.

The sun god, Apollo, loved Hyacinthus, a beautiful young Spartan. Unfortunately, while they were throwing discus one day, the heavy discus struck Hyacinthus on the head, killing him instantly. It turns out it was no accident. Zephyrus, the god of the west wind, had orchestrated the whole thing in a fit of jealousy because he, too, loved Hyacinthus.

From the bloodstained earth sprung a beautiful new flower that the grieving Apollo named hyacinth in honor of his dead lover.

Poppy

There are many types of poppy that bloom in a range of colors.

In the West today, we're very familiar with the red poppy of Remembrance Day that honors the lives of service members across the Commonwealth who lost their lives in WWI.

Species of the Mediterranean poppy yield opium, a powerful sedative and pain killer. The ancient Greeks allied the poppy with the god of sleep, Hypnos, and the god of dreams, Morpheus. The drug we know as morphine, made from opium poppies, gets its name from these two Greek gods.

Rose

In the European flower language, roses mean love, red for passion, and pink for innocence. Today, red roses symbolize romantic love closely linked with Valentine's Day, romantic gifts, engagements, and weddings.

To the ancient Romans, roses symbolized beauty and were associated with various goddesses. In particular, roses were the flower of Venus, goddess of love. In Roman society, roses also represented death and rebirth and were planted on Roman graves.

Across different cultures, roses were closely linked to mother goddesses. Early Christians adopted them as a symbol of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Some early Christian texts refer to Mary as the Holy or Mystic Rose.

Christian martyrs are represented by red and white roses, red for the blood spilled for their faith, and white for their innocence and purity.

Folklore among Christians tells that roses in the Garden of Eden had no thorns. However, after Adam and Eve were driven out because of the sin they'd committed, thorns appeared as a reminder that people were no longer perfect.

Sunflower

In many cultures, sunflowers bring good luck and fortune, and their large open faces symbolize honesty. European flower language told that sunflowers imply all is not as it may seem.

Greek mythology captured the sunflower perfectly in the myth of Clytie, a water nymph, and her undying love for the sun god Apollo.

She fell deeply in love with Apollo, and for a while, he was interested in her too. Sadly. His love was superficial, and he soon tired of her. Clytie couldn't get over Apollo, though, and day in and day out, the lovesick girl watched Apollo from a distance. As his sun chariot crossed the sky, she followed its path from east to west, just as sunflowers do.

Moved by her sorrow, the gods took pity on Clytie and turned her into a flower, which was named the sunflower.

Aztec culture aligned sunflowers with the priestess, and they were frequently worn by them. Sunflowers were placed in temples during ceremonies and rituals as well.

In rural 17th century Europe, folk believed that sunflower petals and seeds combined with sunflower oil and then left it out in the sun created a balm that allowed them to see fairies.

Violet

Violets meant dedication and faithfulness in European flower language, yet many European traditions associated them with death and mourning.

Greek mythology tells the tale of Adonis and Aphrodite, a myth common across many different cultures.

The goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite, fell in love with a handsome mortal man, Adonis. While on a hunt, Adonis was killed by a wild boar. All the while, Persephone, the goddess of death and fertility, loved him too.

Overcome by grief, Aphrodite begged the god of the sky, Zeus, to return him to life to be with her. Persephone resisted, wanting Adonis with her in death. Zeus intervened and resurrected Adonis. But he commanded Adonis to live with Aphrodite in the upper world for half of the year and return to Persephone in the lower world for the other half.

The violet's white and purple flowers represent Adonis's two worlds: white is the world of Aphrodite, and purple is the world of Persephone.

In early Christianity, violets implied humility and virtue, and legends tell of violets growing spontaneously in the footsteps and on the graves of saints.

Summing it up…

Flowers aren't inanimate objects—they're living, breathing gifts bestowed on us for wonder, enjoyment, pleasure, healing, and teaching.

Like the seasons, flowers follow the circle of life from buds to flowers that wilt and go to seed, only to reappear in all their beauty at another time in another season.

Witches have a heightened sense of perception, and textures, energies, shapes, and colors guide our intuition.

While Victorian-era flower language is interesting, it's way too restrictive for the modern witch (and likely all witches who lived beyond the prim and proper constraints of the time).

Use flowers in your magick rituals and bless those you love with flower bouquets, potpourri, and flower essences made with magick and love.

But please put all the books and guides aside and instead bask in the energy of flowers and listen closely to what they say.

Draw them into your heart, and when you hear their energy and feel their words, you'll know exactly where and how to use them.