The colorful blossoms of spring are right around the corner, bringing with them far more than just natural beauty, pleasant fragrances, and a seasonal increase in bird and insect populations. Many spring flowers possess potent magical properties and can be utilized in divination, acting either as spiritual allies that empower your craft or as the central tools in specific divinatory methods. When it comes to the art of foretelling, we frequently praise the virtues of herbal allies, but our floral friends should not be overlooked. They truly have a great deal to offer.
, we will explore various spring flowers, their divinatory associations, and a few simple divination methods and customs that put these plants to work.
Spring Bouquet Divination
Spring is a season when flower shops and market stands overflow with vibrant colors and fresh blooms. Because of this, a spring bouquet—whether purchased readymade, received as a gift, or hand-picked and arranged by you—can serve as the perfect foundation for a delightful divination custom or predictive "game."
What to do:
Place the bouquet in a vase on a table before you, or hold the arrangement gently in your hands. Close your eyes, reach into the blooms, and select a single flower. You can pull the stem completely out or simply place your finger upon it. Open your eyes. The flower you have chosen offers a glimpse into what will soon manifest in your life.
Below is a curated list of spring flowers commonly found in seasonal bouquets, along with the specific omens each blossom portends.
Meanings for flowers typically featured in spring bouquets:
- Azalea – First love, happiness
- Bluebell – Friendship, luck
- Daffodil – Luck, fertility, prosperity
- Foxglove – Protection (the necessity of taking care of and protecting oneself)
- Hyacinth – Happiness
- Iris – Money
- Lily – Loss, something coming to an inevitable end
- Lily of the valley – Happiness
- Magnolia – Abundance, prosperity, fertility
- Meadowsweet – Happiness, peace
- Pansy – Love
- Tulip – Prosperity, money, good fortune
Spring Flowers as Divinatory Allies
Broom
WARNING: Broom is considered poisonous, and its seeds can be highly toxic. Though it has historical medicinal uses, always seek the advice of a medical professional before utilizing potentially harmful plants for physical ailments. Do not ingest. Handle with care. Keep strictly out of reach of children and pets.
Broom—also known as Scotch broom, Irish broom, besom, and bizzon—is a wonderfully versatile spring ally in the practice of witchcraft. It can be incorporated into protection, purification, and warding workings, as well as various forms of divination.
Carrying broom on your person is said to strengthen innate psychic abilities. Additionally, hanging fresh or dried broom—or keeping it in the area where you conduct your readings—can help keep you grounded during spiritual workings while boosting your overall divinatory skills.
- Broom as an omen: If a broom plant produces an exceptionally large abundance of flowers, it is traditionally interpreted as a sign that a season of plenty and prosperity is on the way.
Cherry Blossom
CAUTION: Cherry blossoms contain coumarin, which is a potentially hepatotoxic compound (toxic to the liver). Handle these blooms with proper caution and care. Do not ingest cherry blossoms unless they have been safely and professionally prepared. It is significantly safer to purchase commercially prepared, ready-to-use cherry blossom products rather than attempting to forge your own at home.
While cherry blossoms, along with corresponding incenses and infusions, are staples of love magic, they are equally valuable in the realm of divination. To enhance any form of romance-related divination, consider burning cherry blossom incense or keeping fresh blossoms near your workspace.
- Cherry blossom omens:
- Whomever you sit with beneath a cherry blossom tree in full bloom, you are destined to share deep happiness with. Some traditions hold that this joy is assured for the duration of the blossom season, while others believe it is guaranteed until the start of the next year's bloom.
- A beautifully blooming cherry blossom tree is an omen of a life filled with love.
- Finding cherry blossoms unexpectedly or receiving them as a gift serves as a sign of impending good fortune, luck, and prosperity.
- When a cherry blossom tree fails to bloom well, it can be read as a sign of oncoming difficulties and necessary shifts, acting specifically as an omen that personal transformation is required.
Dandelion
Dandelions typically make their golden yellow debut in late spring, bringing an abundance of practical uses to witchcraft and divination alike.
Drinking dandelion root or leaf tea can enhance your psychic senses and empower divinatory efforts. Furthermore, it can be presented as a formal offering to spirits if your practice involves spirit communication, or utilized as a tool to draw and summon spirits to your space.
- Dandelion divination: According to Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, an individual can determine the remaining years of their life by blowing on a dandelion that has reached its white puffball stage. Blow upon the white fluff; the number of seeds that remain attached to the stem afterward is said to represent the number of years you have left to live.
- Dandelion as an omen: Finding dandelions growing in abundance across your property is a highly auspicious sign of oncoming good fortune and the realization of your personal wishes.
Ground Ivy
CAUTION: Although ground ivy is safely utilized by humans for certain culinary and herbal practices, it can be highly toxic to various animals. Please ensure ground ivy is never left where it can be accessed or ingested by pets, cattle, or livestock.
Also known as creeping charlie, gill-over-the-ground, catsfoot, and alehoof, ground ivy is an unassuming, frequently overlooked flowering creeper. In addition to its place in traditional medicine, it can be utilized in divination to reveal the identity of anyone working malicious magic against you.
- Ground ivy divination: As outlined in Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, you can uncover the source of negative spiritual work directed at you by placing ground ivy around the base of a yellow candle on a Tuesday. Allow the candle to burn down completely. The identity of the person working against you will subsequently be revealed to you through a dream, a sudden vision, or a direct confession.
Meadowsweet
Also referred to as bride of the meadow, lady of the meadow, steeplebush, and queen of the prairie, meadowsweet has historical roots in traditional medicine, spells for love, happiness, and harmony, and various divinatory practices.
The term "meadowsweet" can apply to a few different plants, and botanical classifications often vary by region. In North America, the name typically refers to shrubs within the Spiraea genus, whereas in Europe, it frequently denotes perennial herbs within the Filipendula genus.
Because meadowsweet beautifully bridges the gap between divination and love magic, keeping the fresh or dried plant nearby during relationship-focused readings can strengthen your psychic abilities and clarify your insights.
- Meadowsweet divination: Meadowsweet gathered specifically on Midsummer can be utilized to divine details about a thief. If you have been robbed, place the Midsummer-harvested meadowsweet upon a body of water. If the plant floats, the perpetrator is a woman. If it sinks, the thief is a man.
Pansy
Also called banewort, bonewort, johnny-jump-up, love-in-idleness, and tittle-my-fancy, the pansy flower is highly regarded for its application in love spells and romance divination. Pansies can be worn, carried, kept on an altar, or potted nearby to draw romance, enhance your psychic faculties, and ensure clearer answers when performing love-related readings.
- Pansy as an omen: Those wishing to gauge the longevity and health of a romantic relationship can plant or carefully observe a patch of pansies. If the flowers thrive, the relationship will prosper alongside them. If they wilt or fail to grow, the romance is likely to face a similar fate.
SOURCES & FURTHER READING:
- 110 Magical Flowers and How to Use Them
- A Curious Herbal: Containing Five-Hundred Cuts of the Most Useful Plants, which are now used in the Practice of Physick. Vol. I (1737); Blackwell, Elizabeth
- Bilder ur Nordens Flora (1905); Lindman, C.A.M.
- Billeder af Nordens Flora (1901); Lindman, C.A.M.; Mentz, A; Ostenfeld, C.H.
- Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (1984); Cunningham, Scott
- Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen; Vol. I (1887); Köhler, Hermann Adolph
- Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen; Vol. II (1890); Köhler, Hermann Adolph
- Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen; Vol. III (1898); Köhler, Hermann Adolph
- The Master Book of Herbalism (1984); Beyerl, Paul
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