The Magic of Flowers: A Guide to Their Metaphysical Uses & Properties - Tess Whitehurst 2013

Introduction

Ihave always wanted a book like this on my shelf: a useful, practical reference guide to the magic of flowers. As a matter of fact, I’ve pined for it for years! After years of working with floral aromas and flower essences, after countless lovely moments in quiet contemplation with living blossoms, and after I wrote and published two magic-related books and innumerable magic-related articles, it finally occurred to me: “Hey, I could write that book!”

And I have so enjoyed it! First of all, I had a good excuse to make regular trips to a local botanical garden. As if that weren’t enough, once I got there, I spent exquisite quality time with the flowers, tuning in to their unique vibrations and taking notes on wisdom they wanted to share. Then, as I wrote each entry, I ferreted out and studied existing literature about the blossom’s magical and traditional uses. Sometimes I found a lot of information about a flower, and sometimes I found little or none. But whenever I found information—for example, the flower’s meaning in the Victorian language of flowers, the mythical origin of the flower’s name, or a traditional folk charm employing the blossom—I found that it resonated very deeply with the wisdom I had received from the blossoms themselves.

At first this felt uncanny and even miraculous, but in time I came to feel that it was the most natural thing in the world. What I mean is, once you enter into the realm of flower magic, you begin to recognize the energetic signatures of blossoms in the same way you can recognize whether a person is happy or sad, or in the same way you can hear what someone is trying to say if you just quiet down and listen. Flowers, after all, give one the feeling that they are closer to the etheric realm of pure energy than the tangible, physical realm. And dwelling as they do on the border between seen and unseen, they allow us to see beyond the veil of duality and into the heart of truth. So, naturally, sensitive flower enthusiasts from all time periods and all cultures, when tuning in to the wisdom and magical signature of a blossom, would pick up on similar aspects.

To frame this concept a different way, consider that songs are geometrical patterns that convey emotion and vibration in a universally recognized way. In fact, a 2008 study at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences has effectively demonstrated that people are frequently able to identify the emotions in songs from cultures that they are all but completely unfamiliar with. Similarly, each flower possesses what might be seen as its own unique, recognizable energetic signature, though everyone’s experience of the flower will naturally be somewhat different based on his or her emotional makeup and current life situation.

With this in mind, it is my intention for this book to be a window into this subtle and whimsical—yet very real—realm of flower magic. Then you may have your own direct, transcendent experiences with these mystical beings, who can serve as therapists, healers, and emissaries of the Divine.