HOW TO USE
The original instructions for this divination method in the book call for a variety of flowers from a pre-set list to be assembled, then each person in turn approaches the table with the vase of flowers, closes their eyes, selects a flower at random, and checks the list for the assigned meaning to that flower. As to whether the person then keeps the flower they selected or returns that flower to the vase for another participant to potentially select, I don’t recall, so I guess it’s your call.
For those who want to perform this divination method the traditional way, below is a PDF of the said pre-set list of flowers to be used in this divination method and their meanings:
If you’re feeling innovative, confident, and care to go to the expense of acquiring a small selection of books on ‘the language of flowers’, you could even grab whatever random selection of flowers you can find and look for their possible meanings from the books. There is much to be said for performing a divination method in the original spirit and traditional way it was devised. It can bring you closer to the true essence of the thing.
But unless you have a garden, or access to a garden which contains all these flowers, then you may be having to check half a dozen florist shops or flower vendors for the requisite flowers on the list, and who has that kind of time? To make it easier, I have created a flower oracle deck, the PDF of which appears below:
Confession: a few of these flowers and their meanings have been added by me, in order to make the card-count on the PDF come out evenly, and to add occupations which the book didn’t originally include. This deck is basically two different decks. Half the deck, the cards in full-color, are the cards which indicate a key characteristic or trait of a future love or spouse. The other half of the deck, the cards done in gray-scale, are the cards which indicate what their occupation is.
In printing out this deck, you’ll want to use the card-back design on page 5 of the PDF for the color cards on pages 1 through 4, and the card-back design on page 11 for the occupation cards on pages 7 through 10, in order to help distinguish the two different halves of the deck from each other.
To use the deck, shuffle each half of the deck separately, then lay them out face-down on a table. As another option, you may want to leave each half of the deck as a face-down pile, and everyone takes a turn shuffling, then drawing a card at random from somewhere in the pile. The key thing, of course, is that at no point in this are you supposed to see which card you’re choosing, so the pile must remain face-down at all times.
The book makes clear the inquirer will first be looking for the key character trait of their future lover or spouse, then seeking out this person’s occupation. But as a variation on this approach, I think you could lay them out all at once, then have each participant select one of each kind of card, a character trait card and an occupation card. And if, by chance, a participant selects two character-trait cards or two occupation cards by accident, who knows? Maybe that is all the Spirits have to tell them, and the other factor in this person’s make-up is not as important.
As always, it’s best to calm and center yourself, focusing on obtaining a true answer to the questions this deck answers, before consulting the deck, even if you’re just doing it as an amusement with non-divination-believing participants. Hey, it may just come true! The couplet used with another card-reading technique I’ve covered is a good one to use, if you want something to recite:
An answer true I seek to find,
And take what comes with quiet mind.
Having the cards face-down on a table obviously eliminates the need for the participant to close their eyes before choosing, but doing both will give the whole process an extra-degree of randomness. You may have to do some shuffling-around between turns, so that nobody memorizes which card is where.
If you have few-enough participants, and sufficient curiosity, you may want to do a second or even a third round with these cards, because certainly people have more than one personality trait, and may have had more than one occupation in their life. Your future love’s occupation could be an amalgamation of two or three cards, or they may hold-down multiple jobs. The more personality traits and occupation cards you have in hand, the better picture you have the sort of person who is coming into your life. If someone just wants to go with one of each kind of card, that’s fine; going with one’s intuition is important, and nobody should feel TMI’ed here. Just ask ‘does anybody wish to draw a second (or third) round of cards?’ and leave it at that.