CONCLUSION

With this divination method, the answers you receive can change over time. The sort of answer you’ll receive as a seventeen-year-old won’t necessarily be the same kind of answer you’ll receive as a twenty-eight-year-old, a forty-two-year-old, or a sixty-three-year-old. If you are the sort who will keep long-term notes from your divination practice, it might be interesting to do this flower oracle at various times in your life, just to see how your answers change—or stay the same.

This is the kind of specialized divination method which might be fun to try on Valentine’s Day, Beltane, Summer Solstice (a traditional time for divining about one’s future spouse), or at a bridal shower. For the nosy, one might even be able to use this divination method to find out what sort of person others of their acquaintance are likely to become involved with. It’s the kind of divination method which I can easily foresee leading to lively conversation and moments of hilarity and outrage. Whatever your reason for using it, I hope you find the Flower Oracle fun and enlightening to use. And may all your future loves be everything you desire!

SOURCE MATERIAL: Martin, Kevin. The Complete Gypsy Fortune Teller. New York: Putnam, 1970. Pp. 274-275.

NEXT LESSON: Will be more general, and not so love-and-marriage-specific.

EXERCISES

  1. Ask the Flower Oracle deck the two questions as they relate to yourself. Note the answers you receive and file them away. What sort of picture do they paint for you of this future love? Return to them a few years from now. Did they come true? Can you see why you drew the answer cards you drew?
  2. Ask the Flower Oracle deck the two questions as they relate to someone you know. Given what you know of this person, do these answers sound like someone you could picture this person with? Note the answers you receive and file them away. Return to them a few years from now. Did this person meet anyone who matched this description?
  3. EXTRA CREDIT: do the Flower Oracle ritual, using real flowers. You can ask about yourself or someone else. You can follow the guide I included in this lesson, or, if feeling ambitious, compile your own set of flowers, using meanings from other sources. Note the answers you receive to the two questions. Did they match or concur with the answers you received from the cards? Was one or the other approach more accurate, in your opinion? Return to your notes a few years from now. Did things manifest, as predicted?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

For those more interested in the language of Flowers, the following are a few titles on the subject I keep on hand:

Kirby, Mandy. A Victorian Flower Dictionary. New York: Ballantine Books, 2011. ISBN: 978-0-345-53296-1. 187 pages

This book goes into great depth about fifty specific flowers, followed by a glossary of flowers and their meanings.

Kleager, Brenda Jenkins. Secret Meanings of Flowers: Including Trees, Shrubs and Vines. Huntsville, Alabama: Treasured Secrets Publishing Company, 2013. ISBN: 978-0979376436. 288 pages.

This book lists several potential meanings for most of the plants it covers.

McCabe, James D. The Language and Sentiment of Flowers. Bedford, Massachusetts: Applewood Books, 2003. ISBN: 978-1-55709-384-4. 96 pages.

This book is more of a straightforward presentation of flowers and meanings. It’s divided into flower-meaning and meaning-flower sections.

Pages: 123