Transcript
Speaker: Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft and the occult but feel lost on where to start? Then welcome to Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey.
Speaker: Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we've learned about the craft. So get in witches as we explore botanomancy and floromancy.
Speaker: I want to know what Anthony and have been rewatching. What? Fucking True Blood. Really? I've never actually watched it. We watched it every week as it came out originally. Okay. It's okay.
Speaker: Definitely cheesy. Season one, the acting is fucking terrible. Yes. Yeah. That's why I stopped. Like, I but think i watched the first couple of episodes and I was like, what the fuck is this? It gets really good. Yeah. okay Well, and I also read the books too before it became a TV show. So I was already like invested in the story of Sookie Stackhouse and her sexual conquest. It is. It is. Okay. We love it. I mean, enough that it popped up on HBO when we were like, let's rewatch True Blood. And we've been watching an episode every day, like with dinner. We'll eat dinner and watch an episode of True Blood together. So cute. Yeah. Yeah. But it's like,
Speaker: It's super cheesy, but also really good. Like it hooks you. And we're on season two right now. And season two has a church element, but they really nailed down the way the church targets like specific people that they can really just like reel into their like belief system and like manipulate them. yeah and it was really funny because growing up, like my mom used to send me away in the summers to church camp. And there's a whole scene of them like – these aren't kids, right? Like these are adults and they're like – it's a vampire-hating church kind of thing where they're like manipulating people to hate vampires. It's a whole situation. But they have this whole like scene of them like –
Speaker: And it's in a, like, church camp environment, essentially. And I looked at Anthony and I was like, I just want you to know church camp is really like this. And he was like, this is so fucking awkward. no It's also so fucking accurate. Oh, I always wanted to go to church camp growing up because Oklahoma and all my friends to church camp. They all went to Falls Creek every year. I'm just like, I just want to go. And my parents were like, no, you're not going to that. And I'm just looking back.
Speaker: i'm I'm glad that they said no. Yeah. I will say i had a great time at church camp for the aspect, and this is something Anthony and I have talked about recently, because um this girl that he went to school with, you know we grew up in different towns, but I was really close to this girl that went to school with him, um and her name's Kim, and her and I used to go to church camp together like our parents would send us. And while it was like you had to get up and you had to go to praise and worship and do all the weird churchy shit, you also got to take classes like beekeeping and archaeology and like shoot bow and arrows for an hour or go like – so we did all these like fun things and then we were like, well, it's time to go to church because it was like after every meal you had to go to church. Yeah. do like praise and worship and then get a church sermon and then you could go back out to your classes. So I did get to do a lot of fun stuff because of church camp, like stuff that most kids wouldn't get to just you know take a beekeeping class or something. But you also have to go to church every day three times a day. so right Yeah. I just –
Speaker: As a parent now, like as a kid, i've like even watching – what is that one movie with Lindsay Lohan where she like meets her twin at camp? oh Is that the parent trap? I think it is. i think it is a parent trap. Yeah.
Speaker: Not that we didn't grow up with that movie or anything. Yeah. But like even watching that, I'm like, oh my God, I want to go to camp so bad. Or like the Addams Family when they go to camp. like I'm just this is looks like, this looks so much fun. it Just like a regular summer camp. Yeah.
Speaker: There is no fucking way I'm sending my kids to camp. I feel like, I don't know, as a kid that went to a camp, I would definitely, I mean, obviously you would have to vet the camp, right? Yeah. You would have to make sure that this is like legitimate and has something that you could be like, okay, this is a real thing and everything's fine.
Speaker: shit's going to happen regardless, right? Like yeah you can send your kids to school and shit's going to happen. as a kid that went to camp, like I think it was, I had more good experiences than I did bad. And that was at a church camp.
Speaker: So. i just don't think my potential OCD diagnosis would allow me to do that. I get that. So as I think if I had kids, I mean, I don't know, you know, I don't, I don't have kids and I am very particular about stuff for my dog. So who knows? Maybe it would be different if it was my child, but I feel like no kids. Tiffany is still thinking if I had kids, I'd probably let them go to a camp.
Speaker: Yeah. But I would do, ah I would definitely like vet the shit out of that place. I don't trust anyone. Anyway. You're hilarious. Anyways, we're not talking about weird church camps. We're not. We're not. Or even just regular summer camps today.
Speaker: No, we're not. What? What are we talking about? Well. If I don't fuck up how to say it. Botanomancy. Did I say it correctly? Botanomancy. Botanomancy. Yeah, I think botanical, but botana. Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, well, that makes sense. That's what we're covering today. Yeah. Well, and I originally, I had it as botomancy, which I guess is like an offshoot name for it. It was like a name that came Mm. So.
Speaker: o so I guess with that, I'm going to kick us off with botanomancy. So botanomancy is one of the oldest forms of plant divination, and it's a practice that blends working with plants, fire, observation, and symbolism to seek guidance or insights.
Speaker: The name comes from the ancient Greek word batano, meaning plant or herb, and mantia, meaning divination or prophecy. So batanomancy literally translates to divination by plants. And over time, the practice has been referred to by several different names. Two include batinomancy,
Speaker: bottomancy and botanomancy instead of botanomancy. It's literally just an O instead of an A in that one. And I was like, that's why did you have to do that? Right. You know what it reminds me of? It's it's like what I think happened in history is People were doing this. It was actually called botanomancy, but then people couldn't say it or like they didn't know how to spell it. And so that's why we have all these different... Or referred to as but blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, probably. So botanomancy is often used as an umbrella term for divination involving plants in general, with more specialized practices branching off into methods that focus on flowers, leaves, trees, or specific species.
Speaker: The roots of botanomancy stretch back thousands of years and appear in several ancient cultures. It's been practiced by many civilizations throughout history, including the Babylonians, the Scythians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Arabians, showing that plant divination wasn't limited to just one culture or tradition.
Speaker: One of the earliest traditions connects it to the Druids who held trees, especially the oak, as sacred, and they believed trees housed powerful spirits and wisdom, making them natural tools for divination and communication with the unseen.
Speaker: References to plant divination also appear in the Old Testament, suggesting that using plants as a way to seek signs or guidance was known across different cultures as well as religious traditions.
Speaker: The Romans also practiced forms of botanomancy showing just how widespread the style of divination became throughout the ancient world. And something interesting that I read is that botanomancy is often considered a branch of pyromancy, which is divination through fire, if that wasn't obvious.
Speaker: And instead of simply observing the flames, practitioners focused on what happened when specific plants were burned. So although many people associated botanomancy with burning herbs and branches, the practice is broader than that.
Speaker: And at its core, it's simply divination through plants and plant materials with different cultures developing their own unique methods. So let's look at some of these methods and how botanomancy is practiced.
Speaker: There wasn't just one method, obviously. Different cultures and practitioners developed several ways of working with plants depending on the tools and traditions that they followed. One of the most common methods involved burning sacred plants and watching what happened during and after the fire.
Speaker: While this method involved burning branches, leaves, or herbs, practitioners weren't just watching the fire itself. They observed every part of the process, including the flames, smoke, ashes, sounds, and even how the plant material burned or broke apart.
Speaker: The entire ritual was considered meaningful. Herbs like vervain were especially popular along with briar and other thorny or woody plants, as well as sage and fig leaves.
Speaker: Sometimes a question was carved directly into the branch before it was placed in the fire, and then as it burned, the smoke, ashes, and even the behavior of the flames were interpreted as the answer.
Speaker: Practitioners also paid close attention to the sounds that plants made. Things like crackling, popping, or even the way a plant broke apart when it was crushed by hand could all carry a symbolic meaning.
Speaker: This reflects something you'll see across many definition traditions in general. The answer wasn't necessarily considered random. Instead, it was believed that nature responded in meaningful ways when approached with intention.
Speaker: Another form of practice involved the observation of growth patterns of plants or other aspects within their appearance and behavior that could be considered signs related to questions being asked.
Speaker: In a book titled Jewish Magic that was published in 1939 by Jewish folklorist Joshua Trachtenberg, there was a written botanomancy ritual.
Speaker: The ritual instructed someone to go into a field after sunset on a Monday, specifically, find a yellow broad-leafed mallow plant, face east,
Speaker: dig a small hole, bow, circle the spot, and recite a charm asking the plant to reveal whether a planned venture would succeed.
Speaker: And then the next morning, the condition of the plant became the answer. So if the plant remained healthy and blooming, it was considered a favorable sign. If it had drooped or wilted, the venture was believed to be unlikely to succeed.
Speaker: There was also a passage in Jacques Ferrand's book titled, and buckle up for this title because it's long, Treaties Discoursing of the Essence Causes and Cure of Love or Erotic Melancholy. I read that. I had to read it like four times. I was like, hold on, wait, what?
Speaker: but ah So it stated that botanomancy is done by the noise or crackling of knee home, box or bay leaves. And when they're crushed betwixt one's hands or cast into the fire. And this just further showed the relationship between plants and fire within the divinatory practice.
Speaker: In medieval England, women blew the white seed clusters of the dandelion plant as a form of botanomancy. So the number of puffs of air that were needed to release all of the seeds would indicate the number of years that a woman would have to wait to find love. Which I feel means that all of us at some point in our art like of our lives have practiced botanomancy because who hasn't blown like the little dandelion? Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, we've all done it. Yeah. So all of us have practiced botanomancy at one point. In colonial America, women would throw apple peels onto a table or onto the floor. And the pattern that was created with the apple skins was supposed to indicate the first letter of their future husband's name.
Speaker: And then in southern India, people study the patterns of coconut interiors to forecast the future of an unborn baby. So let's look at some ways that you could work divination with plants.
Speaker: So different plants carry different symbolism, making plant selection an important part of the practice. And I'm going to list a few, but obviously we cover like...
Speaker: correspondences of plants or plants that correspond to specific things on this podcast all the time. So just use your own knowledge, go with your instincts. But here's just a few popular ones.
Speaker: So vervain was often associated with purification, protection, and spiritual work, which likely contributed to its popularity and divination. Briar with its thorns may have represented obstacles, protection, or challenges that needed to be understood.
Speaker: Sage has long been connected with wisdom and cleansing, making it another natural choice for spiritual practice. Fig leaves became important enough to inspire their own specialized form of divination called sycamancy. And so sycamancy is essentially a branch of botanomancy that focuses specifically on the fig leaf.
Speaker: And in this method, you would take the leaf and and write names, letters, or questions directly onto them. And then you would expose the leaves to the wind and the ones that remained were believed to reveal the answer or identify the person or outcome connected to the question.
Speaker: While this is a simple practice, it does show how botanomancy wasn't limited to just fire like it's often portrayed. ah So natural forces like wind could also become part of the divination process.
Speaker: And rather than using just one sacred plant, botanomancy could be practiced with herbs, leaves, branches, flowers, or even other parts of the plant.
Speaker: This specific plant often just depended on the local traditions or the type of questions that were being asked. From a modern perspective, while botanomancy isn't widely practiced today in its historical form, many of its ideas live on in modern nature-based spiritual traditions.
Speaker: So working intentionally with herbs, observing seasonal changes, creating rituals around sacred plants, and finding meaning in the natural world all echo themes found in botanomancy.
Speaker: Whether someone approaches it as a historical curiosity, a spiritual practice, or simply just like an interesting piece of folklore, botanomancy reminds us that our ancestors often viewed the natural world as something that could communicate if you knew how to listen.
Speaker: Even if you don't believe plants literally provide answers, it's fascinating to see how many cultures looked to the natural world for guidance and meaning. It also reminds us that much of our history, the forest, the garden, and even just a single leaf weren't just part of the landscape, but they were seen as living participants in humanity's search for wisdom.
Speaker: And lastly, If you're interested in exploring botanomancy for yourself, my biggest recommendation is to start by learning the correspondences and the traditional uses of the plants and herbs that you want to work with. So while I mentioned vervain, fig, briar, and sage as historical examples, our longtime listeners know that we've covered plant correspondences in many of our episodes, and our plant-focused episodes go into much more detail about their magical and traditional uses. So having that foundation will help you choose plants intentionally and give you a deeper understanding of why you might work with one herb over another as you begin your botanomancy practice. And that's all I found. I found a lot of websites that covered botanomancy, but they were all the same information, almost word for word.
Speaker: but yeah You know what? That's also what I found whenever I was looking up Floromancy. With that, yeah here is some information on Floromancy, which is either spelt like flora with an A or fluoro with two O's. That's why. It's spelled interchangeably um whenever you need it. I always find it funny and hard when we're doing episodes where it's like, AKA, and then we're like trying to figure out how to pronounce it in enough of a way that we can show the difference. Right. Like I'm like...
Speaker: What did I say? The one with the eye always threw me off when I was trying to read through my notes before. Botanomancy? Yeah. Or then it was like, but it's Botano, Botano, Botino. And it's like trying to figure out how to enunciate just right so that you guys as listeners can hear those differences because we're looking at them on paper where we can see the different letters.
Speaker: Yeah. But yeah, so for floromancy, this is the practice of divination through flowers. It comes from the Latin word flora for flowers, obviously, and the Greek mentia, which means divination, as Tiffany already mentioned.
Speaker: Unlike botanomancy, which Tiffany has already covered and includes all plants, floromancy focuses specifically on flowers and their blossoms. Floromancy is based on a belief that flowers radiate different vibrations and that they react to the environment and can show us signs based on that.
Speaker: So as far as historical references, Floromancy is one of the oldest forms of divination that uses flowers to gain insight into the future. During the 16th century, flowers were used as a way to convey coded messages and people would exchange flowers not just because they were beautiful, but because of the symbolic messages that were assigned to them.
Speaker: In Victorian England, floromancy was used for love divination. And in this practice, you would take two flowers that have yet that haven't yet bloomed and put the initials of the lovers on the stems.
Speaker: After that, the flowers would be placed in a secret place for 10 days. And then whoever was divining would observe the flowers after the 10 days and determine if the couple would marry, depending on things like if the flowers twined together or something, which I thought was kind of cute. That is cute.
Speaker: The Victorian era was also the era where floromancy became really popular and people would meditate with living plants and divine messages from their shapes, their patterns, any flaws or peculiar peculiarities.
Speaker: Peculiarity. I hate that word. That is a word I struggle with. Peculiarities in the plant or flowers. And they also popularized asking a question while sprinkling flower petals into a bowl of water, either by moonlight or candlelight.
Speaker: As far as traditional methods of floromancy, the first is obviously and the most recognizable is petal divination. This is the he loves me, he loves me not game that we all played as a kid most likely. and again, we've all been practicing botanomancy and floromancy essentially. Yeah.
Speaker: And it just shows how folk magic has survived through children's games. And we see this a lot with many different things, whether it be songs or other practices.
Speaker: Another one flower omens. And so with this method of floromancy, it goes back to seeing a first flower of spring and tying it to the day of the week the flower is found and how they could be significant together. So for instance, if a flower is found on Monday, this means good fortune for the rest of the season. If the first flower of spring is found on a Tuesday, this means your greatest efforts would be rewarded.
Speaker: the flower is found on Wednesday, this means a marriage is coming. Thursday corresponds with being cautious and vigilant throughout the season. Friday ties back to riches and wealth coming to you.
Speaker: Saturday, this is an unlucky day. Miss Fortune is on the way. No. No. Sunday means a lucky spring. And if the flower that is found is a wildflower, it is said that someone with the same initial of the name of the flower found would be attracted to you.
Speaker: You know, i wonder because today we have a very structured like work life. Essentially, most of us, you know, if we work a normal job, we work Monday through Friday, meaning that we wouldn't likely be out somewhere to find a first flower Monday through Friday. But then you're out on a Saturday and you're like, look at the first flower. And you're like, never mind. i don't want it. yeah I actually didn't see that. Yeah. But I wonder like, you know, if this is back, you know, originally where this was being practiced, most women, their work was in the home. And so they were, you know, out and doing things and it could just be any random time of day. Yeah. Or like ti day of the week or whatever. So it's interesting to see these things and then think about how it could connect to today.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. And then another traditional method of floromancy is receiving certain flowers as messages, as I mentioned. So if you receive... So I looked this up. I thought, okay, I thought this was pronounced anemones, but then online it says it's anemones. I've only heard anemones. Anemone? Okay. Yeah.
Speaker: So if you receive anemones, for instance, it means your love is basically over or coming to an end. So do not ever give me anemones as flowers. Thank you very much. Okay. If you receive forget-me-nots, it's a sign of true love and consistency.
Speaker: if you receive snowdrops, this is hope for love. And snowdrops, I mean, just in general is a very hopeful little bloom. So um i thought that was really cute. Yeah.
Speaker: Sunflowers correspond with warm feelings. Red tulips is a declaration of love. Red roses equate to passion. Yellow roses to friendships. And pink roses to appreciation and admiration. And this is just a very small snippet of different flowers and what the messages would be if you receive them.
Speaker: You can look up any any flower and figure out what that message would be. These are just like the top ones, okay? Yeah. ah And then another traditional method of floromancy is flower scrying. And this includes floating petals in water and then watching how the flower petals drift.
Speaker: Do they cluster together? Do they separate? Does a particular bloom or petals stay floating longer? Are there any reflections in the water? All of these things um tie into flower scrying.
Speaker: And then additionally, there's something called bouquet reading. And as floromancy evolved over time, it also included divination within the bouquets of the flowers that were that the flowers were arranged in. And this includes looking at the position of the flowers, the flower type, the color, which bloom naturally draws you in, and the combination of the blooms to impart a specific meaning. So speaking of colors, when it comes to flowers, pink represents unconditional love, happiness, this pure innocence, and femininity.
Speaker: Red means passion or deep desire. White corresponds with purity, spirituality, perfection, and sympathy. Blue represents peace, tranquility, prosperity, friendship, and immortality. Violet represents grace, refinement, elegance, royalty, and beauty. Green represents rebirth, renewal, good fortune, good health, and the promise of new beginnings. Yellow represents joy, happiness, energy, pride, and friendship. And orange represents enthusiasm, excitement, exuberance, and a bold passion for life.
Speaker: And as far as working with flowers in witchcraft, as you probably could already surmise, you can use flowers in your magical workings. And if you've listened to probably any of our other episodes, you would know that flowers are often associated with specific energies, deities, seasons, intentions, et cetera.
Speaker: One of the easiest ways to do this is to understand what certain flowers are associated with. And this is not an exhaustive list because then we would be here all day, but here are a few. So roses correspond with love, self-love, beauty, passion, emotional healing, and psychic dreams. Lavender is associated with peace, sleep, purification, protection,
Speaker: and calming anxious thoughts. Chamomile is associated with prosperity, luck, restful sleep, and happiness. Marigolds are associated with honoring ancestors, protection, remembrance, and solar magic. And daisies are associated with innocence, hope, and new beginnings.
Speaker: And flowers can also be a focal point of your spell or enhance a spell working. So if you use spell jars, you can add flowers that align with your intention to that spell jar. For candle magic, you can either burn dried petals in the candle or you can dress your candles with crushed flower petals. And so with this, what you would do is, you know, obviously... anoint your candle with a particular oil and then sprinkle the petals around the candle, pressing them into the um the oil. Or you could even light a candle, like a pillar candle, and press them into the wax and stick them on the candle, depending on how you want to do it. I mean, there there are a plethora of different ways that you can incorporate flower petals in candle magic, but those are just two of the moat like two of the most popular ones.
Speaker: And then additionally, you can carry sachets of dried flower petals with you or near you. For instance, lavender under your pillow, rose petals for self-love, chamomile or bay leaves in your wallet, etc. And then you could also use flowers in your bath. So you can in infuse your bath water with dried flowers and especially like quail.
Speaker: using those correspondences of what do you want to bring into your life? Use those sort of flowers in your bath. And there's also something called intuitive floromancy.
Speaker: I pulled this from a practitioner called Susan Jane, and she's created this intuitive floromancy practice called intuitive nature flower mancy, which blends historical floromancy with their own modern practices.
Speaker: And essentially with this, you would choose the flower that calls to you rather than drawing cards or selecting from flowers that are in season. You intentionally choose a flower, even if it's a drawing or photograph of the flower.
Speaker: And the flower becomes a mirror that reflects your current emotional, spiritual, or personal journey. And it helps you to gain clarity on the situation. So in this system, every flower every part of the flower also has meaning from the color, the petals, the stem, the leaves, the size, the shape, et cetera. And it's really tying floromancy in with your own intuition is essentially at the core of this. And if this style of floromancy intrigues you, Susan Jane has a ton of articles and courses on her website that dive much deeper into this topic. And we have her website listed in our show notes.
Speaker: So looking at some easy floromancy practices that we can all practice, one of the easiest things you could do is keep a flower journal. And this could be keeping flowers from important events or meaningful days and press them into your journal. Or say if you're going on a walk or something, or you see a flower that you really like, take it and press it into your journal, write about how you feel. and then asking a question and noticing what flowers appear naturally during the week. So you could ask a question,
Speaker: put it out to the universe, and then whatever flower that you see, whether it be multiple of multiple sightings of the same flower, or maybe just the first flower you see after you send that question up to the universe, you could interpret that as well.
Speaker: Another thing that you could do is create a seasonal flower altar. And so going off of the wheel of the year and really thinking about what flowers represent to you for specific seasons.
Speaker: And then also doing some flower scrying with floating petals in a bowl of water and interpreting the patterns, as I mentioned earlier. But that is Floromancy.
Speaker: And I will share that if you are somebody that wants to practice this and you're really interested in the idea of pressing flowers. um The Herbal Academy actually has this really cute little flower press that you can buy out of their shop. I'm sure there are other places you can get one. That's just the the only place that I've ever seen it, but I'm sure if I looked, I've never looked it up. But, you know, i I've taken a lot of courses with the Herbal Academy and there's a super cute, it's like very natural wood and you it's like, don't, it's very old school and I think that's why I love it so much. Yeah. I haven't bought it, but I have thought about it because I grow a lot of flowers and I was like, that would always be cute to like kind of track the seasons, like the flowers that were in the garden or whatever.
Speaker: I've just never done it, but just a thought. Yeah, that is interesting. Yeah, but that is botanomancy and floromancy.
Speaker: That's a wrap on this episode of Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. We hope you had as much fun as we did. If you love this episode, we'd be eternally grateful if you left us a five-star review wherever you listen to your podcasts. It helps more witches, seekers, and magical misfits find our show.
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