Poppies are a common wildflower in many parts of the world, found in fields as well as gardens, and are available in a number of varieties. Their blooms may be single or double, and can be just about any colour. All parts of the plant are toxic, except for the seeds, which may be eaten.
In the U.K. common poppies flower from June to September, so they give me summer and harvest vibes. They will flower in cracks in the pavement, so as well as delicate beauty, they make me think of tenacity and determination, and success against all odds. They’re one of my favourite flowers precisely because of their tenacious nature. I admire their strength and ephemeral beauty.
Poppies are often associated with love, due to the red colour of “traditional” poppies, however the correspondences most associated with them are death and remembrance. The poem “In Flanders Fields” by John McRae references poppies growing between the graves of World War I military personnel, and nods to the sheer brutality of war. The associations with death and remembrance go back a long way - the Egyptians apparently used poppies in their funerary rites some 3000 years ago, and they represented eternal sleep to the Romans. Both cultures also recognised their association with new life: they made garlands of common poppies to celebrate the gods and ensure the fertility of their crops. In Greek mythology, Thanatos, the God of Death, wore a crown of poppies.
Here in the U.K. white poppies are worn - sometimes with the red poppy - which stand for three things: a commitment to peace, remembrance for all victims of war, and as a challenge to those who would celebrate or glamourise war. Purple poppies are worn to remember the animal victims of war. As the wife of a veteran, the poppy is an important symbol in our home.
Magickal Correspondences for Poppy:
Gender: Feminine
Planet: Moon
Element: Water
Magical Associations: love, fertility, death, peace, remembrance, ancestor work, imagination, strength, tenacity, determination, regeneration, success against the odds, summer, the harvest, strength.
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