The Floral Oracle by Catherine and Nagasiva Yronwode: Difference between revisions

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File:Holly.jpg| The Holly, with its prickly evergreen leaves and its cheerful red berries, is a plant of contradictions. Of course the stickery leaves stand for defense against physical intrusion and spiritual attacks -- but a sprig of Holly leaves and berries against a field of snow is heart-warming and a Holly planted by the front door signifies domestic happiness within. The Holly King is the ruler of the Pagan season of Yule, and although Holly is not often given in a bouquet, it is the custom to "deck the halls with boughs of Holly" to celebrate the turn of the year and the joy of the holidays.
File:Holly.jpg| The Holly, with its prickly evergreen leaves and its cheerful red berries, is a plant of contradictions. Of course the stickery leaves stand for defense against physical intrusion and spiritual attacks -- but a sprig of Holly leaves and berries against a field of snow is heart-warming and a Holly planted by the front door signifies domestic happiness within. The Holly King is the ruler of the Pagan season of Yule, and although Holly is not often given in a bouquet, it is the custom to "deck the halls with boughs of Holly" to celebrate the turn of the year and the joy of the holidays.


File:Hollyhock.jpg|The Hollyhock or Alcea is a close relative of the Marshmallow or Althaea in the great Mallow or Malva family. Its other plant-cousins include Rose-of-Sharon, Hibiscus, Okra, Cotton, Cacao, and the Linden or Tillia tree. What visually distinguishes the Hollyhock from the Marshmallow -- Alcea from Althaea -- is the Hollyhock's upward form of growth and larger blossoms. Hollyhocks are generally the tallest flowers in any garden, and a group of them in bloom is a grand sight indeed. Their height has earned them the floriographic meanings of Ambition and Aspiration.                                                                                                             
File:Hollyhock.jpg|The Hollyhock or Alcea is a close relative of the Marshmallow or Althaea in the great Mallow or Malva family. Its other plant-cousins include Rose-of-Sharon, Hibiscus, Okra, Cotton, Cacao, and the Linden or Tillia tree. What visually distinguishes the Hollyhock from the Marshmallow -- Alcea from Althaea -- is the Hollyhock's upward form of growth and showier blossoms. Hollyhocks are generally the tallest flowers in any garden, and a group of them in bloom is a grand sight indeed. Their height has earned them the floriographic meanings of Ambition and Aspiration.                                                                                                             


File:Honeysuckle.jpg|The Honeysuckle is a vining shrub that bears long, tube-like flowers. In some species the flowers change from virginal white to yellow-gold as they mature and fade; other are two-toned in pink and yellow. The nectar within the flower tubes is sweet to the taste and so copious that people suck it out as a treat, which is why the plant is called "Honeysuckle." Due to its twining growth and delectable nectar, the Honeysuckle symbolizes the sweet bonds of love. Additionally, it is a favourite food-flower of Hummingbirds, which are themselves a symbol of honest and true love.  
File:Honeysuckle.jpg|The Honeysuckle is a vining shrub that bears long, tube-like flowers. In some species the flowers change from virginal white to yellow-gold as they mature and fade; other are two-toned in pink and yellow. The nectar within the flower tubes is sweet to the taste and so copious that people suck it out as a treat, which is why the plant is called "Honeysuckle." Due to its twining growth and delectable nectar, the Honeysuckle symbolizes the sweet bonds of love. Additionally, it is a favourite food-flower of Hummingbirds, which are themselves a symbol of honest and true love.  

Revision as of 02:08, 10 September 2024

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The Floral Oracle, Part One
The Floral Oracle, Part Two
The Floral Oracle, Part Three
The Floral Oracle, Part Four

In this installment of "Your Wate and Fate," we take a sneak-peek look at an upcoming page that will eventually be on display to the public. As a Patreon supporter, you have access to the page one full year before the public does.

  • Part One: Patreon Release Date: September 7th, 2022
  • Part One: Public Release Date: September 7th, 2023.
  • Part Two: Patreon Release Date: September 14th, 2022
  • Part Two: Public Release Date: September 14th, 2023.
  • Part Three: Patreon Release Date: November 7th, 2022
  • Part Three: Public Release Date: November 7th, 2023.
  • Part Four: Patreon Release Date: November 14th, 2022
  • Part Four: Public Release Date: November 14th, 2023.

Please tell your friends that they can subscribe to my Patreon stream for $2.00 per week:

To discuss this and other Your Wate and Fate pages with me, join my private Patreon Forum here:

Support Your Wate and Fate

All of the material you have access to here -- the instructive booklets, the nostalgic business cards, the boldly graphic postcards, and all of the historical information researched and shared from the mind of the woman who is making it all happen -- can easily fit into one 8 x 10 foot room in an old Victorian farmhouse, but you would never see it without the investment of the time it takes to produce such a site and the caloric input such a site requires in the form of food for the writer, graphic designer, and database manager, as well as the US currency needed to pay for the computers, software applications, scanners, electricity, and internet connectivity that bring it out of that little room and into the world. So, as you can see, this site is the darling of many, and it is growing at a rapid rate ... but although it is "free," there also is a cost. Your financial support underwrites this cost.

Each new web page or sample pdf is circulated to Patrons as an unpublished galley proof or advance copy. After one year access for Patrons, each web page will be released to the public, while book pages will be available to the public as printed books, and copies will be sent to Patrons who subscribe at the upper two tiers.

Patrons have access to a Private Patreon sub-forum within the Lucky Mojo Forum, and will be accorded special Red Star Avatar badges at the Forum.




Floriography or The Language of Flowers

Hi, this is cat. As many of you know, nagasiva and i have been producing mini-ads that announce when i am online at Hoodoo Psychics.

(Wait. Stop. If you don't know about Hoodoo Psychics, it is the coolest psychic line on the internet. Go to HoodooPsychics.com right now and check it out. If you go to the Hoodoo Psychics Facebook page at facebook/com/hoodoopsychics and like it, you can sign up for a FREE PSYCHIC READING GIVEAWAY every Monday, and if you win, you can pick any Hoodoo Psychics reader you want, including me!)

Okay, so starting in October 2020, i made a commitment to go live on Hoodoo Psychics once a week. To let people know when i was available, i wrote, and siva photoshopped, one entry of floral symbolism each week, to fit the Facebook and Lucky Mojo Forum format. For research, i consulted my collection of antique 19th century floriography books and early 20th century floriographic postcards. This is an unusual project for us, since i am doing the writing and he is producing the art.

Through these ads we were able to give folks a taste of floriography and to promote my reading career at the same time.

In January 2021 i started an Instagram account.

In November 2021 i decided to go live on HoodooPsychics.com twice a week, and also to redesign the flower photos to fit the squarish Instagram format. The vertical Facebook images were reconfigured, and some new flower texts and images were added. As it has turned out, Instagram hasn't done much for me -- 90% of my followers and friends find me through Facebook, the Lucky Mojo Forum, and our weekly radio show. The only good thing about IG is that cute little squarish layout, like an endless run of nine-patch quilt blocks.

By September 2022, we had more than 90 flowers and their meanings completed. It was while working on the latest week's text that i suddenly had the desire to publish the whole lot as a stand-alone project. I realized that if i took the HoodooPsychics.com advertisement material off the image and simply ran the name of the flower and a few keywords, followed by the informative text, i would have produced a teaching tool and fortune telling device in one item.

We released these text and image blocks via my Patreon account in September and November 2022 in four weekly installments -- a total of more than 90 different flowers in all. This page is comprised of the more-or-less square forms (600 x 650 pixels at raw size), which were designed for use at Instagram. As you can see, each image has a block of type beneath it, approximately 100 words in length.

I introduced my ongoing work on Floriography to the public with a tutorial on the Lucky Mojo Hoodoo Rootwork Hour for April 2, 2023.

Tune in online to listen: Floriography with Catherine Yronwode



From September through November 2023, the four Patreon pages were compiled into one page and released to the general public -- with our deepest thanks to the Patrons who made this project financially feasible.

Beginning in October 2023, i increased my office hours at Hoodoo Psychics to include Mondays, which allowed us to add a new flower and its meaning every week. These new entries and their texts are uploaded to this web page on a weekly basis.

In February 2024 we finally reached the goal of 104 flowers -- a pair of colour-matched flowers for every Friday and Saturday for a full year -- and we had gotten 2,000 views of this page. My Monday readings, with their new flowers, were well accepted by my clients, and i began adding random other reading days at Hoodoo Psychics, although they were not advertised with Floral Oracle placards, and you had to go to the HP website itself to see if i was on the line.

In June 2024 we had 120 different flowers online and 7,000 views of this page!

Planning ahead, when we complete 156 flowers, perhaps in February 2025, my Monday reading advertisement sequence will be filled for a full year and we will begin adding flowers for another weekday, perhaps Tuesdays. And after that cycle of 52 is completed, we will add flowers for Wednesdays, Thursdays, and so on.

How many Floral Oracle flowers will there be? Well, my collection of Victorian Floriography books tells me that we have many, many more flowers to choose from. If we decide to commit to seven flowers per week and multiply that times 52 weeks in a year, the total will be 364 flowers. God willing, i will still be doing psychic readings and we will get there in February 2030 if we fund the remainder of the project only via my callers at Hoodoo Psychics rather than via my Patrons. However, to speed things along, i think i may do another dip or two into Patreon funding, to complete the project before my 80th birthday in 2027. We shall see.


A Symbolic Bouquet of Meaningful Blossoms

To Discuss This Patreon Page

This Patreon Bonus Page is part of the series titled "Your Wate and Fate." To discuss it with me and the Patreon community, please visit our Private Patreon Forum at

http://forum.luckymojo.com/your-wate-and-fate-t93995.html

Thank you.

catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
Your Wate and Fate


Special thanks to my dear husband and creative partner nagasiva yronwode for illustrations, scans, and clean-ups.