Parting the Mists

OK, we’ve had two pairs of lovers (though representing more than romantic love) two days in a row! Seems as if Spring is definitely the season of love as we head into warmer weather with Tuberose and Daffodil. Daffodils are favorites of mine, and memories of picking armfuls of them from a wooded area where they had naturalized stick with me as truly magical moments of childhood. I hope you all enjoy today’s card as well.

Have a great Thursday!

Keywords & Phrases: Love, warm friendship, passion, affection, partnership, and trust

Meaning: Love. There are many types of love, and many ways of looking at this most complex emotion. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, being an orderly sort of person, divided love up into several categories. Eros is romantic and sexual love, wile Agape is ore of a love between friends, possibly more selfless. Confusingly, Philia also means friendship in modern Greek, as well as implying loyalty to the family and community. Storge means natural affections, such as parents usually have for their children. Xenia is hospitality, the ritualized bond between host and guest.

Many cultures have a similar range of terms to describe what the English language simply describes as “love.” By nature, some of these terms overlap. Then there is patriotism or love of country, love of money, love of learning, parental love, and altruistic love, a love which expects no reward. When you draw this card, remember that it can point to any of the forms of love, not just romantic.

In Grandville’s image, we see Tuberose and Daffodil in a romantic settings, the first sitting on a bench outside a ouse and learning in through a ground floor window, the second inside the house, learning out. Grandville appears to have abandoned his convention of personifying flowers as women and has personified Daffodil as a man. But what a strange encounter! Even given the rather rigid Victorian etiquette, it was expected that a lover or would-be lover enter one’s home by the front door! one has to wonder if something illicit is going on. Perhaps the families of the two young people do not approve of the relationship; tis would hardly be a novel situation. Then as now, there could be a thousand reasons why this should be. What is obvious is that Tuberose and Daffodil have contrived a way of meting regardless of any outside pressure, and I think we must applaud them for this. “Love finds a way,” the saying goes, and it is always heartening when this is borne out.

This card asks us to think about the place of love in our lives. Maybe we are blissfully happy in a romance, but it’s equally possible that the deepest love we feel comes from our relationship with children, parents, or friends. In a different sense, we may feel passionate love for an interest such as art, nature, music or simply our gardens. Whatever the source of love, thesis time to recognize, value, and nurture it.

The Victorian Flower Oracle by author Sheila Hamilton and artists JJ Grandville, Karen Mahony, and Alexander Ukolov