The Magic of Flowers: A Guide to Their Metaphysical Uses & Properties - Tess Whitehurst 2013

Bleeding Heart
The Flowers

This tender little blossoming valentine (introduced to the Western world from China via the nineteenth-century botanist Robert Fortune) can be a potent magical ally when it comes to matters of the heart and emotions. So potent, in fact, that I do not recommend snipping the flowers or incorporating entire bleeding heart blossoms in your magic (unless you’re using them to create a flower essence), as this can be too much and is more likely to throw situations out of balance than to remedy them. On the other hand, provided you take care that the situation is appropriate (see below for guidance), simply employing the flower’s vibration—perhaps by working with the flower essence or spending time in proximity to a blossoming plant—will be more conducive to your magical success.

Magical Uses

Beauty in Pain

Feeling the fullness of one’s emotions is a beautiful thing, whether those emotions are so-called positive emotions or so-called negative ones. It’s the lack of feeling—or, more accurately, suppressed feeling—that lends itself to depression, annoyance, and boredom. And when we encounter the emotional pain of heartbreak or grief, feeling it as fully and freely as possible allows us to more quickly process it and release it. What’s more, when we surrender to our pain, we can see the beauty in it even in the midst of it, and as a result we can more easily transmute it into joy and artistic inspiration. Bleeding heart helps us do this.

For this purpose, you might imbibe the essence once per day for at least one full moon cycle. Other ways to employ bleeding heart’s magic for this purpose include:

✵ bringing one or more bleeding heart plants into your yard

and lovingly caring for them

✵ adding twenty to thirty drops bleeding heart essence to your bath water, along with at least one cup sea salt, and soaking for at least

forty minutes

✵ creating the mist potion for opening the pathways of the heart

(see below)

Emotional Availability

Deep and abiding relationships depend on the emotional availability of everyone involved. When your magical intention is to open the pathways of the heart and to enhance receptiveness and vulnerability, bleeding heart may be the magical ingredient for you. She can also be helpful for relationship counselors or for increasing heart-centered connectedness within any group or partnership. For example, you might create the following potion and mist a space before or during any situation that might benefit from this aspect of bleeding heart’s wisdom.

MIST POTION FOR OPENING THE PATHWAYS OF THE HEART

Add nine or twelve drops bleeding heart essence to a mister of rose water, along with ten drops lavender and five drops rose geranium essential oils. Shake gently before use.

Healing Depression

Often, depression occurs when we suppress negative emotions and consequently find ourselves in a stagnant emotional state. As previously mentioned, bleeding heart can get these emotions flowing by helping us feel—and even find blessings in—these painful emotions. This energetic dynamic is important to be aware of when employing bleeding heart for the purpose of healing depression as, at first, when we begin to feel our feelings, things can seem to be getting worse. So if you choose to work with bleeding heart to heal your depression or someone else’s, the best strategy is to consciously surrender to your feelings as much as you can without fighting or judging them. You might like to simultaneously employ emotionally soothing flowers into your magic, such as lavender essential oil or essence, rose water, neroli essential oil, rose geranium essential oil, and citrus blossom essence (to name a few).

For this purpose, try any of the previous suggestions or work with the essence or the living, blossoming plant as you feel guided.

Attracting Love

Traditionally, bleeding heart has been magically employed to draw a love relationship. However, this can be very potent and have lasting consequences, so be very careful how and when you do this. For example, under no circumstances should bleeding heart be employed in love-drawing spells or rituals that target a specific person. Rather, if you feel 100 percent ready to draw a lasting, meaningful, emotional relationship into your life (which is a very serious thing, make no mistake), you might try the following ritual.

LOVE-DRAWING RITUAL

Lovingly care for a blossoming bleeding heart plant in your yard or outdoor pot. Every Friday during the waxing moon, cleanse a shiny dime in sage smoke or sunlight. Approach the plant. While holding the dime against your heart with your right hand and placing your left hand over it, have a silent conversation with the plant, employing her assistance in drawing a beautiful romantic relationship into your life. Express gratitude for this eventuality, then place the dime near the flower’s base as an offering. Repeat until your wish has been granted.

Magical Correspondences

Element: Water

Gender: Female

Planet: Venus