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

Aster
The Flowers

According to legend, Fortuna, the Roman goddess of women and luck, in her incarnation as Fortuna Virgo, the patron of newly menstruating maidens, once sprinkled stardust like seeds across the earth. And from each grain of stardust, an aster grew: quite a fitting genesis for a flower with such an ethereal beauty and considerable array of magical powers.

Magical Uses

Astrological Wisdom

The Hermetic precept and beloved magical proverb “As above, so below” applies to the interweaving of form and spirit, seen and unseen, known and unknown. Perhaps more literally, it applies to the connection between what takes place in the heavens and what takes place here on earth in our little human lives (i.e., the art and science of astrology).

And if astrological wisdom is one of your preferred methods of peering through the veil and walking between the worlds, aster can help deepen your current understanding and support you as you undertake further study. For this purpose, you might plant aster in your yard, strike up a personal relationship with her, take the essence, or create the following mist potion and mist your space and yourself before doing things like studying astrology books, casting charts, working with clients, writing astrology-related articles, and so on.

ASTROLOGER’S MOJO MIST POTION

Place a glass bowl of spring water in the light of the full moon. Add an apophyllite crystal (that has been cleansed in running water for at least two minutes) and float four fresh aster blossoms on top. Allow the bowl to sit undisturbed in moonlight for one to two hours. Then fill a tiny dropper bottle half full with water from the bowl. Fill it the rest of the way with brandy and close the lid. Pour the remaining water, blossoms, and crystal out near the base of a tree. Add thirteen drops of the essence to a mister of rose water. Shake before using. (Feel free to use the same essence later to make additional batches.)

Beginnings

According to Gretchen Scoble and Ann Field in The Meaning of Flowers, “Asters speak of the tiny beginnings from which all great things proceed.” Indeed, when we are at the beginning of a project or an undertaking, she can help bless our efforts and fortify our staying power by reminding us of the beauty and necessity of beginnings, as in Lao Tzu’s oft-quoted proverb, “The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet.”

So if you’re launching a business, beginning a college career, buying your first house, or engaging in some other sort of beginning, you might like to employ the essence. As an added bonus for times like these, she also helps open doorways and smooth transitions (see page 36). You might also like to add a few drops of aster essence to the punch bowl or champagne bottles to bless a new endeavor and get everyone involved off on a similarly positive vibrational foot.

Cleansing and Detoxifying

With powerful connections to both the neutralizing earth and the perspective-enhancing cosmos, aster can help support our detoxification efforts, whether they’re physical, emotional, spiritual, environmental, or any combination of the four. For example:

✵ Plant aster in your yard to help neutralize and clear negativity and emotional toxins from the home.

✵ Add aster essence to your water to support physical detoxification and weight loss.

✵ Add aster essence to rose water and mist yourself and your space to cleanse challenging energetic patterns such as earthbound entities or psychic cords.

✵ Add aster essence to your bath water to support any form of personal detoxification.

✵ Add three drops aster essence, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and twenty drops milk thistle tincture to a juice drink or smoothie made with leafy greens, carrots, and sprouts as a holistic hangover cure (and also be sure to drink lots of water).

Connection to the Divine or Cosmic Realm

One of aster’s main energetic dynamics has to do with opening doors between realms, times, and perceptions. And one of the doors she’s especially adept at opening for us is the doorway between the so-called mundane or everyday and the realm of the magical/infinite/Divine. In truth, there are no separations, but because our current reality is characterized by the illusion of separation, it can be helpful to have a little assistance weaving a doorway between the magical and the mundane, the divine and the everyday, to remind us that everything is magical, everything is divine, and we are one with all of it.

If you’d like to begin to see everything as magical—to be awake to the magic of life—you might like to take aster essence daily or plant her around your home. You might also consider employing her to help you get into that magical zone before and during your magical workings. For example:

RITUAL WINE

Add four drops aster essence to a wine glass or chalice of red wine and drink before and during your magical rituals.

MAGICAL PREP MIST

Add fourteen drops aster essence to a mister of spring water, along with four drops thyme and three drops rosemary essential oils. Shake and mist the space before working magic.

Doorways and Transitions

Transitions and doorways of all kinds can be smoothed and enhanced with aster’s energy. For example, aster can help with transitions from:

✵ the womb to the world

✵ childhood to puberty

✵ puberty to adulthood

✵ one job to another

✵ being in a relationship to not being in a relationship or vice versa

✵ one home to another

✵ one living situation to another

✵ one season to another (i.e., she can help support our immune system and inner equilibrium during seasonal changes)

✵ sleeping to waking

✵ waking to sleeping

✵ this life to the next

For any of these purposes (or others), you might like to employ the flower essence or fresh flowers in any way you feel guided.

Gentleness

Anytime a softening of energy is desired in order to create a kinder, gentler vibe, aster can help. Try planting her around the space, bringing in some fresh blossoms, or adding five to ten drops of the essence to rose water and misting the space. If you’re interested in soothing your own personal energy, try employing the essence or spending time in contemplation with some flowers.

Psychic Abilities

Counselors of any kind, other guidance-oriented professionals, and anyone who wants to enhance his or her intuitive mojo may want to keep fresh asters in the room or plant them outdoors near the entrance or around the home or office. You might also mist the room with rose water or spring water into which you’ve added two to four drops of aster essence, or hang a charm in the room. Create the charm by placing dried aster blossoms and a labradorite crystal in a piece of lavender cotton and tying it shut with a black or indigo ribbon.

Protection

Planted around the home, aster is an excellent protector from harsh, negative energies. She can also be helpful if you find that you must traverse an energetically challenging situation, either once or on a regular basis. For example, if you work in a place with harsh and often negative energy or if you have to visit a part of town that always seems to leave you feeling drained, you might imbibe the essence regularly. This will surround and infuse you with a lavender-blue aura of cool, gentle, and effervescent energy.

Traditionally, in European folk magic, aster blossoms were considered to be like watchful and protective eyes that would recognize and prohibit negative energies and entities from passing. To employ this aspect of aster’s magic, plant asters near the entrance to your home, tune in to them, and silently request their assistance.

Romantic Love with Spiritual Overtones

Whether or not we yearn for a partner of a particular faith, I think it’s safe to say that when we yearn for a romantic partner, we yearn for a partner with whom we feel some sort of spiritual or magical connection. And since like attracts like, aster’s romantic and spiritual energy helps us get into the energy that attracts this kind of partner. As such, she can be a great addition to any magical endeavor performed for the purpose of attracting a magical and spiritual love, such as the following love altar.

LOVE ALTAR TO MANIFEST A SPIRITUAL ROMANCE

Spread a white cloth or flowy, warm-colored scarf on a table or shelf. Add a bouquet of asters, two lepidolite crystals, an incense holder with a stick or cone of vanilla incense, and two red votive candles (placed side by side on a saucer, candle holder, or small plate). Light the candles and incense. Stand in front of the altar, place your right hand on your heart and your left hand over it, close your eyes, breathe deeply, and consciously relax your muscles. Feel yourself being swept up in the type of romance you’d like to manifest, but please do not visualize anyone specific. Feel and visualize you and this partner simultaneously connected to your earthy sensuality and bathed in otherworldly starlight. When this visualization or feeling seems to reach a crescendo, open your eyes and hold your open palms toward the altar. Say:

Beloved divine partner, star of love, I summon you!

As you are seeking me, I am seeking you!

I give thanks that we are now united.

I welcome you into my life with open arms,

a loving heart, and a warm spirit.

I welcome you.

Safely allow the candles to burn all the way down (snuffing and relighting as necessary). Add fresh sticks of incense as desired. When the asters no longer appear fresh, release them in a moving body of water or place them near the base of a tree.

Support for Teen Girls and Newly Menstruating Maidens

As aster is an expert in transitions and femininity, and as she is sacred to Fortuna Virgo (by some accounts the patron goddess of newly menstruating maidens), she can be an excellent ally for girls experiencing their first moon cycles. For example, you might give a bouquet of asters as a gift to a newly menstruating maiden, or, if you are performing a simple ritual to honor her, you might decorate with fresh asters. Mothers of newly menstruating maidens might honor their daughter’s transition with a small glass of red wine or a cup of red raspberry leaf tea (both of which can help soothe cramps) containing two to three drops of aster essence.

Magical Correspondences

Elements: Water, Air

Gender: Female

Planet: Venus