Victorian Flower Oracle: Verbena

.traveller.

Verbena
Revenge

Image: A Verbena woman stands close to a failing oak. An Ivy woman clings to a fallen male figure, possibly another tree but I can't make out what kind of tree.

This card speaks of dissatisfaction to me and staying in a particular place. Verbena plants are very particular in their growing requirements, and if things aren't just right, they won't thrive. Flower language: "I weep for you" and "Regret". I don't get the Revenge titling for this card, maybe because I know that verbena doesn't adversely affect other plants, while the ivy can and will choke the life out of other plants. So if I wanted to go out on a limb, I could make up a story about Verbena wanting revenge on Ivy because Ivy is killing the trees and destroying Verbena's home. But I still think she looks unhappy rather than vengeful.
 

moderndayruth

I don't get the title either... I've just read the wiki entry:
"Verbena has long been associated with divine and other supernatural forces. It was called "tears of Isis" in Ancient Egypt, and later on "Juno's tears". In Ancient Greece, it was dedicated to Eos Erigineia. In the early Christian era, folk legend stated that Common Vervain (V. officinalis) was used to staunch Jesus' wounds after his removal from the cross. It was consequently called "Holy Herb" or "Devil's bane"...

Other legends held it that vervain protects people from vampires, by mixing it in a herbal tea, keeping it near you, or using oil extracted from it in a bath. Vervain flowers are engraved on cimaruta, Italian anti-stregheria charms. In the 1870 The History and Practice of Magic by "Paul Christian" (Jean Baptiste Pitois) it is employed in the preparation of a mandragora charm..."

I think i could eventually come up with some very deep "inverted" interpetation of the title in correlation with the image, but i think i'll simply go with the intuitive interpretation. ;)

Here, at p.26 of "Student Companion to William Faulkner " is an interesting read on Verbena. ;)
 

.traveller.

moderndayruth said:
Here, at p.26 of "Student Companion to William Faulkner " is an interesting read on Verbena. ;)

Ahh! So THAT'S why she is wearing a wedding veil!!!!
That's fascinating re: Drusilla, I hadn't made the connection prior to now.
 

ana luisa

Wonderful Faulkner's passage. He is a monster of a writer IMO... Now, the expression on this lady's face shows bitter anger. As if she were saying, "if I can't have it/him, nobody can". Vindictive, I think would be the best adjective for her. Also, she could probably be thinking "why should i pity these two? Do they even care about MY suffering?". A lady with lots of issues...
 

Ange

She looks to me like she has been jilted....could be now or some time ago....a wornged person planning a revenge....

But in the background on the card is dead man and someone leaning over him...and the woman has what looks to me with my second pair of specs on like a sword or a long knife.

Has she already killed? Taken her revenge?
Is the look of hatred on her face that for the man or for herself having killed him?


Ang x
 

Barbaras Ahajusts

Oakridge Boys Song

They met upon a blue moon

And they parted on a cloudy day

They were so in love and out of school

But he was goin' so far, far away


She said I'll be true to you

Even though you don't want me to

And I'll be blue for you

Even though you've asked me not to

Well the year's drifted by them,
As we all know they can
He found other women
But she refused other men
But as fate would have it, they met again
She was on a down-hill slide, and he was just slidin' in

As he looked into her eyes that night,
He didn't realize
The only real love in his life
Was passin' by
When he turned and left her there his words "goodbye"
He heard her calling out to him, and as he walked she cried,

I've been true to you
Seems like speakin' to me is the least that you could do
And I've been blue for you
Even though you've asked me not to

She'd been drinkin way too hard one night
She'd been drinkin way too long
Alone and pale in a cheap hotel
She died there in the dawn
Kneelin' by her grave, oh so late and oh so wrong
He longed to hold her close again, cryin' on and on

He cried I''ll be true to you
After all that I have put you through
And I'll be blue for you
Though you never even asked me to


She may die off in the winter time, but she always comes back to wait. Maybe her revenge is in the waiting out time, whether "he" comes back or not?
Revenge towards time, itself.

Barbara
 

Sophie

ana luisa said:
Wonderful Faulkner's passage. He is a monster of a writer IMO... Now, the expression on this lady's face shows bitter anger. As if she were saying, "if I can't have it/him, nobody can". Vindictive, I think would be the best adjective for her. Also, she could probably be thinking "why should i pity these two? Do they even care about MY suffering?". A lady with lots of issues...
Another card's that's come up about my stalker, for exactly the reason you mention. Pretty amazing.

Verbena - I know because I grow it - is actually a highly invasive plant if you let it, and it CAN choke other herbs around it. It can take over an entire herb garden.

When it's kept under control, it makes tasty herbal tea :D
 

Jewel

Back April of 2007 when I was exploring this deck I found this card to be the one I was most uncomfortable with in the deck. This is what I wrote about it:

The emotional atmosphere in this card is bleak, right down to the ravished tree stump. The Verbena is simply bitter and sour. She tries to hide her inner ugliness with a pretty dress, but pretty is as pretty does.

A physical manifestation of this cards symbols could be lashing out at those who don't deserve it, being pissy for the hell of it, being so unhappy with oneself that we cannot acknowledge see or fee the beauty and goodness around us. Hatefulness. Lack of compasion and empathy. Unsupported self-righteousness.

The card symbols are complex. There is beauty on one half of the card and desolation on the other so a mental transformation from one view or attitude to another is very feasible. Yet the beauty is or can also be a disguise or illusion. There is a sense of cprisciousness. Mentally, the Verbena seems trapped in a negative loop-feed.

The spiritual characteristics in the card seem only expressed in the beauty and rejuvenation of nature. There is a couple whom must have been deeply affected by the Verbena, not in a good way, and the woman seems to showing support and compassion towards the man. But overall I see no real spiritual connection to this card.

I think that what I find most uncomfortable about this card is the Verbena's facial expression. I know that face, I know that look, I know what it feels like to be that main the background. In turn that makes me have Verbenaish thoughts to dish it back which is just not who I want to be.

I find all the greenery in the card appealing. Could it represent hope? a chance for the Verbena to really see the world around her?
 

Barbaras Ahajusts

Eek!

Is that a woman laying upon and singing to a decaying body to the right, on the ground???
I just saw that!
(This is what I get for scanning ya'lls posts!)

Barb
 

Jewel

Possibly ... but could be a tree man *LOL*