Tobias ignored the eye roll of the customer in front of him and continued to gather the tools of his trade. Whether they believed in the flowers or not, the blooms would still reveal their truths to him. As they had so many times before.
Floramancy is a manner of divination using flowers and plants. It is historically a Springish tradition and is most commonly practiced in the Spring Kingdom, but can be found in other kingdoms as well. There is much debate regarding the validity and/or value of floramantic fortunetelling, which is complicated further by the various methods used.
Practice
At its core, floramancy involves reading flowers to divine information about a subject. Traditionally, readings address the general growth of the subject. Recent decades, however, have seen a trend towards asking a specific question to form the basis of the reading.
Floramancy, regardless of method, relies upon a great deal of knowledge from the practitioner. A floramancer will consider both the symbolic meaning as well as the practical application of each plant they read. This knowledge is what separates a novice reader from an expert. A novice will look at a red rose and consider that it is a symbol of romantic love. An expert will consider not only the symbology of romantic love, but also its thorns and the fact that it is edible.
In addition to knowledge, floramancy requires interpretation. The reader must decide what meaning to draw from the flowers individually and as a whole. Interpretation comes from experience, practice, and innate intuition. This intuition is what separates an expert reader from a gifted one. An expert reader will know the various meanings of a rose, a
work hard to increase the size of their "deck," whether it is a literal deck (see Flower Cards below) or a metaphorical deck in the form of a seed collection or flower garden.
Methods
There are a number of different methods of floramancy reading, which differ mainly in how flowers are selected for the subject. They each have their upsides and downsides, both practically and divinatorily, though there are differing opinions on each.
Seed Scattering
Seed scattering floramancy involves removing a selection of seeds from a mixed collection and scattering them, then reading the results. It is traditional for the seeds to be scattered over dirt, as many practitioners will then influence the seeds to grow (or wait for them to grow naturally) before doing the reading.
Practitioners take into account the pattern of the seeds and their spatial relationships to one other. If the seeds are then grown, the reader will also consider the growth of each plant.
Flower Cards
Bouquet Picking
Cultural Significance
Religious Influences
Criticism
