Cornflower Magical Properties

Knowing the mythology and folklore provides structure and framework to using cornflower magical properties. Understanding folklore application connects you to your ancestral Witches and Wizards.

The common name Cyanus along with the herbs association to Flora and Beltane come from the same folklore. There was once a young lad named Cyanus who adored the beautiful blossoms of the Cornflower. He could be seen in ever in the fields dressed in clothes that matched the brilliant blue of the flower. He could be seen making and wearing garlands of the flower. His Goddess was Flora and he appreciated the Cornflower more than any of her other gifts. They say he died in that field and Flora, with her authority, named the plant after Cyanus. The annual festival of the Goddess Flora is Floralia which is celebrated between late April and into May which is also the time of Beltane. (Beyerl 1998, 139-140)(Folkard, 227)

From Lucan’s Pharsalia it is burnt to drive away snakes.
“Beyond the furthest tents rich fires built
 That healthy medicinal odours yield:
 There foreign Galbanum dissolved fries,
 And crackling flames from humble Wallwort rise;
 There Tamarisk, which no green leaf adorns,
 And there the spicy Syrian Costos burns;
 There Centaury supplies the wholesome flame,
 That from Thessalain Chiron takes its name:
 The gummy Larch-tree and the Thapsos there,
 Woundwort and Maidenweed perfume the air:
 There the long branches of the long-lived Hart,
 With Southernwood their odours strong impart,
 The monsters of the land, the serpents fell,
Fly far away, and shun the hostile swell.” (Folkard, 277-278)

Cornflower was selected as a flower oracle by Margaret who used it to learn the truth of Johann Georg Faust’s heart.
“There is a flower, a purple flower,
 Sown by the wind, nursed by the shower,
 O’er which love breathed a powerful spell,
 The truth of whispering hope to tell.
 Now, gentle flower, I pray thee tell,
 If my lover loves me, and loves me well:
 So may the fall of the morning dew
 Keep the sun from fading thy tender blue.” (Folkard, 278)

In Russia it is called Basilek (the flower of Basil). Legend has it that a handsome young man of this name was enticed away by a nymph named Russalka, allured into the fields and transformed into the Corn-flower. (Folkard, 278)

One of the fifteen magical herbs of the Ancients listed in Le Petit Albert
“The eleventh hearbe is named of the Chaldees, Isiphone. . . of Englishmen, Centory. . . this herbe hath a marvelous virtue, for if it be joined with the blood of a femal lapwing, or black plover, and put with oile in a lamp, all that compass it abour shall believe themselves to be witches, so that one shall believe of another that his head is in heaven and his feete on earth; and if the aforesaid thynge be put in the fire when the stares shine it shall appeaare yt the stares runne one agaynste another and fyghte.’ (English translation 1619)” (Grieve, 183)