Poppy Meaning and magickal uses

A flower of sleep, dreams and remembrance, with seeds for abundance.

• Intentions: Sleep and Dreams, Prosperity, Luck, Love
• Element: Water
• Planet: The Moon
• Zodiac: Cancer, Pisces
• Day: Monday
• Moon phase: Waning Crescent
• Parts used: Seeds, dried petals, dried pods

Safety: Only use culinary poppy seeds sold as food. Do not eat or brew the pods, unripe seed heads or latex; they are toxic if swallowed and may be illegal to use. Avoid all but culinary seeds while pregnant or breastfeeding. Poppies are listed by the ASPCA as toxic to dogs, cats and horses. Ventilate when burning petals.

How to use it

• Dream sachet. Add dried poppy petals to a small sachet with mugwort and lavender and keep it under your pillow. Ask for clear dreams you will remember in the morning.
• Abundance seeds. Fill a small jar with culinary poppy seeds and keep it near your money or on your altar. The many tiny seeds symbolize plenty and growth over time.
• Remembrance offering. Place a red poppy on your altar at Samhain to honor those who have passed. Speak their names softly and share a memory of each one.

Works well with: Red Candle, Silver Candle, Moonstone, Monday, Samhain, Lughnasadh

Folklore

Poppies have been linked with sleep and the dead since ancient times. Greek myth gave them to Hypnos, god of sleep, and to Demeter, who was said to have found rest from her grief in the flowers. Their many seeds made them a symbol of fertility and abundance. Since the First World War, red poppies have been worn as a symbol of remembrance. Modern witches traditionally use poppy for dreams, prosperity and honoring the ancestors at Samhain.