Like the Evening Star that rules her, Plumeria is a patron of the arts; she opens up channels in the mind, inspiring the creation of beauty and soothing the heart, and she particularly likes to appear in poetry. I collect the flowers fallen from a local tree for my altar bowl, and the days I’ve found the freshest, finest harvest have come after I’ve composed in her honor. For her, then, this: Lessons Learnt from Plumeria there is no need to pluck what is freely offered. accept shed blossoms with open hands, for the gift they are and drink. forget you were ever so desperate to steal what was yours to receive. you may be beautiful without being expected to feed yourself to all. be sweet, be glorious; you need produce no nectar and the moth will visit anyway, though it come away hungry. roots are not all they’re dug up to be. from your cut-off branches, green shoots: you are immortal, holy flower, haunted by the ethereal, precious of the gods. 24
Photo by @empyrealhesper
