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The columbine is favored for bird magick, especially if you are working with Eagle. The flower's curved spurs make clear how this plant got the name "aquilegia" ("eagle")--the European varieties look like talons in a way that the varieties more familiar to North Americans do not. One of the common names, columbine, comes from the Latin word for pigeon or dove and is said to describe how the flower resembles a group of doves, the spurs being their heads and the petals their wings. Further bird associations are shown in its other common name, culverwort, which is Saxon for "pigeon plant". Many use this Venus plant in love magick, and it is said to be a favorite of the Fae. The flower essence of wild columbine helps with insight into one's true identity and highest purpose; it is also said to help the uncertain or those who are bewildered by life choices. In the language of flowers, columbine in general represents desertion and folly; purple columbine, however, stands for the resolution to win. It has been cultivated since the middle ages and became a popular component in the medieval herber, an enclosed garden of aromatic plants grown mostly as a garden spot to be enjoyed. Victorians enjoyed this plant also and called it "Granny's Bonnet." I have had to discontinue the Black Barlow and the William Guiness because they have become so expensive. Instead, I have added the wild North American native version. Top
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Aquilegia vulgaris 
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