What’s the deal with dried lavender
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Whenever we talk about feng shui and flowers, we invariably get comments from people wondering about the dried flowers in their home, especially dried lavender. In this post, we’re exploring the symbolism of lavender and how it relates to feng shui, and our thoughts on dried lavender.
What is lavender and why do we love it so much?
Most people are familiar with lavender and have come into contact with it in some way. Lavender plants have a long history of being cultivated for their fragrant oils, which are often used in perfumes and soaps. You’re probably familiar with the lovely, relaxing scent of lavender. In many areas of the Mediterranean, the United Kingdom, and even in North America, you can find fields of vibrant purple lavender plants growing, and it’s truly a magical sight.
We love lavender because it appeals to all of our senses. It smells amazing, and the color is gorgeous when it’s in full bloom. Depending on the type of lavender, you can have pink, purple, or white flowers with beautiful silvery-green foliage. Lavender is also edible – if you haven’t tried lavender honey, it’s delicious! Lavender is pleasant to touch and it dries well, which is why many people have little bouquets of dried lavender around their homes. It’s also an excellent bee-friendly plant, so having lavender growing around you can bring the sound of buzzing bees.
Lavender is connected symbolically to cleansing, relaxation, healing, and protection. The word lavender actually comes from the Roman/Italian words meaning “to wash.” It’s been used for essential oils for many centuries and has been added to soaps and water because of its soothing and calming properties. It’s even a natural bug repellant. Lavender is also very drought-resistant and is a symbol of resilience.
Is dried lavender good feng shui?
Many people love dried lavender because it’s a great way to preserve these qualities that makes lavender so popular. There’s nothing wrong with having dried lavender in your home if you enjoy it, but what about using it for feng shui? When we work with our students, we investigate things based on someone’s personal qi and intentions, rather than following a generic checklist of what counts as “good” feng shui. Dried lavender is neither good nor bad feng shui.
However, in general, we would not use dried lavender for a feng shui purpose. Dried flowers no longer hold the same qi that a fresh flower does, which is why you’ll hear us specifically recommend fresh flowers for certain feng shui adjustments. Fresh fragrant flowers have a specific use and symbolism in feng shui, and that’s why you’ll hear us specify fresh flowers when we’re giving feng shui suggestions. This doesn’t mean that having dried lavender or other dried flowers in your home is bad, but we would not recommend dried lavender for an adjustment where we suggest fresh flowers.
You can still have dried lavender in your house. It could be used to bring in all the qualities of lavender that are healing and supportive from an herbal perspective, but that’s different from feng shui.
Feng shui uses for dried lavender
While we wouldn’t suggest using dried lavender in place of fresh flowers, you could bring lavender into your space with the intention of introducing the color lavender and working with the energy of that color, rather than the life energy of the flowers. The color lavender inspires tranquility and ease, and as a member of the purple family, it’s also connected to abundance in feng shui. This combination makes it a beautiful color to work with if you are working to shift your money mindset to foster a more content and grateful attitude. If you want to learn more about feng shui and color, we have a whole section on this topic in our book, Mindful Living.
Another way to use dried lavender in a feng shui-inspired way is to use it to clear your own personal qi. We talk a lot about space clearing (like in this podcast episode for example), and you can clear your own qi as well. A great way to do this is by taking an Epsom salt bath, and adding lavender to bring in its healing and soothing properties. Salt and lavender work beautifully together to calm and clear qi. You could either use dried lavender or a small amount of essential oil – but always be careful when using essential oils because they can be quite intense! If you are using dried lavender, you can set an intention to clear your qi as you sprinkle it in the bath.
So, the deal with dried lavender is…it depends! Like most things in life, there’s not a concrete answer, and you’ll have to consider your situation and your energy. We hope this helps satisfy your curiosity about dried lavender and feng shui!