The Sea Poppy (Glaucium flavum)

 “The horned poppy with the yellow flower... groweth upon the sands and banks of the sea.” John Gerard, Elizabethan Herbalist.

Like many others I am participating in the 30 Days Wild Challenge by the UK Wildlife Trusts throughout June to get my butt out into Nature as much as possible, though as  Witch I like to do that anyway, the challenge just helps give me added impetus and to participate in something far bigger.

This morning, as I walked along the beach, I was greeted by these bright, happy sun-like flowers and naturally was wonderfully cheered by them. Their pale colour appeared to be particularly glowing and resplendent today perhaps aided by the shimmering white mist that was flowing in from the sea.

Sea Poppies are the beaches', and Sea Witch's, version of the red field poppy which have also begun to flower and add colour to the land, but their energies are very different. Traditionally Sea Poppies are solar flowers linked with the power and potency of the strong June sun and the Summer Solstice on 21st June. While Red Field Poppies and Opium Poppies are associated with sleep and remembrance of the Dead, Sea Poppies are associated with wakefulness, alertness and the living - to a point. As they are also known as the Horned Poppy, Sea Poppies are one of the flowers of the Horned God who bears such names as Pan, Herne and Cernunnos who, like the sun, are at their most powerful during the height of Summer. Once that power of the Horned God begins to wane in August and September so too does the power of the Sea Poppy. As an annual plant with ephemeral leaves that soon fall after flowering, the Sea Poppy reminds us of the earth's cycle around the sun and the cycle of life, death and rebirth - just as the Red Field Poppy does.

Sea Poppies thrive in saline habitats like beaches and salt marshes where many other plants cannot live, let alone thrive. The energy of Sea Poppies can help us to thrive in other wise hostile environments, to make the most of what life throws at us and to be optimistic. They also serve a valuable purpose for Sea Poppies help bind sand and keep beaches together which can be very useful where erosion and man's activities threatens our beaches.

Like its more lunar sister, the Sea Poppy is a favourite of Witches and Herbalists, for it is reputed to have astringent and healing properties, as well as many of its sister's psychoactive compounds. It is also interestingly the Horned Poppy rather than the Field Poppy that is mentioned in Ben Johnson's 'Witches' Song':

"“Yes: I have brought, to helpe your vows,
Horned poppie, cypresse boughes,
The fig-tree wild, that grows on tombes,
And juice, that from the larch-tree comes,"

Naturally I left the beautiful Sea Poppies on the beach where they belong and so that others can also enjoy them. All I took were these photos and the energies and memories of having spent some very special and magical time in their company.