September Birth Flowers: Aster and Morning Glory
September is the season’s turn — summer releasing its grip, the light changing quality, the year beginning its preparation for rest. Its birth flowers honor this transition: the aster, a star-shaped flower of ancient wisdom and celestial connection, and morning glory, the flower that opens fresh every dawn regardless of what yesterday held.
Aster (Aster)
Star Flower
The name comes directly from the Greek word for star (aster). The flower’s shape — petals radiating from a central disc like rays from a sun — made it an obvious star symbol to ancient observers, and the mythological connections followed naturally.
In Greek mythology, asters were said to have sprung from the tears of the goddess Astraea, who wept over the lack of stars in the earth’s soil. When her tears touched the ground, they became asters — earth-stars, a little piece of the sky brought down to the world.
Meanings
- Wisdom: Asters bloom in late summer and autumn, the season associated with the harvest of experience and the deepening of understanding
- Patience: The aster blooms late in the season — it is the flower of those who wait and watch, then emerge when others have faded
- Afterthought: In Victorian language, aster specifically meant “I’ll think it over” — a flower of considered, unhurried feeling
- Starlight: The star symbolism connects asters to celestial guidance, destiny, and the light that travels vast distances to reach us
- Devotion in love: In some traditions, burning asters drove away serpents (evil) and protected love
Chakra: Third Eye (Ajna) — the star shape and association with celestial sight connects aster to inner vision.
Aster Colors and Meanings
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Purple | Wisdom, royalty, enchantment |
| Pink | Sensitivity, love, gentleness |
| White | Purity, innocence, faith |
| Red | Deep love, courage |
| Lavender | Elegance, grace, refinement |
Morning Glory (Ipomoea)
The Flower That Begins Again
Every morning glory bloom lasts exactly one day. It opens at dawn, unfolds completely in the morning sun, and is closed by evening. The next day, a new flower opens in its place — fresh, unmarked by the previous day’s experience.
This makes morning glory one of the most powerful symbols of new beginnings and the possibility of starting fresh that the flower world offers.
Meanings
- Affection: The morning glory is a loving gesture — you think of someone when you wake up
- Unrequited or brief love: The single-day bloom represents feeling that is intense but transient
- Willingness to start again: Each new flower is an invitation to begin afresh
- Mortality and renewal: In Japanese tradition especially, the brevity of the bloom connects to the beauty of impermanence
Chakra: Throat (Vishuddha) for blue varieties — pure, daily expression. Crown for white — spiritual renewal at each dawn.
Across Traditions
| Tradition | Morning glory |
|---|---|
| Hanakotoba | 愛情の絆 — bonds of love; also 短命 — brief life/impermanence |
| Korean | 사랑의 상징 — symbol of love; 덧없음 — transience |
| Western | Affection, brief love, renewal |
| Chinese | 七夕 — lover’s meeting, once-a-year devotion |
September’s Message
September holds the year’s turning point — summer’s gifts are given, and now comes the time of distilling what they meant. The aster says: the wisdom you need was growing in you all along — it just needed the season to bloom. The morning glory says: whatever yesterday held, this morning is new.
September children carry both of these truths simultaneously — a deep, unhurried accumulation of understanding, and a genuine willingness to begin again each day as if for the first time.
Oiyo
Content Editor지식 인큐베이터이자 전문 콘텐츠 크리에이터. 경영, 경제, 법률 및 실생활에 유용한 실무/자격증 중심의 깊이 있는 정보를 연구하고 공유합니다.