The bright purple hues and delicate heart-shaped leaves of the purple heart plant (Tradescantia pallida) make it a popular houseplant. But beyond its visual appeal, the purple heart plant has a rich symbolic history.
If you’ve been gifted one of these striking plants or simply want to learn more about their significance, read on to uncover the deeper meaning behind this beautiful living gift.
In short, the purple heart plant represents love, devotion, and deep spiritual connection. Its purple color symbolizes mystical wisdom, intuition, and openness to receiving spiritual guidance. And its heart shape points to themes of romance, relationships, empathy, and compassion.
The Significance of the Color Purple
Spirituality, Intuition, and Inner Wisdom
In many cultures and spiritual traditions, the color purple is associated with spirituality, intuition, and inner wisdom. It is considered to be the color of the “third eye chakra”, which is located between the eyebrows and is the center of intuition and foresight.
Wearing or being around the color purple can help open the third eye to receive messages and guidance from the spiritual realm.
The purple heart plant, with its rich violet hue, is thought to possess some of these mystical qualities. Having this plant in your home or office is believed to enhance spiritual awareness and encourage inner reflection.
The vibrant purple color reminds us to look within to find answers we seek and tap into higher knowledge.
In mysticism and divination, the color purple also represents the connection between our spirit and soul. It brings clarity in moments of indecision and aids spiritual awakening and enlightenment. No wonder many psychics, tarot readers, and spiritual mediums associate the color purple with their practice.
Compassion, Understanding, and Empathy
The subtle and calming vibes of the color purple also evoke qualities like compassion, understanding, and empathy. In color psychology, purple tones are thought to inspire humanitarianism – urging us to reach out and help others in need.
The purple heart plant, with its healing energy, seems to embody some of these themes. It teaches us to be more accepting, patient and kind – starting with being so towards our own selves first. Its remarkable capacity to thrive despite challenging conditions also serves as a reminder about resilience.
Perhaps this is why Healers, Lightworkers and Therapists love adorning the purple heart plant. Its presence fills spaces with compassion and gently nudges people to see different perspectives. It promotes harmony and reconciliation – something we could all use more of these days!
Heart Shape Symbolism
Love and Adoration
The heart shape of the purple heart plant is often seen as a symbol of love, romance, and adoration. Just as loving relationships are central to human existence, the heart shape reminds us of the interconnectedness between people.
In fact, archaeologists have discovered ancient Purple Heart seeds dating back over 9,000 years, suggesting these meaningful plants have grown alongside humans for millennia.
The purple color also carries connotations of magic, mystery, and passion. When we gift these amazing plants, we may be expressing heartfelt emotions that can’t quite be put into words. It’s no wonder Purple Hearts make such meaningful Valentine’s Day or anniversary gifts!
Interconnectedness and Relationships
Beyond romance, the Purple Heart’s heart shape more broadly symbolizes human connection and relationships. Just as the chambers and veins in the heart connect to circulate life-giving blood, the bonds between people give life meaning and purpose.
Interestingly, Purple Heart plants exhibit a growth pattern called “crown anastomosis” where multiple stems fuse together into a lattice-like crown. This natural phenomenon perfectly mirrors the interweaving nature of social networks.
Next time you look at a Purple Heart plant, reflect on the friends, families, teams, and communities you belong to!
Nurturing Oneself and Others
The act of gifting a Purple Heart plant can also represent an intention to care for someone. In fact, legend says Purple Heart plants sprang up from the blood of a goddess who sacrificed herself to nurture the one she loved most. What a beautiful symbol of devotion!
Caring for a living plant—watering it, giving it light—can also be symbolic of nurturing oneself. Setting this beneficial intention helps spread more love into the world. Purple Heart plants have a tremendous will to live, which serves as inspiration for us to persist and flourish as well!
Purple Heart Plant in Feng Shui
Promoting Harmony and Balance
In feng shui, the purple heart plant is thought to bring harmony and balance to a space with its tranquil energy. Its heart-shaped leaves evoke themes of love and acceptance, while the lush green foliage symbolizes new growth and starting over.
Some feng shui experts recommend placing a purple heart plant in the western or center areas of your home or office to promote harmony between relationships as well as within yourself. The purple heart plant can also be used in room design to link different elements and create unity among furnishings, art, textures, and colors.
According to the blog My Friend Violet, having a purple heart plant in a room where disagreements often occur can help diffuse arguments and restore peaceful communication. Its presence reminds quarreling parties to find understanding.
Strengthening Relationships
With its caring heart shape and vibrant purple color associated with compassion and thoughtfulness, the purple heart plant can nurture relationships in feng shui design.
Placing a purple heart plant in a bedroom promotes intimacy between partners, while displaying it in a shared living space like the dining room or den brings a warm, loving energy to family interactions and friend gatherings.
Some feng shui experts claim that just having a view of a purple heart plant can evoke supportive feelings and give relationships a positive boost. Its lush, abundant foliage promotes openness to receiving affection.
Cultivating Self-Love and Acceptance
As a feng shui symbol of unconditional love and acceptance shown by its graceful heart shape and deep purple color, the purple heart plant can also strengthen your bond with yourself when consciously integrated into living and work spaces.
Place a purple heart plant in spots where you handle stressful tasks, make difficult decisions, or engage in creative work to invite more self-compassion into the process. Its presence gently encourages letting go of self-judgement and embracing personal flaws and challenges with wisdom and care.
You can also place images or drawings of purple heart plant leaves around your space as symbolic reminders to lead with an open, understanding heart. Implementing this meaningful botanical symbol empowers you to skillfully navigate life’s complexities.
Other Symbolic Meanings
Devotion and Commitment
The purple heart plant is often seen as representing devotion and commitment in relationships due to its tendency to grow interconnected roots between plants that are potted together. This symbolizes the deep bonds that form over time between couples or friends that share experiences side-by-side.
Anthropologists have theorized that exchanging these plants can signify a pledge between people to stand by one another through life’s ups and downs.
In fact, during the Victorian era, it was customary for young men to gift a purple heart plant to a woman when asking permission to court her. The act conveyed that his intentions were sincere and he aimed to build an meaningful, lifelong partnership.
Even today, these vibrant plants are sometimes given to mark anniversaries, weddings, and other milestones, honoring continuing loyalty. Their vivid and enduring blossoms remind us to nurture connections that matter.
Healing and Recovery
Purple heart plants have an extensive history of medicinal use in tropical regions where they originate. Various indigenous cultures applied the sap from their stems and leaves for wound healing, to treat skin irritations, or as a remedy for venomous snake and spider bites.
Modern scientific studies have validated many of these traditional healing uses. Extracts from the plant have exhibited antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and wound healing properties in laboratory tests.
The species’ antioxidant and immune-boosting effects may also help strengthen the body to recover from illness and injury more rapidly. For this reason, people often gift purple heart plants to sick friends or family members as tokens of hope and health.
Their vibrant purple color seems to radiate protective and rejuvenating energy.
Bringing People Together
Gardening enthusiasts have noticed that purple heart plants seem to draw people in and pique curiosity even from strangers. Their eye-catching leaves grab attention and often inspire questions or comments from passersby.
For community gardens, public parks, or other shared outdoor spaces, adding these colorful plants helps bring people together through shared appreciation of natural beauty.
These plants have become centerpieces for cultural events and public artwork in certain regions as well. For example, in Brazilian landscapes, brilliant purple heart plants stand out strikingly amid greenery.
During festivals where communities join to celebrate nature’s wonder and diversity through music, food, and dance, these beautiful plants help set the scene. Across cultures, the vibrant beauty of purple hearts reinforces human commonality and connection.
Conclusion
With its vibrant purple hues in an affectionate heart shape, the purple heart plant is rich with spiritual symbolism. Its color points to intuition, mysticism, and acceptance while its form represents love and empathy.
Within Feng Shui and beyond, this plant promotes harmony, relationships, and self-nurturing.
If you’ve been gifted a purple heart plant, know that it conveys a beautiful message. Nurture it with care and let it serve as a reminder to connect more deeply with your spiritual wisdom, show compassion for others, and spread more love in the world.
