Symbol dictionary / L

Lily

Purity, annunciation, the tender form of the feminine.

ChristianGreekFolk

The lily is the flower of annunciation. Christian iconography gives Gabriel a lily to offer Mary; Greek myth associates the lily with Hera. Jungian analysis reads lily-dreams as tender arrivals — a purity that is not innocence but something earned. The white lily is classically funereal as well as annunciatory; the two meanings do not contradict. Notice the color, the setting, and whether the lily is given or found.

Themes
purity annunciation feminine
Related symbols
Rose
Interpret a dream with this symbol