Astrological Herbalism

Ere we depart from this lovely realm (in years and years and years to come), and we bid you hail and farewell, we hope to leave our magical healers and astrologers with a better understanding of astrological herbalism in the treatment of the unwell. This is not a terribly complex thing, but you must have wits in your head or you will get lead astray.

An important thing to understand is that every plant that is used for medicine can be assigned to one of the seven ancient planets -- Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn (please disregard that the first two are technically luminaries and not planets).

For instance, the above plant is Yarrow. It is a plant of Venus. Venus is a cold and moist planet. But Yarrow's action in the physical body is to heat it up and dry it out. In other words, to expel excess water from the system, yes? Fire heats Water, Water turns to steam and billows away. Earth covers Water, the Water is absorbed and sunk into the Earth. One movement upward, one movement downward, so to speak.

It may seem strange that a COLD and MOIST plant should have HOT and DRY effects, but so it is. Mother Nature works in various combinations throughout the Kingdoms, even in seeming opposites. Many a demon have worn the opulent vestments of Roman Catholic priests and bishops in the last 1000 years. Many soiled and poorly clothed saints have seemingly defied physics with miraculous feats in the marketplaces of India in those same years. Appearances can be deceiving, and the human eye is the greatest of slanderers, as you know.

So, Yarrow is a plant that works by OPPOSITES and not by SIMILARS. The relationship between its NATURE and EFFECT is DIVERGENT.

Those terms, however, should not be confused with SYMPATHY and ANTIPATHY. Those have more precise applications when looking at the actual horary or decumbiture chart. Sympathy and Antipathy involves an evaluation of the essential strength of the Lord of the Querent (or the Moon) and the essential strength of the afflicting planet. Keep in mind, too, that the method of diagnosis differs between horary and decumbiture charts. Dr. Lilly and Dr. Saunders failed to make that clear to their readers, and their works have therefore led many self-studying students astray over the last 400 years.

Mother Nature, of course, gives us plants that work as SIMILARS in this arena. For instance, Ginger is a plant of Mars.[1] Mars is a hot and dry planet, and its action on the body is to heat it up and dry it out. Therefore Ginger is a plant that works by SIMILARS. The relationship between its NATURE and EFFECT is CONVERGENT.

The heat and dryness of Yarrow, however, is gentler and slower than the heat and dryness of Ginger. Therefore, if you are given a Yarrow remedy (Yarrow Tea, the Feverbreak Potion, etc.), you are likely to be told to take it while in a hot bath, or to take it and then go sit by the hearth-fire in a blanket, or go immediately to bed, well-covered. Yarrow is effective, but she wants a bit of a boost.

Yarrow and Ginger are both antiviral medicines, too. But in different ways. Yarrow will disintegrate the membrane wall of a virus. She is like a solitary ninja sneaking into the fortress and killing everyone she meets, one by one. Or, in Greek mythology, perhaps like Penthesilea arriving to help the Trojans after the death of Achilles (Yarrow is Achillea millefolium, named after Achilles).

Ginger, on the other hand, stimulates the immune system to make certain cells to combat the viral infection. It's like a wizard summoning an army to storm the fortress. Or, in Greek mythology, perhaps like Cadmus sowing the teeth of a dragon to call forth warriors.

Yarrow is a defense TO THE BODY. She comes in from outside and opens a can of whoop-ass.

Ginger stimulates the defenses OF THE BODY. He wakes up the immune system and pep talks its soldiers onto the field of battle.

These are simplifications, of course, but useful ones.

[1] Dr. Blagrave, in his supplement to the work of Nicky Culpeper, gave Ginger to the Sun. That is incorrect. Ginger bears every resemblance to a plant of Mars, and no resemblance to plants of the Sun. Both Sun and Mars, however, are HOT and DRY, so Dr. Blagrave may be forgiven his confusion.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

Witches' Alphabet Oracle Cards

This is a set of 28 cards created by Mike Richmond (ShiningMoonStudio on Etsy). I thought it was a cool concept, although somewhat limited in the number of cards. When they first arrived, I shuffled them up and got this reading:

FEATHER ----> HAT ----> PUMPKIN

The deck contains two cards that list potential interpretations but, of course, everything is up to the diviner. Some of the listed meanings make sense to me; some of the meanings I alter or extend. I wrote down:

Message, Work, Prosperity

That seemed positive. And so I waited. Two days later, I had not yet received a message at work about prosperity. I decided to use the cards again. I got almost the same message:

FEATHER ----> PUMPKIN ----> RING

I wrote down:

Message, Prosperity, Promise/Wealth

As if the cards were saying, "Yep, the message of prosperity is still coming, I promise. And its going to be big!"

And then I forgot all about the matter. Until the message about work prosperity hit me square between the eyes today.

A nice little deck, if your mind has the power to guide your hands to pick out the future.




Mr. Richmond also sells a set of 13 oracle dice marked with the letters of the Theban Alphabet and various symbols, like the symbol of the Moon Goddess, the Horned God, a Pentagram and so on. I also have them, but I find that they require almost a prophetic mania to use. It is very much like operating akin to the Cumaean Sybil, who wrote down letters on the leaves of laurel (sacred to Apollo) and then cast them to be all mixed up in a drum-like vessel. The last time I used them, the oracle came from the Horned Father, and He said:

THE GATES OPEN AT SIX.

Somewhat mystifying, yes? Unless you are a Qabalist. Then it is perfectly clear. And wise and funny at the same time, too. Even if you aren't a Qabalist, but know something about occult geometry and numbers (for instance, from cosmology or from card reading), it still makes sense. The Divine Powers, I find, have a sense of humor.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester