Finding Balance: Traditional Western Herbalism Energetics in Practice
In part three of my series on the elemental energetics of traditional western herbalism, we’re putting what we’ve learned in part one and part two into practice. If you haven’t read them yet, please start with the first two parts of the series to help you understand the practices I’ll be exploring below.
Let’s begin by helping ground us in the process of sacred inquiry. I want to help you move the four elements from a place of theory, only to be thought about, into a place of being felt in your life and practice. So, I invite you to orient yourself towards each element whether using the modern or traditional interpretation of Traditional Western Herbalism and the elemental cardinal points.
For the modern interpretation, which will fit with many Pagan practices, the compass directions they correspond with beginning with Air in the East, Water in the West, Earth in the North for the northern hemisphere, South for the southern, and Fire in the South for the northern hemisphere, and North for the southern hemisphere. Practicing with the elements tied to the four directions has helped me to ground my practice and what can feel abstract (such as the zodiac being mystical animals and creatures floating in the stars somewhere out there) to something I can literally turn to and face and know both within and without.
For a traditional interpretation of the four elements and cardinal points, that works better with the humoral system of traditional western herbalism, Water and Earth switch spots, with Water in the North (in the Northern Hemishpere) and in the South (in the Southern Hemisphere) and Earth in the West (in both hemispheres).
The Elemental Compass Meditation
Preferably performing this elemental compass exercise outside, as you turn to each direction observe both what is in your immediate environment as well as the global environment. Start by facing to the East, the direction Air, and of the rising sun. What do you observe in this direction both in your surroundings and in your internal landscape? Do you have ancestors that travelled from the East to the place you are now? When you consider the qualities of the East (new beginnings, impetus, all forms of communication, individual identity, and inspiration) and Air what comes up for you?
Next turn to the South and the direction of Fire if you are in the northern hemisphere or to the North if you are in the southern hemisphere. Ask yourself the same questions that you asked in the East. The direction of Fire is a place of creativity and justice, desire and willpower.
Continue to the West, the direction of Water, and proceed as before. The West is a place of dreams and intuition, the worlds beyond, and the collective consciousness.
Turn to the North and the direction of Earth if you are in the northern hemisphere and the South if you are in the southern hemisphere. The direction of Earth is a place of foundations and manifesting, of the cycle life, death, decay, and renewal, and of all things physical.
Finally, journey to the center of your compass and take time to stretch deep below, like the roots of a tree. Stretch high above, like the branches of the tree reaches up to the sky. And finally pull deep within to find all the worlds swirling together.
After any kind of meditation like this it is important to do something grounding and centering (like stretching or moving your body gently or eating and drinking something). Be sure to jot down some notes about the experience if you feel called as these observations can be interesting and useful to revisit. Or don’t, because that is just fine too, and not everything needs to be written down.
Another way to do this meditation is to sit with each of the directions at different points of the night and day. So begin at sunrise facing the East, return to the South (or North) at noon when the sun is at its peak, face the West at sunset, and return to the North (or South) at midnight.
A System of Measurements
When we use an elements based system in our herbal practice we are, in a broad sense, using elemental terms to understand and describe what we need and what we wish to release in a language that is less weighed down with judgement than some of the other words we might've been given. Instead of denigrating the way that someone has energy that is slower (something which is devalued in capitalism-driven culture like in the USA), we can honor this slow energy as manifestation of the Element of Earth within us, whole and holy. If we feel the need for it, we can invite in energizing Fire or Air herbs and activities to appropriately speed up energy systems that may be moving too slowly for our wellbeing. To work with the elements, whether the four sacred elements as presented below or elemental traditions within your own cultural frameworks, is to humble yourself to the mystery of both the profound (the elemental building blocks of all life in the universe) to the everyday (the elements that went into building the screen that you're now reading this on or in the making of the food you've eaten today).
There are multiple approaches to how you might incorporate the four elements in your own herbal, healing, astrological, and/or magickal practice. It can be as simple or as complex as you want, guided more by intuition or relying more on tradition - it's up to you. As you work with the four elements in your life and practice your understanding of them will shift and change the more you engage with this part of traditional western herbalism.
Primarily, the four elements are a system of measurement. In the simplest terms, and in a way that our traditional western herbalism ancestors would recognize, the elements measure excess and deficiency in the body. When I speak of the body I am describing the wholeness of someone's experience - the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and so on - as well as how their inner world reflects their outer world and vice versa. The four elements are not only used to describe a person's inherent constitutions and experience of life, but they are also used to describe a plant's energetics as well as the energetics of a disease. Ginger (Zingiber officinalis), with its heating qualities and spicy flavor, is an herb of Fire, just as a fever would be considered an illness with excess Fire, or a person who is prone to dry skin has a lot of Fire in their inherent constitution.
Beginning in your own life you can start to explore what elements are predominant, lacking, weakened, in excess or somewhat neutral for you. You can do this in a number of ways from looking at your birth chart and seeing what element(s) are most represented or by reading the above descriptions and finding yourself in the illustrations of each element. Or by trusting your own self-awareness and intuition. After exploring the elements within your own constitution you can begin to find them in the world around you from plants, to illnesses and health imbalances, as well as other people and creatures. This awareness helps us to practice the important skill of remediation or finding ways to bring healing energies into a situation in order to bring about a state of balance and wellness.
Elemental Remediation in Practice
At its most basic level, remediation is the process of strengthening or diluting the energies of one or more of the four elements present in a body. Below I've posted examples of remediation techniques for each element, so you can begin to get an idea for how you might intentionally incorporate the four elements into your healing work.
background image via @lukaszlada
Remediating Air
Excess Air: Hyperactive and hypersensitive. Thin, balding, dry skin, poor circulation due to inability to retain heat. Flighty, indecisive, talkative, anxious, obsessive. Social media and technology addiction. Poor listening skills. Symptoms of dis-ease may include 8 gas and flatulence. Remedies of Earth. Roots and berries. Vitamins, minerals, and salt baths. Warm food and environments. Moistening herbs such as demulcents and nervines of all sorts. Art and movement based therapy to channel excess Air energy. Alternatively, stillness and silence. Uninterrupted sleep and dream therapy. Meditation. Calming music. Some Water therapies to soften the overtaxed nervous system and neural pathways.
Lack of Air: Tension and heaviness. Sluggishness and weakness. Lack of circulation and oxygenation. Asthma, tight chest, feeble lung capacity, weak heart, low blood pressure. Indecisive. Lack of willpower and imagination. Poor communication skills. Social anxiety. Remedies might include meditative breathing exercises. Getting fresh air. Travel. Air-borne remedies including sacred incense and aromatherapy diffusers. Brain tonic herbs, circulatory tonics, and lung tonics. Laughing. Speech therapy. Educational activities and challenges (including brain training apps).
background image via @77timon
Remediating Fire
Excess Fire: Hot, sometimes sweaty (with water in the chart) or atrophied (with air in the chart), dehydrated. Angry, agitated, irritated, inflamed, compulsive. Out-of-control, attention-seeker, adrenaline addict. Hyperactivity. Sensitivity to sunlight, sunburn, and sunstroke. Violent dreams. High blood pressure, heart attacks, aneurysms. Symptoms of dis-ease include inflammation, dry and flaking skin, fevers, boils, acne, chronic infection, and insomnia. Remedies of Water. Sedating and refrigerant herbs. Liver tonics. Cold and cool foods and environments. Anger management. Quiet and reflective activities including meditation, gentle swimming, calming yoga, and being still.
Lack of Fire: Weak-willed and lacking desire for life. Low libido, low blood pressure, infertility. Depressed, lacking self-worth, bored. Poor digestion and assimilation of nutrients. Lack of creativity. Feeling purposeless. Inefficient body temperature regulation. Cold extremities and extra sensitivity to cold. Remedies include warm and hot food, drink, and environments. Spices and stimulating herbs. Blood-building herbs and digestive tonics. Exercise. Art therapy and classes. Exciting music, movies, and performances. Be sure to give fire something to ground in (earth remedies), be fed by (air remedies), and be tempered by (water remedies).
background image via Aaron Burden
Remediating Water
Excess Water: Weepy, emotionally overwhelmed, and ungrounded. Tends towards daydreaming and childlike behaviors. Weak personality. Dependency, co-dependency, and addiction. Stagnation and too much damp. Compromised lymph nodes and glands. Tendency to sleep too much and drowsiness. Poor muscle tone, weak bones, teeth, and cartilage. Excess unwanted weight. Symptoms of dis-ease include water retention, bloating, sluggishness, weight gain, tenderness and swelling, excess fluids, growths and tumors. Remedies of a Fire nature including warm food and environments. Spices, including spiced tea. Avoid cold and wet foods. Sunbathing. Warm colors and heat lamps. Astringents and circulatory tonics. Warming movement and exercise. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. Affirmations and positive reinforcement.
Lack of Water: Dry, tense, over-exhausted nervous system, emotionally out-of-touch or unexpressive, insensitive. Cries very little or difficulty crying. Always thirsty Lack of fluids. Dry digestion and constipation. Symptoms of dis-ease include dry mouth, lack of lubrication, scant menses, and low libido. Remedies should be water-based including fluid based remedies (especially teas and baths) and time spent in and around bodies of water. Swimming. Moistening herbs such as demulcents and oily nervines. Aphrodisiacs. Investing in the welfare of others. Avoid dehydrated, processed, and salty food. Fresh fruits and vegetables including their juices. Meditation. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
background image via @whale
Remediating Earth
Excess Earth: Overly serious, dullness of mind, body, and spirit, bored, lethargic, and aloof. Heaviness and sluggishness. Conditions of stagnation including constipation, tumors, hard growths, and scar tissue. Skin and cartilage conditions including dandruff, eczema, brittle nails and teeth. Build-up of toxins physically and emotionally. Deeply buried trauma. Unresponsive to stimuli. Difficulty crying. Excess Earth dis-eases are often chronic and long lasting. Remedies of all the other elements. Fire to warm up and stimulate energy and movement in the body. Air for mental stimulation and reconnecting with vision to alleviate boredom. Water for emotional softness and expression. Avoid rich, fried, and processed foods. Address habits of excess including overeating, oversleeping, and procrastination (aka chronic avoidance). Bodywork to move energy including acupuncture and pressure points. Travel and trying new things. Doing that which feels scary and impossible.
Lack of Earth: Ungrounded, indecisive, disconnected, easily confused, low energy and stamina. General weakness. Lack of willpower and feeling of security. Symptoms of lack of earth diseases include hypo-conditions, malnutrition, poor appetite, indigestion, and low immunity. Always sick. Tend towards coldness. Vitamin and mineral deficiency. Remedies of Earth including learning to ground and center, developing will power, mineral therapies, including eating mineral-rich foods and taking mineral baths. Massage and healing touch. Working with earth, clay, and stone. Forestbathing. Developing consistency and a regular rhythm of living. Body-centered and strengthening exercises including yoga and weight-lifting. Rich and nourishing food that is beautiful to behold. All herbs. Body-affirming practices including learning to become allied with the physical form, self-blessings, attention to dress and appearance centered in self-love.
An Elemental Remediation Example
Let's put some of what we've explored together into practice. While an herbal consult is complex and typically involves being able to sit with a person and observe them in real time as well as taking a case history, we can still practice our skills from the following short description I’ve provided below of our client, Aspen.
Of course, the art of reading a birth chart within a healing context is multilayered and complex. For our purposes, we’re focusing on a very small, but very useful aspect of the birth chart - Aspen’s inherent elemental balance or how each element is present in Aspen’s life since the moment of her birth. Starting with the four elements is a great way to begin looking at birth charts without feeling overwhelmed by the all the information staring back at you.
Our sample birth chart was created via astro.com
Aspen just feels a bit blah. There doesn't seem to be any spice or excitement to her day and her level of interest in her old hobbies and activities seems to have disappeared. She's 29, described herself as generally in good health and works at a job she enjoys but it is a very high stress career and also feels like she has been there for a long time (15 years). She recently ended a 4 year relationship with her boyfriend because they had become more friends than lovers. She doesn't feel particularly depressed (people in her family don't get depressed she tells you), but getting up in the morning is difficult and she feels groggy most of the day, but in the evenings when she is trying to wind down for bed she is wide awake. Aspen wants her energy back and to feel excited and interested in life again. She feels like she used to know what she wanted to do in her life, but now feels adrift. She has a ragweed allergy.
First, let's look at what Aspen has shared with us and what stands out in her consultation:
She is feeling restless at work, maybe ready to move on to something new.
She's recently out of a relationship which lost its romantic spark.
She's lacking energy, mornings are hard.
Family legacy of not allowing space for sadness (and perhaps, other "sad people" traits like resting or admitting to feeling dissatisfied or making radical changes to their life that go against the norm).
She wants to feel energized, excited, and interested in life.
She's feeling a bit adrift and ungrounded.
Let's look at her chart. We can see that Fire and Water are the most expansive and influential elements in her chart. Both her Moon sign (Scorpio) and Ascendant (Pisces) are in Water, while her Sun is in the Fire sign of Aries. The more personal planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars) are also in Fire or Water signs. Chiron is also in the Fire sign of Leo. She has some Earth coming through in her chart with Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and her North Node and only Saturn in an Air sign.
In her chart there is affirmation (or testimony to use the classic astrology term) that there is a lack of Air energy needed to move energy around, spark ideas, and help to lift her from the humdrum. It's not to say that she is condemned to always be uninspired (she has lots of creative Water and Fire to support creativity), it just means that when she gets in these funks or places of stagnation in her life, she needs to actively cultivate Air energy to help her get out of them. She also spends way more time on social media than she likes which can be that lack of inherent Air energy searching for stimulation. Lots of Water and Fire in a chart can create the environment of a really pleasant and warm bath that can be soothing, but can also create drowsy, sometimes complacent energy that turns to stagnation (hard time getting up in the morning, restlessness mixed with inertia, lack of excitement, etc).
My heart is also concerned for Aspen's ability to just be sad and discontent - things that may have been shamed or restricted in her younger life. We all need to feel our feelings, but Pisces Ascendant folks are shaped by the currents of their emotional experience in beautifully profound ways. When supported properly can do great magick when it comes to developing their emotional intelligence and ability to connect with people. There's a need for supporting her emotional health and I would probably recommend a therapist if she's not already meeting with someone. In the remedies I recommend, I'll consider a flower essence or two as well, as these can be helpful in supporting emotional wellbeing.
With how Aspen describes her situation it seems like her Fire has been dampened and needs to be relit and oxygenated with some Air energy in the short term, and some more supportive structure (i.e. Earth energy like wood and a firepit) for her inner Fire to burn sustainably. I would ask some more questions about adrenal health and her nervous system to understand the source of her sluggish energy. Let's assume that through these questions it's been revealed that she also relies on and craves sugary caffeinated drinks to keep her going throughout the day (which she wants to rely less on while still being able to enjoy them occasionally and this is another sign of seeking stimulation to fulfill that Air energy need), seems to be getting sick more in the past year than usual (possible compromised immunity), her menstrual cycle is irregular, and she has trouble winding down in the evening in addition to the trouble waking up in the morning, brain fog, and lack of excitement about life. Along with the symptoms she's already shared, all of these issues can point towards adrenal fatigue.
image via @kfionnm
With everything we've explored with Aspen in mind here's a list of recommendations I might have for her:
Adrenal Support Tea Blend consisting of Borago officinalis (an Air herb that offers adrenal support as well as courage and the abilities to take chances), Urtica dioica (additional adrenal support while nourishing the inner Fire that burns steady instead of burning out, helps with menstrual imbalances, too), Mentha spicata (an Air cognitive function and stress relief).
Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) Milk for before bedtime to help her relax into the evening and get ready to rest. Ashwagandha is a gentle adaptogen so it'll help the nervous system to settle.
A Morning Chai blend with some Ocimum sanctum to help wake up in the mornings and support the adrenals (perhaps choosing coconut sugar as a sweetener since it has a lower glycemic index). Made as a concentrate for easy preparation in the mornings.
For every sugary caffeinated drink, drink one to two cups of herbal tea or water. Slowly reduce and replace as she feels called, but mostly focusing on enjoying the addition of herbal teas and more water throughout her day.
Milky Oat (Avena sativa) Tincture with the essences of Wild Oat and California Wild Rose.
Talk about ways to address Air stimulation needs beyond social media and how that’ll also support her resting, sleeping, and waking routines.
A plan to discuss menstrual cycles and tools for regulation in our next meeting as I want to see what changes with extra adrenal support first.
Movement based breathwork (supporting a balance between Fire and Air).
Start a journal with prompts.
Aspen is Pagan so we talked about setting up an Air altar facing East in her bedroom and she's going to read up on some myths within her cultural practice with strong Air themes (i.e. poetic inspiration, storms, the winds of change, the spirits of the Air, etc) for further inspiration.
Obviously, there’s so much more that can be recommended but I find it useful to start relatively simple. This way I’m able to see what a client has capacity for (i.e. if we meet again at our next consult and they disclose that it was hard to find time to remember to take a tincture three times a day) without overwhelming them. Starting simple helps me to track what works, what seems to be having little affect, and what can be added to the client’s protocol.
Through the process of coming up with recipes and suggestions for Aspen the elemental framework was used in a number of ways to help us understand:
Her birth chart and inherent elemental qualities: Aspen has a lot of Water and Fire in her chart, some Earth, and very little Air.
The elemental profile of the imbalances and dis-ease in her life: Aspen seems to be struggling with a combination of burnout (Fire) exacerbated by too much stagnation (Water) and not enough inspiration and movement (Air). In other words, a combination of adrenal fatigue, lack of feeling able to express emotions like sadness while struggling with the symptoms of these unexpressed emotions, and not having a clear vision of what she wants in the long run.
The types of remedies that would support her health and well-being: I've suggested remedies that are both enlivening and grounding in nature (Air + Earth) for adrenal support and to appropriately nourish and invigorate her nervous system and cognitive function; breathwork and movement-based practices (Air + Fire); and spiritual practice alongside journaling (Air + Water).
On top of all this is the most important aspect - the language I can incorporate into how I can reflect back to Aspen about what she's going through, the places in her body and life it sounds like she could use some extra support, and the remedies that I have in mind for her. We can talk about her elemental strengths and the ways that plants and practice that have shown up in our time together are going to help support parts of her Water self that maybe hasn't been able to express itself thoroughly and how we're going to help rebuild her inner Fire to burn steady instead of burn out. And we'll talk about how we'll bring in Air energy to help enliven and inspire this next chapter of her life all while creating a supportive and grounding container of Earth from which to grow from.
So that's one way of incorporating the elements of traditional western herbalism into your practice. It can become more complex with additional knowledge of medical astrology, incorporating aspects, transits, and more into the analysis of the birth chart - if you feel called to learn more about that aspect of traditional western herbalism, come this way. Or it can be far more simple, no birth chart needed, and simply listening and observing what your client shares with you and the signs of their body (shallow breathing, for example, can be both a sign of more Air and more Earth are needed to help bring oxygen deep into the body). Using an elemental approach to healing can be as intuitive or structured as you want - find what works best for you and those you serve.
However you bring the insight of the elements into your practice, I hope you find inspiration from what I've shared here to help you create a healing practice that serves you and your community well.
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And that wraps up our series on the four elements and their energetics within traditional western herbalism!
I hope that this series has served to demystify some of the more seemingly esoteric aspects of traditional western herbalism revealing that it’s a lot more intuitive and understandable upon further exploration. What I really hope is that you’re feeling inspired to perhaps try new things of an old nature in your practice and/or explore the energetic roots of whatever tradition you are trained in or that your ancestors practiced. Studying, reclaiming, and dreaming anew energetic systems that draw us as a species back into the world is one of the small ways that we can shift narratives of what it means to be human, to heal, and care for each other and our planet.
Looking for the other two parts of the series? Here they are:
The Four Elements of Traditional Western Herbalism (with bibliography)
Elemental Imbalance & Disease in Traditional Western Herbalism
I originally wrote this series for my students in The Lunar Apothecary, so if you like what you’ve read here, you’re invited to check out my course of lunar-centered herbalism to help you discover who you are as a healer.
And, finally, blog posts like these are made possible through reader support whether through a one-time donation or through patreon. It means a lot and changes the lives of folks like me trying to create abundant resources that are free and low cost to support folks on their journey of healing. Thank you.
This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎
