The Astroherbalism Apothecary: Crafting Herbal Charms for Your Sun Sign

I've written about the gifts of our Sun sign and how we can connect with that energy of our birth chart through a simple tarot practice - and now it's time to explore working with our Sun sign plant allies in magickal practice.

Building upon the energy of exploring our birth chart, I wanted to explore some astroherbalism techniques to help you craft herbal charms and potions that support the energy of your Sun sign. As the Sun sign is a common starting point for many folks to western astrology, I'd thought it would be a good place to start, but I'll be continuing this series exploring the Moon sign and Ascendant, too.

While you'll find plant suggestions in this post, what I really want to share with you is the framework of how we would approach creating your own unique potions, elixirs or herbal charms for your Sun so that you feel inspired to use what is readily available to you. We'll start by naming the ways our Sun sign affects our energy and then look at the common ways that Sun energy might need support in our life because its been blocked or undernourished. I'll provide you with some suggestions to help you craft your own charms, and then leave you with a Sun sign ritual to support your magickal workings.

Let's get crafting in the astroherbalism apothecary!

As an herbalist, I work with astrology as a story-telling-listening tool and a way to help folks get to know and name the healing needs of their body (and by "body" I mean physical form, emotional and mental experience, the psychic body, and so on). Within traditional western herbalism, the Sun represents our inherent energy. There is no "good" or "bad" inherent energy, just the baseline energy that we're born with and our Sun sign helps us understand the ways that our energy flows throughout our life. Some of us, for example, have energy that is quick to show up and quick to disappear, while others have energy that is slow to arrive and meandering when it does get here. We bring this inherent energetic signature with us into all of our life experiences, including our experiences of wellness, discomfort, illness, and healing. 

Throughout our life we learn how to tend to the needs of our energy and develop skills to interact with the world that not only feels good to us (if at times challenging, but in a way that is helping us to stretch and grow more into who we are) but is sustainable. 

When it comes to supporting our Sun sign there are three primary paths that I work with: recipes that energize, recipes that soothe, and recipes that nourish. Below you'll find a brief description of each path of support as well as key phrases that help you identify your Sun sign energy needs. I encourage you to read these phrases aloud and if something resonates, to consider pursuing that path of magickal healing. Once you've identified what type of path will be most useful for you at this time, you can choose a few suggested herbs and then follow the guide below to creating your custom Sun sign charm with.

Crafting Your Solar Charms

I’ve suggested a variety of herb types and plant allies to create your own Sun sign charms. The simplest approach would be to use whole dried herbs, combining them together to create an herbal charm bag. You can also build a Sun sign altar, adding your chosen plant allies to it. If you have the flower essence version of whatever plants you choose you can easily craft your own flower essence potion. For those of you with herbal experience, you can even choose herbs to make your own Sun charm tea, tincture or topical herbal oil, taking into consideration appropriate individual needs and contraindications.

When available I’ve linked to the full plant profile of any of the plant ally suggestions below that are available for free on my community blog and they all contain additional magickal information. You can find all of my plant profiles in The Plant Ally Library (which is available to all of my patrons for free).

image via @mickeydziwulski

Energize Your Solar Energy

Herbs and essences that help to awaken, enliven, and generally stimulate Sun sign energy that may be sluggish, recovering from stress and/or illness, and in general need of waking up.

Key phrases that indicate you might be in need of an energizing charm include:

• I feel like I can't get going. 

• I feel stuck in one place. 

• What's the point?

• I don't feel inspired or creative.

• I just feel "blah" all the time.

Herbs for an Energizing Charm

For a charm that is helping to energize and wake up our Sun current, we want to work plant allies that are stimulating, inspiration-inducing, and energetically bright. From a magickal perspective, seeds and fruits are especially energizing, which is why I love incorporating plants into my Sun charms that are brightly colored and grow prolifically like Calendula (Calendula officinalis) not only in flower form, but in seed form as well. While you should check out the "Remedy Herbs" section of your astroherbology profile for your Sun sign, in general, brightly colored, especially in warm and sunny tones, plants that grow easily in a variety of conditions, as well as spicy or strong tasting plants, are great options.

Here are a few energizing Sun plant allies to consider connecting with:

• Calendula (Calendula officinalis)

• Ginger (Zingiber officinalis)

• Cayenne (Capsicum annuum)

• Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

• St. Joan’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum)

• Cinnamon (Cinnamomum spp.)

• Sacred Basil (Ocimum sanctum)

• Peppermint (Mentha piperita)

If they are already in your collection, you might consider adding any of the following stone allies to your energizing Sun charm including Citrine, Clear Quartz, Carnelian, Red Jasper, and Tiger's Eye. You can also consider choosing bright and warm color tones for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your charm.

image via @rayhennessy

Soothe Your Solar Energy

Herbs and essences that help to soften, relax, and create a sense of calm for Sun energy that is in excess leading to feelings of agitation, anxiousness, and general overwhelm.

Key phrases that indicate you might be in need of a soothing charm include:

• I'm so anxious!

• I don't fit in anywhere.

• I need a hug (or other comforting experience).

• I just feel on edge all the time.

• No one gets me.

Herbs for a Soothing Charm

Focus on herbs that help to diffuse excess Sun energy, helping to ground and center us. From a magickal perspective, roots and barks of plants (always sustainably harvested), have an inherently grounding energy which is why I love solar plants like Dandelion Root (Taraxacum officinale) for soothing solar charms. While you should check out the "Remedy Herbs" section of your astroherbology profile for your Sun sign, in general herbs that are cooling, including cooling colors such as blue or purple flowers, grounding, and relaxing are excellent options.

Here are a few Sun energy soothing plant allies to consider connecting with:

• Dandelion Root (Taraxacum officinale)

• Lavender (Lavandula spp.)

• Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

• Burdock (Arctium lappa)

• Borage (Borago officinalis)

• California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica)

• Rose (Rosa spp.)

• Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)

There are also a variety of stone allies you might consider working with to help soothe your Sun energy if you already have them available including Smoky Quartz, Black Tourmaline, Bloodstone, Obsidian, Amethyst, Citrine, and Flourite. You might also consider choosing cool color tones for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your charm.

image via @kiendo

Nourish Your Solar Energy

Herbs and essences that tend to the fundamental needs of our Sun energy, helping us feel energetically fed and supported in our energetic needs - a Sun sign tonic.

Key phrases that indicate you might be in need of a nourishing charm include:

• I feel burnt out.

• Everything feels like too much.

• I'm exhausted.

• Who's going to take care of me?

• I could really use a break right now.

Herbs for a Nourishing Charm

Focus on herbs that feel comforting and inviting, helping us to come home to our solar self. From a magickal perspective, flowers and leaves carry nourishing energy and I'm particularly fond of plant allies like Rose (Rosa spp.) to help nourish solar energy.  While you should check out the "Guardian Herbs" section of your astroherbology profile for your Sun sign to help you explore nourishing herbs for your particular Sun energy, in general focusing on vitamin and mineral rich plants, herbs full of gentle but warm color, and herbs that you enjoy the scent, taste, and/or feel of can be good options.

Here are a few Sun energy nourishing plant allies to consider connecting with:

• Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)

• Angelica (Angelica archangelica)

• Linden (Tilia europea)

• Sage (Salvia officinalis)

• Nettles (Urtica dioica)

• Milky Oat (Avena sativa)

• Chamomile (Matricaria recutita)

• Hawthorn Berry (Crataegus monogyna)

Stone allies that you might consider working with to help nourish your Sun energy, if you already have them in your collection, include Citrine, Rose Quartz, Rhodochrosite, Pink Tourmaline, and Magano Calcite. You might also consider choosing gentle and warm colors - such as rosy pinks, soft oranges, warm yellows - for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your charm.

image via @daiga_ellaby

Creating Your Sun Sign Charm

Decide on the form that your Sun charm will take (i.e. a spell bottle, a charm bag, a solar altar, or something else entirely) and gather all of your ingredients and items needed as well as a candle and candle holder.

If you are able to perform this charm on a sunny day, even better, but it's not necessary for success as often we need to recharge our solar energy because sunny days have been far and few between. Ground and center (perhaps with a tree of life meditation) and settle into sacred space through your preferred method. Lay the items for your charm out before you, along with your candle.

Light the candle by saying:

By the light of the Sun
By the light of the fire
By the light of my heart's
Honest desire
I work my magick
I cast my spell
To {charge, soothe, nourish} my energy
That all may be well.

Visualize the light of the candle (and the Sun if you are outside) growing and expanding, meeting with your own solar energy. Let the light fill up the places of your solar aura that need healing, helping to fortify your Sun energy. When ready, begin to craft your charm, naming aloud the purpose of each item that you are adding to it such as:

Calendula for energy and strength
St. Joan's Wort for hope and joy
Lemon Balm for clarity and community

Once the charm has been made, pass the charm through the flame six times, visualizing the light of the flame and the Sun being gathered up into the charm. Then pass the charm between you and the the candle flame, reciting at least six times (or until the energy needed is raised) in a rhythmic fashion:

By light, I am {energized, soothed, nourished}
My Sun renewed
Round and about
Through and through

When you feel the energy has been raised, press the charm to your heart and exclaim: 

So mote it be!

You can now use your charm as you please, carrying it with you or placing it in an auspicious place in your home. The charm can be re-charged by putting it under sunlight and/or repeating the Sun charm ritual as needed.

✨

While I love connecting folks with healing modalities, plant allies, and magickal practices, I've come to realize that a lot of my work is learning how to be an effective resource library and to help folks connect with their healing community. I find that astrological language can be an excellent tool for that, especially for marginalized folks who've been injured within medical systems - physically, emotionally, spiritually - feel hesitant to access the care they need. 

It was my own magickal practice that led me to re-membering, after being raised under the deep shadow of capitalism that tries to sell us the lie of the isolated individual solely responsible for earning their "wellness," that healing is a community act, that we all deserve healing resources (including accessing the work of mental health professionals) by simply existing. If you have read through this post and feel some resonance with a statement that you weren't expecting or feelings that feel hard to sit with, I invite you to seek out some of the incredible community-centered healing resources available to you (you can find a short list at the end of this post to help get you started). Part of working with paths like modern astrology is recognizing where the story of our birth chart is pointing us towards - including the types of collaborative healing spaces and skills that would benefit us the most during any and every stage of life.

That's magick, friends, clarifying our intention, naming it, asking for what we desire, and letting love open the path back home to ourselves and our community.

If you are looking to learn more about your Sun sign come this way and you can check out my astroherbology archive for an abundance of resources for your studies and practice. 

May your inner Sun shine brightly!

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

Stories of Hope: Linden Plant Profile

I’ve written many plant profiles over the years, starting during my student days and I imagine I’ll be writing profiles in one form or another for many years to come.

In The Plant Ally Library, where you can find all of the plant profiles I’ve written, I’ve realized that I’ve covered many of the herbs that I use on a regular basis in my practice. While I still have plenty of plants to write about, I’m turning my gaze more and more towards not only herbs that my community is interested in (i.e. my patrons get to choose most of the profiles I write about these days), but those that I consider essential to my practice even if I use them less frequently.

Linden (Tilia x europaea) is one of those powerful periphery plants for me. I don’t use them all the time like, say, Milky Oat (Avena sativa), but I would miss them were I no longer to have access to their healing gifts. Linden is also a plant that I learned about first through the richness of herbal oral tradition and that first introduction guides me whenever I consider choosing them as an appropriate ally to work with in a situation of healing need.

I hope you get to connect with a plant through the power of community stories like I continue to experience with Linden. For me, Linden reminds me of the really beautiful aspect of becoming an herbalist where after a while of reaching out to plants to help the people you’re serving, the plants reach back to you through people to share a story you might not of heard otherwise.

Anyways.

Let’s explore some Linden magick, learn about their healing gifts, and meet this tree of community.

image via @bdv91

Linden
(Tilia x europaea)

Common + Folk Names : Lime tree, limeflower tree, linnflower, tilluel, common lime, flor de tila, lind

Element : Air, Fire

Zodiac Signs : Leo (Guardian), Aquarius (Remedy), Pisces (Remedy)

Planets : Jupiter, Sun

Moon Phase : Waning Quarter Moon

Tarot Cards :  The Emperor, the Sun, the Fives, especially the 5 of Cups, the Threes, especially 3 of Swords

Parts used : Flower

Habitat : Native to North America, Europe, western Asia.

Growing Conditions : Slightly acidic soil, moderate water, and part sun, part shade.

Collection : Harvest the flower in summer.

Flavor : Pungent, sweet

Temperature : Warm

Moisture : Moist

Tissue State : Dry, Tense, Cold, Stagnant

Constituents : Vitamin C, iodine, manganese, essential oil, flavonoids, mucilage, phenolic acids, tannins.

Actions : Antidepressant, antispasmodic, astringent, cephalic, cholagogue, choleratic, diaphoretic, diuretic, emollient, expectorant, hypotensive, nervine, peripheral vasodilator, relaxant, stomachic, sudorific, tonic, vasodilator, vulnerary.

Main Uses : When I think of Linden I imagine the first time I met this plant through someone who embodied Linden energy within themselves and their beautiful home. They were the type of community organizer, working quietly and steadily in the background, who glowed from within with hope even when faced with the monumental task of shifting resources back into underserved communities. They were tender-hearted in a way that felt so unfamiliar (and, to be perfectly honest, undesirable) to me at that time in my life, but I left their house with a gifted bottle of Linden tincture tucked into my bag.

Many years later when I began to know and embrace my own tender-heartedness and struggled to feel hope amongst all these feelings, I would pull that bottle of Linden tincture out of my apothecary cabinet, adding a few drops to my water, and remembering that I had been told that this was a joy plant, a hope tree, a place to go to when the sorrow feels like it is going to eat you up. So as I sat down to write about Linden, I found myself filling up with the stories that had been shared to me about this beautiful tree, whether spoken or by the written word, and it felt important to convey the connecting, communal magick of Linden by quoting at length a few of those stories in this profile.

It's not uncommon for a first encounter with Linden to be in some variety of "happiness tea" with other joyful herbs like Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis), Chamomile (Matricaria recutita), and Rose (Rosa spp.). Linden is a wonderful plant to work with where excess states of tension has led to feeling stuck and low. Indications for Linden include difficulty sleeping, signs of excess heat like irritability, impatience, high blood pressure, heart palpitations caused by stress, and a general state of agitation. There is a struggle to settle into oneself. The herb is a wonderful ally to folks of all ages and can be useful to add into tea blends for children (and adults) who are learning how to channel their restless energy in ways that help them feel good in their bodies. In general, Linden is a great nervous system tonic supporting us in all stages of life, from childhood, pregnancy, times of heightened stress, and old age and can easily be combined with other nervines like Milky Oat (Avena sativa) to help us thrive. I love the following tea and description by herbalist Deb Soule as it embodies the essence of working with plants like Linden  for longevity of body and soul:

“Motherwort mixed with lemon balm, linden flowers, raspberry leaves, blue vervain, fennel seed, borage flowers and leaves, and chamomile tea, relaxes and soothes the soul and brings happiness, strength of the trees, sweetness of the bees, and courage to those who partake of these herbs.”¹

image via @gervele

Linden is one of those warming herbs that work well for instances of excess heat (much like Ocimum sanctum), because it works to effectively move trapped, stagnant or overactive heat throughout the body. Hypertension, for example, is considered an issue of Tension and Heat, so a plant like Linden can be a great ally to work with. Linden helps to "relax the coronary arteries, easing palpitations and therefore helping prevent and treat coronary heart disease."² Linden is the plant ally for the chronic stress that underlies so many of our diseases and discomforts.

Other Heat conditions that Linden can help alleviate include fever and colds where trapped heat is not allowing the body to effectively fight off the infection. For states of excess tension, Linden is an excellent choice for so many conditions including tension headaches and migraines, colic, cramping and period pains, depression (someone wants the feeling of being held, combine with Leonurus cardiaca), dizziness, back, neck, and shoulder pain. Use for chronic bronchitis and stubborn coughs where there is excess phlegm. I love these bits of Linden wisdom provided by herbalist Stephen Taylor from his own teachers which help to illustrate the ways that Linden (or limeflower, as his preferred common name for the plant) moves energy:

“Both of my herbal mentors had a special place for limeflowers, Christopher Hedley used to say that limeflower takes the fat of the arteries and puts it on the nerves where it belongs, and my other mentor Julian Barker, used to treat microcirculatory conditions of the arterial system with his triad of herbs combining limeflower, hawthorn, and yarrow.”³

Linden is a helpful diuretic alleviating arthritis, gout, general inflammation, and renal disease, especially when prepared as a warm to cool infusion. The mucilaginous qualities of Linden help to soothe all sorts of bodily passages including the intestines, urinary and respiratory passages. Add Linden to digestive blends to help alleviate symptoms of IBS. Linden is a good ally for vaginal tissue health both internally and externally, helping with postpartum healing as well as genital sores in general. Soule recommends combining Calendula (Calendula officinalis), Milky Oat (Avena sativa), Comfrey (Symphytum officinale), and Linden together for a healing sitz bath especially good for wounds and sores.⁴

Topically, Linden is a fantastic skin tonic helping a variety of inflammatory skin conditions including hemorrhoids, boils and abscesses, burns, rashes, urticaria, and shingles. Use as a compress for inflamed and swollen eyes and as a gargle for sore throats. 

Kaditzer Linde circa 1840 - image source

Magickal Uses : In Greek myth, the Linden tree is Philyra, the transformed mother of Chiron, though as with many tellings of Greek myths it's a rather traumatic tale. I would seek out modern, feminist Hellenic practitioners who have explored the story if you're feeling called to work with this myth, as I suspect there might be a useful retelling about birth and trauma to be told (or something else entirely as I am not a Hellenic practitioner with a depth of practice to draw on). Following the path of Chiron, Paul Beyerl suggests that Linden is a useful plant to use in all forms of Sagittarian and horse magick.

In Northern European traditions, Linden is associated with the Goddess Freya and Holda, and important community and council meetings would take place at the foot of the Linden tree. As the trees grow over 100 feet tall and live for over 70 years, it's no surprise that Linden was recognized as a place of gathering and pilgrimage to Pagans and later Christians. The tree is sacred in Slavic, Baltic, and northern Chinese cultures as well. There is also a tradition of divining with Linden leafs, which indicates they may be a useful addition to divination rituals.

Linden is a plant of Jupiter and can be used in all rituals where you want to bring in Jupiterian energy of abundance, healing, and beneficial energy. Traditional uses of Linden include hanging a branch above your door for protection, using the wood to create amulets of luck, and in spells of love and longevity.⁵

I feel a similar energy between the Oak (Quercus spp.) and Linden - whereas the Oak acts as a doorway from our world to the otherworld, Linden feels very much like a tree that offers a doorway from the otherworld into our world. It is a place to gather to hear the voices of our ancestors, to invite them back into the circle of our living community, and seek their wise counsel. I absolutely love this story from herbalist Karen M. Rose:

“There is a linden tree in Prospect Park, in Brooklyn, not too far from my home, where I take my apprentices when we do plant-identification walks. Every time I gather them under this specific linden tree, we have a spiritual experience. The feeling of safety and of being home and held is undeniable.”⁶

The Linden Personality : Linden folks believe in the myth of the lone wolf - they are self-isolating, believe that they are impossible to be understood by their peers, and so reliant on their idea of being the outsider that they have created a very lonely world for themselves. Often there is a story of trauma in their background that has deeply reshaped the way that the interact with other people, often choosing to avoid them as much as possible. There is also a type of Linden folk who have experienced online radicalizing forces, filling their heads with mean-spirited pseudoscience (i.e. the alpha wolf myth) and a toxic outlook on life. These chronically online Linden folks went seeking community in digital spaces but find themselves increasingly isolated from the rest of their lives through these dehumanizing theories and beliefs. Of course, not all Linden folks are chronically online, but as a plant that has gateway energy that helps to draw us back into real and loving community, Linden can serve as a very welcome ally to those who are wanting to address attachments to their online world that they no longer want. In general, Linden folks avoid giving and receiving love because they are afraid of the vulnerability involved, and instead choose to believe things about themselves that keep them isolated. Working with Linden helps them to open up to community, seek help for their traumatic experiences, and feel connected to others as a social creature, letting their "lone wolf" persona fall aside so that they can rejoin the pack. Linden folk shine in their ability to repair fracturedness, helping those who feel they are incurably lost be found again.

Contraindications : Generally considered safe with rare cases of contact dermatitis have been reported.

Drug interactions : None known.

Dosage : Standard dosage. Hot tea is best for diaphoretic action while warm to cold infusions are more diuretic in action.

🌿

What sorts of plant stories have you been offered over the years? How do they continue to shape the ways you work with plants? Seek out these story sharing plant spaces whenever you can - I think it’s one of the ways that we keep herbalism a living, breathing tradition.

May your ears be full of plant stories, your visits with plant elders plentiful, and your ability to share your own stories abundant.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

📚
Footnotes

1. Deb Soule, The Roots of Healing: A Woman's Book of Herbs (New York: Citadel Press, 1995), 120.

2. Anne McIntyre, Flower Power: Flower Remedies for Healing Body and Soul through Herbalism, Homeopathy, Aromatherapy, and Flower Essences (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1996), 220.

3.  Stephen Taylor, The Humoral Herbal: A practical guide to the Western Energetic system of health, lifestyle and herbs (London: Aeon Books, 2021), 311.

4.  Soule, 171.

5.  Scott Cunningham, Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 2001), 160.

6. Karen M. Rose, The Art & Practice of Spiritual Herbalism: Transform, Heal, & Remember with the Power of Plants and Ancestral Medicine (Beverly, MA: Quarto Publishing, 2022), 25.

Discernment: A Rising Sign Tarot Spread

The Rising Sign or Ascendant (i.e. the astrological sign that is rising or ascending up from the horizon at the time of our birth) is a rather magickal part of our birth chart where we explore how we want to be perceived versus how we are perceived.

While exploring our Sun and our Moon signs can be a deeply internal process, with our Ascendant we are required to not only look within, but to take a brave look outwards, too. If you want a better understanding of how the Moon, the Sun, and the Ascendant interact with one another, creating a powerful triad of insight in your birth chart, be sure to check out my first post in this series.

Are you one of the many folks who feel not quite connected to their Sun sign, they'll often find themselves resonating with the energies of their Ascendant. Such an experience makes a lot of sense as our Ascendant better describes our personality - the Ascendant part of our birth chart represents who we desire to be perceived and what we do to achieve that desire. Our Ascendant shapes our behavior depending on what it is pulling us toward. A Taurus Ascendant, for example, might want to be perceived as grounding and thoughtful as their steady poise is not only something that they want for themselves but they believe that such traits make them desirable and worthy to others.

Our Ascendant sign is our personally tuned skillset of discernment, the filter by which we look out at the world which colors all of our interactions. The great work of understanding our Ascendant is to not only understand what internal desires are shaping our external perceptions, but to recognize that we cannot control the perception of others and how we are going to shape our life by that knowledge. Will we bend ourselves out of shape to fit in? Rebel against the system? Feel like a perpetual outsider instead of risking vulnerability? Recognize that there aren't any outsiders just folks who haven't found one another yet? Stop reading this post because astrology is silly? 

By exploring our Ascendant we have an opportunity to recognize how we've been shaped by the tension of perceiving ourselves and being perceived. We get to name the patterns of being that we really love about ourselves and help us feel at home energetically (Sun) and emotionally (Moon) while reconsidering and even releasing those patterns that feel outdated, meaningless or exhausting. There is a beautiful opportunity of synthesization and authentic engagement with ourselves and our world when we bring together what we've learned about our luminaries into all the ways we relate to the world.

View fullsize

Discernment
A Tarot Spread for Your Ascendant

Begin by pulling out the card from your tarot deck that corresponds with the sign of your Ascendant. There are two correspondence methods to determine your Ascendant card. The first, simplest, and most common way is to choose the corresponding Major Arcana card based on the system used by The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn:

• Aries: The Emperor

• Taurus: Hierophant

• Gemini: Lovers

• Cancer: Chariot

• Leo: Strength

• Virgo: Hermit

• Libra: Justice

• Scorpio: Death

• Sagittarius: Temperance

• Capricorn: Devil

• Aquarius: Star

• Pisces: Moon

The second way, for those of you more familiar with the astrological tradition of decans, is to choose a card based on the corresponding decan to your Ascendant (I personally prefer the first method, but if you have the skillset, the second is great, too).

Once you've chosen your card card from your tarot deck, set it out at the top of your reading space. If you like you can place candles around it and build an altar full of items representing your Ascendant sign energy. You might include plant allies to your ascendant sign (explore my astroherbology profiles for recommended plant allies) or any of plant allies you feel support your Ascendant energy, focusing on creating a space that feels welcoming to your personal energy and aesthetic.

Cards 1. Cosmic Lens of Beauty

The first two cards of our spread help us to understand the lens by which we are viewing ourselves and the world. For our first card, it is the lens of beauty - that which we are drawn to, place value in, and aspire to be perceived as. While I'm using the word beauty, it could easily be replaced by holiness, desire or ethics, but it is a card that helps us to understand what shapes our perceptions of our inner and outer worlds. 

Card 2. Cosmic Lens of Fear

The second perception card is about how our perception of life also shapes our fear of it. In other words, what we perceive to be lacking about ourselves and our world or what we perceive to be our faults that drag us away from the beauty we perceive in ourselves and the world. This card highlights what we fear we might be perceived as.

Card 3. Collective Gaze

This card highlights your current comfort or discomfort with being perceived, helping us to understand how much beauty or fear we think is being placed upon us by others. Affirming cards in this position can reflect on the work we've put into and the space we've been given to flourish. Challenging cards in this position might reflect that you're in a state of transition, changing how it is you perceive yourself and want to be perceived, and/or how significant areas of perception in your life (i.e. in relationships, at school or work, during intense social-cultural periods during election periods, and so on).

Card 4. Alignment

This card highlights ways that you can help align your inner perception of yourself with how you are perceived in the world (at least in safe, supportive relationships). A particularly challenging card in this position might show a state of conflict with how you want to be perceived versus how you've been allowed to be perceived by your family, friends, society at large. Even in challenging cards, seek the symbol or meaning that shows small paths of rebellion to eventual freedom.  

Card 5. Horizons

When we work with the energy of our Ascendant we can tap into the ability to gaze towards the horizon and get a glimpse at what it is that we are drawing towards us/what is drawn to us in connection to our perception journey.

✨

I hope you enjoyed our journey through the Luminaries (i.e. the Sun and Moon) and Ascendant in your birth chart. Explore the rest of the series:

• Vitality: A Tarot Spread for Your Sun Sign

• Illumination: A Moon Sign Tarot Spread

Becoming familiar with these parts of your birth chart will help you create a solid foundation for your astrological practice, include any astroherbology studies from the lunar to the tarot.

If you’re looking for more tarot inspiration, I have a decade’s worth of community posts for you. For those seeking to learn more about the intersections of stars and plants, come this way.

May your studies be illuminating, your cards clear, and your heart open to the possibilities of all that you are.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

Slow Winter, Soft Spring: Herbal Remedies for the Quiet Season

I enjoy the feeling of expectation, that glimmering glow of waiting for something. Whether it is knowing that the jars full of herbs from the garden will soon be strained and decanted into precious, healing tinctures or decorating the house with candles and flowering bulbs in anticipation of Imbolc, I've always enjoyed the spaces between big happenings and festive gatherings. These in-between times, where one season is slowly ending and another slowly beginning speak to the magick of possibility and hope.

Intertwined with this comfort of waiting are feelings of wanting to be prepared. Often this is for practical reasons - cleaning the windows as spring starts knowing that this will help welcome in light to our homes after a long, dark winter. Yet, there is a more complicated feeling of preparedness that is deep and ancestral, handed down through generations of people who had a long practice of having one eye on the horizon and bags packed. Many of us, whether or not we come from families where the preparedness instinct is both a useful and challenging inheritance, are experiencing some form of tension fed by the feeling of global dread as we grapple with the uncertainty of our futures.

It can be a lot for these little bodies of ours to handle.

So how do I avoid the pitfalls of fear and balance out the pleasure of the in-between, with the practicalities of being prepared, while keeping centered and hopeful? To be honest, I don't always manage. Sometimes I have to breathe through the fear as much as any other person, lay down on the earth, and let panic flow out from my nervous system into the ground. But I do find that hope becomes more powerful than fear, that I am able to welcome up green and grounded energy when laying on the earth, when I make and tend an altar for hope in my life. 

image via @geri_art

As an herbalist and Pagan, my altar of hope is formed by the seasons, a very human-scale rhythm of time that our species and our non-human relations thrive in. A cycle of seasons syncopated by lunar rhythms helps to break the spell of artificial capitalist systems that are inherently exploitative of time and resources and which require us to be fearful in order to be maintained. Returning to the slowness of winter and the softness of spring, two dangerously disruptive ideas of wellbeing in an overculture hyperfocused on productivity, is a powerful form of restful and radical healing magick.

With this radical, restful, hopeful magick in mind, this new series will focus on herbal recipes for the seasons-between-seasons that help us meet whatever is to come in our lives and communities with steadiness. What I hope to inspire for you is a sense of place in whatever season of life you're in, where you feel like you have plant allies to work during these times of transition, and that you can begin to build or refresh a seasonal practice that feels sustainable. 

Winter to Spring Remedies

The following recipes are formulated as teas but can easily be made into herbal extracts, baths, or other forms of herbal remedies. I’ve crafted them with the transition from Pisces to Aries season in the northern hemisphere and from Virgo to Libra season in the southern hemisphere in mind, but they can easily be adapted or used throughout the year.

image via @mind_n_soul_journey

For When You Need to Breathe Deep

The dry coldness of late winter gives and the damp coldness of early spring combined with a lot of time spent indoors can create an environment for respiratory illnesses and allergies to flourish. Herbs like Peppermint (Mentha piperita) help to open the airways while Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) brings warmth and energy. Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) is one of my favorite herbs for clearing out bronchial and lymph congestion, but helping us find a rhythm and flow in our current cycle of life. This blend of herbs is great not only for helping to clear out lingering respiratory illnesses, as well as protect against future ones, and repair the respiratory system, but is also just a lovely blend to use when life is getting ahead of you and you want to pause, take a deep breath, and re-center.

Blend together the following herbs:

• 2 parts Peppermint (Mentha piperita)

• 1 part Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)

• ½ part Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)

image via @ed_leszczynskl

For When You Need to Think Clearly

Winter is a time of rest and recuperation where many of us slow down physically and mentally, settling into a mellow coziness if our life circumstances allow. As spring begins to wander over, at a pace that oscillates between meandering and very sudden, we can feel a bit brain foggy and sluggish when we'd rather be feeling focused and energized. One of the reasons we can experience brain fog, especially as winter turns to spring, is that our nervous system needs some extra support. Milky Oat (Avena sativa) is my favorite nourishing nervine (i.e. nervous system tonic) and it helps to restore the nervous system to a state of balance. Combined with nootropics (i.e. brain tonics) like Sacred Basil (Ocimum sanctum, tenuiflorum) and Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) this blend helps all parts of the thinking body from the nervous system to the heart to the brain feel supported and in resonance with one another.

Blend together the following herbs:

• 2 parts Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

• 2 parts Sacred Basil (Ocimum sanctum, tenuiflorum)

• 1 part Milky Oat (Avena sativa)

image via @yer_a_wizard

For When You're Feeling Stuck

Sometimes the slow months of winter can dredge up a lot of feelings about what it is we inherited from our families of origin, the people who raised us, and the cultures we grew up in. The long dark and stark weather of winter can show us just how interdependent we are with one another, the patterns that we weave into each other's lives and how we carry this inheritance around in our bodies. With spring slowly creeping in, we can feel rushed and unready, insecure and saddened by the approach of a new season when we feel so held down by generations of seasons. As we linger between winter and spring and explore these stories, hopefully while being supported by sweet friends, chosen families, beloved elders, and mental health professionals, there are many plant allies that can help us through. 

Plant allies like Rose (Rosa spp.), Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis), and Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) help to move stagnant energy, keep our hearts steady, and assist us in clarifying what it is we are thinking and feeling about our experience of what we've inherited or whatever it is that is making us feel stuck between seasons of life. 

Rose (Rosa spp.) connects us back to the needs of our heart, Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) helps us to hear our intuitive knowing above the noise of the crowd (family crowds, culture crowds, social media crowds, etc), while Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) helps to alleviate the tension that can keep us feeling stuck and mulling over the same situations and experiences again and again. When combined, these herbs help to open the heart to possibility, focus on the patterns in our life that we find most useful, and more readily recognize the joy of our lives.

Blend together the following:

• 4 parts Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

• 1 part Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora)

• ¼ part Rose (Rosa spp.)

☕️

Three simple recipes that help us to move from winter into spring with a feeling of levity and hope. If you're looking for more seasonal inspiration you can check out my winter wellness apothecary and spring wellness apothecary posts which guide you through stocking your home apothecary with remedies to support you and your community throughout the year. I also have a recipe to support the dreaming magick of spring as well as plenty of recommended plant allies for winter. You can also explore my series on herbal and magickal suggestions for every season.

May your in-between times be places of sweet softness as you learn who you are as a person in transition, always whole and always changing.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

Illumination: A Moon Sign Tarot Spread

Having written about what the Sun represents in our birth chart and how we might explore our energy through a solar perspective, it's time to turn our attention to the other luminary of the birth chart: the Moon. If you want a better understanding of how the Moon, the Sun, and the Ascendant or Rising Sign interact with one another, creating a powerful triad of insight in your birth chart, be sure to check out my first post in this series.

With the Moon we begin to feel our stories, our myths, and our truths. Within the birth chart, the Moon represents the filtering of our consciousness from the deep well of the subconscious, unconscious, and collective consciousness. The Moon represents our earliest experiences of feeling held, sheltered, and nourished (as well as the absence of these experiences), shaping how we view and seek out feeling at home in ourselves in the world. 

I grew up with texts on astrology that far too often dismissively presented the Moon as a weak place of feeling in the birth chart, almost always contrasted in a false dichotomy to the vigorous, unchanging logic of solar thinking. The Sun in our chart could be easily hindered by the Moon's unwillingness to sit still and stop changing - our feelings were something to be fixed so that they didn't disrupt "logical" forward progression. And yet, feeling is the foundation from which thought emerges. Thought emerges not as a refinement of feelings that we should be trying to pull away from, but as an interconnected expression of feeling that helps us to better understand our experiences. 

It is good to be friends with your Moon, to let yourself feel your way to your story.

The Moon is a great symbol of consciousness, feeling, and personal narrative. While the Moon is always full in the sky, we perceive it to be ever changing in light and form, stretching out an invisible influence over big patterns of nature, including the tides and cycles of growth. We have an opportunity to ebb and flow, expand and contract, pull away and draw in as we explore who we are and what we feel about who we are. We don't know how experience will change us, but we know we will be changed. When we sit with our Moon, we sit with the cyclical power of change and renewal as a symbol of hope for what is possible. 

Approaching the Moon in our birth chart as a place of illumination, we can begin to appreciate who we are in the stories we tell, changing them when we need to, and learning more about how we protect our feeling body as much as our mental or physical one. 

View fullsize

Illumination
A Tarot Spread for Your Moon Sign

Begin by pulling the Moon card out from your tarot deck and set it out before you. If you like you can place candles around it and build a lunar altar full of items representing Moon energy and your own Moon sign. You might include lunar plant allies like Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), Milky Oat (Avena sativa), Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis), Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata), and Jasmine (Jasminum spp.). Focus on creating a space that feels good and supportive to you.

Card 1: Illuminated

This card describes your inherent lunar energy and the place from which you filter experience into consciousness. This card might illustrate the emotions you find yourself most comfortable in being in. The card’s elemental correspondence can be helpful to pay attention to: cards of Fire (Wands) often describing quick and heated feelings, maybe even anger, Water cards (Cups) showing us a place of deep feeling and empathy, Earth cards (Pentacles) suggesting a longer journey to figuring out, much less showing, how one is feeling, and Air cards (Swords) typically describing someone who is quick to feel and move on and feel again. These are incredibly broad guidelines, meant to give you a starting point to describe your inner lunar landscape of felt experience.

Card 2: On The Surface

Referring to the original illustration of the river for our Sun, Moon, and Ascendent, this card represents how we appear on the surface to ourselves and others. If this surface level presentation is challenging for us, that might be reflected in the card. Or the card might illustrate an archetypal energy we seem to most easily connect to in our public persona (i.e. we might be the Knight of Wands whose always showing up to defend our friends). 

Card 3: Deep Within

This card reveals your lunar energy that is kept deep below the surface, usually hidden from most of the world besides those people, places, and creatures you are closest to. Sometimes our Deep Within card is in stark contrast to our On The Surface card, other times they are closely aligned. Often there is a story happening between these two cards that can be interesting to explore.

Card 4: Homecoming

This card illustrates the ways you feel most at home and supported in the world. There are often suggestions within this card for how you can call home those parts of yourself that deserve to be felt. A challenging card in this position might suggest that you're struggling to access feeling at home in yourself, and this struggle to access your own feelings can be for so many complicated reasons, and sometimes the wounds are very old. Some of the deepest wounds are hidden away in our inner Moon and you deserve to be supported in all the ways that help you heal, including therapeutic services by mental health professionals - be sure to check out the resources below. Any card here suggests ways to start telling the story of how we find our ways home again. 

Card 5: Intuitive Knowing

This final card highlights what might be considered our psychic gifts and shows us how we draw on our deep well of feeling and experience to know something before we know it.

🌙

I'm writing this while sitting outside in the (relatively) cool air of (very nearly early winter) late autumn, thinking of the patterns handed down to us through the generations - knitting patterns, woodworking patterns, star maps, and seeds. How these patterns help us continue the story of being dwellers on an ocean planet without getting lost in the vast sea; growing patterns where we another stitch, another word, another drawing to the story of all we've ever known, knowing that there is still more to discover. It's an incredible, complex, haunting, and uplifting legacy, and there is just so much to feel about it.

Since our Moon is about our feeling body, it's important to recognize that Moon work can be a space that feels too hard and challenging to access on our own - which is why you shouldn't have to go this work of knowing yourself alone. A lot of Moon work can be done within a therapeutic setting with culturally-competent mental health professionals. Your story deserves the space to be explored in a way that feels empowering. 

If you feel like you're not the type of person that does something like therapy, whether you feel like you should be "strong enough" to do without or it's not something anyone in your family does or whatever reason you've come up with, I ask you to consider this bit of ancestral lunar magick. The Moon represents not just feeling, but the full fruition of ourselves into our being, and our ancestors had ways of honoring that need through rituals and community support that is not so dissimilar to many forms of modern therapeutic practice. The Moon also represents change, including changing modalities of healing to whatever ones keep us alive and thriving, something our ancestors were constantly seeking in order to protect their beloveds, including us, their descendants.

I'm rooting for you and if you feel like it might be time to access therapy, here are a few resources to check out: 

• If you are currently in a state of crisis or just really want to talk to someone right now the Crisis Text Line, RAINN, and The Trevor Project are all available right now and for free to support you.

• Inclusive Therapists is a site dedicated to helping you find a therapist that celebrates your identities. There are so many resources on this site!

• The Loveland Foundation provides financial assistance to Black girls and women seeking therapy.

• Mental Health Liberation focuses on BIPOC mental wellness.

• Asian Mental Health Community

• Latinx Therapists

I hope that you find the people that love your Moon, love your changing, love your stories - may we be Moon-bodied people finding each other in the dark. You deserve all of that and more.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎