Herbalism and the Stars with Herbalist Amanda Furbee

Herbalism and the Stars with Herbalist Amanda Furbee

Amanda Furbee
Have you ever stood under a sky when there is no visible man-made light? The vibrancy of visible stars is breath taking. It appears as if the stars are so bright and so close that you can reach out and touch one. The stars are another gift of Mother Nature for us to appreciate and be humbled by. Since the dawn of civilization the celestial bodies have been an educational tool, creating rhythms in our day to day. Morning and Night. Summer and Winter. The ancients survived harsh winters and floods based on tracking information gathered from the cyclical tempo that nature provides. Records go as far back as 2nd millennium BCE keeping track of these patterns and what the stars can communicate to us. As we continue to dive deeper into reading these celestial patterns, astrology becomes an important piece of that equation. Each person has an individual birth chart and we understand that about your Sun sign, Moon sign, Rising sign and so much more. Last year at the 2016 Traditions of Western Herbalism Conference (now Good Medicine Confluence) I took a course on Sun Medicines and Moon Medicines with Dave Meesters. The particular focus of this class was on Sun (Yang) and Moon (Yin) Balancing and using herbs to support this. Meester's Alchemical Approach to Balance and his recent blog on the solstice I find to be particularly interesting. https://radicalvitalism.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/sun-medicine-moon-medicine-an-alchemical-approach-to-balance/ (you can also check Dave Meesters out at http://www.medicinecountyherbs.com/). Dave explains Sun & Moon Medicine: By day, the sun shines, illuminating all, lending clarity-we move directly towards our goals. By night, the moon presides over a land of shadow and mystery, where we walk a crooked path. Extrapolating poetically and alchemically, the Sun, then, stands for what is clear, rational, productive, safe, transparent, and intentional, while the Moon aligns with ambiguity, intuition, sensuality, non-rationality, unpredictability, and dissolution. Day and night take turns as time moves, but in the everyday fullness of our lives, solar and lunar influences alchemically combine and transmute. Both are ever-present. For many, Sun medicine is practically the definition of health, and solar intention, routine, and accountability are what we have in mind, and what herbalists generally ask of our clients, when we thick about attending to one’s health. Nut just as day must eventually yield to night, Moon medicine is Sun medicine’s necessary counterpart, and can be cultivated as well in order to find a deeper balance, and deeper health, in life. Taking a deeper look at how Astrology and herbs combined can bring balance to your day to day, I invite you to examine whether you have a Sun or Moon imbalance in your personal life. Do you feel like you can’t grasp onto a direction? A bit lethargic in the direction of path? Check out my Moon Balancing Tea “Orb of Night”. We are in a constant ebb and flow, taking a moment to evaluate how we feel during a particular time and what helps us to recalibrate and set ourselves back on balance. To set up an in-person or video chat herbal consultation with me email: info@theherbshoppepharmacy.com
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