New Moon Old Magick

Good morning, folks.

LEO

The moon moves into Leo today, just after 3:30pm ET.  According to Lilly, Leo is the only house of the Sun.  I’d imagine that the moon would not be too happy in the Sun’s house!  She could only be overshadowed there.  Leo is, as we would expect, fiery, hot, dry, choleric (gets mad easily), diurnal, commanding, bestial, of the fiery triplicity, masculine, and therefor… barren.  He rules the places where wild beasts frequent.  I think today that would mean the Wisconsin Republican Party Caucus room.  …Ta-dump!  Alright I’ll behave.  Well, actually there is a biker bar down the road called the White Elephant….

Anyway, Leo is THE most infertile sign.  According to Liotte, Leo governs a specific fruiting function of a plant, the one that slows down growth so that the plant can get ready to bear fruit.  It is an ACTIVE brake principle on the growth of a plant.  In other words, it actively has a stopping effect on growth.  It is the very opposite of Cancer, and just as Cancer inspires the growing and germinating of plants, so does Leo cause them to “not grow” and stops germination.  So if we were in, say, the 4th quarter, and you had to get rid of weeds and DIDN’T want them to grow back, then this would be the time to do that.  HOWEVER, we are in the 2nd quarter approaching the full moon.  This is a highly active growth time and the water is swelling upwards within the earth.  Especially so now with the ‘supermoon’.  So the energies are conflicting.  Best advice…. do nothing.  At least with your plants.

It may seem strange to have the most barren growth sign come immediately after the most fertile.  It is.  But just take a couple of days to regroup.   Avoid the temptation to think, well, just a FEW more plants in and I’m done, after all.  Please don’t do that.  Liotte reports a test of transplants that ran a comparison between those transplanted in Leo and those transplanted in Cancer, the sign we are leaving behind.  As you might expect, the Cancer transplants uniformly did quite well, with good survival and growth.  Sadly, not so for the Leo transplants.  They had a zero survival rate.  It is, of course, your choice.  But why waste your time and kill a bunch of perfectly innocent little planties who trusted you?  hmmmm?

After Leo will come Virgo, another infertile sign.  And then Libra and Scorpio, two very abundant signs worth knowing about.  The point being, this too shall pass.  And by the time your planting Sunday comes about, we’ll be firmly back in fertile territory once more.

Leo also rules problems associated with the heart.  I don’t mean advice for the lovelorn.  I mean pleurisy, pain, violent fevers, weakness or disease in the heart.  So this is where we meet fire with fire.  If we are looking at Leo today, and we are, then we are also going to look at Cayenne.

After a lifetime of healing, my favorite herbalist, Dr. Christopher, declared Cayenne to be one of the most important healing herbs of all.  Simple Cayenne pepper.  Capsicum Annuum.  You can buy it in almost any grocery store in the spice rack.

Green Chili Study by Marie Angeli

The herbal world is FULL of stories about the properties of Cayenne, but it is rarely talked about in public.  Why?  It’s embarrassing that the best miracle healer be so readily available in anyone’s kitchen.  We want it to be expensive and difficult to obtain.  We want it exotic!  We want it to be a secret only known to a few.  Cayenne is too simple and easy.  It works in the vascular system, tonifying, rebuilding.  There are stories of heart attacks halted by the application of a teaspoon of cayenne in a glass of water.  Or stories of a child, bleeding to death from a gunshot wound, who was given a Tablespoon in water and made to drink it.  The bleeding stopped.  I’ve been told of a horse caught in barbed wire, bleeding its life out onto the ground that had great handfuls of cayenne pushed into the wounds by its frantic owner.  Bleeding stopped.  In less dramatic ways, I’ve read of sufferers of arthritis so bad off that they were wheelchair bound, given Cayenne daily over time until they walked normally again.  I’ve read about Cayenne dropping the blood pressure of a physically fit man who had genetic blood pressure problems.

In my own life, I’ve used it to counter heart pains and high blood pressure that came from being under the extreme stress of a terribly abusive employer.  In fact, this employer would probably have fired me for being inconsiderate enough to have a heart attack in her office!  And of course, the job was badly paid and carried no health insurance.  So Cayenne was the most affordable, immediate and easiest solution.  I watched my heart pains cease and my BP go down, and I’m fully convinced that I’d not be alive today if I hadn’t started my herbal studies  at the Christopher School, and been taught about Cayenne.

There is a very entertaining page of information about Cayenne here on the Christopher websites.

It is easy to take.  You can either put a small amount in water and drink it, or, as I do, take a bit of honey on the tip of a spoon, shake about 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne onto it, and swallow, chasing with water.  What can I say, I like honey.  Make sure it is raw and local if you can.  If you suffer from crippling arthritis, high blood pressure, heart disease, ulcers or digestive problems, then simple Cayenne is one of the best things you can do for yourself.  As an emergency first aid remedy, Dr. Christopher declares it to be the best for heart attack or bleeding, external or internal, and a remedy for shock.  In fact, there are so many uses for Capsicum (the active ingredient) and simple Cayenne pepper, that I can’t begin to list them here.  But if you are interested, it is worth pursuing the information at the Dr. Christopher legacy site.  Scroll to the bottom to navigate.  This will give you something to do until it is time to plant again!

Or, if you’d like, go down to the White Elephant and buy a bottle of Rum.  Put about a small bottle’s worth of Cayenne powder, OR if you grow it, a small handful of peppers, chopped finely, in a quart Mason jar, and pour the rum over it.  All the way up, but leave about 1/2 inch to an inch of space at the top.  Lid tightly, and set it in a dark, cool cupboard.  Take it out and shake it every day for about two weeks.  At the end of that time, strain it through cheese cloth or muslin into small bottles with eyedrop stoppers.  This will give you enough first aid miracle cure for a long time.  And enough for your family and friends, too!  You don’t need to make this much, of course, but it’s good to have lots of this remedy around.  As a tincture, it will keep.  Dr. Christopher said that his dream was to have an herbalist in every household, and a Master herbalist in every community.  Our own kitchens may be the only hope we have of countering the terrible effect that runaway corporate control is having on our healthcare system.  Simplicity may be one of the best ways to self-empowerment.  Educate yourself.

Ok, enough grandstanding.  See what trouble I get into if I don’t have some planting to do?

I’ll see you soon, my dears.  We will talk about Moon in Leo rituals.  Enjoy your peppers.

Blessed be,
Marie Angeli

text and images ©2011 Marie Angeli

Note: reproductions of Marie’s artwork can be found on Imagekind