Mercurial Herbs for Gemini Season

I write to you on Wednesday, Mercury’s day during the beginning of Gemini Season. The Full Moon waxes in Gemini’s sister sign, Sagittarius and motivates me to share some of my knowledge with the world. Gemini season brings warm, balmy air that invites us to reconnect with each other and the world around us after the cold winter. Gemini season brings fresh strawberries, peonies and roses to fullness, just to name a few (if you live in the northeast!). Gemini season is teeming with opportunity to connect with multiple parts of ourselves, like Hermes, we move between worlds. There is a profound relationship to cycles to death within Hermes and Thoth’s stories, which I think also plays a big role within this season and sign that is often overlooked. I think with each Gemini season we are given the opportunity to debut our new selves, interests, stories and join new places/communities/groups. We may grieve and mourn the old versions of us with that renewal and exciting growth, we may have to walk parts of ourselves to the Underworld. Other parts we may be walking back from the Underworld, rejoining and reviving lost parts of the self which we have self-abandoned or left in the pits of our shame. Gemini season is full of lessons around honoring the duality within our experiences and that is an essential part of being human. I want to share with you the magic and medicine of Mercurial plants and how to identify if a plant is, in fact, Mercurial.

Mythos of Mercury

First, let’s orient ourselves as to who Mercury is in the Eastern Meditteranean cosmologies of Greece and Egypt. Mercury is the Latin name for the Greek God, Hermes or Thoth in the Egyptian pantheon. Hermes comes into this world with an untamable desire to stir the pot, so to speak. He sneaks out of his crib, finds his brother Apollo’s herd of sacred cattle, makes a Lyre out of a tortoise shell and with his magical song, lures the cattle to a secret hiding place. He ties plants to their tails so that they brush away their foot prints, making them impossible for his brother to find. Zeus quickly sees he must give his tricksterous child a job to keep him occupied. Thus, Hermes becomes the Messenger of the Gods and moves quickly through the worlds delivering messages and information. He is the guardian of travelers and overlooks all of our communications. Which is why when Mercury goes retrograde, we are asked to speak directly to him to see how we are perhaps tricking ourselves or others. Hermes shows up in many different Greek myths, sometimes guiding people to and from the Underworld, stirring the pot between the Gods and sometimes as a lover to both men and women. Hermes is very gender queer, he truly moves between the worlds. Gemini, like Hermes, is full of duality, information and high speed connection. His sacred animals are the Hare and the Ram, his plants are Saffron and Straw

Thoth is traditionally ruled by the Moon in Egyptian cosmology, he is said to be born from the lips of Ra, a motherless God. Some say he is self-created from the beginning of time and lays the cosmic egg of all creation. Thoth is the scribe of the Universe, keeping all sacred records of the world. He rules over mathematics, sciences, messages and magic. Thoth is responsible for keeping record for funerary deities and helped Ma’at make the verdict in weighing a person’s soul as they enter the afterlife. If a person’s heart weighs heavier than Ma’at’s feather, then they cannot pass. Thoth is a God which many deities and people look to if they are trying to solve a problem, he often suggests that we gather in groups to problem solve if we cannot figure it out ourselves! His sacred animals are the Baboon and Ibis.

Astrology of Mercury

Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo, expressing itself through Air and Earth. In Virgo, there is more emphasis on the enteric nervous system which connects to the gut/belly axis and rules over the digestive health. This can show up in the ways Virgos can often have IBS or some kind of sensitivity with the digestion, especially relating to trauma and stress. Virgos also often have very particular eating habits and needs and can feel very thrown off if they cannot access those routines. In Gemini it rules over the Peripheral and Central Nervous systems which connect more to how you feel, your breath and body. In Gemini Mercury connects us to our breath and how it can directly impact the rise and fall of the nervous system. Mercury is exalted in Virgo, in Fall in Pisces and in Detriment in Sagittarius.

How to identify a Mercurial Herb

Mercurial herbs have a few easy to remember signatures that can help you in your astroherbal identification journey. Energetically, they are typically neutral to cool and drying. They are indicated for damp, boggy lungs, stomach and brain fog in the body. Since these plants tend towards the cooler side, think a damp and hot condition. However, they have an adaptable nature which can acclimate to other plants well within a mixture. Since we are working with the airy nature of this planet, we are typically working with the aerial parts of a plant. It’s flowers and leaves which hold high contents of volatile oils and constituents, but also often seeds which can hold high contents of these carminative oils as well. Think Fennel! The parts that are touching the air and the wind are typically used for Mercury. Also, with most Mercurial plants when you make a tea for instance, you want to cover the cup or jar while it steeps to help contain all the volatile oils which are released with the heat of the water. So, medicine which travels through air, in this case, steam!

Mercurial herbs often have many flavors and colors, but purple and blue are the most common flower colors. They are stimulating nervines and digestive bitters by way of having high volatile oils, so they are also always aromatic. Some have more of a affinity for the digestive system (fennel), which others may be more focused on cooling (lavender) and calming nerves or expectorating through the lungs (thyme). Many Mercurial herbs also stimulate the mind and bring clarity, think Ace of Swords energy!

MERCURIAL HERBS

Skullcap

Lavender

Mint

BeeBalm

Lemonbalm

Fennel

Thyme

Passionflower

Strawberry Tree

Saffron (through mythos, but mercury is not saffron’s true ruler)

Anemone

I hope you found this helpful and enjoyable to read! To learn more deeply about astroherbalism, make sure you sign up for my newsletter and follow me on IG (@moonsofaphrodite) to catch one of my workshops this summer. In person and online, dates dropping soon!

Olive/Elia/Zaytun

“If the Olive Trees knew the hands that planted them, their oil would become tears”– Mahmoud Darwish 

1. Personal Stories

2. Olive in Palestine

3. The Gifts of Olive

4. Poems for Olive

5. Affirmations from Olive

   1.Olive trees are one of my dearest plantcestors, they represent my homeland, my food ways, my history, my nourishment, my dance and my ancestor’s spirit of resilience. One of my earliest memories is in my Yiayia’s kitchen in Thessaloniki. I must have been four years old, I was lanky and way too skinny in my Yiayia’s eyes. She had endured a life of poverty and the famine which was a result of WW2, Nazis stole Greece’s food supplies to feed their soldiers in Europe. That mixed with our cultural pride in feeding our loved ones had me in a special position of being locked in her kitchen, like literally, door was locked! She sat me down and she told me “ela na fas koukla!”. I gritted my teeth..no! A big spoonful of olive oil was coming my way! After some struggle, she bribed me with a chocolate bar and drank the olive oil straight, then fish, potatoes, feta, cucumber followed. Drinking olive oil straight is a Mediterranean medicine used since time immemorial. The ‘zoomi’ or juice of the olive is truly the definition of liquid gold. It gives your body sustenance and your spirit light. Full of good fats, antioxidants, vitamins and anti-inflammatory properties, it is truly a gift from the earth. This is my Cancerian Yiayia’s love language, food made with love and lots and lots of olive oil.

   My dear Greek-Anatolian sibling Iele says “my first and strongest memories of olive oil (outside of cooking) are the ways it’s used ritually. I love the aspect of massaging the baby with olive during baptism for instance. But I also was taught to use it in the xematiasma ritual, which is a secret prayer to get rid of the evil eye. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to pass down that ritual as a genderqueer person, since traditionally it is meant to be passed on “across the sexes” (so a elder man to a younger girl, or a elder woman to a younger boy) which I don’t really ascribe to in terms of my beliefs about expansive gender, and yet I still carry the superstition! I also recognize that in a patriarchal society, this way of passing on the xematiasma ritual was actually quite egalitarian, so certainly not all “bad”. So I’m trying to dream up a way that still honors this aspect of the ritual while also honoring my own gender identity and expansiveness. I’ve playfully dreamed of maybe teaching the ritual while in “drag” - sort of like whatever the “opposite” of my gender identity is, meets and recognizes the “opposite” of whatever your gender identity might be. We’ll see! But as a folk herbalist and someone interested in etymology, it was very powerful to learn about the etymological connection between “κύριε ελέησον”/ lord have mercy and the Ancient Greek “έλαιον” for olive oil, as something in the plant world that naturally offers mercy or soothing to physical pain.

When I get to spend time with Olive, I always learn something new from them. I revere their medicine so deeply, in my bones and blood. As an herbalist, it is my duty to not only honor how plants grow in their environment, but likewise how the people who grow alongside the plants are interwoven with them. They are the keepers of the sacred wisdom the plants carry.

2.When I see pictures such as the one above from our neighbors in Palestine, my heart breaks. This photo truly speaks 1,000 words and pretty much sums up the last 75 years in one shot. The people of the land understand so intimately the value and the sentience of Olive/Zaytun . Likewise, settlers/IOF officers, in the context of Israel and Palestine understand the profound presence of Zaytun on the land. Yet they do not know or care for these trees, they do not care to learn them and honor them. They know that each tree represents a Palestinian person, that they are interwoven, that they belong to the earth, they belong to each other. They know that their ancestors have tended those trees from seed to fruit, from fruit to seed, since time immemorial. The war on Palestinians has gone hand in hand with the destruction of sacred, ancient olive groves in the holy land. Olive is an extremely important economic, food and cultural source of life for Palestinians. Zaytun’s deep roots in the land mirror the unbreakable connection Palestinians have with their land. Olive is a drought resistant, extremely resilient tree that can bear fruit and thrive in poor soil conditions. The oldest olive trees in the world range from 3-6,000 years old, one of the oldest being in Bethlehem, Palestine. The olive trees of Palestine have been living alongside the people, like ancient immortal ancestors for generations. Many trees are tended and held in family lineages, passed down through the generations, from grandparent to grandchild. Over 100,000 families in the West Bank depend on the Olive harvest for income, which is becoming increasingly more difficult with each year of the occupation. Gangs of settlers with guns and usually protected by the IOF, have taken to attacking farmers and destroying their trees in front of them. Over 800,000 Olive trees have been destroyed since 1948, mirroring almost exactly, the number of displaced Palestinians from the first Nakba.

Ripping up the roots of these ancient trees sends visceral waves of horror through my body, not unlike the waves we have collectively been feeling watching this most recent catastrophe unfold before our eyes. ‘In August 2021 alone, more than 9,000 have been removed, and on February 9th 2020, 50 olive trees were forcefully uprooted and destroyed in the occupied West Bank region of Salfit.4 ‘ The reason for these brutal attacks on the olive trees of the West Bank are for the purpose of building more illegal Israeli settlements. Somehow, all the land that has been taken is still not enough. It reminds me so much of narcisstic relationship abuse, when the abuser purposefully targets what or who means the most to the victim. Also, keep in mind that it takes 15-20 years for an olive tree to mature, so imagine a child growing up in a family whose grove was destroyed. It will take until they are an adult for the (hopefully) replanted trees to produce fruit which can be used for making olive oil. Elder farmers may have their last memory of their grove be on fire. There is a lot of red tape put down by the Israeli army as to who can receive permits to farm Olive and how much water access they get. Only 24% of applicants are accepted. Additionally, farmers are restricted from visiting their trees whenever they want, which affects the yield of olives because they cannot properly tend the trees. I cannot even put into words how egregious it is to bar Palestinians from their ancestral connection to their earth ways. How can the Holy Land be treated with such impunity? Such lack of sanctity?

Ironically, Olive is the symbol of peace and they are being attacked. The olive harvest takes place in October, which this year was the beginning of the worst aggression on Palestine since 1948. Vivien Sansour says the olive harvest is typically ‘a national picnic’, a joyful time for community to eat, sing and harvest zaytun together. This year’s harvest is stained with blood. My prayer is that after Palestinians are given back their land and homes, they may plant thousands more olive trees, perhaps to honor each martyr, so they may live on their land for eternity and nourish future generations of Palestinians.

3. The gifts of Olive/Elia/Zaytun are many! The wood of olive is very durable, resilient and beautiful. Olive wood is used mostly for furniture and kitchenware. The complex wood grain is challenging to work with, but oh so gorgeous! Olives are a delicious treat when cured properly. They are rich in good fats, vitamin E and antioxidants. Olive oil carries these same properties and studies show its protectiveness for the heart and bones. Bassem Youssef recently made a post about Palestinian olive oil, he said “Just put some oil” is the answer for everything in Palestine. Hungry? Add oil. A bit sick? Rub oil. Want to feel better about the world? Oil as old as the earth is there for you. They are not just olive trees. They are family. They are there to feed you, heal you and take care of you. How can you uproot a member of the family and call this land yours?”

Olive leaf is one of my favorite herbal remedies. My plant teacher in Greece said Olive is used energetically for processing grief, especially when there has been a sudden or abrupt separation. Like an unseen divorce, a death or having to uproot and move. Energetically Olive offers the spirit flexibility, flow and patience during very hard times. Olive helps to tether you back to earth if you’re floating away, yet also extend grace into the world. Iele also shared with us olive’s association to mercy and relieving pain. If you see old Olive trees, you can see they move like dancers, they twist and wave together. Olive leaf is one of my go-to anti-viral herbs and really just a lovely, nourishing soothing herb to add to any blend!

4. Poems about Olive

Olive

Your father,
his inheritance shed of him
like the skin of a snake.
only he cried afterward.

Walking through barren olive fields
he envisions their roots active with sprout,
alive, as they once were, with the fruit of his ancestors.

The bitter black taste of Palestinian soil
accompanied by the toasted pita-bread and melted white cheese,

he dreams
of children's olive-like eyeballs
their sparkling gaze

like onyx,
but the dream is shot with the poke of an empty hand
a branch, fringed-ash and embroidered by greed

whose jugglers and smugglers in moan
have thrown staunch families into pleas
they sneeze
to rid of the fumes clenching their inner lung
constricted black and frightened tongue,
ambitions sullied, by ancestor's songs unsung

life squeezed out of my grandfather's love
he blows the ash from a branch
wind carrying it from his eyes
open eyes, lashes curled toward the heavens
he inhales their deeply embedded fragrance
buried beneath layers of activity and reactivity

from which this culture will continue to flourish.

By Farrah Sarafa

 Folk Song

A little bird came out of the earth and came
out of Hades and built a nest
on an olive tree branch,
its leaves are bitter
and its flowers are acrid.
Women stricken by fate heard about it
and they ask:
-Tell us, long live, my little bird,
How is it in Hades?
Are young men armoured
and young women with jewellery?
And are little children with many toys?
-There, they don`t wear jewelry
and they aren`t armored
and poor children ask for their mother.

Greek, Unknown

5. The Spiritual Affirmations of Olive

I can never be removed or destroyed, my roots kiss the heart of the earth. I am as durable as steel and as fluid as water. I am the child of the Sun and the Moon, I dance to my own tune. I am the earth’s witness and scribe. I am the keeper of sacred records and rituals.

Blog Post Title Three

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Four

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.