Herbs of the Sun, Moon and Planets is a new book in the Pagan Portals series, published by Moon Books. In it I look in some depth at the subject of how culinary and medicinal herbs were once given astrological rulers by the ancient herbalists such as Nicholas Culpeper. Of course, there are no herbs growing on the other planets of our Solar System, as far as we know, and they would certainly be very different to those on Earth if there were, but the herbalists had a system in which they were able to assign a plant to a planetary ruler according to their mutual characteristics.
Sunflower (Photo: Steve Andrews)
For example, herbs ruled by the Sun, might have yellow flowers or petals that radiated outwards. The Sunflower is a very good example, and not surprisingly is included in the herbs that were believed to be under the dominion of the Sun. The Chamomile, is another in this group. It has petals that radiate out around a yellow central disk. The St John’s Wort is regarded as a herb ruled by the Sun too. In its case it is because it has golden-yellow starry flowers and blooms and is harvested when the Sun is at its strongest at midsummer. St John’s Day being 24 June.
Herbs of the Moon have something whitish or silvery about them. Perhaps they bloom at night or have rounded leaves like the Moon. The waterlily is a herb of the Moon, so too is the white-flowered Jasmine, which emits its perfume strongly after dark.
Mercury was thought to be the Messenger of the Gods, and so herbs said to be ruled by Mercury have something that communicates about them. The Fennel, with its delicate feathery leaves, fragrant aroma like anise, and tall and graceful flowering stems speaks to our senses, and is a herb under the dominion of Mercury.
Venus is the Goddess of Love. Herbs she governs have associations with matters of the heart and of sensuality. The Rose, being a symbol of love, was an obvious herb to be included in this group of plants.
Dragon Tree (Photo: Public Domain)
Herbs of Mars have something aggressive about them because Mars was the God of War. The Dragon Tree with its spiky sword-shaped leaves, red berries and sap that dries dark red like blood was an ideal candidate to be included in the herbs believed to be ruled by the Red Planet and its deity.
Herbs ruled by Jupiter have something expansive about them and many are trees that expand outwardly with their branches. The Lime Tree and the Oak and Pine were all assigned under the rulership of Jupiter.
The other giant planet of Saturn was thought of as the “Grim Reaper” and has associations with time, old age and death. Many poisonous plants were included in the herbs of Saturn. Deadly Nightshade, Hemlock and Henbane are all in this category. Many of these dangerous plants were once used by witches who included them as ingredients in their flying ointments. It seems likely that their “flying” was probably inspired by the hallucinations the poisonous herbs of Saturn they employed had caused.
Herbs of the Sun, Moon and Planets is divided into seven sections in which seven herbs are examined with regard to what characteristics they possess that probably resulted in why they were selected to be representative of the herbs under a particular planetary ruler.
