Mnemonic Wyrds of Medical Astrology

Astrology and herbalism go hand in hand and have done since the beginning of time.

Herbs have been and still are peoples main source of medicine, some sources suggesting thar 80% of the worlds population rely on plants for their health care.

Archaeological finding have shown that humans were using medicinal plants in the Palaeolithic era. There is plenty of written evidence on this dating back 5000 years from Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, India, China and Ancient Greece and Rome also.

With the majority of people throughout history having no access to writing materials or being able to do so as we understand it today, points to the mainstream use of an oral tradition with the use of ideographic or petroglyphic art used for mnemonic purposes.

Information stored using protowriting or ideographic symbols on wood or stone may well included information about herbal medicines, where and when to find them, in what season and under what star group, what they look, smell, taste and feel like and what they are used for.

Assuming also that people were comfortable with their own native versions of the Aboriginal songlines, ‘mnemonic wyrds’, they could have included a series of walks, movements and rituals accompanied with rhythmic tempo, story, song and symbol. Maybe the use of beaded rosary would aid and help solidify the information stored in a version of the eastern Akashic records which could be sung, recited and accessed in-between walks.

With increasing restrictions on land access and rights to roam, walking these wyrds would become increasingly difficult, thus removing the animistic and nomadic communion with Nature herself, from those who could hear and value her song and respond in kind by keeping her songs alive.

As times went by and as more people became aware of reading and writing and less able to walk the wyrds, the written word became paramount. Henry VIII created a charter to keep herbal medicine available, accessible and affordable to the people of England in the 1500’s. Nicolas Culpeper’s book a Modern Herbal, 1653, was written to preserve a workable memory of herbal medicine which included their important astrological associations.

A sophisticated system of medical astrology and herbalism dates back in written form to the Classical Pagan World of Claudius Ptolemy (c100-170ad), his texts somehow surviving the burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. With Christianity thereafter taking over the Western world, the infrastructure of the church, hospital and university had taken hold of astrological and herbal medicine and placed it firmly within male university educated hands only. This is significant as birth and family health care were traditionally under the female domain that had a history of hands-on empirical knowledge. However the erosion of peoples access to their native medicine was already in full effect by this time and folk knowledge and recipes had already begun being collected and institutionally archived and what memory was left became folklore and legend.

Astrology has played an integral part of medicine throughout history across the world, from basic observance of seasons, rising constellations and stars with relevance to health and to flora and fauna, to the association of planets and zodiac signs to parts of the human body and connections to perceived energy channels and ‘meridians’ within the body. Elemental patterns within the medical astrological view are similar and have overlaps with Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine systems.

Medical astrology has survived several attempts of the church to do away with it. Unlike other types of astrology it was deemed a natural science and not predictive or divinatory like other types of astrology. However the medical profession finally abolished it after thousands of years of use. There remained medical astrology advocates to preserve its use and archive and publish their findings. Culpeper and Cornell are examples of this, and its use continued, albeit mostly underground.

And with good reason was it continued out of view and kept underground, as there was a very real danger of being accused a witch and thus being burned at the stake for doing so, as Giordano Bruno was in 1600. The Italian Dominican Friar is an important figure here as he understood the need for mnemonics to retain and pass on knowledge.

Without accessibility to the physical mnemonic wyrds of the past, illustrations, diagrams, paintings, star constellations and even decks of cards can and have been used as mnemonic devises. Information can be learned, condensed, associated with an image and then retrieved and recited by those with the appropriate skills.

Mnemonics aside, from the empirical evidence gained as to the effectiveness of herbal medicines throughout history, modern medicine has developed many pharmaceuticals from the natural and chemical synthesised active constituents. It is estimated that over 100 active constituents are developed from plants. Active constituents have been taken from willow bark, meadowsweet, poppy, yew, periwinkle and foxglove to name a few. These have been developed into pharmaceuticals for inflammation, fever, pain, heart conditions, for use in labour and birth and medicines used in cancer treatments.

Of course there are non pharmaceutical herbal preparations also that can be utilised during periods of illness and as a preventative to illness. From; the cold and flu, aches and pains, stress and insomnia, to easing asthma wheeze and breathing difficulties, to easing the pain of birth, augmenting birth and its third stage, increasing or decreasing milk supply for lactating women and stemming postpartum (or other) haemorrhage. Herbs still hold a strong place in our lives.

Herbal medicine and astrology have been and still are an integral part to our modern lives, just as they were integral to those of the ancient past, even if they still are a little underground.

Elizabeth offers online (skype or zoom) and in person astrology readings and medical and herbal consultations. She draws on her years of experience in Traditional Chinese Medicine and her eclectic training related to the childbearing years.

Traditional Western Astrology, Medical Astrology and Herbal Consultant.