Time for a little peach-me-up!
This cycle, we focus on Peach, it’s medicine best harvested in June and July. While the juicy, delicious flesh of ripe fruit is full of antioxidants and nutrients, other aerial parts contain constituents to help soothe irritability and discomfort in the digestive, respiratory and emotional realms.
Dried Peach leaf, bark and flower are generally neutral energetically and can be utilized as a diuretic, mild laxative, expectorant, mild sedative, emollient and demulcent herb. Aerial parts can be used for chronic bronchitis, respiratory congestion, asthma, gastric upset, nausea or vomiting, constipation, vesical congestion, and fever. It has also been useful in allergic response to foods and environmental sensitivities, including bites and stings. Topically, fixed (rather than volatile) oil can be used similarly to almond oil to remedy for dry hands, in creams, balms and ointments. Additionally, the tea can be steeped, cooled and used as a gargle for toothaches or decocted and used as a wash for earaches, hoarseness in the throat and burning, irritated eyes.
Peach reminds us to be discerning and aware, to see all angles and allow for what may need to be revealed as the seed contains hydrogen cyanide, the poison that also gives almond its distinct flavor. Again we are reminded of the everpresent duality of life and medicine. Just as peach can help us clear areas of the physical body, internally its aromatic, gentle nature reaches deeper to aid in breaking up a dense heaviness that can accumulate mentally and emotionally. As a member of the Rose family, soft Peach can soothe nervousness and anxiety, helpful where there is heat and irritation. When we notice tension and irritability arising, Peach can settle, cool and relieve.
Want to dive deeper with the peach? Explore our Plant Spirit Medicine Box full of 5 hand-blended remedies
Astrology for the New Moon in Gemini
June 10th 2021 4:52 am
Hi friends, Bethany here.
Let me just start by saying that if you are feeling a little lost, you are not alone. If there have been some big changes in your life over the last month, great! Dive into them. With Jupiter and Venus swimming in water signs away from the chaos of this eclipse it’s a great time to let go and just see where the current takes you. Eclipse season is the season of momentous shifts. This means big beginnings and big endings. Between a big ending and a big beginning we can feel lost, stuck, out at sea on a cloudy day. And the astro weather is not making this any easier. So here’s the thing. This New Moon is conjunct Mercury Retrograde. If you know anything about astrology you probably know that bad things can happen when Mercury is retrograde. Well, we have a big old triple stack in the sky right now with the Moon, Mercury and the Sun all on the North Node. The North Node is the point in the sky where the moon intersects the ecliptic. That could mean a couple things based on different astrological traditions but for simplicity's sake let's just say that all of the significations of the Moon, Sun, and Mercury in Gemini are getting amplified. So what’s being amplified for you exactly? That depends on what house Gemini is for you. *Follow the instructions below to find out! So, Mercury is neither a benefic or malefic planet. Think of Mercury as the mailman (not my analogy). Whatever the mail is that day, that's what mercury is delivering. Mercury doesn’t pick the mail you get but he might lose the mail or get caught in traffic while on route if he is Retrograde. Luckily Mercury rules Gemini, which is great because he is in one of the signs where he is most effective. You can think of this like Mercury is on route to deliver the mail and gets caught in a traffic jam but it’s fine because Mercury is in his favorite delivery truck that has great AC and an AUX cord for his music player and a great GPS so he makes the delivery despite all the setbacks. The Sun and Moon represent different aspects of the self. You have the external and internal self, the visible and invisible, the conscious and unconscious, the body/mind. So, what the lesson of this Annular Solar Eclipse in Gemini conjunct Mercury Rx is for me is to just take the time to exist in the present and let the crossroads pull you, you will most likely need the time to review where you just came from. Without making any decisions let the path forward call you like a current. You ARE and that’s all you need to do right now. There’s too much confusion, breakdown, and change going on right now to know every little detail of what to do so just try Being for a minute. Literally if all you can do is practice a couple thirty second sessions of Being then that’s awesome. If you get one minute breaks between chores- take um! You will find the answer is there for you in those moments of nothingness. You are a channel for the divine, let it fill you.