New Moon in Aquarius / Skullcap

I think I really love snakes. I held some slight concern that it was simply a boring manifestation of my Scorpio stellium, but as time has passed I believe it’s something true about me. In fact, the delight and glow I feel being around them makes me wonder if that’s how ‘dog people’ feel about dogs. I went to visit my snake friends on Monday and as the gigantic body of this Being wound its way around my arm, the weight of it resting on my chest and shoulders, I suddenly understood why weighted blankets are a Thing. My ability to attune to this creature’s calm curiosity was nothing short of medicinal, in a way I somehow was able to fully grasp and engage with. My breathing slowed, my heart steadied, I could feel the nervous static that practically radiated from my body dissipate and sink to the floor. 

I think of Dark Moons as being a time of attunement between the Moon and the Sun, when the weighted presence of one rests on the other until their heartbeats are in sync. The animal belly and the intentional mind have a chance to hold each other for a few moments in the sky before moving on and beginning a new cycle of contrast, challenge and harmonization. 

I chose Skullcap for this lunation because I know of no Plant so generous with its tension dissolving gifts. Aquarius is the electric impulse in our bodies, the ‘spark in the meat suit’ as it were. A cold, bone-dry tension that is easily accumulated and often discharged through lightning-like flashes of pain or spasm. Skullcap is specifically indicated where there is pain from stress, stress from pain, raw nerves, hypersensitivity, nervous exhaustion and depletion, or nervous spasm {think of an eye twitch that comes on after prolonged periods of stress or tension}. We feel this kind of tension in our animal bodies, like smelling the metallic tang in the air before a storm and raising our underlying awareness to it, and what the body feels, it expresses through a language we call ‘symptoms’. Rather than working to simply “shut up” the body’s attempts at communication, Skullcap has an uncanny ability to sink into the meat of the matter and offer renovating support to the nervous system, like a grounding rod is able to safely direct the pent up energy of a storm. There is an attunement that happens as we go through the entire process, allowing the electricity to do what it, by nature, must do, offering the body the ability to express what it needs to express, and completing the circuit so that we don’t have a lot of pent-up ghosts in the wires. 

*It’s always advisable to consult with a practitioner before working with a new herb, someone who has been around the block a few times and can sniff out any indications that this wouldn’t be a great match for you. White the tincture is generally not sedating, Skullcap worked with as a tea can cause intense drowsiness in some folks, so that’s worth noting! There are so many ways to create space for attunement for yourself, working with Plant Kin is just one of them!