Scorpio New Moon Transformation with Cordyceps, Ganoderma, and Witch's Butter
(Yesterday), 7 November 2018, the Sun and Moon are in Scorpio and are also in a sextile aspect to Pluto, the ruler of Scorpio.
Scorpio New Moon November 2018 MycoAstrological Associations
1) Cordyceps (Cordyceps militaris): Life & Death, Transformation, Addiction, Respiration, Rebirth
2) Ganoderma (Ganoderma tsugae and G. lucidum): Death, Transformation, Conformity, Self-Love, Money, Authenticity, Trauma
3) Witch's Butter (Tremella mesentrica): Envy, paranoia, illusion, misery, flexibility, wisdom
Scorpio New Moon November 2018 MycoAstrological Associations
1) Cordyceps (Cordyceps militaris): Life & Death, Transformation, Addiction, Respiration, Rebirth
2) Ganoderma (Ganoderma tsugae and G. lucidum): Death, Transformation, Conformity, Self-Love, Money, Authenticity, Trauma
3) Witch's Butter (Tremella mesentrica): Envy, paranoia, illusion, misery, flexibility, wisdom
Scorpio is the sign of sex, death, and money. Scorpio represents the fruitfulness of transitions and the tenderness of temporality. Through Scorpio we learn about our deepest attachments, our greatest desires, our most rancid fears, and our regenerative powers. The significance of Scorpio is the power to create from what has been destroyed.
What better zodiac archetype to interact with fungi? Fungi and their fruiting bodies are a consistent reminder that transformations happen in our very own (fruiting) bodies. If we open our senses to the wisdom of fungi, we can nourish our bodies and tune our rhythms to the source.
During this time of Scorpio, we bathe ourselves in deep, fixed, water. In this water we address fear and death, our most repressed shadows. How have our fears manifested in destructive behaviors? How can you deeply forgive yourself? How can you work with your power and not grasp it?
The new moon is also happening at the very last degrees of Jupiter's transit through Scorpio, so it asks us to take the most profound of what Jupiter has offered us in the past year and to receive its warmth fully. What have you learned about the regenerative powers of your healing process? What have you been able to grow and expand upon this year?
Scorpio has immense potential: to not be afraid, to dance in amazing rhythm, and to have immense power. The ultimate power is to have gratitude. To have gratitude is the root foundation for building all of the wonderful prosperity and abundance that we we want to attract in our lives. There is power in being grateful for your fear and initial aversion to deaths and challenges. Energy is a shapeshifter, it is never created nor destroyed. When you can identify deaths as growths of movement and learning, you can feel gratitude for them.
During this new moon we have delved into the dream spaces of futures long ago and histories yet to come. There are intense transformation taking place in our bodies, social circles, and climates. The death of long daylight (for my hub!), the thinning of veils, the coming of darkness.
Three fungi have been making themselves very present to me for this cycle and want to be shared with you all.
1) Cordyceps (Cordyceps militaris and C. spp.): Life & Death, Transformation, Addiction, Respiration, Rebirth
MycoAstrological correspondence: Mars (first push forward, outer expression)
Secondary ruler: Mercury (speedy messenger, communication)
The very nature of Cordyceps growth demands the death of another life. Cordyceps is the fruiting body of fungi parasitizing other fungi like deer truffle (Elaphomyces spp.) or insects such as caterpillars of moths, ants, and beetles. It is estimated that over 680 varieties of Cordyceps have been discovered and named. The Cordyceps fungus grows inside caterpillars and other insects to produce hyphae. Once these creatures die, the fungus produces a fruiting body that sporulates into the wind to infect another generation to come. According to Bryce Kendrick, a single fruit will produce an estimated sixty-four million spores (Rogers 2016).
Cordyceps' embodiment of transition so clearly teaches us about one of our biggest fears - the attachment to our body and subsequently the fear of death. The potent varieties of medicine offered to us from Cordyceps come not from not only the fungus which springs upwards in tendrils of exuberance, but also in concurrence the death of its host organism -- the ingestion and decay of another body. Cordyceps reminds us of the temporality of our physical bodies and to be grateful for the transformational medicines that we can open ourselves to in times of change and death. What has been destroyed? When one form dies another is given life.
Cordyceps has gifted humans with potent medicine that has been used for 2,000 years, most commonly as an aphrodisiac (the power of sensuous life!) but has also been used to heal fatigue, the lungs, the kidneys, and to be used energetically to nourish yin and invigorate yang. Scorpio rules sex, cumming, conceiving, producing, the biological power of life to create itself. Cordyceps help us see the power to create from what has been destroyed and the special place where this transformation of the life/death cycle takes place -- our bodies!
Cordyceps mushroom essence assists us on the journey into the unknown, and often people fear the unknown. Cordyceps humans may appear fragile or extremely sensitive to others, or may feel judged by other people. Essence preparation is produced during new moon in Scorpio (Rogers 2016).
Cordyceps Scorpio-relevant traditional uses:
During this time of Scorpio, we bathe ourselves in deep, fixed, water. In this water we address fear and death, our most repressed shadows. How have our fears manifested in destructive behaviors? How can you deeply forgive yourself? How can you work with your power and not grasp it?
The new moon is also happening at the very last degrees of Jupiter's transit through Scorpio, so it asks us to take the most profound of what Jupiter has offered us in the past year and to receive its warmth fully. What have you learned about the regenerative powers of your healing process? What have you been able to grow and expand upon this year?
Scorpio has immense potential: to not be afraid, to dance in amazing rhythm, and to have immense power. The ultimate power is to have gratitude. To have gratitude is the root foundation for building all of the wonderful prosperity and abundance that we we want to attract in our lives. There is power in being grateful for your fear and initial aversion to deaths and challenges. Energy is a shapeshifter, it is never created nor destroyed. When you can identify deaths as growths of movement and learning, you can feel gratitude for them.
During this new moon we have delved into the dream spaces of futures long ago and histories yet to come. There are intense transformation taking place in our bodies, social circles, and climates. The death of long daylight (for my hub!), the thinning of veils, the coming of darkness.
Three fungi have been making themselves very present to me for this cycle and want to be shared with you all.
1) Cordyceps (Cordyceps militaris and C. spp.): Life & Death, Transformation, Addiction, Respiration, Rebirth
MycoAstrological correspondence: Mars (first push forward, outer expression)
Secondary ruler: Mercury (speedy messenger, communication)
 |
| Cordyceps spp., a gift in Bhutan (October 2015) |
Cordyceps' embodiment of transition so clearly teaches us about one of our biggest fears - the attachment to our body and subsequently the fear of death. The potent varieties of medicine offered to us from Cordyceps come not from not only the fungus which springs upwards in tendrils of exuberance, but also in concurrence the death of its host organism -- the ingestion and decay of another body. Cordyceps reminds us of the temporality of our physical bodies and to be grateful for the transformational medicines that we can open ourselves to in times of change and death. What has been destroyed? When one form dies another is given life.
Cordyceps has gifted humans with potent medicine that has been used for 2,000 years, most commonly as an aphrodisiac (the power of sensuous life!) but has also been used to heal fatigue, the lungs, the kidneys, and to be used energetically to nourish yin and invigorate yang. Scorpio rules sex, cumming, conceiving, producing, the biological power of life to create itself. Cordyceps help us see the power to create from what has been destroyed and the special place where this transformation of the life/death cycle takes place -- our bodies!
Cordyceps mushroom essence assists us on the journey into the unknown, and often people fear the unknown. Cordyceps humans may appear fragile or extremely sensitive to others, or may feel judged by other people. Essence preparation is produced during new moon in Scorpio (Rogers 2016).
Cordyceps Scorpio-relevant traditional uses:
- regulates menstruation and is used to treat metrorrhagia, in-between-period bleeding, as well as abnormal or excessive bleeding associated with perimenopause or fibroids.
- It combines well with Garden Burnet (Sanquisorba officinalis) root for menorrhagia and irregular menstrual cycles. This is probably due to 2 compounds isolated from the mycelium that possess estrogenic activity (Kawagishi et al. 2004b)
- has been used as an aphrodisiac for nearly two thousand years, with the first written record in the Classic Herbal of the Divine Plowman from 200 A.D.
- strengthens body and mind at a very basic level, replenishing yin jing and restoring the deep energy depleted by excessive stress
- in traditional Chinese medicine, the mushroom is used for fatigue, wheezing, shallow breathing, and loss of stamina associated with kidney and lung yang deficiency. The lungs rule qi and the flow of air, so nose and throat disorders are helped by Cordyceps. The kidneys store jing, the source of regeneration in the body.
- because it tonifies both yin and yang, it can be used safely nearly any endocrine condition to help relieve fatigue and calm the nervous system. Cordyceps is both yin-nourishing and yang-invigorating
Cordyceps has a huge variety of medicinal properties and I've included a tiny list of 'em at the end of this post!
The caterpillar fungus is a fascinating tale
Ingested by its host, the spores start to exhale
Control both direction and when it finally dies
Helps the fruiting body pop up between
the eyes.
To some it seems incredible
That such a gruesome fate,
Can help improve your sex life
Immunity and weight.
What existential twist can be so profound
As a moth consumed by mushrooms, instead of
the other way around?
-- Robert Rogers
2) Ganoderma (Ganoderma tsugae or Varnish Conk, G. lucidum or Reishi, & other spp.) : Death, Transformation, Conformity, Self-Love, Money, Authenticity, Trauma
MycoAstrological correspondence: Sun (shares energy with the whole solar system, reflects solar system into ourselves)
Secondary ruler: Mercury (speedy messenger, communication)
Ganoderma is from the Latin gan, for "shiny" and derm for "skin". Tsugae refers to its favorite host, hemlock spruce, although it also loves western larch and Douglas fir.
The Ganoderma mushrooms are all about sensuality (along with incredible medicinal attributes, of course); their wonderful colors, smells, textures, and the messages they send to us. Varnish conks can have a brown-red-orange-gold-white "rainbow" of colors on the surface with a white underside of polypores. While its display of color can be attributed to colors of many chakras and the energy moving (or not moving) between them, I want to highlight its scarlet-brown coloring in association with the root chakra. Even thinking outside of chakras, a deep red color immediately conjures blood, our association with the cycle of regenerative flow that has given us life and ties us to our ancestors, as well as evoking the squeamish fears behind blood, wounds, and eventually death.
The root chakra works with our groundedness, our security, survival, basic needs, physical identity, support and foundation for our lives. When imbalances arise in our root chakra, we are immediately acting out of fear, we may act aggressive, dominating, competitive, and live with a "killing power". In the fear of death we can also seek out places of false-belonging, in others and in ourselves.
The potential of Scorpio and Ganoderma is to not be afraid, act out of fear, and to be in rhythm with nature, with cycles of life and death. To become embodied with our groundedness meant to be acting in the flow of gratefulness for all life, to be acting in POWER. To "midwife in life and death" to quote Renee Sills of Embodied Astrology. To be here, present, and grateful in the changing and to see that as power. Ganoderma helps us explore deep-seated beliefs and emotions (fixed water of Scorpio) relating to childhood conditioning or trauma. Ganoderma transforms perceptions of death and dying into expansion, connection, and awareness of soul.
Ganoderma essence is produced from slices of the whole fresh fruiting body, on the surface of fresh rain water in a crystal bowl under lunar influence. To strengthen regenerative aspects, make the essence while the moon is in Scorpio. (Rogers 2016)
3) Witch's Butter (Tremella mesentrica): Envy, paranoia, illusion, misery, flexibility, wisdom
MycoAstrological correspondence: Moon
Secondary ruler: Mercury
Witch's Butter is another one of my favorites, her bright orange, edible jelly shrivels in dry weather and swells with water when it rains. Even in the absence of the name, Witch's Butter evokes an old boil-y witch, working in the forest and leaving her trails and residues of slimy goop on logs and fallen branches -- a curious site -- is it light or dark magic she lays? What makes her a witch, you ask? Some say it's because of her powers.
Witch's Butter helps us to better understand past and present experiences with the archetypal patterns of envy and jealousy and helps release their holds on our psyche and from within our body. Scorpio is fixed water -- it is our subterranean, cold, luscious emotions that have been sitting for perhaps lifetimes. Scorpio can be extremely attached and can hold onto feelings in an intense way through possession or greed.
What is your most foul emotion? How do you react to envy, greed, misery? We have these opportunities to get closer to what the heart actually desires. We may feel we are victims of fate or character, that we have been cheated or deprived. It may be best to allow ourselves to feel the emptiness deeply, the dark night of our soul. In this age it is almost impossible to allow ourselves to feel such emptiness, with constant stimulation and engagement from immediate input sourced from cell phones, social media, and the buzz of news, media, and energetic dilution.
Scorpio is the sign where energies and resources end, begin, and merge. Take responsibility to begin your transformations. To take responsibility for your healing may be carving out days (or hours, or minutes) free of technology, free of constant micro-stimuli, free of work and capitalist expectations. Your heart will be naturally pulled in directions, it may be scary and you may feel the need to act out of fear, but stick with it, remember the importance of baby steps, and you can do anything! In silence you can unveil truth.
Witch's Butter essence is prepared from fresh fruiting bodies in rainwater contained in a crystal bowl. This is best done when the moon is in Scorpio. Witch's Butter essence helps us release from the need to fix something and to stop repressing our experiences of envy, jealousy, misery, and illusion. The essence helps us feel and experience our emotions, observe our reactions, and then connect with soul wounds. Only then can true healing begin. Stewing into the cauldron a messy mix of juicy misery helps us transform our lives into greater riches of depth, maturity, and flexibility (Rogers 2016).
-------------------------
Lil' List of Cordyceps Medicinal Properties
1. Kawagishi, Hirokazu et al. 2004b. Estrogenic substances from the mycelis of medicinal fungus Cordyceps ophioglossoides (Ehrh.) Fr. (Ascomycetes). International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms 6 (3): 255-259
2. McCoy, Peter (2016). Radical Mycology: A treatise on seeing and working with fungi. MycoAstrological Correspondences by Jason Scott. Portland, Oregon: Chtheaus Press.
3. Rogers, Robert (2016). Mushroom essences: Vibrational healing from the kingdom fungi. Berkley, California: North Atlantic Books
4. Sills, Renee. The Potential is Liberation - Astrology & horoscopes for the Scorpio new moon cycle - November 7 - 22, 2018
https://www.embodiedastrology.com/horoscopes/2018/11/6/the-potential-is-liberation-astrology-amp-horoscopes-for-the-scorpio-new-moon-cycle-november-7-22-2018
5. Visual Magic - November New Moon
https://visualmagic.info/portfolio/november-new-moon-2/
The caterpillar fungus is a fascinating tale
Ingested by its host, the spores start to exhale
Control both direction and when it finally dies
Helps the fruiting body pop up between
the eyes.
To some it seems incredible
That such a gruesome fate,
Can help improve your sex life
Immunity and weight.
What existential twist can be so profound
As a moth consumed by mushrooms, instead of
the other way around?
-- Robert Rogers
2) Ganoderma (Ganoderma tsugae or Varnish Conk, G. lucidum or Reishi, & other spp.) : Death, Transformation, Conformity, Self-Love, Money, Authenticity, Trauma
MycoAstrological correspondence: Sun (shares energy with the whole solar system, reflects solar system into ourselves)
Secondary ruler: Mercury (speedy messenger, communication)
 |
| Ganoderma tsugae from a Western Hemlock on the Olympic Peninsula (October 2018) |
The Ganoderma mushrooms are all about sensuality (along with incredible medicinal attributes, of course); their wonderful colors, smells, textures, and the messages they send to us. Varnish conks can have a brown-red-orange-gold-white "rainbow" of colors on the surface with a white underside of polypores. While its display of color can be attributed to colors of many chakras and the energy moving (or not moving) between them, I want to highlight its scarlet-brown coloring in association with the root chakra. Even thinking outside of chakras, a deep red color immediately conjures blood, our association with the cycle of regenerative flow that has given us life and ties us to our ancestors, as well as evoking the squeamish fears behind blood, wounds, and eventually death.
The root chakra works with our groundedness, our security, survival, basic needs, physical identity, support and foundation for our lives. When imbalances arise in our root chakra, we are immediately acting out of fear, we may act aggressive, dominating, competitive, and live with a "killing power". In the fear of death we can also seek out places of false-belonging, in others and in ourselves.
The potential of Scorpio and Ganoderma is to not be afraid, act out of fear, and to be in rhythm with nature, with cycles of life and death. To become embodied with our groundedness meant to be acting in the flow of gratefulness for all life, to be acting in POWER. To "midwife in life and death" to quote Renee Sills of Embodied Astrology. To be here, present, and grateful in the changing and to see that as power. Ganoderma helps us explore deep-seated beliefs and emotions (fixed water of Scorpio) relating to childhood conditioning or trauma. Ganoderma transforms perceptions of death and dying into expansion, connection, and awareness of soul.
Ganoderma essence is produced from slices of the whole fresh fruiting body, on the surface of fresh rain water in a crystal bowl under lunar influence. To strengthen regenerative aspects, make the essence while the moon is in Scorpio. (Rogers 2016)
3) Witch's Butter (Tremella mesentrica): Envy, paranoia, illusion, misery, flexibility, wisdom
MycoAstrological correspondence: Moon
Secondary ruler: Mercury
 |
| Witch's Butter (Tremella mesentrica) on the Olympic Peninsula (October 2018) |
Witch's Butter is another one of my favorites, her bright orange, edible jelly shrivels in dry weather and swells with water when it rains. Even in the absence of the name, Witch's Butter evokes an old boil-y witch, working in the forest and leaving her trails and residues of slimy goop on logs and fallen branches -- a curious site -- is it light or dark magic she lays? What makes her a witch, you ask? Some say it's because of her powers.
Witch's Butter helps us to better understand past and present experiences with the archetypal patterns of envy and jealousy and helps release their holds on our psyche and from within our body. Scorpio is fixed water -- it is our subterranean, cold, luscious emotions that have been sitting for perhaps lifetimes. Scorpio can be extremely attached and can hold onto feelings in an intense way through possession or greed.
What is your most foul emotion? How do you react to envy, greed, misery? We have these opportunities to get closer to what the heart actually desires. We may feel we are victims of fate or character, that we have been cheated or deprived. It may be best to allow ourselves to feel the emptiness deeply, the dark night of our soul. In this age it is almost impossible to allow ourselves to feel such emptiness, with constant stimulation and engagement from immediate input sourced from cell phones, social media, and the buzz of news, media, and energetic dilution.
Scorpio is the sign where energies and resources end, begin, and merge. Take responsibility to begin your transformations. To take responsibility for your healing may be carving out days (or hours, or minutes) free of technology, free of constant micro-stimuli, free of work and capitalist expectations. Your heart will be naturally pulled in directions, it may be scary and you may feel the need to act out of fear, but stick with it, remember the importance of baby steps, and you can do anything! In silence you can unveil truth.
Witch's Butter essence is prepared from fresh fruiting bodies in rainwater contained in a crystal bowl. This is best done when the moon is in Scorpio. Witch's Butter essence helps us release from the need to fix something and to stop repressing our experiences of envy, jealousy, misery, and illusion. The essence helps us feel and experience our emotions, observe our reactions, and then connect with soul wounds. Only then can true healing begin. Stewing into the cauldron a messy mix of juicy misery helps us transform our lives into greater riches of depth, maturity, and flexibility (Rogers 2016).
-------------------------
Lil' List of Cordyceps Medicinal Properties
- at low doses, cordycepin inhibits the growth and division of cancer cells, while at high doses it stops cells from sticking together
- lowers contagion rates and symptoms of chronic viral hepatitis
- increased respitory effect and removal of lactic acid
- long-term restoration in cases of impotence, frigidity, and sexual malaise
- improved liver function
- helps prevent kidney disease
- may regulate blood sugar levels
- Chickens fed Cordyceps have been shown to produce eggs containing cordycepin, which has proven medicinal benefits (eggs are 30% lower cholestorol and have sweeter yolk)
1. Kawagishi, Hirokazu et al. 2004b. Estrogenic substances from the mycelis of medicinal fungus Cordyceps ophioglossoides (Ehrh.) Fr. (Ascomycetes). International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms 6 (3): 255-259
2. McCoy, Peter (2016). Radical Mycology: A treatise on seeing and working with fungi. MycoAstrological Correspondences by Jason Scott. Portland, Oregon: Chtheaus Press.
3. Rogers, Robert (2016). Mushroom essences: Vibrational healing from the kingdom fungi. Berkley, California: North Atlantic Books
4. Sills, Renee. The Potential is Liberation - Astrology & horoscopes for the Scorpio new moon cycle - November 7 - 22, 2018
https://www.embodiedastrology.com/horoscopes/2018/11/6/the-potential-is-liberation-astrology-amp-horoscopes-for-the-scorpio-new-moon-cycle-november-7-22-2018
5. Visual Magic - November New Moon
https://visualmagic.info/portfolio/november-new-moon-2/
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