Sagittarius New Moon of Dreaming Integration with Avenging Angel and Shiitake
Welcome to the 6th New Moon of our lunar year, the New Moon of Dreaming Integration on December 6, 2018 at 23:20 PST. This New Moon is in 15°07' Sagittarius, conjunct with Jupiter and the Sun and is squaring Mars and squaring Neptune. Mercury just completed its retrograde, becoming stationary within a few hours of the new moon to enter into forward movement once again, a time that nourishes an initial course of planning and integrating aspirations or projects. Chiron also stations direct on December 9 in 27° Pisces, unwinding the key that was once wound back in retrograde since July 5, 2018. Throughout the last few months we have turned the key back into remembering what wounds are truly ours -- what stories and suffering we can let go of. Now it is the time to turn the key forward, into our innate ocean, and open the door to implementing these changes of our psyche in our daily practices.
Sagittarius New Moon December 2018 MycoAstrological Associations
1) Avenging Angel (Amanita bisporigera): expansion, contraction, protection, anger, dreams, androgyny, illusions, sex, creativity, insecurity, liver
MycoAstrological correspondences: Planet: Venus; Secondary Ruler: Jupiter; Day: Friday; Main organ: Kidney; Second Organ: Liver; System: Genotourinary; Tissue: Mucous; Action: Warm/dry
2) Shiitake (Lentinula edodes): reintegration, heart, adoption, control, social awareness, abandonment, shadow work, filtration
MycoAstrological correspondences: Planet: Mercury; Secondary Ruler: Saturn; Day: Wednesday; Main organ: Lungs; Second Organ: Mind; System: Respiratory; Tissue: Lymph; Action: Cold/dry
This new moon seeds a gestation period where we can further opening unto our deepest dreams and begin to lay out the blueprints for the steps ahead. If we give ourselves the time and space for adventure, independence, and pleasure, we will be able to integrate into our daily lives the new perspectives we have learned through the transiency of Chiron, Mercury, Mars, and Neptune.
With courage, we can open ourselves beyond materiality, beyond opinions, and into the strength and capacity to contend with the dream realms of Neptune, often considered to be a higher vibration of Venus. Take note of the idealistic and philosophical ways Sagittarius is warming our aspirations. Sagittarius is wielding their arrow, seeking great heights, and can cover a lot of ground. This moon might suggest discontinuity, restlessness in the search for freedom, or desire for traveling and adventures. What do you really want to do right now? How can you let go of your own restrictions and craft your happening?
Mercury will now be stationed direct on December 6 at 27° Scorpio, coming out of a retrograde that began November 17 at 13°Sagittarius. Mercury's next retrograde (~116 day cycle) will be March 5 (Pisces) - March 28 (Aries) of 2019. Despite coming out of this retrograde, we will still be in the shadow of it, appearing to be stationary from the earth's perspective before moving forward once again around December 25th. This is a time of exploring the season's fruitings together, but also of sitting in the darkness and to adventure with energetic exploration inward. What is new about you? How have your interpretations changed?
How can you forgive yourself for any disappointment or disruptions you've experienced?
The Moon in conjunction with both Jupiter and the Sun stages a harmonious, instinctual, generous, and optimistic leap forward with the arrow of Sagittarius, who feels very at-home in its' native Jupiter. However, the Moon is squaring both Mars and Neptune, unearthing challenges and conflict that may stand in your path. If we hop off any high horses and become resolutely adaptable with our families, communities, and strangers on the street, this square energy can become productive and asks us to move toward resolution and integration. How can you seek your path of least resistance and apply yourself and be solution oriented?
1) Avenging Angel (Amanita bisporigera): expansion, contraction, protection, anger, dreams, androgyny, illusions, sex, creativity, insecurity, liver
MycoAstrological correspondences: Planet: Venus; Secondary Ruler: Jupiter; Day: Friday; Main organ: Kidney; Second Organ: Liver; System: Genotourinary; Tissue: Mucous; Action: Warm/dry
- Jessie Keiko Saiki, Wisconsin Mycological Society Newsletter (Spring 1983)
The Amanita species are some of the best known and most dangerous mushrooms. The Avenging Angel (Amanita bisporigera) glides through the darkness, protecting the tender integration of our sacred creativity, dreams, and ambitions. The expanding and contracting Avenging Angel circulates through yin energy of nebulous Neptune as well as Mars' assertive yang energy.
Common in forests around the world, Amanitas have white spores, gills free or narrowly attached to the stalk, the presence of a universal veil, and have mycorrhizal association with oaks, birches, or other hardwoods and conifers. The Destroying Angels refers to a group of Amanitas occurring in eastern North America (Amanita bisporigera), western North America (Amanita ocreata), and in Europe (Amanita virosa) that are difficult to distinguish without a microscope. A. bisporigera can be separated from the other Destroying Angels species on the basis that they grow in eastern North America, have two-pronged basidia, round spores, and a yellow reaction of its cap when potassium hydroxide (KOH) is applied.
In the case of ingestion, it is recommended to take a glass of salt water every half hour until you reach the hospital. In the interest of detoxification from other creatures of an ecosystem, a small 11-patient study found that acetylcysteine combined with silybin from milk thistle is a useful antidote for A. phalloides poisoning. In another study, water decoction of Ganoderma lucidum was given to patients with critical Amanita poisoning which exhibited the same significant recovery results as patients treated with penicillin and reduced glutathione.
Since the Destroying Angels have caused the most mushroom poisoning deaths (often mistaken for button, meadow, horse mushrooms, or puffballs in young age), they are apt at riding the grey clouds in between comfort and danger. In between life and death, habit and uncomfortable unfamiliarity, harmonizing new melodies. The expansion and contraction that is associated with the toxic effects of Amanitas also corresponds to the psychic receptivity and impressionability of Neptune's subtle dreamland -- traveling in and out of realities only to see that everything is an illusion. Trying to measure and understand Neptune will bring frustration. Express your potential with compassion, trust, and with the optimism of Sagittarius and Jupiter. Neptune's energy rules Pisces and the 12th house.
Destroying Angels' poison symptoms don't appear for 5-24 hours, when amotoxins (phalloidin, phalloine, and amanitin) can be absorbed and the destruction of the liver and kidney tissues has ensued. Homeopathically, A. phalloides is used to treat liver damage such as acute yellow atrophy or jaundice and can also be useful in paralysis or conditions with progressive physical deterioration. Tincture prepared from the fresh A. phalloides bodies have been shown to stabilize B-cell chronic lymphatic leukemia. Amanitin stopped the activity of tumor cells and has shown beneficial results in a variety of other tumors such as colon carcinoma, breast carcinoma, and tongue root tumor.
The acute strength of the Avenging Angel also personifies Mars, the yang, and the capacity to act and be assertive based on our dreams and desires. The word avenging evokes taking responsibility back into our hands, to redress, to requite, to make appropriate return for, or to correct. Instead of correcting by the patriarchal ideal of punishment, true correction is one that heals our wounds. How do we find right alignment?
Sagittarius New Moon December 2018 MycoAstrological Associations
1) Avenging Angel (Amanita bisporigera): expansion, contraction, protection, anger, dreams, androgyny, illusions, sex, creativity, insecurity, liver
MycoAstrological correspondences: Planet: Venus; Secondary Ruler: Jupiter; Day: Friday; Main organ: Kidney; Second Organ: Liver; System: Genotourinary; Tissue: Mucous; Action: Warm/dry
2) Shiitake (Lentinula edodes): reintegration, heart, adoption, control, social awareness, abandonment, shadow work, filtration
MycoAstrological correspondences: Planet: Mercury; Secondary Ruler: Saturn; Day: Wednesday; Main organ: Lungs; Second Organ: Mind; System: Respiratory; Tissue: Lymph; Action: Cold/dry
This new moon seeds a gestation period where we can further opening unto our deepest dreams and begin to lay out the blueprints for the steps ahead. If we give ourselves the time and space for adventure, independence, and pleasure, we will be able to integrate into our daily lives the new perspectives we have learned through the transiency of Chiron, Mercury, Mars, and Neptune.
With courage, we can open ourselves beyond materiality, beyond opinions, and into the strength and capacity to contend with the dream realms of Neptune, often considered to be a higher vibration of Venus. Take note of the idealistic and philosophical ways Sagittarius is warming our aspirations. Sagittarius is wielding their arrow, seeking great heights, and can cover a lot of ground. This moon might suggest discontinuity, restlessness in the search for freedom, or desire for traveling and adventures. What do you really want to do right now? How can you let go of your own restrictions and craft your happening?
Mercury will now be stationed direct on December 6 at 27° Scorpio, coming out of a retrograde that began November 17 at 13°Sagittarius. Mercury's next retrograde (~116 day cycle) will be March 5 (Pisces) - March 28 (Aries) of 2019. Despite coming out of this retrograde, we will still be in the shadow of it, appearing to be stationary from the earth's perspective before moving forward once again around December 25th. This is a time of exploring the season's fruitings together, but also of sitting in the darkness and to adventure with energetic exploration inward. What is new about you? How have your interpretations changed?
How can you forgive yourself for any disappointment or disruptions you've experienced?
 |
| Mercury retrograde motion, appearing to travel backwards from Earth's perspective. (https://astrologyking.com/mercury-retrograde/) |
1) Avenging Angel (Amanita bisporigera): expansion, contraction, protection, anger, dreams, androgyny, illusions, sex, creativity, insecurity, liver
MycoAstrological correspondences: Planet: Venus; Secondary Ruler: Jupiter; Day: Friday; Main organ: Kidney; Second Organ: Liver; System: Genotourinary; Tissue: Mucous; Action: Warm/dry
 |
| Destroying Angels (Amanita virosa) (https://www.asturnatura.com/fotografia/setas-hongos/amanita-virosa-lamkey-1/7754.html) |
How sinister this mushroom's deception
Luring with her immaculate
Purity of presence
Death masquerades as virgin bride with
Remnants of lace upon her cap
And vestiges of veil around her neck.
The Amanita species are some of the best known and most dangerous mushrooms. The Avenging Angel (Amanita bisporigera) glides through the darkness, protecting the tender integration of our sacred creativity, dreams, and ambitions. The expanding and contracting Avenging Angel circulates through yin energy of nebulous Neptune as well as Mars' assertive yang energy.
Common in forests around the world, Amanitas have white spores, gills free or narrowly attached to the stalk, the presence of a universal veil, and have mycorrhizal association with oaks, birches, or other hardwoods and conifers. The Destroying Angels refers to a group of Amanitas occurring in eastern North America (Amanita bisporigera), western North America (Amanita ocreata), and in Europe (Amanita virosa) that are difficult to distinguish without a microscope. A. bisporigera can be separated from the other Destroying Angels species on the basis that they grow in eastern North America, have two-pronged basidia, round spores, and a yellow reaction of its cap when potassium hydroxide (KOH) is applied.
In the case of ingestion, it is recommended to take a glass of salt water every half hour until you reach the hospital. In the interest of detoxification from other creatures of an ecosystem, a small 11-patient study found that acetylcysteine combined with silybin from milk thistle is a useful antidote for A. phalloides poisoning. In another study, water decoction of Ganoderma lucidum was given to patients with critical Amanita poisoning which exhibited the same significant recovery results as patients treated with penicillin and reduced glutathione.
Since the Destroying Angels have caused the most mushroom poisoning deaths (often mistaken for button, meadow, horse mushrooms, or puffballs in young age), they are apt at riding the grey clouds in between comfort and danger. In between life and death, habit and uncomfortable unfamiliarity, harmonizing new melodies. The expansion and contraction that is associated with the toxic effects of Amanitas also corresponds to the psychic receptivity and impressionability of Neptune's subtle dreamland -- traveling in and out of realities only to see that everything is an illusion. Trying to measure and understand Neptune will bring frustration. Express your potential with compassion, trust, and with the optimism of Sagittarius and Jupiter. Neptune's energy rules Pisces and the 12th house.
Destroying Angels' poison symptoms don't appear for 5-24 hours, when amotoxins (phalloidin, phalloine, and amanitin) can be absorbed and the destruction of the liver and kidney tissues has ensued. Homeopathically, A. phalloides is used to treat liver damage such as acute yellow atrophy or jaundice and can also be useful in paralysis or conditions with progressive physical deterioration. Tincture prepared from the fresh A. phalloides bodies have been shown to stabilize B-cell chronic lymphatic leukemia. Amanitin stopped the activity of tumor cells and has shown beneficial results in a variety of other tumors such as colon carcinoma, breast carcinoma, and tongue root tumor.
The acute strength of the Avenging Angel also personifies Mars, the yang, and the capacity to act and be assertive based on our dreams and desires. The word avenging evokes taking responsibility back into our hands, to redress, to requite, to make appropriate return for, or to correct. Instead of correcting by the patriarchal ideal of punishment, true correction is one that heals our wounds. How do we find right alignment?
 |
| Avenging Angel (Amanita bisporigera) (Chris Slack) |
In the modern psychological model, Mars has been attributed as the ancient god of war, sex, struggle, and is the complement planet of Venus. The personalities given to Mars have often been those which display patriarchal ideologies of war, competition, aggression, and possessive sexuality. If we take away the patriarchal values, we can see Mars is a planet of the capacity to act and assert based on what we want, and what we want depends on what we value. Pallas, or Athena to the Greeks, was the protecting goddess of Athens and through her story we can see how restoration of her femininity, which has historically been subverted, can balance constructive ambition.
According to patriarchal myth, Pallas Athena upheld male supremacy in all things. She denounced and denied her maternal origins saying that she was not birthed from a mother and arranged for the death of her sister, Medusa, whose head she proudly placed upon her breast shield of armor. She severed her connections with her mother, sister, her communities of women, her sexuality, and lost touch with her feminine qualities of softness, vulnerability, receptivity, and regeneration. Pallas Athena was unique among goddesses in that she held a position of power and respect in the eyes of the classical Greeks. She presided over military strategy during wartime, justice in peacetime, and was idealized as the virgin warrior queen, taking no lovers or consorts. In Pallas Athena's symbolism, we carry the wounds of our severed feminine encased in our armor and act with cold, ruthless, expedient strategy to further our isolated ambitions. Healing in her realm entails listening deep within to remember the feminine roots of power, strength, creativity, connection, and wisdom. Pallas' association with serpents also connects her to the healing arts.
During the transition from the old goddess religions to those of the solar gods that we are not familiar with, sexuality became divorced from spirituality. Part of our nature can feel the urge to experience our sexual energy in a sacred manner. Pallas dressing in a warrior's clothes also speaks to express the androgyny in us all -- integrating the polarities within ourselves. Pallas represents the part of our nature that can feel the urge to utilize our creative sexual energy to give birth to the many children of our spirits -- our projects, aspirations, and creations. She represents our capacity for clear thinking and to strive for excellence and accomplishment in our chosen field of expression.
2) Shiitake (Lentinula edodes): reintegration, heart, adoption, control, social awareness, abandonment, shadow work, filtration
MycoAstrological correspondences: Planet: Mercury; Secondary Ruler: Saturn; Day: Wednesday; Main organ: Lungs; Second Organ: Mind; System: Respiratory; Tissue: Lymph; Action: Cold/dry
MycoAstrological correspondences: Planet: Mercury; Secondary Ruler: Saturn; Day: Wednesday; Main organ: Lungs; Second Organ: Mind; System: Respiratory; Tissue: Lymph; Action: Cold/dry
 |
| Shiitake and it's subtle pink glow, even when mature. (Lentinula edodes) (Cheryl Skinner) |
Shiitake (Lentinula edodes), speaks to Mercury and Chiron's renewal of forward motion out of their respective retrogrades, where our tender wisdom may take a little bit of patience and loving support to reintegrate into balance and into a larger, sustaining community.
"Lent" means "pliable" or "supple", "-inus" means "resembling" (the malleable nature of fruiting body), and "edodes" means "edible". The supple way that we resemble the fruiting body is not only palatable, but also delicious, nourishing, and healing!
The Shiitake is the second most common mushroom after the button (Agaricus bisporus) and will retain its breadth of medicinal benefits when cooked at temperatures up to 392°F or 200°C. The young fruiting bodies of L. edodes exhibit pink and violet colors. Pink is a color of vulnerability, love, and tenderness while violet represents spirituality, oneness, and a sense of abundance. This mushroom can apply to reintegration after abandonment or adoption, literally and figuratively. This mushroom is eaten by many and its essence ensures a feeling of security and stabilization, especially when feeling insecure about change. How might you procrastinate or resist your opportunities for integration?
"Lent" means "pliable" or "supple", "-inus" means "resembling" (the malleable nature of fruiting body), and "edodes" means "edible". The supple way that we resemble the fruiting body is not only palatable, but also delicious, nourishing, and healing!
The Shiitake is the second most common mushroom after the button (Agaricus bisporus) and will retain its breadth of medicinal benefits when cooked at temperatures up to 392°F or 200°C. The young fruiting bodies of L. edodes exhibit pink and violet colors. Pink is a color of vulnerability, love, and tenderness while violet represents spirituality, oneness, and a sense of abundance. This mushroom can apply to reintegration after abandonment or adoption, literally and figuratively. This mushroom is eaten by many and its essence ensures a feeling of security and stabilization, especially when feeling insecure about change. How might you procrastinate or resist your opportunities for integration?
It is a commonly mistaken belief that mushrooms need darkness to grow, but, after their inoculation and colonization process, many are assisted by a little sunlight and vitamin D. In one study, higher vitamin D2 levels were found in Shiitake harvested on sunny as compared to cloudy days. Are you giving yourself time to bask outside in what little sunlight we have (in the Northern hemisphere)?
It is also common to question eating the stems of woodier mushrooms like Shiitake that might be more fibrous or chewy. When mushrooms have tougher stems it is best to use them in creative ways rather than to dispose of the parts that contain valuable compounds like polysaccharides. Save the stems to make powders, boil in soups or sauces, or bury in your yard (why not?). Boiling fresh or dried mushrooms for 6-8 minutes helps release thioproline (TCA), a natural antioxidant mainly found in the liver, which neutralizes the cancer-making potential of nitrates. The more worked, coarse, or rough aspects of ourselves often need a little extra reorientation or nudge to continue their cycles as spokes of fulfillment.
Shiitake has a vast array of medicinal properties and has been used in traditional Chinese and Japanese Kampo medicine for centuries to increase stamina and circulation and to help alleviate arthritis, diabetes, high blood cholestorol, and immune deficiency. Lentinan is a primary chemical constituent of Shiitake and is medically approved in Japan for treatment of gastric cancers. Lentinan can prolong days of life for people with prostate and stomach cancer. Lentinan shows activity against lung cancer, melanoma, influenza virus, HIV Aids, Herpes, mumps, measles, polio, avian flu virus (H5N1), West Nile virus, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Lentinacin helps lower total cholestorol levels, blood pressure. Polysaccharides in Shiitake help reduce blood vessel overgrowth. More than 700 hospitals in Japan use a monosaccharide developed from the mycelium of several Basidiomycete mushrooms, including Shiitake, as part of their protocols of chemotherapy to reduce infections, support immune system, and support against the formation of abnormal cells. Shiitake can be taken as dried powder and its lentinan injected intravanously or intramuscularly. Shiitake anti-clotting effects so if on blood thinners use caution.
Shiitake are also stars when it comes to mycoremediation. Mycoremediation is a form of bioremediation where creatures can filter or digest toxins in the environment, often a form of soil remediation. Shiitake secrete enzymes that help break down PCBs, PAHs, and PCPs, all toxic chemicals that were used in industrial and commercial applications like electrical and hydraulic equipment, paints, plastics, rubber products, pigments, and dyes. Even though these human made organic chemicals have been outlawed, they still exist (everywhere) and get into our water cycle (and bodies) through runoff. Shiitake mycelium help remove heavy metals and industrial dyes from waterways through filtration behaviors. Paul Stamets has used spent sawdust blocks in burlap sacks showing activity of mycofiltration -- after saturation with toxic waste and microbial contamination, the spent mycelium often fruit. For more info on mycoremediation, check Ja Schindler's article on his website Fungi for the People.
If the mycelium can filter toxins, so can we. Let us aspire, imagine, adapt, heal, and harmoniously incorporate our wisdom into the movements of our daily and nightly sporituals.
Citations
It is also common to question eating the stems of woodier mushrooms like Shiitake that might be more fibrous or chewy. When mushrooms have tougher stems it is best to use them in creative ways rather than to dispose of the parts that contain valuable compounds like polysaccharides. Save the stems to make powders, boil in soups or sauces, or bury in your yard (why not?). Boiling fresh or dried mushrooms for 6-8 minutes helps release thioproline (TCA), a natural antioxidant mainly found in the liver, which neutralizes the cancer-making potential of nitrates. The more worked, coarse, or rough aspects of ourselves often need a little extra reorientation or nudge to continue their cycles as spokes of fulfillment.
Shiitake has a vast array of medicinal properties and has been used in traditional Chinese and Japanese Kampo medicine for centuries to increase stamina and circulation and to help alleviate arthritis, diabetes, high blood cholestorol, and immune deficiency. Lentinan is a primary chemical constituent of Shiitake and is medically approved in Japan for treatment of gastric cancers. Lentinan can prolong days of life for people with prostate and stomach cancer. Lentinan shows activity against lung cancer, melanoma, influenza virus, HIV Aids, Herpes, mumps, measles, polio, avian flu virus (H5N1), West Nile virus, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Lentinacin helps lower total cholestorol levels, blood pressure. Polysaccharides in Shiitake help reduce blood vessel overgrowth. More than 700 hospitals in Japan use a monosaccharide developed from the mycelium of several Basidiomycete mushrooms, including Shiitake, as part of their protocols of chemotherapy to reduce infections, support immune system, and support against the formation of abnormal cells. Shiitake can be taken as dried powder and its lentinan injected intravanously or intramuscularly. Shiitake anti-clotting effects so if on blood thinners use caution.
Shiitake are also stars when it comes to mycoremediation. Mycoremediation is a form of bioremediation where creatures can filter or digest toxins in the environment, often a form of soil remediation. Shiitake secrete enzymes that help break down PCBs, PAHs, and PCPs, all toxic chemicals that were used in industrial and commercial applications like electrical and hydraulic equipment, paints, plastics, rubber products, pigments, and dyes. Even though these human made organic chemicals have been outlawed, they still exist (everywhere) and get into our water cycle (and bodies) through runoff. Shiitake mycelium help remove heavy metals and industrial dyes from waterways through filtration behaviors. Paul Stamets has used spent sawdust blocks in burlap sacks showing activity of mycofiltration -- after saturation with toxic waste and microbial contamination, the spent mycelium often fruit. For more info on mycoremediation, check Ja Schindler's article on his website Fungi for the People.
If the mycelium can filter toxins, so can we. Let us aspire, imagine, adapt, heal, and harmoniously incorporate our wisdom into the movements of our daily and nightly sporituals.
Citations
- Davis, R., Sommer, R., & Menge, J. (2012). Field Guide to Mushrooms of Western North America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
- George, D. (2008). Astrology and the Authentic Self. Lake Worth, FL: Ibis Press.
- McCoy, Peter (2016). Radical Mycology: A treatise on seeing and working with fungi. Portland, Oregon: Chtheaus Press.
- Rogers, R. (2011). The Fungal Pharmacy: A complete guide to medicinal mushrooms & lichens of North America. Berkeley,, CA: North Atlantic Books.
- Rogers, Robert (2016). Mushroom essences: Vibrational healing from the kingdom fungi. Berkley, California: North Atlantic Books
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