Piscean Astro-Herbalism with Kyle (Tippecanoe Herbs) & Michelle Lundquist
It's time to get our feet on the ground as we March towards the vernal equinox, with our resident doctors of the astrological signatures in the plant domain. Our returning wisdom council for part 5 of this zodiacal exploration are Michelle Lundquist of Michelle's Healing Home, Kyle Denton of Tippecanoe Herbs, and Mario Garza of Symbolic Studies.
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In this episode
Core themes
The Moon Card and Pisces Gateways
The panel opened with the Moon card as the Pisces card, and one panelist described its two towers as a gateway, the Hebrew letter Qoph as the back of the head, and the crescent as a vessel. Mario said the ape corresponds with Mercury and pointed to Hanuman and mercurial glyphs on the Thoth card. Gabe described the star Arcturus in Bootes, opposite Pisces, as a great horn like a shofar that marks a new cycle and the lunar calendar. Chance said he was a March 22 Aries, sidereal Pisces, and named escapism into fictional realms as his biggest vice.
Plantain and Valerian Under the Feet
Kyle described plantain as a stepped on garden weed that grew where people walked, linking its name to the Latin planta of the foot. He said he taught students to chew it onto insect bites and called that his plantain guarantee, and he suggested a liniment as another preparation. Michelle said her first use of it was an oil and wound salve. She then presented valerian as an herb of witches tied to protection and cats, and cautioned that it could stimulate some people instead of calming them. Kyle added that its acrid smell suggested a sedative nature.
Blue Lotus, the Ark and Dreams
Kyle said he drank and smoked blue lotus while doing his homework the night before, and described vivid dreams and a sense of his third eye pushing outward. A panelist traced the lotus to the Egyptian creation myth and read it as an ark symbol. Chance suggested that anxiety was a lack of imagination because fear narrowed reality to one outcome. Kyle said his supply was a gift and that he was considering an Egyptian supplier. Later a panelist tied the Empress card to Cassiopeia and the Lotus Eaters of the Odyssey.
Mugwort, Artemis and the Gruit Story
Michelle described mugwort as a dream ally and a crone, and connected it to Artemis, Frigg and Diana. She said she made an infused oil from it and mentioned moxibustion, and she described three species grown on her property. Kyle called mugwort a possible headliner for several signs and told the story of the Bavarian purity law of 1516, saying alewives once brewed with wild herbs before hops took over. He said he preferred wild botanical ferments, and a panelist added that every plant in our surroundings shifted consciousness in some way.
Sea Moss, Echinacea and Usnea
Kyle said sea moss was the best selling botanical at his shop and called it a red algae that herbalists used as a plant, structuring water in the body. For echinacea, he described an electric tingle on the tongue, followed the plant's energy through the seasons, and compared it to a battle horn for soldiers beside sea moss as a stone mason. Gabe linked its name to the Echidna of myth. Michelle presented usnea as old man's beard and lungs of the forest, harvested ethically after windstorms, and shared a dream calling it guardian of the forest ether.
Quotes
“Pisces is very near and dear to me. I am a March 22 Aries, so in a sidereal sense I'm full on Pisces, but that's right on the cusp. I have a lot of the traits for sure. My biggest vice in life has always been escapism into fictional realms. That's super Piscean.”
“It's almost like an indicator of how anxiety is really a lack of imagination because fear is in a way you're just condensing what you expect out of reality down to one outcome that you're like, it has to be like this. And if it's any other way, it won't be OK. But with imagination, you can start to see how every outcome of reality is actually OK.”
“I feel like the luckiest podcast host in the world to get to have this wisdom panel teaching me something that I have a lot to learn about and can appreciate the value of the playlist of these astro herbalism talks we've done for the rest of my life. I'll always be able to fall back on this as a reference.”
“Oh man, am I a big old fan of this garden weed. It's one of the most stepped on plants ever. It's everywhere. We have plantago. We have the planta of the feet. Where the planta go, the plantago grow.”
“I always tell my students and people I'm on walks with, I give you the plantain guarantee. I put on my car salesman hat and I said, you chew this bad boy up and slap it on your mosquito bite. And I guarantee you that tomorrow it won't itch.”
“Back before 1516 in Bavaria and surrounding areas, there was an occupation called alewife, and an alewife was a wise woman that would go out into the field and gather some of the herbs of the field and make a fermented brew.”
“I think one of the things that mugwort does really, really well is that it can help you tap in deeply to things that you may have thought you've already maybe resolved or gone through. Maybe you've concluded, and mugwort has this way of kind of resurfacing some of these things, particularly through the dream realm.”
“Instead of seeking something outside of yourself to help you heal or bring you to the next level or whatever, the poppy flower essence is really going to help you to kind of remember who you are and bring you into yourself again. And kind of empower you to just know that you have all this stuff inside of you already.”
“Last night, well, probably early this morning, I had a dream and I saw a tree and there was a huge piece of Usnea hanging from it. And the message I got from the dream was that he said he's the guardian of the forest ether.”
“The alchemical triangular symbol for water looks like a vessel, right? It looks like you can hold something in there. And then the circular symbol has this horizontal line through it, which reminds me of the whole principle of water always being flat and seeking a level.”
“The other thing I'll say regarding ape is that the ape corresponds with Mercury. And so in some magician cards you will see an ape, and the ape in the Vedic tradition is Hanuman, who is the mercurial figure of the pantheon, one of them.”
“And this great horn is much like a shofar initiating a new cycle, a new beginning, and it marks the beginning of the lunar calendar. And so all of this really blows my mind because I've always said that it's over here in March, which is the old pagan new year.”
“I consider this also a Piscean card. It's the Empress card, and this is on the Thoth deck. And this one is unique. I like it because her feet are veiled. They're hidden behind the shield. She kind of looks like she could be a mermaid, don't you think?”
Gabriel, known on air as Slick Dissident, co-hosts InnerVerse's Vibe Rant show and is a longtime recurring guest on the podcast. He teaches occult symbolism and tarot on his YouTube channel, ranging across the Major Arcana, the esoteric Enneagram, mythology and archetype, mystic linguistics, and the symbolism hidden in popular film. He is best known for Tarot-tories, his own system mapping the 22 Major Arcana and zodiac archetypes onto the geography of the United States.
See all Gabe episodes→Kyle and Serena Denton are community herbalists creating wild-crafted and organic plant medicines out of Milwaukee since 2015. I have used their teas and tinctures on an almost daily basis for years now. Kyle is a great friend of InnerVerse and has appeared on the channel more times than I can count. These products work, not in the allopathic "pharma-medicine" way, but in a terrain-support, consciousness bolstering plant-teacher sort of way.
