What is Medical Astrology: Your Cosmic Blueprint for Health & Healing ⋆ Earth and Water

Medical astrology is a practice that dates back to ancient times. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, was a strong believer in astrology, and he used it to guide his practice. Galen, another influential Greek physician, also incorporated astrology into his medical theories.

Medical astrology is thought to have originated in Mesopotamia in the second millennium BCE. It was later adopted by other cultures, including the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Hindus. One of the earliest known medical astrologers was Claudius Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer and mathematician who lived in the 2nd century CE. Ptolemy wrote a treatise on medical astrology called the Tetrabiblos, which is still studied by medical astrologers today.

It was widely practiced in Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. It was particularly influential in the development of herbal medicine. Many herbalists (like today’s guest) used astrology to choose the best times to harvest and administer herbs.

Medical astrologers use the positions of the planets at the time of a person’s birth to assess their overall health, predisposition to certain diseases, and best course of treatment. By understanding the planetary influences on your body, mind, and spirit, you can learn how to boost your energy, heal your body, and achieve your goals.

Here are some specific examples of where medical astrology was practiced in ancient times:

Egypt: The ancient Egyptians believed that the planets and stars had a direct influence on human health. They used astrology to diagnose diseases and prescribe treatments.
China: Chinese medicine has a long tradition of using astrology to inform diagnosis and treatment. For example, the Chinese believe that the different seasons are associated with different planets and organs of the body.
India: Ayurveda, the traditional Indian system of medicine, incorporates astrology into its diagnosis and treatment. For example, Ayurvedic practitioners believe that the different doshas (energies) in the body are influenced by the planets.

Medical astrology has had a significant impact on the development of traditional medicine around the world. While it is not widely accepted by the modern medical establishment, it continues to be used by people today.

Here are some specific ways to use medical astrology to improve your health and well-being:

Identify your strengths and weaknesses. What are you naturally good at? What areas need some extra attention? Medical astrology can help you pinpoint your unique talents and challenges, so you can focus on what’s most important to you. For example, if you have a lot of fire energy in your chart, you may be naturally energetic and creative. However, you may also be prone to inflammation and burnout. By understanding your planetary balance, you can learn how to harness your fire energy in a healthy and productive way.
Get ahead of the curve. Medical astrology can help you identify potential health problems before they even start. This way, you can take preventive measures and keep yourself feeling your best. For example, if you have a lot of water energy in your chart, you may be more susceptible to emotional imbalances and mental health issues. By understanding your planetary transits, you can identify periods of time when you may be more vulnerable to these challenges. This way, you can take extra care of yourself and seek support if needed.
Create a balanced lifestyle. Medical astrology can help you understand the different energies that are at play in your life. By balancing these energies, you can create a lifestyle that is both fulfilling and sustainable. For example, if you have a lot of air energy in your chart, you may be naturally intellectual and communicative. However, you may also be prone to anxiety and overthinking. By grounding yourself with earth energy activities, such as spending time in nature or gardening, you can help to balance your air energy and create a more harmonious lifestyle.

Medical astrology is a powerful tool for self-awareness and personal growth. By understanding the planetary influences on our lives, we can gain valuable insights into our health, well-being, and purpose.

Now that we’ve covered some basics, let’s dive into this episode with Eir Atla, Medical Astrologist and AstroHerbalist!

Beginning –

Eir shares her story with how she got into medical astrology, starting with her nursing career and then moving into herbalism before finding and integrating medical astrology with her practice as well.

The short comings of the American medical system. We touch on the trauma birth can bring in some cases and my experience with that as a birth doula.

6:55 –

To read someone’s medical astrology you look at their “planetary health chart” which is their birth chart. We look at the seven main planets, north node, south node and Chiron. Work with Neptune, Uranus and Pluto are limited because they were discovered after medical astrology was established so information on them in this sense is limited.

The planets are the energy influence and then the signs govern the body parts. So pairing the planets with which sign they’re in tells you more or less what’s going on where. The astrological houses tell us a bit too, mainly the 1st, 6th, 8th and 12th houses.

Almost all hormonal issues are created by a nutritional deficit in the body. This may be from an improper diet, an issue with a body function or a problem with absorption of the needed vitamins and minerals. An example is someone having Mars in Virgo may mean they have dry membranes that hinder absorption.

9:40 –

Astrology is complex and goes much much deeper than your sun sign. Your sun sign is your “life battery”. It gives a good overall picture of your health and what you may have going on where.

Mercury and Uranus rule the electrical and nervous systems, Mercury more so. Which sign these are in can indicate if someone has high anxiety or low anxiety. Gemini and Sagittarius placements can also lend some information on anxiety. Your north node also can increase anxiety depending on where it lands as it gives excess energy to the aspects it’s influencing.

Chiron can also point towards anxiety in certain areas since Chiron points us towards the work we have to do and we generally have anxiety around such work.

16:50 –

The traits from childhood that we carry into adulthood. Chiron in Cancer tends to be a mother wound.

You really have to pair physical healing with mental, energetic work as well. So many people aren’t ready for that. They want an herb or something physical that will fix them.

Astrology is another form of information translation just like tarot, archetypes and all other energy systems that attempt to communicate with us. Energy is all the same fractals across the board. Interpreting and understanding it depends on what resonates best with you.

Incorporating the mind and spirit along with healing the body not only often heals the physical ailment but may heal other mental, emotional and environmental aspects effecting quality of life.

Instinctually, we know what our bodies need. We do, however, have to learn how to sit quietly and listen to them. Unfortunately, we’re taught that we don’t know our bodies better than a medical expert, nutritionist or whomever. This distrust of ourselves and what we can know about ourselves is instilled in us as a society and culture from a young age.

29:55 –

Fad diets and how no diet is universal. Different diets are going to work differently for different people. You have to sit with your body and what you eat and figure out what serves your body well and what doesn’t. I have a holistic food journal that helps you to document this but you can just as easily keep your own notes how you wish.

Some of us are going to naturally understand the physical communication of our bodies better and others are going to understand the mental/emotional communication better. That’s part of the self exploration and discovery we should all be doing anyway. Each of us is gifted in understanding in a different way but we all have the ability to listen to and communicate with our bodies.

Diets are about embodying the Libra aspects of balance. Finding your balance though is a little bit of a process.

Lessening stress is the aim always (especially when you’re talking about energy healing). So anything that increases stress, like strict dieting, is counterproductive to our healing goals. Pisces rules the parasympathetic nervous system so if we’re looking to lessen stress, we want to lean into the Pisces ruled aspects in our chart.

36:35 –

Spending time in the sun helps balance hormones. 30 minutes a day in the sun is a good starting point to help regulate our bodies. We’re designed to live in tune with nature.

Food allergies can also cause anxiety. In the winter, you have to actively seek more sunlight because there’s less of it. This is why seasonal depression is common during this time. Root vegetables can help you during these months as well as they have a grounding energy to them.

Seasonal, local eating helps us get the specific vitamins and nutrients (energy) that we need specifically at the time of year we need it the most. Our needs change throughout the year with the seasons and since our bodies evolved with these cycles, nature naturally provides what’s needed when it’s needed.

Seasonal eating is also a lot better for the environment than shipping food all over the world year around.