Mrs Winkler’s Neptune Balm
We are more digitally and physically connected now than ever before in the history of human civilization. On the surface it looks like wonderful science, miraculous, moving at the speed of 5G and beyond. However underneath this glamor a darker problem lies. We are more than ever in the history of human consciousness disconnected. Increasingly our minds are disconnected from our bodies and our bodies are disconnected from Nature. Our bodies and physical sensations, feelings and thoughts form an internal landscape which we could call our microcosm and this is disconnected from our external landscape or the macrocosm of the cosmos we live in. Thus we see and feel increasingly in ourselves and in others an emptiness, an anxiousness, stress, insomnia, cognitive and psychological disorders, immune deficiencies and more. Health is a state of being that we allow ourselves to be in. Health is when our inner microcosm resonates with the outer macrocosm in a balanced and healthy way. This allows then for the proper integration and assimilation of the energies around us. Health is a state of coniunctio, a state of no separation. Mrs. Winkler’s Neptune Balm is a remedy for our time. It will calm us, it will heal us. The lemon balm plant grows out of the Earth and will connect us to our bodies and the Earth. Pisces, Neptune and the Moon are connected to the Heavens and will connect us to the macrocosm. This magic only requires our participation, a touch of curiosity and an active imagination.
Astrology is an ancient form of astronomy and cosmology. More than 4,000 years old it teaches us how to read the significations of the precise movements of planets and stars in the sky and their relationship to humans, our bodies, our psyches and events on Earth. On one hand it requires a very firm left brain analytical mind that can process the measurements and make the calculations. On the other it requires a very soft right brain function that is our imaginative symbolic mind to understand and reveal its meaning. The universe was traditionally imbued with a Soul and described as Anima Mundi. Earlier civilizations related to the universe as animated and alive; conscious and intelligent. We can connect with Anima Mundi via the symbolic language of our dreams, hunches, feelings, intuitions and through astrology. Anima Mundi speaks in relaxed moments of our waking life when we, for example, walk down the path and are captured by a flower and pause for a second, or when we catch the glimpse of a fury animal that crosses us on our path, or when we sense something in the sound of the wind through the pine trees at dusk as if it were a voice speaking to us. The cosmos is guiding us; we just need to learn to listen.
In astrology we dig into the symbolic meanings specific to the sun, moon, planets and further out still to the constellations in the zodiac Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini and various other objects in space. Mrs. Winkler’s Neptune Balm, see recipe below, requires our full attention to our time and space. Astrologically this is what is happening on June 20th, 2022 within the time of 12:11 PM and 12:31 PM Pacific Standard Time. The combined energies of Neptune and the Moon will merge into one. They will be conjoint or conjunct in the constellation of Pisces. What does this mean? What will this create? Let’s break it down to the four main ingredients of Pisces, Neptune, Moon and Lemon Balm. Read the following symbolic natures of each of these ingredients and just let them settle within.
Pisces is a WATER sign so it relates strongly to the oceans. Oceans are both deep and dreamy but also can be violent and are a powerful force not to be taken lightly. The oceans represent the collective unconscious. From the beginnings of time there is a sense of the cosmic ocean, the source, the feminine mother and creativity from which all life is born. Pisces is not about the individual as much as it is about the collective, community, civilizations and human kind. The Pisces influence also allows us to perceive things that were previously obscure. Pisces is represented by two fish swimming in opposite directions. One looking to our past, one to the future. One swimming towards the material Earth and the other swimming towards the spiritual Heavens. Pisces holds tension of opposites yet there is no sense of separation. The fish are swimming skin to skin in the water and water conducts.
Neptune is a WATER planet and is similar to Pisces in that we’re talking about great oceans and the collective unconscious and the ability to stir up the underworld of psyche and dreams. Neptune was a god and his counterpart was Salacia (salinity), the goddess of saltwater. Neptune is otherworldly where our vision turns to our inner reality, spirituality and even fantasy. There is an element of ecstasy. The 1960’s were a Neptunian time with drugs, love-ins, idealism and spiritual teachers. Neptune’s highest manifestation is all-encompassing love and compassion. Neptune will give us the strength and courage to look at our life situation and aspects that may be in denial. Denial literally means “To look away.”
Moon “You took the Moon at full, but now she’s changed. Yet still she is the moon…” - Shakespeare, Loves Labor’s Lost, V, II. The Moon is also related to the WATER element, the maternal, the feminine, an indirect reflective nurturing light as opposed to the direct solar FIRE of the Sun and the masculine. The Moon represents the waxing and waning of all phases of life- maiden, mother, wise-woman. Of the cyclic seed, birth, maturation and death or return in all Earthly life. Of the seasons Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. The Moon is related to the watery feeling function, habit patterns, emotions and the personal unconscious. In Eastern thinking the Moon is Yin, receptive, tranquil, intuitive, instinctual which is a nice counterbalance to the action, achievement, ambition and goals which are the modes of the Sun and current behavior in the West.
Lemon Balm - Melissa officinalis. Delicious and refreshing, lemon balm was brought by the Romans who valued it to clear the mind, improve memory and lift the spirits. It was a favorite of the Arabs in the Middle Ages to promote longevity, now explained by the presence of antioxidant rosmarinic acid. It’s a nervine which nourishes and calms the nerves and a sedative, anti-depressant, anti-spasmodic, analgesic (numbs pain) and more!
Now all we have to do is make the tincture. At first I was thinking that one could set some intentions and instill it with your hopes and desires. You could do this. But I then thought a higher path would be to do nothing. Just make the tincture at the prescribed time on June 20th, 2022 and let it sit until the next prescribed time to press and filter on July 17th, 2022. As you imbibe the tincture, 40 drops in water or a shot every now and then before bed, just allow it to speak to you. It’s time to listen.
Sources:
Mythic Astrology Internalizing the Planetary Powers- Arielle Guttman & Kenneth Johnson
The Complete Herbal Tutor- Anne McIntyre
Judith Hill, The Academy for Astrological Medicine
