Remediation Advice for So Many Transits in Aries — How to Work With All the Fire!

Adam Elenbaas
Hi everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/]. Today I am joined by Ashley, my beautiful wife, and a clinical herbalist, to talk about remediation advice for dealing with all of these fiery transits in the sign of Aries.

We are going to be talking about a plant that we recommend working with during this fiery season of so many planetary transits in Aries, and why you might want to consider using this plant to work with the energies. We're also going to give you some other very practical tips for working with fire energy over the next couple of months.

And this advice would be practical, really, for the next couple of years, as both Saturn and Neptune are co-present in the sign of Aries. So hopefully you will find some very practical, solid takeaways for working with what's happening in the sky right now.

Also, I can't wait. There's a lot of new subscribers on the channel, and I'm very excited to introduce you to my wife's work. She is a fantastic herbalist who works with the doctrine of signatures and plant symbolism and encourages the same kind of connection to plants that I do to planets.

So we work together also in a program called Roots and Spheres. We're going to tell you a little bit about that at the end of the program. Also going to tell you about some of my wife's programming that you can follow on YouTube and her herbal apprenticeship program, in case you all really love this kind of stuff and want to get deeper into it.

So anyway, that's our agenda for today. Before we get into it, remember to like and subscribe. Tell us your experiences of these transits so far, and what you've been noticing or observing. It's always good to hear from you.

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So hopefully that is also something you can take advantage of. Now, on that note, I'm really excited to welcome back to the show for the first time in a long time, Ashley, my lovely wife.

Ashley
Hi, babe. I know I'm like, the only one that gets to call you like, "Hey, cutie, hey babe."

Adam Elenbaas
Oh, it's really good to have you back. It's been a while. And it's funny because we had our Spring Equinox gathering just the other night, and someone, this woman named Gigi—shout out to Gigi—she flew all the way from Florida to attend a free Equinox meditation event that we did in Minneapolis.

And I was like, "Whoa." And she was like, "I want"—after she met you, she was like, "I want Ashley to come on the channel. Has she ever been on the channel?" And I was like, "She has been on the channel. It's just been a minute, but you're back, and we're going to talk about a plant ally that we can use to work with all of these transits in Aries."

Now, this plant ally comes from the ritual plant that we're working with in our Roots and Spheres Moon Circle, which we will also tell you about later. And before we get into it, though, I'm going to just put the real-time clock up and remind everyone why we are talking about remediation advice for this particular plant, and that has to do with everything that's happening in the sign of Aries.

So this month, let's just take a look—as of the time that I'm recording, Mercury is about to turn retrograde in Aries. Venus has been retrograde in Aries, so we have two very fiery retrogrades happening back to back, stationing at the same degree around the ninth degree in the sign of Aries.

So already pretty fiery. But then everything fires up a lot more because we take this forward just a little bit, and we have—this week, as you're listening to this—the Vernal Equinox, with the Sun crossing into the sign of Aries, or the Sun is now exalted.

And then coming up right after that, we have a Solar Eclipse in Aries on the 29th, followed by Neptune entering Aries on the 30th. These two retrogrades of Mercury and Venus back into Pisces—of course, they will come back through Aries to finish their cycle.

And then by the end of May, we have Saturn entering Aries. So just this absolute flurry of planetary activity in a fire sign. And one of the questions that I get quite regularly is, "How do I work with this? What do I do with this?"

I mean, it's nice to have a set of delineations—here's what to watch for, which we do a lot of on this channel—or deeper philosophical implications, like, why is Aries connected to the theme of individuation?

So we break things down on a philosophical level, we give you themes and patterns to watch for. But one level of advice that astrologers have always given is, how can you actively work with this?

Some call it remediation. Some might call it magic, whatever the case might be. I mean, the way that we at Nightlight—the way that I view remediation is, how can I use plants, gemstones? Those are the main things that we work with actively in our Roots and Spheres Moon Circle, for example.

Not so much to control what's going to happen, but to just more sensitively align myself with this archetypal field that we're all moving through. I think that's the goal.

On that level, we're going to talk about a plant that is wonderful to pair with these Aries transits, and I'm going to hand it over to Ashley in a second. But first, I want to give you like, three basic ways to work with fire, regardless of where you're coming from.

You don't have to use a gem. You don't have to use a plant. If those things don't resonate with you, here are three basic ways that anybody can work with fire energy, and it's very basic, and I'm going to keep it really short and sweet.

Number one is to channel the heat. So there's one school of thought, psychologically, that says, when there's fire, channel it through something fiery. So anything fiery—if that's something that kind of turns up the dial on your inner heat.

If that means, like, really jamming with your instrument or a drum, or if that means exercising or going for a walk or going for a run, or, you know, taking a Pilates class, or like whatever it is, anything you can do to take that heat and channel it through something that is action-oriented, is one standard piece of advice that astrologers in the modern era of psychological astrology have given for a long time.

So consider that. Number two is to cool the heat. It's basically just the opposite idea. And I know Ashley's familiar with all of these kinds of pieces of advice, because they're basically basic actions that herbs will often do, and she's going to talk about that too.

But cooling the heat would mean, okay, I'm feeling very overwhelmed by the fire energy. There's nothing wrong. It's not like it's a requirement that you go and be fiery as hell during—like, you don't have to. You can also do things to cool.

That might mean quiet time. It might mean reflection. It might mean solitude. It might mean a nice, gentle walk. It might mean journaling. It might mean quietly painting. Sometimes just kind of bringing the volume down, kind of like a dimmer switch. Just bring the light down.

If you're feeling that excess of heat, then just cool it. And anything you can think of that cools energetically is going to be valuable during a transit like this. If you're feeling overwhelmed—if you're feeling overwhelmed and you try to do this and it doesn't work, then try—you might at least try riding the heat, you know, channeling the heat.

So either one will have different effects on different people, but they're both possibilities. And then finally, would be actively working on balancing heat and coolness.

If you're finding that you're swinging wildly between getting overstimulated, and then you're trying to cool down, but then you get lethargic—that's also pretty common for fire. It can burn you out. You can burn hot, fast, and then get burnt out, and you need to—so if you're swinging wildly, just think, how can I exert myself and ride the energy, and then gently cool it down, and kind of try to create smooth wave patterns.

So those are three basic pieces of advice, psychologically, that you can take creatively in whatever direction you want. I wanted us to start there, just in case some people are like, "I'm not sure I'm going to have the time to do this or that, or whatever."

But there are some really good things that we can do with a plant ally that Ashley is going to talk to us about next. So, I mean, hand over to you. Tell us about our plant ally.

Ashley
Sure. And I love that introduction, because, you know, in traditional herbalism, we can do the same thing. You know, we can work with the law of similars, which is, you find a plant that matches the energy of the symptom pattern, or, in this case, the astrological pattern, or you can find something that counters it.

And I think what's really cool about nettles is it actually kind of works on both, and then even the third one in balancing. So I think it's a really nice herb because it does—you can work with it in all three ways.

And I'll give you some different models that will give you specific ways to work with nettles for those three purposes. But first, I wanted to just show you nettles, because I feel like—

Adam Elenbaas
Nettles is our plant, guys. Nettles is our plant.

Ashley
In case you didn't know, so nettles—the Latin name is Urtica dioica—is the European and often what's cultivated here in the United States. But what's really cool about nettles is that it is the Urtica family, and species can be found on most continents.

So there is an Urtica native to Hawaii, there is an Urtica native to New Zealand—there's a New Zealandica nettles. So you can search out wherever you live, what is the native medicinal nettle species for you.

And the best way to find that is by searching the name Urtica—U-R-T-I-C-A—and then see what that one is for you. But it should look green, and I like to use the dried leaf.

Here in Minnesota, we're going to start to see the fresh plants start to come up in the spring, so you can actually cook the greens as a food. But I think for today, I'm going to focus on the dried preparation, because it's easiest to find.

And you know, this time of year, in case you can't get it fresh, this is going to be your go-to. So one of the sources I really like is my friend Kara. She has a company called Bear Wallow Herbs, based out of Mount Shasta, California, so maybe we can include a link to her.

She's also a student of the same herbalist I studied with, so she's wonderful. But here's how I'm going to recommend we work with nettles for this upcoming cycle of all this Aries energy.

The first way—if we want to work heat on heat—we really want to help our bodies heat up and cleanse, which this time of year, one of the greatest things we can do for our system in terms of wellness is get all the pathways of detoxification flowing.

And nettles is really good at that. It is one of our best, sort of quintessential spring tonics or spring cleansers. But it's gentle, so it's like, safe in pregnancy, it's safe to take with most medications.

So you know, you can really use this herb and feel confident that you're using almost like spinach. It's like, it has the same contraindications—too much spinach has. So, you know, you can—it's very food-like in that way.

So if you want to build heat and help your body naturally cleanse, I would do an overnight hot infusion. So what you would do is take about, I would say, a half to three-quarters of a cup of the dried nettle leaf like this, add it to a quart mason jar, which is about four cups, and put hot boiling water over it, cap it, and let that sit overnight on a countertop.

So that's going to be eight to 10 hours. And then in the morning, you can strain it. And if you really want to add more heat, you can warm it up on the stovetop. I wouldn't microwave it. I just don't think that's great for herbs.

But you can just heat it up on the stovetop and just sip it warm all morning long. And it's going to do a number of things. It's going to add a bunch of chlorophyll, which is going to be energizing and revitalizing for your body.

So some people find they can come off caffeine, which can be a little irritating during a lot of Aries energy. So if you already are like, "I need to cut back my coffee," like, think about doing this hot nettle infusion as starting to replace the need for caffeine, because it will give your body energy, it will give you minerals, vitamins, and it will start the process of helping your body detoxify.

Adam Elenbaas
It could help you reduce caffeine intake, exactly—replace it, right? Like, if you wanted to have less caffeine, it would help.

Ashley
Yeah. Because, you know, the last thing we want to do is say, like, "Get off." Like, caffeine is not evil or bad. But some people find during Aries season and the early spring, they're just more sensitive to caffeine.

So they may be like, "I just want to start to, yeah, reduce, or just change how much I'm taking." And you can also take it if you stay on the same regular cup or two cups you take.

Adam Elenbaas
I also want to mention, just briefly interjecting, that even if you're in the Southern Hemisphere listening to this, all these transits in Aries can translate into quote-unquote "spring energy," regardless of the literal season you're in. Just to be clear about that.

Ashley
Yeah, and because, you know, if you're in the Southern Hemisphere and you're going into winter—like, or, well, you're going into fall, right? Like, you're starting to make the transition into cooler seasons, that's kind of, you know, it's going to be very revitalizing with all the minerals and nutrients.

It's going to build up your system, as well as, again, gently creating some cleansing, especially through the kidneys and through the colon and through the lungs and skin. And a lot of people find that if they drink that quart of nettles every day, their skin gets really clear.

And I think that's really nice. You know? It's a nice benefit to go into a new season just feeling like you've got your glow back.

Adam Elenbaas
It does feel like there's a gentle green fire running through you, purifying you, and a very good match for all the purifying fire energy of Aries, all these Aries transits. Absolutely.

Ashley
Yeah. So that's kind of the heating side of this herb. And you know, in the doctrine of signatures, it has, you know, flame-shaped leaves. It has these stinging hairs on it that are very fiery and very martial.

Adam Elenbaas
So tell us about how those get burnt off. Because I think a lot of people, when they hear nettles, they're like, "I'm gonna drink a stinging plant." But actually, when it's broken down, when it's dried, when it's cooked, the stinging is no longer there.

And some people don't actually—I didn't actually know that when I first met you. You were like, "Nettles." And I was like, "I'm not drinking nettles. Are you crazy?"

Ashley
Totally, yeah. So they have these little needles on them that are filled with formic acid, and it's the same compound that's found in the sting or the bite of ants. So that's why it creates that sort of redness and rash on the skin if you run into it, let's say while you're gardening or hiking.

But actually, that used to be used in, you know, ancient times as a way to bring heat to the surface. They would actually self-flagellate and smack themselves with fresh nettles to bring blood flow to the surface, especially around areas where there was gout or arthritis.

Adam Elenbaas
Yeah, like joy.

Ashley
Yep. So that was a huge use for bringing that heat out, but most of us don't want to feel that sting. So what happens is, when we dry the herbs, those little needles start to shrink and shrivel, and the formic acid becomes deactivated slightly.

Then when we add water to it, especially hot water, that further deactivates that formic acid, so it gets broken down and it doesn't have that same stinging effect.

Adam Elenbaas
Although the energetic property of the heat and the spikiness is there, which is really, really—that's why it's such a great ally for this fire energy.

Ashley
Absolutely. So, yeah, so you're not going to get stung by drinking it, but you are going to get that invigoration of all your internal organs through the actions of, you know, those chemical compounds found in the plant.

So that's kind of how it heats. And then if you're looking to, you know, help your body cool in some way, one of the things I really like to do also with nettles is do a cold overnight infusion.

So it's the same thing—a half a cup to three-quarters of a cup of the dried herb in a quart jar, but put cold water in and let that sit overnight. And what happens is, when you do the cold infusion, you get a lot of the lighter, volatile oils, but you don't get as many of the minerals.

But you'll get this really light, almost floral taste out of nettles, which a lot of people are like, "Wow. I had no idea nettles had this very gentle, flowery taste."

So the cold water will do that, and then you won't get as many of the hot, activating features of the plant, but you'll still get a lot of its more subtle properties, which I think is a really nice way to also work with nettles.

Adam Elenbaas
It's funny, because if I had to describe—I'm always preferring the cold, and I think that's probably just because I probably run really hot, and then I really appreciate the cooling.

But if I had to describe my experience of the difference when I drink the hot-infused nettles that you've made in the past, it feels like a thick, kind of like an elixir, and at least for me, that's how I would describe it.

And then when I drink the cool, it just feels like I'm drinking—it's like a much lighter version of the plant. And I do find that it's like night and day in terms of the deep, kind of nourishing, warming, heating effect versus the cooling.

So I would also recommend people experiment with both, because it's really interesting to note the difference.

Ashley
Yeah, absolutely. And that's kind of with the third point of that balance—is like, do both and try, you know, try maybe every other day, or maybe a few days in a row, do the hot infusion and then do the cold infusion.

And yeah, you'll be amazed at how different it is. And if you like the cool, you can also add ice cubes to it, if you want to drink it like an actual, you know, have it actually be chilled. That's really nice.

So yeah, I think nettles is just a really nice plant for this time of year. And I think a lot of us, again, whether you're in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, to just feel like there's a plant ally.

One of the things Matthew Wood would say about this herb that I think is really true—he's one of my herb teachers—he would say it's like an old woman with a broom just being like, "You know, get out. Get out. Get out. You know, get off your butt."

And I feel like it has this very motivating quality to it. So if you've been kind of sitting on ideas, sitting on projects, you know, sitting on art that you've been wanting to make, just drinking nettles—either way, it's like that wise, loving grandmother who's a little crazy, getting in there with a broom and like, swatting your butt to get moved.

Adam Elenbaas
I love that. I love that. That's such a great image. Before we go, I want to ask, because I know people will ask this, how often would you recommend working with it—like daily, and for how long?

Because an overnight infusion would be, you know, just a one-off kind of thing. Do you recommend doing this for a couple weeks daily? Do you recommend doing it for a whole month daily? How often?

Ashley
I think, for all that's coming through, I would say a month. I think this would be a great one, if you can, to do it for a full month and alternating with hot and cold, just based on what the weather's doing and based on kind of what you're intuitively feeling.

I think that after a month of doing nettles, things are going to be shifting in you. Like, you know, this is one of the plants I've been having my herbal apprentices work with for a full month for over 10 years.

And every single time, people are like, "Wow, that really changed something in me. It cleared up my eczema, and now they no longer have eczema." You know, it cleared up bowel issues. It cleared up skin stuff.

So it's one of those herbs that it seems like it shouldn't do very much, but it really does. And I think the cumulative effect of this herb is one of its really positive features.

Adam Elenbaas
Yeah, absolutely. Well, we hope that in listening to this today, that we've given you some very practical ways of working with just so much fire energy, right? It's very—to me, working with, quote-unquote, remediating major planetary energies or archetypes really has to do with common sense.

It's like you match the energy, or you cool the fire, or you balance it. And those three actions are usually found in plants that pair well with a sign or a planet. The plant and the planet together can act in a way where one person and how they use it can help match something, or maybe cool something, or mitigate something, or even just working consciously with a plant that matches a planet can help just balance the flow of the extremes.

So this is what we recommend. Are we telling you, if you take this, that you'll get every last thing that you want? We're not—no, take this and, you know, get a Ferrari or something.

You know, it's just—it's just more like, how can I be aligning my body, my mind, the ecosystem of my unique, you know, mind-body configuration in life, with what's happening.

So plants and planets have been paired together for thousands of years by astrologers who were herbalists. Well, we're kind of like that, but we're split into two people, but we've been doing this for many years for people.

And so I want to tell you about how you, if this kind of stuff fascinates you and you like plant spirit medicine—which is a way of saying, you know, we relate to plants like they're people. We talk to them just like the planets. It's an animistic view.

And you also like to learn about the biological chemistry of plants. And you kind of like a mix of that science and spirit. You're going to really enjoy following Ashley's work.

I'm going to tell you how you can find her on Instagram. She is at Sky House Herbs, and on YouTube, you can find her YouTube channel with monthly content on plant spirit medicine and all sorts of herbal wisdom—Sky House Herbs.

So I highly recommend giving her a follow there. And then I want to take you over to SkyHouseHerbs.com, where you can learn more about her upcoming apprenticeship program, which is a course that's offered once every year, and it is a correspondence course, meaning you go through the modules, and then you have meetups in between the modules to have one-on-one tutoring in a group.

So you and the rest of the students will be meeting with Ashley to discuss and work through each module after you've accomplished it. You can find this at SkyHouseHerbs.com. Go to the Herbal Foundations Apprenticeship tab, and you can learn more about all of the units, the curriculum, what's involved, what you learn.

And then at the bottom, you're also going to notice that there is a sale that is open and available—like an early bird sale. And then there's need-based pricing.

So just like all of my programs, if you need some financial assistance to make sure that you're not living outside your means, which we are very conscientious of—we want to make sure that this education is accessible for people—check out the need-based tuition on her website, same as mine.

All of those options are provided because of the success of our annual Kickstarter. So Ashley, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate it.

And I also—oh, you know what? Before I forget, there's one other way. If you like this kind of woo-woo—if you like the same, yeah, if you like the same woo-woo that we like, then go over to NightlightAstrology.com.

You can always join—if you go to Courses, go to Roots and Spheres. At the bottom, we have a monthly Moon Circle. We meet under new and full moons in community over a Zoom webinar, and we talk about the astrology for the month ahead, and we diet a plant, and we work with the gemstone, and we have optional rituals you can do if you've got a home altar—all sorts of stuff.

So if you are interested in this, it's never too late to join. At the bottom, you'll find the ways that you can join us, actually, as we're meeting right now. We're in the midst of breaking down eclipse season and working with nettles is next on our list for the Aries cycle that begins with the Solar Eclipse in Aries.

So lots of ways to hang out with us if you like planets and plants. But anyway, thank you so much for being here.

Ashley
Thank you so much for having me. It was fun to be back and to talk about plants with you.

Adam Elenbaas
Yeah. And also, you know, we should do this more regularly. I have a feeling once this comes out, that people are going to say, "Hey, bring this back. Whenever there's something going on."

I'm sure that there's going to be a lot of people who would love some herbal wisdom for, you know, remediation throughout the year. We've got a lot of intense transits coming up, so we might have to do something on air when we get Uranus in an air sign—like how to deal with all that vata energy in an Ayurvedic sense.

Ashley
Sounds great. I'm in.

Adam Elenbaas
Very good. Thank you, guys, for listening. Tomorrow we will be back for Venus Cazimi, where I'm going to take a look at that. We're going to do horoscopes for all 12 signs for the Venus Cazimi coming up over the weekend.

So hopefully this has given you some good stuff to work with, and we look forward to seeing you again next time. Bye, everyone.