Herbs, Astrology and Health

About 127 types of herbs are traditionally worshipped in India. Many traditional and Ayurveda scripts mention these herbs and their special effects on an individual with regard to health and treatment of disease.

In olden days, a treatment was decided based on the person’s physical and mental qualities, time and season of the disorder, stage of the disease, and more importantly, on the basis of astrological calculations. Herbs or therapies were selected and the treatment was administered according to the astrological positioning and calculations. Today, the medical community believes and bets on the physical understanding of the human body and not the functional elements of the body and earth in relation to the person’s constitution. This is one of the primary reasons why this ancient traditional system of healing is usually called magical therapy or simply black magic. But truly speaking, when the herbs are selected, collected, and administered on the basis of simple astrological calculations, they serve the purpose better than when chosen without considering the astrological information.

Traditional medical system includes astrology. Many of the traditional authentic ayurveda texts like Charaka Samhita, Susrutha Samhita, and others have references stating the time for auspicious treatment, time for collection of herbs, star for collection, processing and using the herb for treatment, etc. Based on these calculations the epidemic diseases are calculated and preventive measures are taken. Personal preventive measures include mantra chanting, meditating on particular idol, wearing precious stones, and using therapeutic herb roots.

For example, lotus is usually correlated with the planet sun in the traditional medical and astrological texts. According to the astrological texts, sun has influence on the heart and the stomach region of the human body. Thus, lotus is widely recommended for heart problems and circulatory disorders. Incidentally, this has also been clinically proven to be effective. In the same way, an individual is recommended to wear a customized plant root or a precious stone to counter-effect bad radiations from a planet that influences the person’s health and promote good health.

Nine planets and its effects and remedies:

S.No	Planet	Qualities	Plant	Effect	Recommended plant	Recommended cereal	Deity
1	Sun	Dry & Hot	Calotropis gigantica	Heart, Stomach	Nelumbo nucifera (lotus)	Wheat	Shiva
2	Moon	Cool	Butea monosperma	chest	Plumeria alba	Raw Rice	Shakti
3	Mars	Dry & Hot	Diospyros ebenum	Head	Michelia champaca	Toor dal	Muruga
4	Mercury	Cool & dry	Achyaranthes aspera	Neck	Nymphaea pubescens - White	Green gram	Vishnu
5	Jupiter	Hot & cool	Ficus religiosa	Hip	Jasminum auriculatum	chenna	Bramha
6	Venus	Medium cool and watery	Ficus racemosa	Face	Nelumbo nucifera	Beans	Lakshmi
7	Saturn	Excessive cool & Dry	Prosopis spicigera	Thighs	Thevetia peruviana	Sesamum seed	Yama
8	Ragu –(Ascending node)		Cynodon dactylon	hands	Bauhinia purpurea	Black gram	Kali
9	Ketu – (descending node)		Imperia cylindrica	Legs	Nymphaea pubescens – red	Horse gram	Indra

Your astrological star and its corresponding herb:

S. No	Astrological sign	Botanical name
1	Aswini	Strychnos nux vomica
2	Bharani	Emblica officinalis
3	Krithika	Ficus racemosa
4	Rohini	Syzygium cumini
5	Mrigasira	Diosporus ebenum
6	Arudra	Pterocarpus santalinus
7	Punarvasu	Bambusa arundinacea
8	Pushya	Ficus religiosa
9	Aslesha	Calophyllum inophyllum
10	Makha	Ficus benghalensis
11	Poorvaphalguni	Artocarpus heterophyllus
12	Uttara phalguni	Nerium odorum
13	Hastha	Acacia leucophloea
14	Chitta	Aegle marmelos
15	swathi	Terminalia arjuna
16	Visakha	Feronia elephantum
17	Anuradha	Mimusops elengi
18	Jyeshta	Sterblus asper
19	Moola	Mangifera indica
20	Poorvashada	Salix tetrasperma
21	Uttarashada	Artocarpus incisa
22	Sravana	Calotropis gigantica
23	Dhanishta	Prosopis spicigera
24	Satabhishak	Anthocephalus chinensis
25	Poorvabhadrapada	Terminalia tomentosa
26	Uttarbhadrapada	Azadirachta indica
27	Revathi	Bassia latifolia

Your sun sign and its corresponding herb:

S. No	Sign	Suggested suitable plant
1	Aries	Pterocarpus santalinus
2	Taurus	Alstonia scholaris
3	Gemini	Artocarpus heterophyllus
4	Cancer	Butea monosperma
5	Leo	Stereospermum chelonoides
6	Virgo	Mangifera indica
7	Libra	Mimusops elengi
8	Scorpio	Acacia catechu
9	Sagittarius	Ficus religiosa
10	Capricorn	Dalbergia latifolia
11	Aquarius	Acacia ferruginea
12	Pisces	Ficus bengalensis

Five elements and their herbs:

S. No	Functional element	Medicinal plants
1	Earth	Oxalis corniculata
2	Water	Clerodendrum serratum
3	Fire	Sphaeranthus zeylanicus
4	Wind	Trichodesma indicum
5	Space / Ether	Tragia involucrata

Special gurus and their auspicious herbs:

Name of the Siddha/ guru	Plant/ Herb
Thirumoolar	Eclipta alba
Kalanginathar	Sphaeranthus indicus
Macha muni	Centella asiatica
Anda siddhar	Corum copticum
Konkonar	Wedelia chinensis
Patanjali	Coldenia procumbens
Bogar	Bryonia epigoea
Korakkar	Cannabis sativa

Divine herbs (usually worshipped across India):

1. Cynodon dactylon – doorva grass, Bermuda grass
2. Enicostema axillare – chhota chirayita
3. Leucus aspera – chhota halkusa, common leucas
4. Ocimum sanctum – tulsi, holy basil
5. Aegle marmelos – bael, Apple Wood, Holy Fruit Tree
6. Piper betel – paan, betel vine
7. Nerium odorum – karavira, sweet scented oleander
8. Azadirachta indica – neem, the margosa tree, Indian lilac
9. Nelumbo nucifera – kamal, sacred lotus
10. Areca catechu – supari, areca nut, betel nut,
11. Curcuma longa – haldi, turmeric
12. Feronia elephantum – kath bael, wood apple
13. Caesalpinia bonducella – putikaranja, bonduc tree
14. Datura alba – dhatura, thornapple
15. Trigonella foenum-graecum – methi, kasuri methi, fenugreek