Welcome to Libra season.

As we journey with each mushroom, think about the qualities and healing effects they have and how can we integrate them more into our lives. Whether that be through ritual, ingestion or just learning and building more awareness about their incredible capabilities and role they play in our world.

When we time the embodiment of each mushroom with the energies of the sky, this alchemizes a deeper connection and understanding of the earth and our physical vessels.

Mushrooms are nature's alchemists and we get to dive deep into our next fungi below. Also, refer to the Astrological Planner as your navigational tool where you will find an intro to each and fungi archetype for each zodiac season.

Maitake (Grifola frondosa)

Maitake is a tasty treat resembling fungi forest flowers, with the added benefits of fertility support and immune-boosting medicine. Named the 'Dancing Mushroom' from its excitement-inducing effects when found in Japan for the gifts it brings in abundance.

It is adaptogenic, immunomodulatory, anti-bacterial, anti-candida, anti-tumoral, anti-viral, anti-diabetic, a blood pressure and blood sugar moderator, cholesterol reducer, and lung supportive.

Primarily turned to for cancers that affect the digestive and reproductive organs, it has also been used for the treatment of PCOS and helps boost fertility. It inhibits certain tumor growth, particularly used for breast cancer and prevention by fighting the growth and reproduction of cancerous cells. It boosts immunity in cancer patients and helps with the side effects of chemotherapy.

Maitake also helps control blood sugar levels in Type 2 diabetes. It lowers cholesterol, treats hypertension, supports kidney and renal function, and has been used to treat candida. Also known as 'hen of the woods,
It is not just a culinary delight but also highly medicinal.

Main modern use:

Cancer & chemotherapy support, immune support, blood sugar regulation, managing weight.

PLANET:

VENUS - Governs balance in the body, skin, ovaries, renal system, hormones, and circulation.

SIGN: 

LIBRA - Beauty, balance, harmony, creativity, mediation, and relationships are some of Libra's gifts. It rules the kidneys, adrenal glands, ovaries, renal system, acidity/alkalinity, and homeostasis in the body. 

Pairing notes:

Reproductive balance. Venus governs balance in the body. Libra as a cardinal air sign rules the kidneys, adrenals, and ovaries. This shroom can also be paired with Taurus (also Venus ruled), Cancer (rules stomach, womb, cycles), Virgo (rules small intestine, pancreas, liver), and Scorpio (governs reproductive system).

If you are interested in medicinal mushrooms to deepen your relationship with Libra this season check out Maitake, Turkey Tail, Oyster, and Reishi from Feral Fungi. Use code MAGICOFI for 20% off at check-out!

Alchemist, Ethnobotanist, Mycologist & Spagyricist, Jason Scott, shares his wisdom of Maitake and Libra. 

Maitake in Libra

A Balanced and Graceful Dance

Common Name: Maitake, Hen of the Woods
Latin Name: Grifola frondosa
Family: Meripilaceae 
Tastes: Sweet
Affinities: Immune System, Metabolic System, Genitourinary System
Energetics: Cool & Moist
Planetary Rulership: Venus & Mercury

A Graceful Dance

Maitake carries in its essence a grace and beauty embodied in its name. Coined Maitake by the Japanese, Mai translates to ‘dancing’, and take translates to ‘mushroom,’ making Maitake ‘The Dancing Mushroom.’ Look closely at the flowing fruit clusters, which resemble gentle and graceful dancers intermingled in an intricate dance.

Commonly found throughout many regions of China, Japan, and primarily the Northeastern United States, even though it has been found as far west as Idaho, Maitake is a highly treasured mushroom for its culinary and medicinal uses. G. frondosa is a perennial mushroom that fruits from a tuber-like structure known as a sclerotia.

The fruit of Maitake can grow to be quite large, up to 100cm (40in), and fruits in flowing clusters of gray-brown caps that simultaneously appear to be one mushroom and many. The caps are often curled with a cup shape toward the center and a curving edge between 2-10cm (1-4in) across.

A true treasure of the forest, Maitake has been utilized for food and medicine for centuries in Asia. It is host to a long list of potential benefits as natural medicine, including immune-supporting, blood sugar regulating, histamine regulation, blood pressure regulation, healthy metabolism, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-tumor, healthy digestion, and genito-urinary.

Maitake has been one of the premier mushrooms for supporting enlarged ovarian cysts or PCOS. It is one of the chief mushrooms I consistently lean on in formulations for long-term chronic conditions and metabolic conditions, including cancer, for its rich polysaccharide content and long-term use in immune health and cancer therapy.

While Maitake has a long list of known uses and benefits, as with most of the mushrooms, there is much more to learn and understand about its potential in nutrition and health.

Doctrine of Signatures in Maitake

Maitake grows with eloquence and beauty that glows in the same light as Venus. This humble mushroom imparts a sense of grace in how it flows and ‘dances’ as a treasure in the forest.

The flowing edges of this mushroom blossom into a luscious and nutrient-dense specimen that is a boon of health in nourishing the body and supporting optimum health. Venus is embodied in earthly delights, nourishing pleasures, and sensuality, and everything about Maitake aligns with that embodiment, from its outward appearance to how it moves in the body.

Venus is traditionally a feminine or passive planet, and Maitake has many affinities, but notably, its affinity for the ovaries and ovary health alludes even further to its feminine nature. The flow and boundary-defying rhythm of the heart is present in G. frondosa's sensual dance.

That dance is an ode to the feminine archetype in nature and, in that way, nourishes the feminine aspects of ourselves, bringing us back into harmony and balance. 

Guiding Libra

Libra is the sign of the scales, of balance, of equilibrium. Ruled by Venus, Libra embodies beauty, sensuality, and harmony. This sign seeks balance, from intimate relationships and friendships to social justice.

Libra is often perceived as reserved in opposition to Aries, who resides across from them on the astrological chart. Libra is concerned with ideals and ideas as an air sign, and can fall so deeply into finding balance that they are often perceived as indecisive.

In alignment with themselves, Libra is balanced, harmonious, practical, and judicious, comfortably riding the line between their internal duality. Outside of alignment, they lose sense of their nature and lean into one aspect of themselves more than another. They become rash with their decisions and so outwardly focused that they can overlook themselves.

Maitake can help bring balance back to the Libra who has fallen outside of it. Through the love and sensuality of Venus, Libra can see itself more clearly and have more clear boundaries between self and non-self. This works on physical, psycho-spiritual, and emotional planes alike.

By creating healthy boundaries, Libra has more space to understand its heart desires and see an illuminated path. While this internal reconciliation is forged, it is also reflected outwardly in actions and relationships.

G. frondosa gives Libra the foundation of love and health that grounds them deeply in their body so that they can fully live in themselves and embrace the beauty and sensuality of the world around them. Maitake can help to balance the scales and bring them back into alignment.

Through that balance, Libra can wholly lean into themselves and have the energy and resolve to questions of justice, making sure and calculated decisions in their daily life.

Other Virgo-Supporting Fungi

Turkey Tail, Oyster, Reishi

If you are interested in medicinal mushrooms to deepen your relationship with Virgo this season check out Maitake, Turkey Tail, Oyster, and Reishi from Feral Fungi. Use code MAGICOFI for 20% off at check-out!