Dry skin in the winter

I, like millions of other people, tend to get extremely dry skin in the wintertime. No surprise that Saturn, the driest of the planets, rules 2 of the 3 winter months (Capricorn and Aquarius). Saturn also rules the skin, since Saturn rules “boundaries of all kinds,” and the skin is the boundary for our body.

Tangent / Rant against the common wisdom

Allow me an indulgence of starting this post with a tangent, a rant about one of my (many, weird) pet peeves. The standard explanation for the phenomenon of seasonal dry skin involves two causes, both of which are probably wrong. The first explanation is that relative humidity is lower during the winter, which means our bodies are not able to absorb as much moisture from the air. The second explanation is that people have their heaters on during the winter, and the heaters dry out the air even more. These things might exacerbate the issue of dry skin, but I really do not believe they are the primary causes.

1. It can’t be the Relative Humidity. I lived in Phoenix, Arizona, for eight years, and I still experienced the problem of dry skin in the winter. Here is the average relative humidity for Phoenix, Arizona:Look at this: the relative humidity is HIGHEST during the winter months. And yet, still— dry skin. Sure, sure, I’m just one person, but I know I’m not the only one. Relative Humidity can’t be the only explanation here.

2. It can’t be heaters. In Arizona, I seldom used my heater, even in the winter. If I needed a little heat boost on a particularly cold day, I would use a little space heater. My current home uses an old-fashioned boiler heater, (which you almost never encounter anymore… this thing is ancient!) This type of heater does not dry out the air. In fact, many types of heaters don’t dry out the air.

As I said, the two above issues might make dry skin worse in some cases, but I don’t think that’s the main thing going on here. I wish someone would study this. My guess is something to do with earth’s magnetism, triggering something in our circadian rhythm, which affects hormones related to fluid and fat management inside the body. I would be curious about whether this is a phenomenon in the Southern Hemisphere, and whether it is affected by local winter (versus the absolute date.)

Here’s a chart of total electron count (TECU), which is one measurement of the Earth’s magnetosphere. It seems to go through a seasonal cycle.

Notice, during local winter, TECU is higher. Would this also explain why there seems to be more static electric “shocks” during the winter? I’m not a scientist, I don’t know.

Here’s the study:

Laundal, K.M., Cnossen, I., Milan, S.E. et al. North–South Asymmetries in Earth’s Magnetic Field. Space Sci Rev 206, 225–257 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-016-0273-0

And now back to the main point

OK, enough of my weird tangent. Whatever the cause, dry skin is a phenomenon during the winter. Let’s talk about dealing with it!

When we work with symptoms in medical astrology, there are two concepts to bear in mind: sympathy and antipathy. Sympathy means that something of a similar nature to the malady will bring about a cure. Think of how you need an oil-based cleaner to remove oil-based stains, and a water-based cleaner to remove water-based stains. This is sympathetic action. Antipathy means using something of the opposite nature. If you have a hot swelling, you might apply cold ice, for example.

It took me awhile to figure out how to know when to use sympathy and when to use antipathy. What I have landed on is that often you need both. I usually start with sympathy. Take the “good” qualities of the planet in focus, and then bring in the “good” qualities of its opposite planet.

Phase 1: Sympathy

I will give dry skin, as a symptom, to Saturn. With dry skin, we see an excess of the cold and dry qualities. To treat by sympathy, what we want to do first is bring in some Saturnian elements that are NOT excesses, but positive manifestations of Saturn.

To treat dry skin by sympathy, start by increasing your mineral intake. Minerals, in a nutrition setting, are “pure” elements (from the periodic table of elements) which are required by the body for survival. The nutritional minerals are calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, magnesium, iron, chlorine, cobalt, copper, zinc, manganese, molybdenum, iodine, and selenium. Various individual minerals are ruled by various planets (for example, iron is Mars, and copper is Venus, etc.); however, as a category, I would give “minerals in general” to Saturn. My reasoning is that minerals tend to be dense, and to form crystalline structures. They extract from plants slowly, and in general, they tend to have a cold and dry quality. The bolded words are all key words for Saturn. So increasing overall mineral intake would be a Saturnian activity.

You can purchase mineral supplements, either as capsules or as drops to put into your water. For a tastier way to increase minerals, though, you can drink certain herbal teas. This has the additional benefit of providing a ton of other phytonutrients, to work in synergy with the minerals. Mineral-rich herbs include:

• nettle

• alfalfa

• horsetail

• dandelion leaf

• red raspberry leaf

There are many more! These are some of the most common ones.

The very important thing to remember about minerals is that they extract from the plant extremely slowly compared to other constituents. To extract the mineral content, you need to infuse the leaves for at least several hours. What I do is boil it on the stove for a few minutes, turn off the heat, and let it sit overnight. Then in the morning, strain, and add boiling water to reheat. Aim for 2-3 cups of tea per day.

You can also add seaweed to your diet, to increase your mineral intake! Sprinkle seaweed flakes on everything, for that nice mineral boost.

Phase 2: Antipathy

Now let’s talk about treating by antipathy. As I mentioned earlier, always start with sympathy. Once you’ve got your mineral intake habit humming along nicely, go to phase 2. This involves several things.

The planets opposite Saturn are the Sun and the Moon. The Sun rules the heart and cardiovascular system, and the Moon rules the stomach and digestive system. To treat by antipathy, we need to increase circulation to the periphery of the body, so the skin can receive all those nice nutrients we’ve been taking in. And we need to support our digestion, particularly our moisture intake.

Cardiovascular

To give your circulation a little more zing, add ginger to your daily routine. Cook with ginger in everything, and add it to your daily tea. Ginger is ruled by the Sun and Mars, and it is a circulatory stimulant.

Another important herb would be Calendula. Also ruled by the Sun, Calendula is also excellent for skin conditions of all kinds. Add it to your tea (or soups, casseroles, or marinades!) to consume it internally. You can also use it externally! Calendula is an excellent skin healer. So if your dry skin has caused chapping and cracking, you can apply your calendula tea topically, to make the skin heal faster. You can also purchase or make a calendula salve to apply topically.

Digestion

During the winter months, we tend to eat heavier foods, and many of us become more sedentary. This can cause our digestion to get out of whack, which has all kinds of downstream effects. Here are a few Moon-ruled suggestions for supporting digestion during the winter.

Incorporate more cabbage into your meals. Cabbage is very versatile, high in fiber, and it is ruled by the Moon. Cabbage contains phytosterols, antioxidants, B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin K, and tons of other wonderful benefits. You can eat it raw, cooked, or fermented, and it’s always delicious. Plus, it is pretty low-cost, which is great for those of us on a budget. Most pertinent to our purpose today, cabbage supports the body in its mangement of fluids. We need to get the proper fluids to our skin, and cabbage encourages the body to do this efficiently. Try to get a few servings of cabbage per week during the winter.

Eat more healthful fats. Fat in the diet helps the body stay moisturized, particularly dairy fat. The moon rules milk (and by extension all dairy products), and dairy can help the body with fluid regulation. The way I think of it is kind of like those water-bead thingies they use in floral arrangements that soak up the water and slowly release it.

Fat works like that in the body. Instead of water rushing straight through you before it moisturizes your cells, dietary fat helps the water “stick around” longer. Don’t believe the myth that low-fat dairy is better for you; this has been debunked. (I apologize, I could not find an article on this that used weight-neutral language. Know that “obesity” is not an indicator of poor health, and I believe the word should be thrown out of usage altogether! Your health is not tied to your weight! But that’s a separate topic for another day.) If you are vegan or allergic to dairy, try other fats such as avocados, olive oil, or flax.

Recapitulation

To summarize, we want to treat seasonal dry skin using sympathy from Saturn and antipathy from the Sun and Moon. My recommendations:

• Increase mineral intake. This can include any or all of the following:

  • supplements or water drops

  • long infusions of mineral rich herbs such as nettle, alfalfa, horsetail, dandelion, red raspberry leaf

  • seaweed

• Incorporate circulatory stimulants and diaphoretics such as Ginger and Calendula

• Improve digestion by eating more cabbage

• Incorporate more healthful dietary fats

Doing the above, you should notice a difference within a few weeks, if not a few days. Please let me know if you try this, and how you fare!