Full Moon in Gemini: Spotlight on Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)

Today’s Gemini full moon coincides with the arrival of wintry weather where I live.

This time of year is often called “cold and flu” season, because incidence of respiratory illnesses increases dramatically around this time.  Colds and flus often settle in the chest — which is a part of the body ruled by the Celestial Twins. One Gemini-resonant herb I always keep on hand  is Red Clover blossoms (Trifolium pratense).

When I was a child, we used to find clover blossoms in the yard, pull out the petals, and suck on the base of the petals, because they had a sweet honey taste.  I also remember making crowns out of clover, weaving the long stems together. Clover is a lovely, friendly plant, which can be found in almost any part of the world.  Bees adore it, and I do too!

Materia Medica Data

Latin Name: Trifolium pratense

Other Names: Meadow Trefoil (this is what Culpeper called it). Honeysuckle (not to be confused with the vine called honeysuckle.)

Plant parts used: usually flowers. 

Energetics: cooling, drying, relaxing

A few important constituents: caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, quercetin, coumarin, hyperosides, methyl salicylate, chromium, iron, magnesium, manganese, calcium, niacin, phosphorus, thiamine, Vitamin C

Herbalistic Properties: nutritive, alterative, expectorant, blood tonic, general tonic, anti-inflammatory, lymph stimulant, antihistamine, antispasmodic, diuretic

The lymph-moving actions of Red Clover are systemic, but it seems to target the chest area in particular.

Incomplete list of ailments traditionally treated: tumors, coughs, respiratory infections, flu, body ache during illness, chest colds, inflammation, asthma, blood purifier, nervous stomach, eczema, rash, tuberculosis, low appetite, slow digestion, allergies, gout, stagnant lymph, fibrocystic breasts, edema, mastitis, rheumatism

Astrological Rulership: Mercury (Culpeper). 

Culpeper did not give a reason for his choice of Mercury for this plant. My guess is because it moves stagnant lymph in the chest area, making it good for chest ailments such as lung congestion, cystic breasts, and respiratory viruses.  Mercury rules Gemini, which rules the chest area of the body.  ♊️

Another clue for why he chose Mercury may lie in the fact that the first treatment Culpeper listed for Trifolium was to help with gout. Since gout usually affects the feet (ruled by Pisces / Jupiter), Culpeper may have reasoned that a Mercurial herb would cure gout by antipathy (since Mercury is the opposite of Jupiter).

How to work with Red Clover:

You can eat it in food! 🥗

Add it to salads; it has very little flavor, so you can get a nutrient boost without offending your tastebuds. Throw a handful in your next stew or pasta, or add it to your rice. My neighbor, who is an excellent pastry chef, likes to top her sugar cookies with edible flowers such as violets and red clover blossoms. Delicious and so cute! (I wish I had pictures, but I forgot to snap a photo before I ate them all…)

Nutritive tea 🫖

I recommend taking nutritive herbs every day, and Red Clover is a great option to add to a daily tea blend, or even to drink on its own. Red Clover is very high in nutrients, such as chromium, iron, magnesium, manganese, calcium, niacin, phosphorus, thiamine, and Vitamin C.  The tea is very mild in flavor. If you don’t like the taste, you can easily cover it up with something else you do enjoy. (Perhaps chai spices, or peppermint, or honey…)

Most people in Western cultures are deficient in minerals, and Red Clover tea can help increase mineral intake. (Be sure to steep it at least 4 hours if you want the mineral content, since minerals take a long time to extract from the plant.)

Improve blood quality 🩸

Red Clover is an excellent “alterative” herb, meaning it improves the quality of the blood.  Gemini is a “sanguine” sign (air sign), and the sanguine humor is associated with blood. Drink Trifolium daily to help detoxify the blood, improve production of healthy blood cells, and improve general circulation.

Lymphatic mover 💧

The most common way that herbalists today work with Red Clover is in water infusions (“tea”). Since we often turn to Red Clover to help us move lymph, we also want to make sure that the client stays hydrated. Infusing the herb in water as a tea packs a double punch (Gemini appreciates anything with “double” impact!) Hydration and the herbal delivery are both covered. 

Red Clover gently stimulates lymphatic movement, which is important for good health. Many conditions can be helped by ensuring adequate lymphatic flow, such as allergies, edema, cysts, and even cancer prevention.

During a viral infection 🤧

It is currently cold and flu season in this part of the world, so it will be helpful to keep Red Clover on hand!  Viral infections are often accompanied by  whole-body aches. These miserable pains are caused by lymphatic swelling, blood vessel dilation, cellular waste as a byproduct of macrophage activity, and the release of various inflammatory chemicals as our immune system is working like mad to fight off the invaders.  Red Clover tea helps move the lymph along, which reduces the swelling, and it helps clean up the blood of all the chemicals the body is making to fight the virus. Red Clover also contains mild pain killers (methylsalicylates) and reduces muscle spasms. Put all together, this means that Red Clover alleviates body aches beautifully and quickly! I always drink it when I get sick, and the pain-relieving effects are dramatic and fast-acting.  (You don’t need to steep it for 4 hours to get these effects. A simple 5-10 minute steep is fine.) Red Clover is a wonderful friend!

What about estrogen?

If you do an internet search for Red Clover, one of the top results will be its helpfulness for peri-menopause and menopause. You will see articles praising “phytoestrogens.” This may be great for women low in estrogen, but what if you do not want to increase estrogen in your body? Should you avoid Red Clover?  Have no fear! There are a few reasons why Red Clover is safe for anyone to take and will not raise estrogen in a body that is not deficient in it.  

1. First, phytoestrogens do not work like medical estrogen, as they bind to different receptors.  Phytoestrogens do not raise blood estrogen levels, and they do not cause feminizing effects the way medical estrogen does. 

2. Secondly, the phytoestrogen content contained in normal herbal doses is not very high. Supplements sold with Red Clover for perimenopause are made by taking extractions from the plant and condensing them into very high quantities— much higher than you could get from normal consumption of the plant in its herbal form.  You’d have to eat several kilograms of clover leaves per day to get the amount of phytoestrogen contained in a supplement pill. A few tablespoons per day in tea is not going to hold a candle to the level found in a condensed supplement.

3. And finally, even if you are not convinced by the above arguments and are still worried about phytoestrogens, most of the phytoestrogens are concentrated in the leaves of the Red Clover plant, but we usually work with the blossoms.  

So don’t worry!  Taking Red Clover is not even close to taking HRT! Its benefits are many, and it would be a shame to avoid the herb due to unfounded fears.

I hope you try some Red Clover blossom tea, and I hope, like me, you love it enough to always keep it in stock in your tea cabinet!

Happy Gemini Full Moon!