Research Library · Planets & cycles · Plants & herbs · Video research
☉ The Sun project — every summary and video → 🌿 Sajah Popham project — every summary and video → 🍒 Hawthorn project — every summary and video → 🌿 Angelica project — every summary and video → 🌾 Ashwagandha project — every summary and video → 🌻 St John's wort project — every summary and video →The Sun's herbs: heart, warmth, vitality and spirit
Herbalist Sajah Popham on the Sun in medical astrology and four herbs that carry it — hawthorn, angelica, ashwagandha and St John's wort — checked against the old books and the trials.
15 October 2026 9 min read ▶ 49-min video 12 sources · 9 peer-reviewed

In brief
In medical astrology the Sun rules the heart and the vital force, and Sajah Popham matches its four sides with four herbs: hawthorn for the heart, angelica for warmth, ashwagandha for vitality and St John's wort for the spirit. The astrology is the old one — Lilly in 1647 gave the Sun “the Heart, the Brain and right Eye, and vitall Spirit”. The evidence behind the herbs runs from strong to none: St John's wort matches antidepressants for mild to moderate depression; hawthorn eases heart-failure symptoms without saving lives; ashwagandha has small trials for stress and sleep; angelica has no trial of its own.
Learn from the source
Sajah Popham
Herbalist and host of The Plant Path; founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism.
He teaches herbal medicine through the energetics of plants and people, and herbal astrology alongside it.
evolutionaryherbalism.com ↗ Every summary of Sajah Popham’s work →
The heart and the vital force
The Sun in the body
The Sun sits at the centre of the solar system, and for Sajah Popham it is the centre of the psyche and of the body: stretch out your arms and the lines cross at the heart. In medical astrology it rules the heart and the whole cardiovascular system, with its sign Leo, the fixed fire of midsummer in the north. That is the old tradition: William Lilly, in 1647, wrote that the Sun “governeth the Heart, the Brain and right Eye, and vitall Spirit”, and gave Leo “all weaknesse or diseases in the heart”.
For members
Read the whole summary
3 sections, 3 diagrams, the video with its chapters, 13 claims checked against the research, 12 sources with the names of the people who did the work and links to it — and downloads in PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
- 🔒 Four herbs, four sides of the Sun
- 🔒 The Sun's year
The Research Library is part of every paid plan: Crescent, Half Moon and Full Moon.
More in these projects
- Hawthorn, the heart herb ▶ 9-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's Sun-ruled tonic for the heart, the blood vessels and an anxious mind — checked against the small trials, the…
- Angelica, the warming bitter ▶ 9-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's Sun-ruled herb of warmth, for cold digestion, cold hands and a cold uterus — checked against the herbal…
- Ashwagandha, the calm adaptogen ▶ 6-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's Sun-ruled herb of vitality, for stress, sleep and the immune system — checked against the trials, the…
- St John's wort, the midsummer flower ▶ 10-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's Sun-ruled herb of the spirit, for low mood, the liver and nerve pain — checked against the depression trials,…
- Venus in excess and deficiency ▶ 36-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham on Venus in the body — the kidneys, the womb and the veins, too relaxed or too tense — and the herbs he gives for…
- Hawthorn, the heart herb ▶ 9-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's Sun-ruled tonic for the heart, the blood vessels and an anxious mind — checked against the small trials, the…
- Angelica, the warming bitter ▶ 9-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's Sun-ruled herb of warmth, for cold digestion, cold hands and a cold uterus — checked against the herbal…
- Ashwagandha, the calm adaptogen ▶ 6-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's Sun-ruled herb of vitality, for stress, sleep and the immune system — checked against the trials, the…
- St John's wort, the midsummer flower ▶ 10-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's Sun-ruled herb of the spirit, for low mood, the liver and nerve pain — checked against the depression trials,…
- Judith Hill: time matters ▶ 93-min video · Medical astrologer Judith Hill, interviewed by her student Sajah Popham: timing herbal medicine by the Moon, the zodiac in the body, the…
- Burdock, the all-purpose alterative ▶ 13-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's gentle blood cleanser for the liver, the lymph, the skin and the gut — checked against the chemistry of inulin,…
- Dandelion leaf, the potassium diuretic ▶ 8-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's “universal diuretic” that brings its own potassium — checked against the one study in people, the food tables,…
- Nettle, the mineral powerhouse ▶ 11-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's spring tonic for the blood, the kidneys, the skin and hay fever — checked against the food tables, the…
- Lemon balm and the overactive thyroid ▶ 40-min video · Sajah Popham's “happiest herb on Earth” for a racing heart, a restless mind and an overactive thyroid — checked against the laboratory…
- Hawthorn, the heart herb ▶ 9-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's Sun-ruled tonic for the heart, the blood vessels and an anxious mind — checked against the small trials, the…
- Angelica, the warming bitter ▶ 9-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's Sun-ruled herb of warmth, for cold digestion, cold hands and a cold uterus — checked against the herbal…
- Ashwagandha, the calm adaptogen ▶ 6-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's Sun-ruled herb of vitality, for stress, sleep and the immune system — checked against the trials, the…
- St John's wort, the midsummer flower ▶ 10-min video · Herbalist Sajah Popham's Sun-ruled herb of the spirit, for low mood, the liver and nerve pain — checked against the depression trials,…
