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Over ten years ago now, I made a Mugwort pillow.

I was in an experimental phase and was researching a lot of common & local magical herbs.
_{By the way, just because an herb is common or even considered a weed doesn't lessen its power.}

I was up visiting my aunt during the summer and we were playing tennis one day.

As I went to gather the neon balls in back corner of the court, I realized the greenery with white moon silver under the leaves was a plant I had been reflecting on often and looking for a source of. I harvested handfuls of the magical plant then and there and carried it back to her house, sweaty and excited.

Mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris, is in the Artemisia genus which harkens back to Artemis the goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth and virginity. And also the moon.

As I was soon to learn, the silvery soft underside of this plant was a lunar characteristic and that this plant had a lot to teach me.

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Yesterday I harvested the Mugwort in our garden and hung it to dry in the solar shed.

It looks beautiful hanging there and today I was greeted with a smattering of yellow pollen dusting the boxes and shelves beneath the herb.

I am going to try to sleep in here tonight with it. It will be an interesting experience, I bet. Earlier I mentioned the Mugwort pillow and that is because it is a dream herb. In fact, this is one of the first ways that I interacted with this plant. I sewed it up into a pillow with Rabbit Tobacco (with a sweet warm butterscotch smell) & Lavender and slept with it.

Dreaming

It makes dreams more vivid. If you dream some, it will enhance those dreams. If you dream a lot, it will enhance them even more. The thujone in the plant stimulates brain activity and somehow encourages dreaming. Sometimes it can even be too much and I've had to put the pillow far from the bed because I can't sleep with so many dreams. Tonight with this entire thatched ceiling of Mugwort- it will be an interesting experience.

After that, I plan to bundle these stalks up to be used as smudge sticks. Mugwort has long been used as a Traveler's Herb for protection- or to ward off evil spirits.

Traditionally smudging plants (like sage, palo santo and others) are burned to purify the air warding away yes evil spirits, and also fleas, midges, and moths-- and also used internally for intestinal worms.

You can drink the tea, but it is very bitter (a tincture would be more palatable.) You can smudge your house by burning the dried leaf.

I will be offering them for Steem if anyone is interested. I'll be in touch as the herb dries and I bundle and package them up.

Mugwort is also used as a brewing herb hence the name Mug + Wort (wort being the name for the plant mixture used in the early part of the brew.) I have tried making a Mugwort brew with brown sugar, molasses, beer yeast, and lemon and it turned out very well. In fact, it was one of the favorite beers I made the first year I started brewing.

Doth ye have experience with Mugwort? Have I piqued your interest?