Mugwort Ceremony
Creating ceremony around our sacred plants
We sat in the woods around the fire with our drums, instruments and voices. It was midnight on the first dark moon after Imbolc at the Association of Foragers meet and we needed little encouragement to light a fire outside after a night of heavy feasting on delicious wild food. It felt natural to take the drums with us and a big stick of dried Mugwort. We ignited the end of it in the fire, blowing on the lighted tip to encourage it to burn. It glowed red in the darkness. We took turns passing the aromatic smoke over and around each other (an ancient native British practice called saining). We whispered words of letting go of that which no longer served us and bringing in our power, sovereignty and intent as the aroma of Mugwort filled the night and merged with woodsmoke. Picking up drum beaters we played together on the big gathering drum. Some of the women started toning and chanting, beautiful voices rising and falling in the magic of a drum circle. It was followed with songs, instruments and beautiful voices. A powerful and magical night that many people commented on how much they enjoyed it.
On the long drive home to Lancashire from the Forest of Dean, we spoke of the power of creating a Mugwort ceremony as a way of honouring and working with the most sacred plant of these lands. Whilst we have forgotten or been made to forget the ceremonies of our indigenous plants, we are still drawn to do ceremonies with plants hence the popularity of Cacao ceremonies. Whilst people tell us this feels powerful to be part of, we feel it’s time to get to know and work with the sacred plants of these isles, especially Mugwort.
How our ancestors worked with Mugwort in ceremony has been lost to time and memory, but does that matter? Mugwort still grows here and ceremony around our native plants started somewhere. To our animistic ancestors, ceremony would have been initiated by Mugwort herself and their own spiritual beliefs and connection to the land. Ceremonies will have been practised through many generations of people working with a different perception of life than we have. We do still have Saxon prayers and blessings around Mugwort or Una as she was also called, so we know she was very sacred to our ancestors and had the power to protect from harm. In the Isle of Man Mugwort is called Bollan Bane. At Midsummer she is used traditionally to protect from the faery folk.
In modern times whilst we have been led by spiritual practices and religions from other cultures many of us are now wanting to work with the spirituality of this land and the sacredness which has been hidden and forgotten about for a very long time.Whilst it’s very hard to access information on our own ancient native practices maybe we don’t need to get too hung up about it. We live in a different world and we are different people. We can create our ceremonies around what is meaningful and relevant for now as long as our intent is honourable and it feels authentic to us.
We have both worked with Mugwort for many years in our herbal practices, have smoked Mugwort, done medicine making with Mugwort, impromptu ceremonies with Mugwort, and journeywork. Mugwort is without a doubt a very powerful herb that many people would consider a teacher plant and have had amazing experiences with. We both feel that creating a ceremony around Mugwort feels important and is now the right time as people need authentic heart-centred ceremonies filled with integrity to honour our sacred plants and deepen our connection to them.
So how do we create ceremony around Mugwort that is contemporary and yet feels deep, heartfelt and ancient?
On a medicinal level, Mugwort is many things. It’s an amazing herb for re-balancing women’s hormones and supporting women through all stages of reproductive life including Menopause. It’s a digestive bitter and an effective herb for anxiety and low mood. You can read more about Mugwort on Edwina’s Blog
On a spiritual and magical level, it’s a powerful cleansing herb, good for dispelling negative energy, creating sacred and ceremonial space and opening the third eye for journey work and dreaming. Many people have lucid dreams with Mugwort. Mugwort can also take us deeper to that place of knowing, travelling through the veils where we can access ancient wisdom in an instant. It’s the herb of knowing, that can take us to source. Some people call this a Mugwort experience. Maybe that is why Mugwort is called Una; The one?
The development of ceremony around Mugwort needs to start with a deep honouring of this plant with respect for the wisdom and the sacredness that our ancestors revered. It starts with getting to know this plant in the land we live in, building a relationship with her and making offerings when we harvest. We love to leave oats or barley or even just chat or sing to Mugwort. How we do this is up to us and what feels right for us. We can be guided by our intuition. Mugwort is a herb of the Moon so can be harvested at a full or dark moon after solstice depending on our intended use. We would love to see ceremony around Saining, tea ceremony, guided tea tastings, drum journeys to meet her and a Mugwort honouring altar. But that would be our way of honouring this grande dame of our native plants and we are still developing this as Mugwort guides us. We would love to hear from others doing ceremony and ceremonial work with Mugwort too.
Wild Blessings
Edwina and Danielle