Mugwort
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SMOKE, WATER AND OLD CUSTOMS
Herbs for protection.
The herbs that traditions burn, sprinkle or hang on the door to keep a house: mugwort, imphepho, Florida Water, crosses of pericón.
Ritual
Every tradition has its herbs for keeping a house.
The selection · across the worlds
6 companions for this intention
FEATURED COMBO
The treasure of this path.
Imphepho (Helichrysum odoratissimum): South African healers burn it as an active call for guidance and protection from their ancestors. A pinch on the charcoal.
The path · 5 thresholds
A method.
The herbs that traditions burn, sprinkle or hang on the door to keep a house: mugwort, imphepho, Florida Water, crosses of pericón.
01
Ritual
Choose your gesture
The smoke of a herb on the charcoal, water sprinkled on the thresholds, or the herb kept in the house: each tradition has its own.
02
Ritual
Smoke
Imphepho, mugwort and Mexican tarragon go loose on a charcoal disc, a pinch at a time; white sage and palo santo are lit as they are.
03
Ritual
Water
Florida Water is never burned: a few drops in your hands, one deep breath, then a mist on the thresholds, the corners, the windows.
04
Ritual
The herb at the door
A cross of pericón on the door on the eve of Saint Michael, a bunch of Saint John's mugwort kept in the house: the plant stays, for good.
05
Ritual
Air and close
The embers go out under watch, the window opens, and the house takes up its course again.
WHAT THE COMMUNITY MURMURS
A few feedbacks, after several weeks.
« Got it here in Europe, I'm thrilled, shipping super fast. Imphepho is essential for ancestral work as incense or tea. :) »
What are herbs for protection?
Herbs that traditions burn, sprinkle or keep in the house to guard it and those who live in it. Each has its gesture: the smoke on the charcoal, the water on the thresholds, the cross on the door. Here is what each tradition says, and the plants we carry.
Herbs for protection, one by one
Imphepho Helichrysum odoratissimum
Sangoma · South Africa
Burned as an active call for guidance and protection from the ancestors; today still, on the charcoal, to purify and protect a room.
Mugwort Artemisia vulgaris
China · Japan · Celts · Nordic peoples
Held to be a herb of protection against malevolent forces; in France, the herb of Saint John's Eve, kept in the house.
Florida Water
Hoodoo · Santería · Andean limpia
Sprinkled on the thresholds, the corners, the windows to protect a house; never burned.
Pericón, Yauhtli Tagetes lucida
Mexico
Crosses of pericón hung on the doors on the eve of Saint Michael; burned on the home altar.
White sage Salvia apiana
California · ours from the Himalayas
The smudge stick: its smoke carried room by room.
Palo santo Bursera graveolens
Ecuador · Peru
The holy wood. In our House we say it makes any space sacred.
Rue, the classic herb against the evil eye from Italy to Brazil, we do not sell.
Herbs for luck and money
The same traditions keep herbs and waters for luck. In Hoodoo, Florida Water is used to draw luck as well as to protect a house. Agua de Kananga, the Florida Water built on ylang-ylang, is associated in several Afro-diasporic traditions with the ancestors and with prosperity.
How to use them
On a charcoal disc in a dish of sand, a pinch of imphepho, mugwort or pericón; the window cracked open; the dish carried from room to room, toward the door. Florida Water as a mist on the thresholds, or a few drops in your hands and one deep breath. The step by step for a whole house: how to smudge your house.
Precautions
Smoke irritates the airways: a window open, no smoke near babies, birds or anyone with asthma; with an allergy to the daisy family (mugwort, imphepho), refrain. Florida Water is high in alcohol and catches fire: keep it away from candles. Dragon's blood is a liquid resin for the skin, a drop at a time.
⊹ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ⊹
Herbs for protection, question by question
What herbs are used for protection?
Each tradition has its own. Mugwort in China, Japan and among the Celts; imphepho among the Sangoma of South Africa; pericón crosses on Mexican doors; Florida Water on the thresholds in Hoodoo and Santería; rue around the Mediterranean and in Brazil.
What is the mother of all herbs?
Mugwort. The old herbalists called it the mother of herbs (mater herbarum), and it is the first herb invoked in the Anglo-Saxon Nine Herbs Charm.
What herbs ward off evil spirits?
In the traditions: mugwort, held to turn away malevolent forces from China to the Celts; rue against the evil eye; pericón, whose crosses go on the doors in Mexico on the eve of Saint Michael. In South Africa, imphepho is burned to call the protection of the ancestors.
What can I burn to attract money?
The traditions keep waters more than smoke for luck: Florida Water in Hoodoo, Agua de Kananga for prosperity in several Afro-diasporic traditions. That is how the tradition tells it.
How do you use herbs for protection at home?
As smoke, a pinch on a charcoal disc carried through the house with a window open; as water, Florida Water misted on the thresholds; or kept in the house, like a bunch of Saint John's mugwort or a cross of pericón on the door.
What herb is good for banishing?
In the old herbals of Europe, mugwort and rue are the herbs said to drive away what harms; in Mexico, pericón keeps the door on the eve of Saint Michael. We carry mugwort and pericón; rue we do not sell.
⊹ OTHER INTENTIONS · RITUAL ⊹ ✷
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Further reading · in the Forest
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