Mugwort

For those who want to go below the page: history, chemistry, then four voices, each one named. ◆ what the tradition left in writing, ◇ what research has measured, ● what our dreamers tell us, ☾ what the House says.

The first herb of the charm

The Nine Herbs Charm, an Old English healing charm copied in the Lacnunga (British Library, Harley MS 585, 10th-11th century), calls on nine plants against nine poisons and nine illnesses. Mugwort is the first herb invoked. Her English name is older still: Old English *mucgwyrt*, from a Proto-Germanic word that probably meant "midge-wort", the herb that keeps the midges away (Etymonline).

Her Latin name raised a question as early as antiquity. Pliny the Elder (Natural History XXV, 73) says artemisia was named after Artemisia, wife of King Mausolus, or, according to others, after Artemis Ilithyia, because she heals the ailments of women in particular. Pliny also reports that a traveller who carries it feels no fatigue — a line later repeated by the English herbalist John Gerard. Gerard, in 1597, records her old Latin name, *Mater Herbarum*, the mother of herbs. Hildegard of Bingen knew her as Biboz (hence the German Beifuß) and used her for digestion and for the skin. In the Middle Ages she was gathered on the eve of Saint John as a protective girdle, Cingulum Sancti Johannis (Grieve 1931), and sailors called her sailor's tobacco.

Does mugwort make you dream? What is old, what is new

We say it as it is: none of these old texts — Pliny, Hildegard, Gerard, Grieve — speaks of mugwort and dreams. The dream pillow and the evening cup belong to a modern folk tradition, of the 20th and 21st centuries, carried by herbalists of the Wise Woman tradition such as Susun Weed and Robin Rose Bennett, and by the ethnobotany of Christian Rätsch. No clinical study has yet measured her effect on dreaming.

That tradition is alive, and it is the one we pass on. In our own words: "Mugwort is a herb of high magic, renowned for its incredible powers over dreams & its way of intensifying extra-sensory perceptions, making it a herb of prophecy and shamanic journeys." The dreamers who write to us speak of more vivid dreams and better recall; some notice nothing, and we count them too.

The herb of women

Pliny already tied her name to the ailments of women, and the whole later lineage of mugwort runs through the womb, the moon and the cycles. The silvery underside of her leaf linked her to the moon. Susun Weed popularised the name cronewort, the herb of the wise old woman. Her historical use to bring on menstruation, childbirth or miscarriage is documented (Ekiert et al. 2020) — which is why she is not for pregnancy. The herb of the midwife, kept away from the pregnant belly: to understand mugwort is to understand this.

Phytochemistry

Mugwort's essential oil varies a great deal from place to place: 1,8-cineole (2.6 to 17.6 %), camphor (0 to 47.7 %), and small amounts of α-thujone (0 to 3.18 %) and β-thujone (0 to 1.19 %) (Ekiert et al. 2020, Molecules, review). The plant also holds bitter sesquiterpene lactones, flavonoids and coumarins. Thujone is often credited with mugwort's dream effect; in fact, α-thujone blocks the GABA-A receptor (Höld et al. 2000, PNAS), and the plant contains little of it. The chemistry of her dream reputation remains unknown.

◆ The documented tradition

It opens the Anglo-Saxon Nine Herbs Charm (Lacnunga, 10th-11th century), the first herb invoked. Pliny hesitates between a queen, Artemisia, and a goddess, Artemis, to explain its name (Natural History XXV, 73). It was gathered on St John's Eve for protection (Grieve 1931). The old texts link it to women, to travel, to protection; the mugwort dream pillow belongs to a more recent tradition, carried by the herbalists of the 20th century (Gladstar 1993, p. 250) and alive among today's dreamers.

◇ Mugwort effects: what the studies say

No human study has measured its effect on dreams. Its thujone, often cited to explain it, is an antagonist of the GABA-A receptor (Höld et al. 2000), and the oil of common mugwort holds only about 0 to 3 % of it (Ekiert et al. 2020).

● Mugwort reviews: what our dreamers say

Of 99 reviews published on INFUSE, 8 tell of a night (re-read one by one for our dreamers' accounts; a review can say several things). 5 report an effect on their dreams: 4 more vivid dreams, one better recall, one dreamer a presence who accompanies her in dreams. 3 speak of deeper sleep, and one person noticed nothing. Two say they sought lucidity without reaching it: no lucid dream reported so far.

"To those who want to use mugwort for dreaming, the herb does give you stronger dreams that are also easier to recall. I haven't had any luck with lucid dreaming but I guess I need to use more than two teaspoons." — Mirna

☾ The House

Mugwort is a herb of high magic, renowned for its incredible powers over dreams & its way of intensifying extra-sensory perceptions, making it a herb of prophecy and shamanic journeys. Mugwort teaches the understanding of one's dark sides, helping us to transcend our nightmares and the destructive patterns of our subconscious.

How to use mugwort for dreaming

The dream pillow is the gentlest way: a cotton pouch filled with dried leaves, slipped under or inside the pillow. Her scent stays close all night, with nothing swallowed. The evening cup: 2 g of leaves in 250 ml of water at 80 °C, covered so the aromatic oils stay in the cup, 10 minutes, strained, half an hour before bed, up to three evenings a week. The light smoke, in the tradition that gave her the name sailor's tobacco.

Botany, side effects and safety

Artemisia vulgaris L., of the Asteraceae, a common plant of waste ground, roadsides and field edges across Eurasia. Take care to tell her apart from wormwood (A. absinthium, rich in thujone) and from Mexican mugwort (A. mexicana): always check the Latin name. Not for use during pregnancy (emmenagogue) or breastfeeding. Take care if you are allergic to Asteraceae (ragweed) or to related foods such as celery, carrot, fennel or cumin, and if you take anticoagulants. The essential oil is never taken internally. The dried herb is recognised as a traditional food in the European Union ("non novel" in the Novel Food catalogue). If in doubt, a practitioner before the plant.

The monograph on mugwort tells the oldest herb in full, and our guide to the best herbs for lucid dreaming compares her with Calea and Silene.

Sources: Lacnunga, BL Harley MS 585 · Pliny the Elder, Natural History XXV, 73 · John Gerard, The Herball (1597) · Hildegard of Bingen, Physica · Maud Grieve, A Modern Herbal (1931) · Ekiert H. et al. 2020, Molecules 25:4415 · Höld K.M. et al. 2000, PNAS 97:3826-31 · Susun Weed, Robin Rose Bennett, Christian Rätsch.

Sources for the four voices: Pliny the Elder, Natural History XXV, 73 · Grieve M. 1931, A Modern Herbal · Gladstar R. 1993, Herbal Healing for Women, p. 250 · Höld K.M. et al. 2000, PNAS 97:3826-3831 · Ekiert H. et al. 2020, Molecules 25:4415 · our customers' reviews.