Mugwort Case

After much musing and quiet listening, I finally decided to write about Mugwort. Artemisia herba-alba can be a difficult essence to wrap oneself around. Initially I thought of several other essences that have had a significant impact on my life, as well as my family. However, when I started researching what I wanted to include in a paper, I felt Mugwort tugging at me and asking me to speak up for her more than any of the others. I do not mean that in a presumptuous manner, she has been speaking loud and clear to many for centuries. Unfortunately, it seems that some essences, mugwort in particular, have fallen out of favor with certain “experts” in the field. Several of the books I was perusing made the use of this essence sound like a death sentence. For instance, in Medical Aromatherapy- Healing with Essential Oils by Kurt Schnaubelt, the opening statement reads, “Internal use of the oil is toxic. As all its potential uses can also be performed with less toxic oils, it should not be used.” In Advanced Aromatherapy- The Science of Essence Oil Therapy another work by Schnaubelt, one only finds a description of Mugwort in the chapter that describes the toxicity of some essential essences. Specifically concerning Mugwort, he wrote that it is a neurotoxin and that it is “poisonous!” A few other authors chose not to include this wondrous essence at all in their writings, as if to say, ‘if we ignore her maybe she’ll go away’.

Like Artemis, the huntress, for whom Mugwort is named, I took to the internet to see if I could find anything positive to validate what I already knew to be true of one of my favorite essences. After a few false starts, I found what I was looking for (along with quite a bit of mistaken identity). I found it important to note that many sites use the names mugwort, wormwood, white wormwood, and armoise interchangeably. They also confuse the Latin names Artemisia vulgaris and Artemisia herba-alba with one another, as well as with the common names. So, to be clear, I am referring to Artemisia herba-alba, commonly known as white wormwood, mugwort, armoise blanche in French, and ‘shieh’ in Arabic. The confusion is somewhat understandable though. Several of the species of Artemisia have been around and used medicinally for hundreds of centuries. My limited research showed that more has been written on A. vulgaris and A. absinthuim, both of which are interesting in their own rights. They have received a lot more notoriety throughout history -- being banned (as in the drink absinth) and linked to ‘witchcraft’ will definitely give you a boost up the popularity chart.

Nevertheless, A. herba alba is a deva too. She is a greenish-silver perennial herb that grows 20-40 cm in height; she is a chamaeophyte