Artemisia absynthum, Wormwood....

As an experiment when it came to researching the talents and skills of Wormwood, Artemisia absynthum, I decided to consult some with the plant herself as shes now growing in our garden....

Her young leaves are soft to the touch, grey silver in colour they reminded me of the Crone and her softer aspects, wisdom, insight, and storytelling round a fire. Another name for this plant is Old Woman. Magically she is said to aid divination. Burned as an incense, especially at Samhain, she can be combined with Cronewort, Atremisia vulgaris, to amplify the effect.

Her leaf shape is reminiscent of a trident or stang which could represent 'protection', in this case its from insects and pests largely. She is strewn amongst fabrics, clothes or furs, taken internally for intestinal worms and used in the garden for this purpose. She is also known to banish anger and negative energy...

Her leaves crushed, to me, smelt sweet and earthy, but Maude Grieves says of her that she's the bitterest herb, with the exception of Rue.

"While Wormwood hath seed get a handfull or twaine
To save against March, to make flea refrain:
Where chamber is swept and Wormwood is strowne,
What saver is better (if physick be true)
For places infected than Wormwood and Rue?
It is a comfort for hart and the braine,
And therefore to have it is not in vaine."
              Tusser 1577

She is best known as a psychoactive ingredient in Absinthe, 'the Green Fairy' drink of artists and bohemians, at the turn of the century that was eventually banned, in part due to its use as an abortificant. This has some what tarnished the reputation of a plant that was once painted on healers doors as a sign to their patients, says Juliette De Baracli Levy. Who lists internal uses as an antiseptic, nervine, vermifuge and narcotic. Noting that, as a potent herb, over use will increase the action of the heart and blood vessels, so that she should not be taken for long periods or at high doseage.

She has the wildness of Artemis in her...

Resources:

Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices and Forbidden Plants by Claudia Muller-Ebeleng, Christian Ratsch, and Wolk Dieter Storl.

Herbal Rituals by Judith Berger.

The Master Book of Herbalism by Paul Beyerl.

Common Herbs for Natural Health by Juliette de Bairicli Levy.

Brewing up an amulet...

Having been working on making an amulet for the last two weeks, since new moon, in parallel with deliberately reading  more on magical herbalism, Im amazed how I actually already have relationships with a good number of said herbs n spices, via the kitchen.

With the multiculturalism of Australia, one of the mega bonus's is good food and access to unusual and cool substances. Go to certain areas, dens of wonder, and you can buy Frankincense, thats probably better quality, half the price and you buy it by the scoopfull, than if you go to a new agey store where its sold in a wee packet for astronomical prices. These places are now far from me in coastal town *sigh*, the first thing my mum and I did when I got off the plane in Sydney, was to go to Chinatown...oooh, aaah and have barbequed duck with plum sauce. Then proceed to spend up on beeswax candles, incense and small dried fish for my kitten.

But I digress. As much as I long to have a garden busting at the seams with herbs to be harvested straight into magical and medicinal workings its just not the reality, yet. It shall be mine, oh yes, it shall be mine. So, I was very pleased to find that theres a reason Kitchen Witch traditions seem so sensible to me, cos thats where several goodies hide quietly. Subtly dropped in as flavouring, yet having parallel uses that align with ritual. The women in my family are, um, big boned, for a reason, they rock in the kitchen! So I can relate to this as a way to nourish and create hearth and home, my maternal line havent ever named it as such, but they lived it. Russian toffee, shortbread, roasts, pavlova, sponge cakes, green curries, just 'whipped up'.

Its all about ingredients, much like making an amulet. Infact, making amulets, I have discovered is much like making a good stew. Cook it on low heat, for a long time with good ingredients. I have heard rumours that in some traditions within Celtic families, stew base was an inheritance. It would be left ontop of the wood burning stove all through winter, each day adding a little of what was about, building up layers of flavour, to be passed on. Im sure there was a special name for it but I havent yet come across it, so pardon my ignorance, but its a great metaphor and I bet they tasted awesome.

Bunya nut tree....

This is the Bunya nut tree, Araucaria bidwillii,  thats at our front fence, Indigenous peoples had whole celebrations when these trees were ripe for the harvest and travelled distance to reach them, cos the nuts are damn tasty, a bit like chestnuts and also large enough to feed a crew of folks upon, each nut about 4-5cm long.

Unfortuneately for me, her leaves are also pretty distinctive aka very spikey and all over the place, especially after a couple of stormy days. Treading on them sucks bigtime. Outfront they havent been picked up for years and today in an effort to deskankyise the street front of our place I picked  the residual five years or so branches up and cleared around her trunk, you know I think she quite liked the attention. It was a bit like harvesting stinging nettle, a few scrapes and scratches till I got centred and worked out a strategic angle from which to grasp them. It took about 2 hours to clear away the branches. There's actually a goodly space thats been revealed now, even some moss, and Im starting to plot on plantings. A garden bed at her base would be a skirt befitting such an honourable, and indeed naturally 'protective' tree....

Herbs face to face.....

The rain was coming down, finally, the grounds parched epidermis getting a good moisturising soak. I sat on the outside couch gazing at the garden beds and greenery. I thought to make an experiment in my calm state, looking at the plants i selected one, the maidenhair fern, and wondered if I could gauge her medicinal uses simply by listening and connecting.

I looked at her soft leaves, and the shape they hold, branching like lungs. Respiratory soother I absent mindedly pondered, soothing and soft, perhaps healer of red sore inflamed skin. I continued to gaze, then got off my butt and pulled out a medicinal plants of Australia book, just to see...

Adiantum peltatum has been used in Europe and elsewhere under the name of 'sirop de capillaire' in diseases of the chest, our common maidenhair fern the one I was sitting with, Adiantum aethiopicum, has been used for the same purpose, as an infusion of one to five parts of plant to 100 parts water. Clever plant.....

Was this how it all started, the plants teaching us experientially? Duh. There is something different in relating to a plant growing nearby you, than a dried plant part thats come a ways to get to you.Which is why localised lore is such a beautyfull way to relate to our environment, and people have worked to preserve it.

I tried the same experiment with dried celery seed, but I was off the mark. I kept getting 'nourishment', as in the goodness of homemade stocks and soups, what I read said sleep inducement, aid to divination and concentration, a sometime ingredient in flying salves. All forms of nourishment, but the informations not as accurate as with the fern.This is why I want to grow the herbs i work with, and work with the herbs I grow, to get to know them face to face...

Dove wings and herbs...

People have used animal skins, feathers, claws and such in ritual and totemic ways for eons. If you're going to kill something for meat and waste not, of course you gather the parts that can be utilised aswell. Originating in the days before you could pop up to the shop for some sinew, such economy was a sign of acknowledgement of an animal giving its life and simple need for materials.  Such thoughts found me today as I came across a small dove who had hit an upstairs window at a dear friends home, and fallen to the ground dead. It was a bit of a shock for her bird spirit. I placed her body on my altar, lit incense and candles to honour her passing and asked permission to harvest her beautyfull wings....yessss....

Plants can be similar, although we can often harvest without ending a plants life, unless its the root we're after. An annuals lifespan can seem so short as they speedily seed and spread. In our garden Ive decided to focus on gathering some perennials to build up the plant base for my craftings. So, I ventured out to the local herb farm to score some green folks, and oh my I was pleased with what I found. Motherwort, Leonuris cardiaca, to begin with. In tincture form this plant is the in the pocket remedy for anxiety or panic attacks, she got me through my bike license test, and is non addictive unlike pharmaceutical sedatives or tranquilisers. Whilst only small at the moment she can grow upto a metre wide and tall, self seeding into a 'patch'. 

Other familiar faces included Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), Rue (Ruta Graveolens), Echinacea and Lemon Verbena, with her georgeous lemon scent, and they all came home to play. *smile*