Mugwort

Mugwort is an aromatic perennial that can reach about one and a half metres, with angular, purplish stems and deeply cut leaves that are dark green above and pale and woolly beneath. Small yellowish or reddish flower heads open from midsummer into early autumn. It is native to temperate Europe, Asia, North Africa and Alaska, has naturalised in North America, where some treat it as an invasive weed, and spreads chiefly through its creeping rhizomes. Before hops were adopted, it flavoured English beer and gruit ales, and it is still a cooking herb in Germany. Older writers credited it with keeping the traveller safe from fatigue, sunstroke and wild beasts, and traced the name of its genus to Artemis. In several European countries it was hung from the rafters against witches, lightning and plague, and at Midsummer it was worn, hung up or thrown on the bonfire for protection. In magical practice it belongs to dreams and seeing: it is stuffed into pillows for prophetic dreams, burned during scrying, drunk as a honeyed infusion before divination, and used to wash crystal balls and magic mirrors.