Harvesting the Lady Mugwort today for many things but gonna make me some smudge sticks now…….
She is an essential medicine in our
materia medica with countless amazing healing properties and also one of the
herbs in our hand prepared smudge sticks. The lady Artemisia has the power to work
her magic in our dreams, sending us, both coded and clear insights, to grasp
onto as we wake from slumber. She is a moon Spirit and duality is written all over her form with her
dark green leaves contrasting with the silver underside. She has soft flowers, filigreed leaves
and willowy movements in the breeze while her deep red backbone stems are
strong and upright. Full of contrasts, clarity and, mystery. She is protective and nurturing and
deeply connective to the constant changing cycles. She clears and opens
channels to our brains, connecting right and left hemispheres, rebalancing our pineal
and pituitary gland activity.
The magic of the pineal gland
The pineal gland has been likened to the seat
of consciousness. It becomes
active when we are in deep rapid eye movement sleep, creating our dream
world. The release of melatonin at
night balances out the sleep wake cycle, keeps us balanced, connected with the
cycles of day and night. Mugwort
can stimulate pineal gland activity thus bringing our dreams alive.
Smudging
Smudging is a common name given to our ancient,
indigenous, spiritual tradition sometimes called sacred smoking. Its a powerful
spiritual cleansing technique which calls upon the spirits of various sacred
plants to clear, clarify, purify and to restore balance. We mix mugwort with purple sage, yarrow and
rosemary in our smugesticks.
Smudging with our native herbs allows us to
effect the world of subtle spiritual energies. By using the spirits of these
familiar powerful, healing plants we deepen relationships with mother earth and
thus ourselves. Our bodies, homes, offices and green-spaces vibrate with
invisible energy currents that are strongly effected by outside forces, both
physical and spiritual.
Smudging allows you to wash away all the
emotional and spiritual negativity that gathers in your body and your space
over time. It's a little bit like taking a spiritual shower! The
effects of smudging are instantly noticeable, banishing stress and providing
energy and peace. The air often twinkles with vibrancy after a good
smudge.
Smoke
People the world over have been using plants
to generate smoke to produce beneficial effects. Smoke is used to drive
off insects and to prevent disease. Smoke also is deeply symbolic, it
ascends to heaven, as if bringing any prayers and intentions up to the gods
with it. From the incense of Asia and Europe to the sage and cedar of the
indigenous Americans, the smoke generated by plants has a primordial history of
use as part of spiritual practice.
Making smudge sticks
There is nothing more powerful than using
sacred tools you’ve made yourself and smudge sticks are no exception. You can put all of your energy and
thought into the herbs as you harvest them, the tying of the twine around them
and then the drying and burning at the end. They are great for gifts or to use with patients and clients
if you have a practice you follow.
While you are harvesting and making the
smudge sticks remember to use the intensions of uplifting vibes, purification and
protection.
1.
Firstly you need to harvest your herbs. We use mugwort as our base. She is abundant and really keeps the smudge stock alight
with the way she burns. Find a
good patch where’s she’s got lots to give. Harvest just as the plant has
flowered. We were keeping our eyes
on a patch 2 years ago up a pedestrian country lane, waiting for the right time
for the plant and the moon. We
finally harvested her and the next day, unbeknown to us, the farmer came and
mowed down the whole wayside.
Phew, close call but the moon was looking out for us.
As the mugwort is so connected to the moon it
is nice to harvest when the moon is full.
The moon draws up all of the energy and constituents within the plant to
the tips.
Depending on the size of the plant you have
chosen, we usually harvest from about half way down the stem, above where she
looks like she could divide off and keep growing if the weathers right. Ou will need the pieces to be at least
30-40cm long to make nice fat smudge sticks.
2.
Next choose what you want to go in with the mugwort. We usually head to the garden for
this. Yarrow, sage and rosemary
are our favourites but we’ve also used wormwood, once we used some white sage a
friend was growing. The aromatic
herbs tend to burn well and provide the most cleansing and protective
actions. The aromatic herbs are
high in essential oils which are the plants own defense system. The oils burn well with lovely aromas
and provide all the protection that they did for the plant.
3. Lay out a good bunch of a combination of
your herbs but mainly mugwort out in front of you. The thickness you choose depends on your choice and the
weird and wonderful shapes of the finished products often reflect the character
of the person who made it! It
probably wants to be a bunch the thickness that will fit snugly into your thumb
and first finger joined tip to tip to make a round.
4.
Match up the stems approximately but you can trim them afterwards and
then holding the base of the bunch in one hand slightly twist the bunch with
the other and bend it over so that the ends of the bunch come back down to
where your first hand is holding the bunch.
5.
Now place some twine (green garden twine is nice or you can use nice
coloured embroidery threads) around the end and bind a couple of times around
before starting to work up towards the end being careful to include all the
ends of herbs as you go. It needs
to be bound tightly as the herbs will shrink as they dry but their needs to be
good gas between the spiral of thread going up the bunch to make sure that it
can breathe to dry properly.
Work up and then back down winding the thread
around so that as the thread burns away it still crisscrosses to stop it from
unraveling before you reach the end of your smudge stick.
6.
Do a few nice tight rounds at the bottom before tying it tightly with
the loose end. Place an intension
clearly on each knot as you tie it.
7.
Hang your smudge stick in a warm dry place to dry, near a wood burner or
in an airing cupboard and keep giving it a feel to check its dry. The length of time taken to dry will
vary depending on how thick and tightly you’ve made and tyed your bunch and on
where you hang it.
Using the smudge stick
Smudging a house
Choose a time where no
one but family who live there are about for 24 hours then clean and tidy and
generally have a good clear out, preparing a few bags to give away. Then put some good tunes on, light a
candle in each room whilst asking for support from your guides and spirits.
Light your smudge stick by pushing back some of the thread and holding a flame
to the end. When it starts to take
you can gently encourage it by blowing on the herbs til lovely embers forma nd
the stick starts to smoke. Start in the North top corner of the house and work
through each corner nook and cranny, North, East ,South, West in each room saying
a mantra as you go. Something like
‘clear the old vibes and make space for new energies’. Its nice to pay special
attention to the doors saying ‘let all whom enter do so with peace in their
hearts and exit with filled with love’.
Smudging a person
Start at their feet and
gently blowing on the smudge stick or wafting it with a big feather or wing
start to work up around the body spiraling as you go. Pay special attention to the womb or pelvic area, the heart,
the third eye and the crown.
Finishing here. Remember to
whisper or chant a suitable mantra as you work.
Find out more about this amazing herb at our Sensory Workshop @ Atlantis Spiritual Centre Crews Hill -
