When I was an herbal apprentice, we chose a plant to work with every year. We even did a meditation to connect to which plant would be that year’s ally. My first plant ally was Mugwort (Artemisia Vulgaris).
Mugwort/Artemesia (also known as Cronewort, Common Wormwood, Wild Wormwood) is named for the Greek Goddess Artemis, and is well known as a powerful women’s herb (used for menstruation, childbirth, menopause).
It is also a wonderful herb for arthritis and joint pain, and as a bitter for aid to the digestive system. In the past I have infused apple cider vinegar with mugwort and taken it for acid reflux.
Mugwort is also a wonderful plant for protection and prophecy, meditation, dream recall, psychic powers and lucid dreaming.
Back in the day brewers used Mugwort to make a beer! I have actually done this, and it was some super powerful stuff. Now that I am allergic to gluten, I should maybe pick brewing back up as a hobby and do herbal beers!
My personal experience with Mugwort has been with introducing and then re-introducing magic into my life. The above photo is of two oil blends (from Phoenix Botanicals) I won in a contest last Halloween. I had started dipping my toes back into my herbal practice and entered the contest on a whim (I rarely win contests), and voila…back on the magical road.
It has definitely helped with dreaming and dream recall, and meditation. When I was an apprentice, I took some Artemisia tincture with me to Scotland (Iona) and it definitely helped make the experience more magical…that was in October, when the veil is thin.
I highly recommend Artemisia as a first herbal ally. She’ll lay a wonderfully magical foundation to build your practice on.