January 6, 2003
Awakened Woman's Circle is working for peace
Amazing Artemesias
by Susun S Weed
Artemis - Goddess of the herbalist - gives her name to a genus of marvelously aromatic, safely psychedelic, highly medicinal, dazzlingly decorative, and more-or-less edible plants in the Asteraceae family. I love Artemis, and I love her plants.
WHO IS ARTEMIS?
Amazonian moon goddess. Goddess of the hunt. Goddess of the wild things. Goddess of the midwife. Goddess of the herbalist. Mother of all Creatures. Leader of the sacred bitches. Great she-bear. Diana. Selene. Ever Virgin; owned by no man. We will visit her sacred wood on a shamanic journey. Who knows what will happen then?
HOW DO ARTEMISIAS GROW IN YOUR GARDEN?
Most Artemisias are perennials and grow best from cuttings, not seeds. Sweet Annie is the exception, being a self-seeding annual. Although you can buy tarragon seeds, you can't grow true tarragon from them. Wormwood and southernwood and tarragon (the last not winter-hardy in many places) are woody perennials which regreen each year on last year's new wood; I prune only dead wood from them. Cronewort is an invasive perennial that creeps underground; it dies back to the ground each year and can be heavily harvested (clear cuts are ok) without damage to its further prolific productivity.
Most Artemisias require little care. Lack of soil nutrients and lack of water do not faze them. Many are native to deserts, and know how to thrive in hot dry weather. Except for tarragon, all can overwinter without fuss.
Flowers are usually small and green, in other words, nearly invisible.
WHAT DO ARTEMISIAS CONTAIN?
• bitter principals: wormwood
• coumarins: cronewort, tarragon
• essential oils (complex, variety specific, with hundreds of components per plant): cronewort (high in camphor, thujone), tarragon, wormwood (high in camphor, thujone)
• flavonoids: cronewort, tarragon
• glycosides: cronewort, tarragon
• hormones: cronewort (sitosterol, stigmasterol)
• sesquiterpene lactones: cronewort
HOW ARE ARTEMISIAS USED?
Artemisias, with their grey-green or white-green foliage bring beauty to the garden throughout the growing season. They also make long-lasting, aromatic and beautiful indoor decorations: bouquets, wreaths, swags. They are popular strewing herbs, too.
Those which are high in essential oils are thereby antibacterial, antifungal, and antimicrobial. They also improve digestion and appetite if taken in small doses.
Any Artemisia growing beside the door - or painted on it - was, in days of old, the sign of the midwife, the herbalist. Magical and folkloric uses are numerous.
"Mugwort possesses both natural and supernatural qualities. [It] excels as a woman's herb, easing the pain of labor, menstrual cramps, and effectively treating various uterine complaints." Gai Stern (1986)
Cronewort/mugwort = smudge, dream pillow, moxa, birthing steam, vinegar of roots and young leaves, salad green when young, mugwort noodles, mugwort mochi. American colonists used the sundried leaves as a tea substitute. Formerly a popular beer flavoring (hence the name mugwort). Controls worms in goats. Urinary tonic. Uterine tonic. Digestive tonic. Nerve tonic. Circulatory tonic. Cronewort eases pain and fever, comforts grief and depression, eases irritability and burdened joints, brings peace and sleep, and reassures the nerves.
Wormwood = tincture, oil. Ingredient in absinthe. Stimulates mid-brain activity and increases creativity, but repeated use disturbs the central nervous system. Prevents giardia, dysentery, amoebas. Cholagogic, digestive, appetite-stimulant, liver-stimulant, wound healer. Caution: Use can lower seizure threshold; interacts adversely with seizure-reducing medications.
Sweet Annie = capsules, in fairly large daily dose, to prevent malaria; source of antimalarial drugs. A strong tea, taken frequently, kills giardia and amoebas.
Tarragon = vinegar, seasoning. Appetite stimulant according to Herbal PDR.
Southernwood = dream pillow, sachet, charms. To see the beloved.
SPECIES
Some of the many Artemisia species that herbalists and gardeners use:
• A. abrotanum (southernwood)
• A. absinthium (wormwood)
• A. afra (African wormwood)
• A. annua (sweet Annie, qing hao)
• A. camphorata (camphor-scented sothernwood)
• A. drancuncula (tarragon, estragon, little dragon)
• A. frigida (fringed sagebrush)
• A. lactiflora (ghost plant)
• A. ludoviciana (silver queen)
• A. pontica (Roman wormwood)
• A. schmidtiana (silver mound)
• A. stellerana (old woman, dusty miller)
• A. tridentata (sagebrush; three-toothed sagebrush)
• A. vulgaris (cronewort, mugwort)
Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081
Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ash-tree-publishing.com
For permission to reprint this article, contact us at: susunweed@hvc.rr.com
My current work is reflective of my own personal journey or, if you will, process of personal healing and transformation -- a process through which I hope others may benefit.
In the earlier stages of my artistic development, my work was focused largely on that which is termed "Realism," involving landscape and wildlife imagery primarily. I formed a very specific plan, and most times, a detailed idea and drawing, before ever going to canvas.
Over the past several years, I have experienced many breakthroughs in my personal life on a variety of levels, spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically. This, of course, has dramatically expanded the directions of my work. It has been quite a process and a journey, and at times almost overwhelmingly exciting. It has opened new doors and pathways of creativity of which, previously, I could only have dreamed.
This newer approach involves the unilateral connection to that which one may term the "Zen Mind." This is a place of letting go of any and all attachments to the outcome of any piece of work. I make no plan. I meditate, I pray. I let go. I ask Spirit to guide my strokes. I then put paint to canvas and, layer by layer, images begin to appear before me. Sometimes I enhance them. Sometimes not.
This freedom of expression and exploration is bringing forth images which, I believe, possess the essential elements of spiritual healing. It continually teaches me more about myself and my connection to all within the web of life. In the past, I knew that I could "paint what I see." I am now learning that it is more important to "see what I paint."
My current work is reflective of my own personal journey or, if you will, process of personal healing and transformation -- a process through which I hope others may benefit.
In the earlier stages of my artistic development, my work was focused largely on that which is termed "Realism," involving landscape and wildlife imagery primarily. I formed a very specific plan, and most times, a detailed idea and drawing, before ever going to canvas.
Over the past several years, I have experienced many breakthroughs in my personal life on a variety of levels, spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically. This, of course, has dramatically expanded the directions of my work. It has been quite a process and a journey, and at times almost overwhelmingly exciting. It has opened new doors and pathways of creativity of which, previously, I could only have dreamed.
This newer approach involves the unilateral connection to that which one may term the "Zen Mind." This is a place of letting go of any and all attachments to the outcome of any piece of work. I make no plan. I meditate, I pray. I let go. I ask Spirit to guide my strokes. I then put paint to canvas and, layer by layer, images begin to appear before me. Sometimes I enhance them. Sometimes not.
This freedom of expression and exploration is bringing forth images which, I believe, possess the essential elements of spiritual healing. It continually teaches me more about myself and my connection to all within the web of life. In the past, I knew that I could "paint what I see." I am now learning that it is more important to "see what I paint."