Mugwort: Enhancing Dreamwork

Mugwort: Enhancing Dreamwork

Dreaming is pretty much universal, and studies using sleep lab monitoring show that people enter dream states (especially during REM sleep) nightly, whether or not they remember them.  So, we spend about two hours dreaming every night in an eight-hour sleep period.  With all that dreaming, why not utilize it to your advantage?  Working with dreams is beneficial because it can lead to greater self-awareness, facilitate creative problem-solving, provide insight into emotional states and patterns, and support personal growth and emotional regulation.  Dreams offer a unique, symbolic language to explore the unconscious mind, reveal hidden conflicts or stuck patterns, and offer new perspectives on waking-life situations, ultimately enhancing overall well-being.  So it enhances your self-awareness to reveal habitual patterns you might be stuck in, offer creative and novel solutions to problems (and artists and scientists alike have used this technique to come up with unique and creative problem-solving), tap into healing and personal growth, reveal underlying emotional or psychological conflicts and much more.

Here's how you can tap into it.  Start by keeping a dream journal to record details, emotions and symbols from your dreams to help reveal patterns and themes over time.  During the day, try to work at solving the meaning of your dreams, the symbols and people in your dreams can provide a deeper meaning.  And if you have trouble remembering your dreams, you can also use an herb that specifically helps in that.

That herb is called Mugwort (Artemisiavulgaris).  This herb has a rich history of spiritual and magical uses across many different cultures.  It is known as "dream weed" and witch herb" in some circles.  Its properties are strongly associated with divination, protection, cleansing, and dream enhancement.  This herb is particularly linked to feminine energy and the moon and serves as a powerful ally for those seeking to deepen their intuition and connection to the spiritual realm.  This herb is most famously associated with its ability to unlock the dream world, providing a gateway between the conscious and subconscious minds.  Its oneirogenic properties (ability to enhance dream states) are a cornerstone of its spiritual use.

If you are interested in seeing how much help this herb can be in helping you to enhance your dreamwork, here are several different methods.  For vivid dreams and lucid dreaming (where you can direct your dreams and know you are dreaming), place a sachet or pillow stuffed with dried Mugwort under your pillow.  This is an old-time practice that helps one to gain insights from the subconscious and receive spiritual direction through dreams.  For those interested in astral projection, Mugwort can serve as a protection and a supportive herb.  Burning it as incense during your meditative practices can help guide you into an out-of-body experience.  If you want to become more intuitive or enhance your psychic abilities, you can sharpen them by drinking Mugwort tea to clarify visions and deepen your intuitive ability.  You can also try drinking Mugwort tea before bedtime to see if you have more vivid dreams and remember them more easily.

If you decide to take the tea, it has a distinctly bitter, earthy flavor and is often described as a strong, robust and aromatic taste similar to Sage.  Refreshing with a subtle earthy undertone.  You can blend it with sweeter flavors, like Peppermint or even Lavender, and add honey to make it taste a bit better.  Korean Mugwort (sukcha) is noted for being milder and sweeter than the more common Western varieties.  And you might want to give it a shorter steeping time because the longer it steeps the more bitter it becomes.

If you would like to brew a cup of tea, here's a recipe:

Peppermint & Mugwort Tea

( 1 cup serving)

1 tsp dried mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)

1 tsp dried peppermint leaves

1 cup freshly boiled water

Optional: honey or a slice of dried apple for sweetness and warmth

Instructions

Measure & combine the Mugwort and Peppermint in a tea infuser, teapot, or heatproof jar.

Pour freshly boiled water over the herbs.

Cover & steep for 7–10 minutes (shorter for a milder flavor, longer for a stronger herbal profile).

Strain into your cup.

Sweeten if desired and enjoy warm.