iSt John's girdle
Medieval and early modern European Midsummer custom · Middle Ages to 19th century
Grieve records that the plant was called cingulum Sancti Johannis because John the Baptist was said to have worn a girdle of it in the wilderness. Sprays were made into crowns or belts on St John's Eve for protection from evil, and in Holland and Germany it was called St John's plant. Many accounts describe the garland being thrown into the Midsummer fire.
Uses: fresh mugwort sprays, Midsummer bonfire
Recorded in: Maud Grieve, A Modern Herbal (1931), entry for mugwort
iiUna in the Nine Herbs Charm
Anglo-Saxon healing charm · 10th century
The Old English charm lists nine herbs against poison and infection, and mugwort comes first, addressed by the otherwise unknown name una. The healer sang the charm over a salve made from the herbs. It mixes older pagan material, including the only clear mention of Woden in Old English poetry besides Maxims I, with Christian lines.
Uses: mugwort, plantain, lamb's cress, betony, chamomile, nettle, crab apple, chervil, fennel
Recorded in: Lacnunga, British Library Harley MS 585
iiiBollan bane on Tynwald Day
Manx civic custom · living custom
On the Isle of Man mugwort is called bollan bane, and a sprig is still worn on the lapel at the open-air Tynwald Day ceremony each July. The day falls close to old Midsummer and has long links with St John, which ties the custom to the European St John's plant tradition.
Uses: sprig of mugwort
Recorded in: Mugwort, Wikipedia
ivYomogi and moxa
Japanese and Korean food and medicine · traditional to present
In Japan the related yomogi colours and flavours kusa mochi rice cakes, and in Korea ssuk goes into spring soups and rice cakes. The soft fuzz from the leaves is dried into moxa, which is burned near acupuncture points in moxibustion. A 2012 Cochrane review found moxibustion did not reduce breech presentation compared with placebo.
Uses: young mugwort leaves, rice flour
Recorded in: Mugwort, Wikipedia
History
Mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris, grows on waste ground across Europe and Asia, and its genus name points to the Greek goddess Artemis. In England it appears in the Lacnunga, a medical collection copied in the 10th century and now British Library Harley MS 585. There the Nine Herbs Charm opens by addressing mugwort as una, the eldest of the herbs, and asks it to stand against poison and the evil that travels about the land. Before hops took over, mugwort also flavoured beer in northern Europe.
Christian Europe folded the plant into the feast of John the Baptist on 24 June. Maud Grieve's A Modern Herbal (1931) records the name cingulum Sancti Johannis and the custom of wearing a crown or belt of mugwort on St John's Eve against evil. Roman soldiers are often said to have put it in their sandals against tiredness, though that story is hard to trace to an ancient text. The modern use as a dream herb, in pillows and sachets, grew up in 20th-century witchcraft and herbal circles.
Sources
- Mugwort · National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, 2024
- Nine Herbs Charm · Wikipedia contributors, 2026
- Mugwort · Wikipedia contributors, 2026
- A Modern Herbal · Maud Grieve, 1931
