Wormwood: Magical Properties & Uses

Wormwood summons what cannot ordinarily be seen. Its primary magical uses are in divination, spirit contact, and the opening of psychic perception: particularly the kind of vision that surfaces at the edge of sleep or in the altered state of intense ritual. It is burned before scrying, added to incense for spirit communication workings, and used in sachets for prophetic dreams. Like henbane, its historical magical use is inseparable from its pharmacological action: thujone is genuinely psychoactive, which is why it requires careful handling. Small quantities in incense blends are appropriate; ingestion is not.

Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) was used medicinally throughout European history as a bitter digestive herb, a treatment for intestinal worms, and an emmenagogue. It is a primary ingredient in vermouth (the name derives from the German Wermut, wormwood) and was the central flavouring in absinthe. Culpeper recommended it for stomach complaints and liver obstruction. The thujone content means it must not be consumed in significant quantities or over extended periods: it is hepatotoxic in excess and neurotoxic at high doses. It should not be used in pregnancy.

Artemis, Diana, Iris

The bitter green herb of absinthe (and of the Romantics who drank it) wormwood carries one of the most dramatic reputations in the Western herbal tradition. It is the Artemisia of the ancient world, named for the goddess Artemis, who was said to have given it to the physician Chiron. It features in the magical papyri of Egypt as a herb of vision and communication with the dead. In Revelation it is the name of the star that falls into the waters and makes them bitter. The bitter compound thujone was long blamed for the madness attributed to absinthe drinkers; this is now understood to be primarily the effect of high alcohol content, though thujone is genuinely neuroactive.