Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) is a Radical Environmentalist

September 27, 2026

Let me introduce you to Mugwort, my newfound ally in addressing our ecological crisis: an ancient climate witness and radical environmentalist.

That word radical comes from the Latin radix, meaning simply root. Mugwort’s power manifests through her rhizome roots, creating huge stands that keep soil in place. The Oxford English Dictionary definition of radical fits Mugwort to a tee:

Of, belonging to, or from a root or roots; fundamental to or inherent in the natural processes of life, vital; spec. designating the humour or moisture once thought to be present in all living organisms as a necessary condition of their vitality.

Here in Nova Scotia, Mugwort proclaims the mantra of our Mi’kmaw grassroots grandmothers and water protectors, Elders Marion Nicholas and Dorene Bernard:

Water is Life.

I hear the buzz around the fragrant Mugwort as bees gather to sup her nectar. The collapse of bee populations frightens every radical environmentalist, because bees are essential guardians of the environment, sustaining life and biodiversity. They pollinate over 75% of flowering plants, including Mugwort and a third of our world’s food crops: the epitome of Indigenous spirituality (All My Relations: Msit No’kmaq). If bees died off (a very real possibility), our whole food security, health, and global economy would collapse. This Mugwort-Bee-Human relationship is a powerful example of how bee pollination prevents soil erosion, reduces nutrient runoff, improves water quality, and captures carbon—all of which mitigate our climate crisis. Mugwort flowers draw pollinators and countless other beneficial bugs to our gardens, promoting widespread growth as they wave in the wind.

Mugwort’s scientific name, Artemesia vulgaris, comes from the Greek goddess of the hunt, of wilderness and of childhood, and goes beyond the symbolic and metaphorical to the reality of Mugwort as protector. The goddess’s association with safe childbirth and the practice of carrying a protective amulet, especially for pregnant women, dates back to Greek physician Discorides (40-90 AD). In his De Materia Medica, Dioscorides urges us to scatter flowering Mugwort tops over swept floors to prevent fleas and moths. And the doctors of Welsh prince Rhys Gryg (1160-1234)— the Physicians of Myddfai— would tie Mugwort to the left thigh of mother-to- be as a way to induce labour.

I date my intimate relationship with Mugwort to the day I joined a 28-day “Mugwort Feast” hosted by plant whisperer and spirit medicine guide Rachel Corby As our host, Rachel instructed us to take our lead from Mugwort, not from her. At the start of Week 3, I astonished myself by blurting out, spontaneously and unrehearsed, the essence of my relationship with Mugwort:

Mugwort and I are in cahoots.

When I looked up the origin of the word cahoots, I found two possibilities: 12^th century French cahute—a cabin/hut, or cohort—a companion or confederate group. Both fit Mugwort who stands tall like a sentinel at the hut/guardhouse along the edges of wild meadows and cultivated fields. But never alone: you will always find a cohort of Mugwort sentinels—a tall and impressive collective, though never loud or in-your-face flamboyant.

On September 19, 2026, day 10 our Mugwort Feast, I created a Mugwort-Maple crown as a visual statement for the Seniors for Climate Rally in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. I was declaring my solidarity with our Nova Scotia delegation of the Cross Canada e-Caravan led by seniors to Ottawa, to urge the Federal government to fund the future, not the fossil fuel industry. Later is too late.

Mugwort’s human partners in our Senior Climate Witness began at the Coady Gardens at St. Francis Xavier University as we sang along with the Raging Grannies:

“Oh, we’re radical environmentalists.

Tell Carney and the others

That the Earth is still our Mother.”

Sue Adams of Antigonish composed the lyrics to the tune of “She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain.” Sue is one of the Seniors on the Caravan to Ottawa, coinciding with the opening of the fall Parliament. On September 22nd, Sue and ten other radical environmentalists, including 90-year-old Eric Schiller, were arrested, charged with trespassing and handcuffed for their act of peaceful civil disobedience: they had refused to leave their positions outside the House of Commons until they delivered climate-impact photos to MPs. To disallow Senior Citizens a voice in the Commons—what in God’s Green Earth, what in Canada, has become of us, dear ancient Mugwort?!

This “radical environmentalist” moniker dates to January 2012, when Conservative PM Stephen Harper uttered these words in the context of the Northern Gateway Pipeline, to disdain efforts at environmental protectionism that hindered resource development. Now fourteen years on, Liberal PM Carney has adopted the same stance, granted with better manners. The march of the cross-Canada Seniors in the Caravan Climate Witness to Parliament Hill coincided with the Carney government tabling legislation (Bill C-39) that makes sweeping changes to environmental regulations, Carney seeing them as hampering his pro-growth agenda. Cross-border oil pipelines, gas-fired power plants, oilsands facilities and other projects are no longer subject to the existing federal impact assessment process.

This is what Sue Adams has to say about the purpose of the Seniors’ Caravan: “Hopefully we can influence them [MPs] to think ahead for seven generations, not think of the next election or corporate interests.”

Dear Mugwort, let me address you as my kin—as one of my closest relations.

“We acknowledge that you have been standing on guard for our Home and Native land since time immemorial. We celebrate you and your ancestors as our protectors and revealers in earliest recorded history. As part of the online Mugwort Feast and as an ancient tradition, I am wearing a medicine bag of your aromatic leaves and flowers. I am in cahoots with you as protector and revealer, deserving of the title Mater Herbarum, the Mother of Herbs. I hold my Mugwort amulet close to me to ward off impending disasters.

“You were a sacred plant in the herbal and divination traditions of 10^th-century Anglo-Saxons and Celtic Druids, who recognized your capacity to ward off evil, poison, and diseases all at once. You were known also as ‘St John’s Plant’ in keeping with the belief that John the Baptist wore a girdle of Mugwort into the wilderness—40 days and 40 nights. Thus began the practice of us humans wearing belts or crowns of Mugwort, known in the Middle Ages as Cingulum Sancti Johannis, to protect humans from wild beasts, evil spirits, demons, witchcraft, tiredness, thunderstorms, and sunstroke. The Indigenous Ainu people of Japan made even earlier claims for your presence as the oldest herb in existence, used specifically to drive demons out of a possessed person by brushing them clear with a wand of bundled stalks.

“Dear Mugwort, I don my crown and medicine bag and wave my wand to appeal to you to ward off our climate catastrophe, our forever wars, and our pandemics all at once. I appeal to you to reveal the possibilities for climate action and peaceful resistance. How can we at the grassroots redirect government policy, currently driven by billionaire corporate interests in the fossil fuel industry?”

Resources:

https://www.wildgaiansoul.com/