Plants of the crossroads
Crossroads Ceremonies existed as an idea for quite a long time before it finally came into existence in the world. Starting any new venture is like this - you think about it, you think about it some more, you start carefully running it by some trusted family and friends. Maybe you take a workshop or a class, maybe you take another one. Eventually, the time arrives when you have to, metaphorically or literally, hang out your shingle and say to the world, “Yep, I’m doing this.”
When that time arrived for me, one of the first things I did was reach out to the amazing artist Dia Moeller, whose work I’d admired for a long time, to see if she might consider designing and creating the logo for Crossroads Ceremonies. Dia’s work is beautiful, detailed, imbued with the natural world, and shimmering with a hint (or more) of magic, and I knew she would be exactly the right person to capture the feel of Crossroads Ceremonies. And she was!
The logo for Crossroads Ceremonies, including the plants lavender, mugwort, and wild rose.
Early on in the process, I knew that I wanted some very specific plants included in the design - plants that have special symbolism for me, that have been allies along the journey toward and through this work, and that represent certain aspects of the way I approach celebrancy. The first of these plants is lavender, whose deeply familiar fragrance is to so many a breath of tranquility and peace. Lavender’s associations with calm, rest, and cleansing (it’s right there in the name - the word comes from a Latin root, lavare, meaning “to wash”) make her a beautiful ally in ceremonies that have to do with remembrance, healing, and letting go.
Wild roses blooming in Ashbridges Bay Park
And lastly, mugwort. What is mugwort, you may ask? A true roadside plant, a plant of the crossroads, the edges, and the disrupted places, mugwort is quite possibly all around you right now without you ever having noticed her. She thrives in in-between places: empty lots, the sides of highways, anywhere she can find a little patch of ground. Mugwort is often one of the first plants to re-establish in ground that has been disturbed by human activity. Resilient sometimes to the point of invasive, this plant has a long history of medicinal and magical use. At one time used as a flavouring in drinks (hence the “mug” part of the name, the other, “wort,” simply meaning “plant”), this plant’s Latin name gives a hint of her more mystical associations: Artemisia vulgaris, so named because the undersides of her leaves have a silvery colour likened to the light of the moon, connected in Greek myth to the goddess Artemis. "
Next up, wild rose. Oh, how I love this beauty, with her outrageously luscious fragrance and her extravagant thorns. In the fall, the blossoms turn into fruit called hips, full of nutrients and glowing a jewel-like red on the branches. I love how, once the flower dies, the blossom transforms into life-giving food for birds and other animals (including humans!). Emotionally, there is something about the fragrance of rose that goes right to the heart, uplifting it in times of joy and soothing it in times of sorrow. And I love how rose, with all her beauty, abundance, and associations with love, also isn’t afraid to defend herself with thorns. She teaches us that we can be gracious and generous while still maintaining our boundaries - a good practice at the best of times, and perhaps even more necessary in times of grief.
More personally, this is one of my mom’s favourite flowers, and as she was my first teacher in the realm of death work, I also chose this plant in honour of her!
Mugwort grown on my back patio
But the colour of the leaves isn’t this plant’s only association with moonlight. Mugwort is also thought to be an enhancer of vivid or lucid dreams, and is often included (along with lavender, incidentally) in scented pillows meant to help with dream recall. As such, she has a bit of a reputation as a plant that can help us humans move between worlds, or at least soften the boundaries and allow us to briefly inhabit the edge-places. And this is exactly what we do in a funeral: soften the border, allow our memories and stories of our dead to be present, and send our songs, poems, and words of love back across that border into their realm, whether we conceive of that realm as an afterlife or as the mysterious realm of our own memory. Mugwort is a plant that people have long experienced as offering access to that realm, and as such I’m glad to have her guidance as part of the imagery of Crossroads Ceremonies.
Do you have special relationships with certain plants? Let me know in the comments!