Hag Torches

"DON'T CUT DOWN THE MULLEIN! SAVE IT FOR HAG TORCHES!"

Well. You didn't have to drop a house on me to get my attention; all caps, plants, directive, and the specter of villagers carrying burning brands aloft was plenty enough for me. With that I made a cup of coffee and settled in to a local community Facebook group with over 300 comments to see just what wisdom I could glean from neighbors I'd never met.

I know about mullein already (so I thought); big leaves that spread to provide an anchor for the showy spikes that begin displaying their yellow flowers in the height of Summer. I've seen the mullein tea in the dusty holistic shelves of supermarkets, and read about it as drops and tinctures in historic fiction.

But: hag torches? What in the ever-loving world is that?

Relieved to find a rabbit hole that wasn't politically based, I plunged into the group comments. I'm sure you have similar questions as did I, so I'll fill you in on what I found.

Spelling

People are all over the place with the spelling, and quite a few must have been schooled with the 'I before E except after C' rhyme by their teachers. They just didn't remember the rest: "And when sound as A like in Neighbor and Weigh, and in Weird, which is weird". Now I learn there is an extra example 'And in Mullein, which is a plant."

Many, many, many people passionately spelled it mullien in their comments, overlooking the Red Line of Error that surely occurred.

Pronunciation

As varied the spelling so is the way it is pronounced. According to the dictionary it is 'MULL-ehn'. The dictionary, however, is of little consequence to the passionate Meta-users.

MULL-een, MULL-e-uhn, and (no doubt to compensate for the 'e before i' conundrum: 'Mule-Ain'. But MUH-lin wins out:

What Can it Do?

The plant! This plant, i tell you, is a wonder! Among the uses are:

• supports digestion
• eases diarrhea or constipation
• it contains useful antioxidants
• dried for tea to treat breathing and lung ailments
• is a natural toilet paper (?!)
• soothes ear ache
• helps those with cold, pneumonia, bronchitis, coughs, and tuberculosis
• good for healing eczema, wounds, insect bites
• attracts pollinators to gardens
• reduces inflammation
• relieves pain associated with gout and hemorrhoids
• clears mucus and is an expectorant

Whew! Who needs snake oil when you've got mullein, ammirite? Anyway; I am not prescribing mullein tea, oil, salve, or poultice. I leave that up to you. This article, gentle reader, is about mullein hag torches.

Hag Torches

"DON'T CUT DOWN THE MULLEIN! SAVE IT FOR HAG TORCHES!" was what first caught me eye and started all of this. From the plethora of comments demanding explanation (I fought the urge to explain how to find information using the same internet connection that provides access to Facebook), many within our neighborhood had also never heard the term.

Most perplexed of all that day was 'Katherine with a K'. Her plaintive wail of "Where are the directions to MAKE them?" appeared approximately seven gazillion times under every comment and sub-comment. Like the rest of the people online; I ignored these and soon found that my eyes just skipped right over them as I read.

Hag torches are the dried stalks of the mullein (think cat tail height, but knobby with expired flowers and seed pod-things) alight and smoking. Like almost all dried things, these are flammable and should not be employed by children, the inebriated, near gas or propane, or indoors. [Caution mine- the Facebook group folks were unfazed by the thought of flame.]

I found many examples of how to make them (see, Katherine with a K?), most involved holding the dried spire by the end, upside down, and dunking it in wax. Beeswax was preferred. Several dunkings and dryings to thickly coat the stalk and SHAZZAM! you have created a hag torch.

Now, Beeswax isn't exactly cheap, nor does it just jump out at me at the local Kroger. So I checked online and see that I can get a pound from Beeswax.com (not a sponsor) for about $5. I estimate (based on a whim, not experience) that a pound would likely complete one hag torch.

Several more 'mystical' writers suggested applying dried herbs and flowers to complement the experience.

Burning the hag torch could be ritualistic, notably around the end of October for Samhain, although there were several suggesting Beltane in the Summer, Imbolc (around February) and as a Noel rite. Usage and belief varied.

The Facebook group assured each other that they could be purchased already dipped and flower-festooned by multiple Etsy artists, although both the grandeur and quality of wax could not be assured unless the user creates it for their own use.

In my mind's eye I could see a cul-de-sac of folks gathering over a simmering vat of beeswax dipping yard-long dried mullein stalks and then typing them upside down from a clothesline to dry.

Perhaps rolling them after the final dunk in potpourri from the Dollar Store or swiped through a few of the late-blooming roses. 'Katherine with a K' would whine for a printout to follow, but the rest gathered would ignore her. No one will tell her where they plan to gather to doff their robes and dance under the light of the full moon amid the burning hag torches.

Further Reading

Like just about everything else, there is a Facebook group just for those that love to grow and harvest mullein.

ps- I could NOT believe Unsplash had mullein photos, but they do!