The Witches' Ointment

Author: Thomas Hatsis
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620554747
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 361

Book Description
An exploration of the historical origins of the “witches’ ointment” and medieval hallucinogenic drug practices based on the earliest sources • Details how early modern theologians demonized psychedelic folk magic into “witches’ ointments” • Shares dozens of psychoactive formulas and recipes gleaned from rare manuscripts from university collections all over the world as well as the practices and magical incantations necessary for their preparation • Examines the practices of medieval witches like Matteuccia di Francisco, who used hallucinogenic drugs in her love potions and herbal preparations In the medieval period preparations with hallucinogenic herbs were part of the practice of veneficium, or poison magic. This collection of magical arts used poisons, herbs, and rituals to bewitch, heal, prophesy, infect, and murder. In the form of psyche-magical ointments, poison magic could trigger powerful hallucinations and surrealistic dreams that enabled direct experience of the Divine. Smeared on the skin, these entheogenic ointments were said to enable witches to commune with various local goddesses, bastardized by the Church as trips to the Sabbat--clandestine meetings with Satan to learn magic and participate in demonic orgies. Examining trial records and the pharmacopoeia of witches, alchemists, folk healers, and heretics of the 15th century, Thomas Hatsis details how a range of ideas from folk drugs to ecclesiastical fears over medicine women merged to form the classical “witch” stereotype and what history has called the “witches’ ointment.” He shares dozens of psychoactive formulas and recipes gleaned from rare manuscripts from university collections from all over the world as well as the practices and magical incantations necessary for their preparation. He explores the connections between witches’ ointments and spells for shape shifting, spirit travel, and bewitching magic. He examines the practices of some Renaissance magicians, who inhaled powerful drugs to communicate with spirits, and of Italian folk-witches, such as Matteuccia di Francisco, who used hallucinogenic drugs in her love potions and herbal preparations, and Finicella, who used drug ointments to imagine herself transformed into a cat. Exploring the untold history of the witches’ ointment and medieval hallucinogen use, Hatsis reveals how the Church transformed folk drug practices, specifically entheogenic ones, into satanic experiences.

The Poison Path Herbal

Author: Coby Michael
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 164411335X
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 343

Book Description
• Explains how to work with baneful herbs through rituals and spells, as plant spirit familiars, as potent medicines, and as visionary substances • Details the spiritual, alchemical, astrological, and symbolic associations of each plant, its active alkaloids, how to safely cultivate and harvest it, and rituals and spells suited to its individual nature and powers • Shares plant alchemy methods, magical techniques, and recipes featuring the plants, including a modern witches’ flying ointment Part grimoire and part herbal formulary, this guide to the Poison Path of occult herbalism shares history, lore, and information regarding the use of poisonous, consciousness-altering, and magical plants. Author Coby Michael explains how, despite their poisonous nature, baneful herbs can become powerful plant allies, offering potent medicine, magical wisdom, and access to the spirit realm. Detailing the spiritual, alchemical, astrological, and symbolic associations of each plant, the author explores their magical uses in spells and rituals. He focuses primarily on the nightshade family, or Solanaceae, such as mandrake, henbane, and thorn apple, but also explores plants from other families such as wolfsbane, hemlock, and hellebore. He also examines plants in the witch’s pharmacopoeia that are safer to work with and just as chemically active, such as wormwood, mugwort, and yarrow. The author shares rituals suited to the individual nature and powers of each plant and explains how to attract and work with plant spirit familiars. He offers plant alchemy methods for crafting spagyric tinctures and magical techniques to facilitate working with these plants as allies and teachers. He shares magical recipes featuring the plants, including a modern witches’ flying ointment. He also explores safely cultivating baneful herbs in a poison garden.

The Devil's Ointment

Author: Corinne Boyer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781945147524
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In the historical records of European Witchcraft, one of the most notorious allegations against the accused was the use of a magical salve to gain the power of nocturnal flight. Rubbed on the body, it was said to be compounded of toxic herbs, animals, and noxious constituents such as human fat, and could effect 'travel' by the witch over great distances. According to legend, the ointment, or the instructions for its manufacture were given to the witch directly by the Devil himself in the midst of their frenzied Sabbats. Despite the persistence of these features of the witches' ointment in lore, actual recipes for it were rare and often speculative. Initially the obsession of clerical and legal authorities, then of writers on Natural Magic, the ointment continued to perplex researchers well into the Age of Enlightenment. In more recent times, it has become the fascination of pharmacological speculation, psychology, entheogenic theory, and occult experiment. Despite the curiosity it has generated over the centuries, the mystery of the witches' ointment abides. Bringing a much-needed approach of plant lore and folk magic to the subject, The Devil's Ointment examines the witches' salve against the broader historical use of magical unguents and greases, considering supernatural contexts in addition to witchcraft. This is complimented by the additional investigational viewpoint of folk medicine, which made therapeutic use of many of the toxic plants ascribed to the ointment. Rationales for use, source materials, and symbolical ingredients of the european pharmacopoeia are also examined, revealing the witches' ointments as but one small part of the essential and timeless accoutrements of European occult practices.

Psychedelic Mystery Traditions

Author: Thomas Hatsis
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620558017
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
A comprehensive look at the long tradition of psychedelic magic and religion in Western Civilization • Explores the use of psychedelics and entheogens from Neolithic times through Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance to the Victorian era and beyond • Reveals how psychedelics were integrated into pagan and Christian magical practices and demonstrates how one might employ a psychedelic agent for divination, sex magic, alchemy, communication with gods, and more • Examines the role of entheogens in the Mysteries of Eleusis in Greece, the worship of Isis in Egypt, the Dionysian mysteries, and the magical practices of the Thessalian witches as well as Jewish, Roman, and Gnostic traditions Unbeknownst--or unacknowledged--by many, there is a long tradition of psychedelic magic and religion in Western civilization. As Thomas Hatsis reveals, the discovery of the power of psychedelics and entheogens can be traced to the very first prehistoric expressions of human creativity, with a continuing lineage of psychedelic mystery traditions from antiquity through the Renaissance to the Victorian era and beyond. Describing how, when, and why different peoples in the Western world utilized sacred psychedelic plants, Hatsis examines the full range of magical and spiritual practices that include the ingestion of substances to achieve altered states. He discusses how psychedelics facilitated divinatory dream states for our ancient Neolithic ancestors and helped them find shamanic portals to the spirit world. Exploring the mystery religions that adopted psychedelics into their occult rites, he examines the role of entheogens in the Mysteries of Eleusis in Greece, the worship of Isis in Egypt, and the psychedelic wines and spirits that accompanied the Dionysian mysteries. The author investigates the magical mystery traditions of the Thessalian witches as well as Jewish, Roman, and Gnostic traditions. He reveals how psychedelics were integrated into pagan and Christian magical practices and demonstrates how one might employ a psychedelic agent for divination, magic, alchemy, or god and goddess invocation. He explores the use of psychedelics by Middle Eastern and medieval magicians and looks at the magical use of cannabis and opium from the Crusaders to Aleister Crowley. From ancient priestesses and Christian gnostics, to alchemists, wise-women, and Victorian magicians, Hatsis shows how psychedelic practices have been an integral part of the human experience since Neolithic times.

The Witches' Flying Ointment

Author: Coby Michael
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Poisonous plants
Languages : en
Pages : 14

Book Description

Veneficium

Author: Daniel A. Schulke
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781945147203
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In many esoteric traditions, there exists an iconic or linguistic corollary between the concepts of 'poisoner' and 'sorcerer', suggesting a sinistral magical kinship often interchangeable with witchcraft or maledictive magic. Indeed, the use of plant, animal and mineral toxins is a strand of magic originating in remotest antiquity and reaching the present day. Beyond its mundane function as an agent of corporeal harm, poison has also served as a gateway of religious ecstasy, occult knowledge, and sensorial aberration, as well as the basis of healing cures. Allied with Samael, the serpent of Eden whose Hebrew name in some translations is 'Venom of God', this facet of magic wends through the rites of ancient Sumer and Egypt, penetrating European Necromancy. Alchemy, the arcane the rites of the Witches' Sabbath, and modern-day folk magic survivals. This second edition of Veneficium, newly expanded, examines the intersection of magic and poison, collecting the authors early essays on this magical kinship, and exploring the toxicological dimensions of occult power

The Witches' Sabbath

Author: Kelden
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN: 0738767174
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
Discover the Hidden Depths of the Sabbath Take flight for a mesmerizing exploration of an event long shrouded in fear and mystery—the Witches' Sabbath. Kelden presents an in-depth examination of the Sabbath's historical and folkloric development as well as its re-emergence within the modern practice of Witchcraft. From discussions on the folklore of flight and the events of nocturnal gatherings to enchanting rituals and recipes, you'll find everything you need to not only understand the nature of the legendary Sabbath, but also journey there yourself. Offering impressive research and compelling stories from across Europe and the early American colonies, this book is the ultimate resource for discovering an oft misunderstood and overlooked aspect of Witchcraft. Includes a foreword by Jason Mankey, author of The Horned God of the Witches

How Do Witches Fly?

Author: Alexander Kuklin
Publisher: Acen Press
ISBN: 9780966402704
Category : Alkaloids
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Have you not always wondered as a child if witches really flew during the night on their brooms? And what was their destination? "How Do Witches Fly?" is an answer to these questions. It shows that witches anointed themselves with the "flying" ointment before they flew to their gatherings on special nights of the year. The book scientifically dissects the ointment and reveals its herebal and animal ingredients and biochemical components. It is a popular science treatise on alkaloids and their action, spiced with curious stories about Mediaeval witchcraft rituals. It offers recipes of the ointment and advances a biochemical theory on the mechanisms of the ointment action on human senses and perception. The book features the art of the world-renowned artist Barbara Broughel, which bridges the history of New England witchcraft trials and contemporary American society. "How Do Witches Fly?" is a charming reference book for students of herbalism, biochemistry, Mediaeval history and occultism of various ages and education. What a great Halloween reading! But Halloween is every night according to the author.

Witchcraft Medicine

Author: Claudia Müller-Ebeling
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 159477661X
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 518

Book Description
An in-depth investigation of traditional European folk medicine and the healing arts of witches • Explores the outlawed “alternative” medicine of witches suppressed by the state and the Church and how these plants can be used today • Reveals that female shamanic medicine can be found in cultures all over the world • Illustrated with color and black-and-white art reproductions dating back to the 16th century Witch medicine is wild medicine. It does more than make one healthy, it creates lust and knowledge, ecstasy and mythological insight. In Witchcraft Medicine the authors take the reader on a journey that examines the women who mix the potions and become the healers; the legacy of Hecate; the demonization of nature’s healing powers and sensuousness; the sorceress as shaman; and the plants associated with witches and devils. They explore important seasonal festivals and the plants associated with them, such as wolf’s claw and calendula as herbs of the solstice and alder as an herb of the time of the dead--Samhain or Halloween. They also look at the history of forbidden medicine from the Inquisition to current drug laws, with an eye toward how the sacred plants of our forebears can be used once again.

Witches of America

Author: Alex Mar
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374291373
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
"Witches are gathering." When most people hear the word "witches," they think of horror films and Halloween, but to the nearly one million Americans who practice Paganism today, witchcraft is a nature-worshipping, polytheistic, and very real religion. So Alex Mar discovers when she sets out to film a documentary and finds herself drawn deep into the world of present-day magic. Witches of America follows Mar on her immersive five-year trip into the occult, charting modern Paganism from its roots in 1950s England to its current American mecca in the San Francisco Bay Area; from a gathering of more than a thousand witches in the Illinois woods to the New Orleans branch of one of the world's most influential magical societies. Along the way she takes part in dozens of rituals and becomes involved with a wild array of characters. This sprawling magical community compels Mar to confront what she believes is possible--or hopes might be. With keen intelligence and wit, Mar illuminates the world of witchcraft while grappling in fresh and unexpected ways with the question underlying every faith: Why do we choose to believe in anything at all?--Adapted from book jacket.