Nightshade (or Solanaceae) plants are extremely wide-ranging and common: the family includes tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers, as well as extremely poisonous plants like belladonna, henbane, mandrake, or datura. Henbane comes from the nightshade family, and most flying ointments include some sort of nightshade.
It’s thanks to writings like his and others that we know what the ingredients went into flying ointments in the middle ages.Īs noted above, henbane was a popular ingredient for flying ointment. According to the website Bane Folk, a website and online source dedicated to the use of “baneful” plants in magic and healing:įlying ointments are mentioned in Apollonius Rhodius’ The Argonautica from 200 BCE, Lucius Apuleius’ The Golden Ass from around 160 CE, and the oldest possible reference is in Homer’s The Iliad from around 800 BCE where the goddess Hera uses an oil of ambrosia to fly to Olympus, while never touching the earth.įlying ointments were being written about in the 13th century by people like the famous alchemist Albertus Magnus, who wrote about those using “black magic” using Henbane for their rites. Like many psychoactive drugs used in religious rites, the use of flying ointment has pretty ancient roots.
#Witch flying on broomstick full#
The use of flying ointment can be part of what’s called “ sabbatic witchcraft,” but we honestly don’t know the full history because so few records exist, given that this was generally a secretive folk magic practice. The “flight” of witches, or their transformations, was never literal-it was a figurative flight of the spirit, into another realm or plane of existence. (Indeed I’ve seen it theorized that this is one source for the actual term “getting high”). So the people who used them (usually women) were getting high, almost literally. When absorbed, these ointments, because they contained deliriants (not hallucinogens) gave the feeling of flying. Historically, witches have been able to fly via the use of “flying ointments.” These were salves or unguents made of generally toxic plants that were applied to the body. So today we’re going to discuss how a witch can fly. But there’s lots of history and mystery just in that one trope, and a lot more sex and drugs (not rock and roll though) behind broomstick flight than you might imagine.
We just assume that witches are some sort of supernatural creatures who can fly simply by magic, and we don’t examine it further. It’s an image we nearly take for granted. And there are few Halloween images more iconic than a witch on her broomstick, flying through the sky, usually across a full moon.
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