Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants (33 page)

“The true mandragora is the ‘tree of knowledge,’ and the love that burns when eaten is the origin of the human race.”

—H
UGO
R
AHNER
,
G
RIECHISCHE
M
YTHEN IN CHRISTLISHE
D
EUTUNG
[G
REEK
M
YTHS IN
C
HRISTIAN
I
NTERPRETATION
], 1957

Fossilized shark teeth known as “snake tongues” or “tongue stones”
(Glossopetrae)
have been found since antiquity and were considered the fossilized tongues of poisonous snakes. They have served as protective amulets against poisoning since the earliest times.

Snakes have a reputation as aphrodisiacs. Today in Southeast Asia snake flesh is still considered an aphrodisiac food. In Japan a general tonic and remedy for impotence is made from the venom pressed out of living snakes.

In homeopathy the venom of different snakes
(crotalin),
particularly from the rattlesnake (
Crotaluss
pp.), the aspic viper
(Vipera aspis)
, and species of the genus
Lachesis
, is used in various preparations. The homeopathic remedy
Crotalus horridus
hom. is used in the third to sixth potency corresponding to the medical picture for a damaged nervous system, and is also used for spiritual functions, blood cleansing, and epilepsy, among other ailments. Snake venom is also used in allopathic medicine, usually in the form of an embrocation or injection, for the treatment of allergies, cramps, epilepsy, circulation problems, high blood pressure, rheumatism, and edema (cf. Madejsky, 1997b).

The Mandrake of Hecate

Just as Hecate and Aphrodite are different forms of the Great Goddess, her mandrakes appear to be two related species with the same qualities. The mandrake of Aphrodite, who also bears the name of Mandragoritis, “the [goddess] of the mandrake,” was clearly the true mandrake (
Mandragora officinarum
L.), which grows lushly at her sacred site of Paphos—in the former “sacred garden” (Rätsch, 1993 and 1994). The mandrake of Hecate, on the other hand, was belladonna (
Atropa belladonna
L.). Both mandrakes belong to the Nightshade family (Solanaceae), and both species have been confused with one another since the earliest times. Both are psychoactive, both cause hallucinations, and both are some of the most important aphrodisiacs and ingredients for love potions and witches’ salves (Schwamm, 1988).

Belladonna,
⁷⁹
or “beautiful woman,” is identical to the “masculine” mandrake called
morion,
which was known as “others growing near caves.”
Morion
literally means “masculine member” and refers to its use as a
Tollkraut
(crazy herb; in Middle High German
toll
meant lust). Belladonna has been used as an aphrodisiac since antiquity. Other psychoactive plants that were used as aphrodisiacs were also called
Tollkraut,
for example, henbane (
Hyoscyamus niger
L.) and scopolia (
Scopolia carniolica
Jacq.)
.
In German
Atropa belladonna
and
Scopolia
are both known as
Walkenbaum
or
Walkenbeere
. These names are said to derive from the word
Walküre
(Valkyrie) (Perger, 1864; Schwamm, 1988: 45).

The botanical genus name for belladonna,
Atropa
, which was coined by Linnaeus, comes from Atropos (the Dreadful/the Pitiless). She was one of the three Moirai, or goddesses of fate (Parcae, Norns), who decided life and death. Atropos is the one who cuts through the threads of life. Hecate was a “daughter of the night” and therefore a sister of the three Moirai (Hesiod,
Theogony
211–232).

Hildegard of Bingen had already begun demonizing the former heathen ritual plants.

Belladonna has coldness in it, but this coldness also holds evil and barrenness, and in the earth and at the place where it grows, a diabolic influence has some share and participation in its craft. It is dangerous for a person to eat or drink, since it will disorder his spirit, as if he were dead (
Physica
I.52).

Belladonna was further demonized in the early modern era, and was called “devil’s berry,” “devil’s eye,” and “devil’s cherry.” It was considered a dangerous, poisonous, and demonic witches’ plant and was associated with witches’ salves (see table on page 135). But because belladonna poisoning can easily be fatal, it has never played a big role as a magical plant. Belladonna has probably been used since antiquity in a manner similar to mandrake or scopolia. Belladonna root was possibly used as a substitute for mandrake or as an alternative to it. In any event, rudiments of the belladonna cult have been preserved in related folk customs. In Hungary, for instance, the roots “are dug up on the night of Saint George, naked, after bringing an offering of bread to the nightmarish monster” (Höfler, 1990: 90). In Romania belladonna is called “wolf cherry,” “flower of the forest,” “lady of the forest,” and “queen of the herbs” (Eliade, 1982). Although belladonna is considered the classic witches’ plant, only a few bits of information about its magical use in witches’ rituals have been passed down. Giovanni Battista della Porta (c. 1535–1615) wrote in his work about “natural magic” that through the use of belladonna one could be transformed into a bird, a fish, or a goose—the sacred sacrificial animal of Odin—for winter solstice and thereby have a lot of fun.

Since antiquity belladonna has been used medicinally as a narcotic for pain. It was often used to “chase off demons”; in other words, it was used for the treatment of depression, psychosis, and spiritual diseases. It was said that “belladonna healing is an effective remedy for the ‘traveling’—an ‘illness caused by a demonic perspective,’ which usually befell the victim suddenly as headaches and pain in the limbs” (Schwamm, 1988: 44). Rudiments of the common psychiatric use have been preserved in North Africa.

In the nineteenth century roots and herbal extracts of belladonna were used for the treatment of jaundice, dropsy, whooping cough, convulsive cough, neurosis, scarlet fever, epilepsy, various skin diseases, eye infections, diseases of the urinary and respiratory tracts, and disorders of the gullet, kidney, and nerves.

A base tincture made from the entire post-flowering fresh plant
(Atropa belladonna
hom.
PFX
and
RhHab1, Belladonna
hom.
HAB1)
in different potencies (usually beginning with D4) are often used in homeopathy, corresponding to the medical presentation (Vonarburg, 1996).

The powerful hallucinations brought on by belladonna are usually described as threatening, dark, demonic, diabolic, hellish, and profoundly scary. Many users speak of a “Hieronymus Bosch trip” and are not usually willing to repeat the experiment (Illmaier, 1997).

The Mandrake of Aphrodite

In ancient Athens, Venus was worshipped as Urania “in the garden” (Pausanias,
Itinerary of Greece
). Although we know next to nothing about her cult we can infer from the inscriptions about her cult image, a kind of hermaphrodite, that she was a goddess of fate and the sister of Hecate. Calves were sacrificed to Aphrodite Urania—just as bulls were sacrificed to Hecate. Both goddesses were worshipped by the “sacred prostitutes,” the courtesans known as the
hetaerae
(Langlotz, 1954: 28).

During Roman times the Italian Venus who was identified with Aphrodite was considered as goddess of the gardens (Schmölders, 1983: 11). In the Middle Ages the garden of Venus became
Venusberg
(Venus mountain, mons Veneris), “which has been, since the church fathers fanned the flames of fantasy, the place of heightened sensuality and greatest fulfillment of love” (Langlotz, 1954: 34).

The “golden apples of Aphrodite” were the yellow fruits of the mandrake (
Mandragora officinarum
L.) that grew in the center of the sacred garden.
⁸⁰
It was the
Mandragora femina:
“Many call her apollinaris or malum terre” (
Medicina antiqua
fol. 141r); in other words, the plant was identified with or considered equal to henbane because of Aphrodite’s characteristics and effects.

Mandrake has always been an important gynecological medicine, and as witchcraft medicine it was ambivalent and could be used in different ways. It has served the midwives since antiquity to increase sexual desire, to promote fertility and pregnancy, to ease birth, to numb the cesarean section, to kill the fruits of life in abortions, and to expel a stillborn (Gélis, 1989: 61ff.).

The Garden of Medea

Medea is the original image of the Western witch. She is beautiful, sensuous, and seductive. With secret salves she can make herself old and ugly or bewitch others. She has psychic gifts; she knows the power of the poisons and the effects of the herbs. She is the barbarian from a wild land. Medea is experienced in the secret art; she knows the procession of the stars and works as a priestess of Artemis.
⁸¹
She stands under the protection of the Titans and earth goddess Themis, and Artemis, whom she invoked as “sublime.” Themis was, like her mother, Gaia, the second oracle goddess of Delphi, before the shrine of Apollo was annexed (Ovid,
The Metamorphoses
I.320f.). Themis, “who protects the oaths,” was, as daughter of the Earth Goddess, identical either to Python, who was also born of Gaia, or to a sister of the dragon with a “poisonous stomach” (
The Metamorphoses
I.459). Medea selected the goddess Hecate/Trivia, who lived in her “hearth ground,” to be her assistant and protector goddess (Euripides,
Medea
399; Seneca,
Medea
785).According to Seneca, Prometheus was one of her teachers (
Medea
820ff.).

“On long tables sat the hellish guests / a witch next to diabolic lovers / they ate aphroditic herbs / sharp spices with chopped salamanders / turtles / snakes / and drank Broyhahn brewed in Hannoverian style.”

—J
OHANNES
P
RAETORIUS
,
B
LOCKSBERG
V
ERRICHTUNG
[T
HE
P
ERFORMANCE AT
B
LOCKS
M
OUNTAIN
], 1668

“O night, faithful friend of mysteries; and you, golden stars and moon, who follow the fiery star of day; and you, Hecate, goddess with threefold head, you know my designs and come to strengthen my spells and magic arts; and you, earth, who offer your potent herbs to magi; and airs, winds, mountains, streams, and lakes, and all you woodland gods, and all you gods of the night: Be present now.”

—
P
RAYER OF
M
EDEA TO
H
ECATE, FROM
O
VID
,
T
HE
M
ETAMORPHOSES

Medea can fly through the air on a dragon-drawn wagon
⁸²
or ride through the ether on snakes. She can conjure with incense the wonder of youth and create illusions. She knows the healing arts as well as she knows black magic. Her primordial symbol is the cauldron, in which she brews poisons or makes her sorcery. Seneca, in his drama
Medea,
describes how the sorceress prepared her drink. The main ingredients are snakes and “common worm.” The poet also mentions a row of barely identifiable magical plants from the botany of Medea’s witches: