Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants (74 page)

⁸¹
Quote from W. K. Zülch,
Der historische Grünewald,
Munich: Bruckmann, 1938: 404f.

⁸²
Cf. W. B. Crow,
The Occult Properties of Herbs and Plants,
New York: Samuel Weiser, 1980.

⁸³
Gert van der Osten (1983: 16) attributes the painter with an enlightened position in his monograph
Hans Baldung Grien: Gemälde und Dokumente
(Berlin, 1983: 16) when he states that Baldung was making fun of witches and the witch craze in his Städel painting
Die Wetterhexen
. That the artist was able to distance himself from the phenomenon has been supported by a number of authors, including van der Osten (1983: 33) and the art historian Sigrid Schade (in van Dülmen, 1987). They claim that during the first two thirds of the sixteenth century witch trials were extremely rare in Strasbourg, Baldung’s place of work. Certainly it is important to compare biographical dates with the actual consequences of the witch trials in a certain place: for example, the fact that the notorious Hexenhammer, written by the Dominican inquisitors Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer, who was known as Institoris, was published in 1487 in Strasbourg and that in 1508 in this same city the cathderal priest Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg (1445–1510) selected a series of sermons based entirely on the orthodox position on superstition and witchcraft (which he supported with texts that had been previously published). In light of this it seems very risky to me to assume that the people of Strasbourg had resisted the persecution of witches as a result of a liberal atmosphere or because of Baldung’s critical attitude toward the Church’s position on witches.

⁸⁴
This is revealed in the diptych
Sündenfall,
which was created around 1525 and presently hangs in the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts. Deviating from the traditional theme, it is Adam who looks the (female) serpent—a creature usually associated with Eve—in the eye. Without such an independent artistic position, which interpreted Protestantism as “external dry conformity” and had apparently attained independence from the old church (as van der Osten emphasized [1983: 33]), Baldung’s drawing of the resting naked couple (currently in the collection of the Stuttgart Kupferstchkabinett), would be unthinkable. The attempt to categorize Baldung’s art in either a Christian or a mythological context is most often futile.

⁸⁵
Linda Hults’s essay about Baldung’s relationship to the Reformation in the exhibition catalog
Hans Baldung Grien, Prints and Drawings,
Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1981.

⁸⁶
A study of the painting was assumed by G. von Tèrey in his catalog of the drawings of Hans Baldung Grien, published in 1894–96. Tèrey identified the drawing as Eve, based on the apple the model holds in her hand.

⁸⁷
Carl Koch regards the drawing as an independent composition that was created after the painting, in
Die Zeichnungen Hans Baldung Griens
, Berlin: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1941: Cat. no. 126.

⁸⁸
According to conventional belief the witch is able to leave behind the gravitational pull of the earth with the help of the witches’ salve. Her destination is an earthly one, namely witches’ gathering places such as in Blocksberg. For her flight the witch used her broom as a vehicle. In short, it is quite fitting to speak of “witches’ flight” or “flight through the air” in this context. On the other hand, these experiences of physical independence from earthly gravity can also be interpreted as
Himmelfahrt
(journey to the sky or heaven—the Ascension), for over the earth is—according to medieval and modern-era understanding—heaven. However, from a Christian perspective such terminology is forbidden, as the word
ascension
is reserved exclusively for Mary and the saints. Therefore it is revealing that cultural descriptions of the witch talk of the air instead of heaven. After all, according to heathen concepts the air is inhabited by elemental ghosts such as fairies, who have been declared to be allies of the devil. Witches were accused of communicating with them.

⁸⁹
A validation of my thesis that the depiction of witches—which became an independent subject that was only tangentially built upon the picture of the witch as described by the Church—is found in the dissertation by Härting, 1983, whose historical delineation I follow here. With regard to Francken, Härting concedes at the very most the possibility that Francken knew the writings of a Jean Bodin about the “Demonology of Witches,” which appeared in Antwerp in 1580 and 1593, or the text
De oculta philosophia
by Agrippa von Nettesheim, which had already been published in 1581.

⁹⁰
As this investigation of the witch has demonstrated, one must guard carefully against lumping things together. The witch trials occurred in waves that often correspondeded to social-historical times of crisis, and the effects varied greatly according to their time and place. For example, during a comparable period of time in the Swiss canton of Thurgau only two executions took place, while, according to Wolfgang Behringer (in van Dülmen, 1987: 162) in Vaud there were 3,371!

⁹¹
This is a border drawing in the 1515 prayer book of Kaiser Maximilian I, which is stored in the Bavarian Staatsbibliotek in Munich.

⁹²
This subject matter was researched by Andreas Tacke,
Der katholische Cranach: Zu zwei Großaufträgen von Lucas Cranach d. Ä., Simon Frank und der Cranach Werkstatt (1520–1540)
, Berliner Schriften zur Kunst, vol. 2, Mainz: Phillip von Zabern, 1992.

8. Witches’ Medicine–Forbidden Medicine: From the Inquisition to the Drug Laws

¹
਀“The term ‘drug’ includes, in addition to the chemical compounds of the prohibited plants (such as those occurring in cannabis plants,
Papaver orientale
and
Papaver somniferum
plants, and psilocybin mushrooms for example), the plant matter (such as coca leaves, and flowers, leaves, and stems of the cannabis plant), the plant constituents (for example the alkaloids contained in the opium poppy, morphine, thebaine, codeine, and ethyl morphine), the active properties contained in the coca leaves cocaine and ecgonin, the resin (hashish) from the cannabis leaves and the active compound THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), and the mescaline from the peyote cactus” (Körner, 1994: 66).

²
਀For example: “The demons of drunkenness seek their sacrifice. The seductive poisons will make the inebriation immortal but as long as there are humans on this earth, there will always be hands that reach for it; hands which are curious, tired, and often trembling with excitement” (Graupner, 1966: 15).

³
਀See the outsanding monograph by the Fugs musician Ed Sanders,
The Family: The Story of Charles Manson
, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1971.

⁴
਀“In Europe the enjoyment of hemp at the time of the witch trials was a popular pastime, and the aphrodisiac activity of the hemp plant’s compounds were commonly known. Not without reason did Hans Ulrich Megerle (1644–1709) rail against the “farmers who stuff themselves full with hemp as the Turks do with opium” (Lussi, 1996: 134).

⁵
਀The Social Democrat Heide Moser has become famous with her pharmacy model for the controlled administration of cannabis products (c.f. Peter Raschke and Jens Kakle,
Cannabis in Apotheken,
Freiburn: Lambertus, 1997).

⁶
਀These include
Erythroxylum coca
var.
coca
,
E. coca
var.
ipadu, E. novogranatense,
and
E. novogranatense
var.
truxillense
.

⁷
਀“The witches of the colonial times were excellent healers. They knew the curative characteristics of the plants and possessed a great amount of knowledge about herbs, although this wisdom was buried beneath a mountain of superstitions and witchcraft practices. They commanded a respect so great that a Spanish doctor is said to have proclaimed that he had opposed the establishment of a professorship of medicine because the Indians heal better than the doctors” (MacLean Yestemos in Andritzky, 1987:549).

⁸
਀From James A. Duke, David Aulik, and Timothy Plowman, “Nutritional Value of Coca,” Botanical Museum Leaflets 24(6): 113–19, 1975.

⁹
਀See the outstanding research in Hans-Georg Behr,
Weltmacht Droge: Das Geschäft mit der Sucht [Drugs as a World Power: The Business of Addiction]
(Vienna and Düsseldorf: Econ, 1980). See also Günter Amendt,
Sucht Profit Sucht,
Frankfurt A.M.: Zweitausandeins, 1984.

¹⁰
਀In the year 1653 the Spanish missionary Father Bernabe Cobo (1580–1657) spoke very clearly: “With the name witch we cover all types of people who use superstition and illegal arts in order to perform wondrous things that exceed human capabilities, which they achieve through the invocations and the help of demons whose pact, implicit or explicit, touches on all their power and knowledge” (Andritzky, 1987: 544).

¹¹
਀Irving A. Leonard, “Peyote and the Mexican Inquisition 1620,”
American Anthropologist
N. S. 44 (1942): 324–6.

¹²
਀See
Esotera,
11/96, p. 4.

¹³
਀Prozac, or fluoxetine, is considered among psychiatrists and users to be a “happy pill.” The regular use of Prozac leads to the complete suppression of the symptoms of suffering but never to healing. It gives the illusion of a condition of happiness, much like the one Aldous Huxley described in his novel
Brave New World.
Prozac makes work-ready idiots out of psychiatric cases (cf. Peter D. Kramer,
Glück auf Rezept: Der unheimliche Erfolg der Glückspille Fluctin
[Happiness Prescription: The Amazing Success of the Happy-pill Fluctin], Munich: Kösel, 1995).

Appendix: European Plants Associated with Witches and Devils

¹
਀Various fossils were included under the common classification of druid’s foot
(Drudenfuß, Trudenfuß).
These fossils were ritually honored in pre-Christian times and were still used as amulets into the early modern era. Sea urchins and stones with holes in them are included in this category of popular wisdom. Magical stones such as these were used by farmers as protection of the milk in the milk barn. They were said to banish milk witches, who caused the milk to dry up or to go bad (c.f. Rätsch, 1997a, and Reinhardt, 1993).

²
਀Hartlieb (fifteenth century) wrote about clover (
trifolium,
which Hartlieb called “Triuolium”): “The same is used by the masters in necromancy. Other sorcerers also make great art with it” (
Kräuterbuch
, 100).

³
਀“Coltsfoot is an Arcadian herb, and it has the action of all fillies and all fast mares gallop racing over the hills” (Theocritus, 2:
Eidyllion
).

Bibliography

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There are many recent and older translations of these works available. They have been cited in the usual way.

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Apollonius of Rhodius,
Argonautica

Apuleius,
Metamorphoses

———.
Apologia

Cicero,
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———. On Law

———. The Nature of the Gods

Clemens Alexandrinus,
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———.
Protrepticus

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Diodorus Siculus

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Ebers Papyrus

Euripides,
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———.
Medea

Galen,
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Heraclitus,
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Herodotus,
The Histories

Hesiod,
Theogony

Homer,
The Iliad

———.
The Odyssey

———. [attributed to],
The Homeric Hymns

Horace,
Odes

———.
Epodes

———.
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Hyginus,
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Kallimachos,
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Lucan,
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———.
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Lucretius,
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Marcellus,
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Argonautica
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———. [attributed],
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(
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)

Ovid,
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———.
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