| Witch Ointments Datura & Belladonna were both used proficiently by herbalists and witches for all kinds of treatments, many of which included the mental variety. Some of these are known to wipe away memory completely and can be used as both curative and destructive, as we see in the case of Scopolamine, also called “Devils Breath,” used by some Columbian gangs to steal victim’s savings from bank accounts. It can also be used to treat painful memories or wipe away a major mental crisis. Datura Stramonium, which goes by many names, including jimsonweed, devil's snare, thornapple, moon flower, hell's bells, devil's trumpet, devil's weed, tolguacha, Jamestown weed, stinkweed, locoweed, pricklyburr, false castor oil plant, devil's cucumber, and the Spanish name toloache, is a member of the nightshade family, (31) which includes some 2,400 species in total. (32) Other plants with narcotic properties in this family are mandrake (Mandrogora), belladonna (Atropa), henbane (Hyoscyamus), and tobacco (Nicotiana). (33) Some people can have very toxic reactions to slight amounts of this form of medicine. In other words, it can easily be a poison as well, so it’s advised to be extra careful when dealing with this plant. They may be considered inflammatory as well. Kirsten Bonde writes, in the Genus Datura: “The main alkaloids of medicinal value in Datura are members of the tropane class, namely atropine, hyoscyamine, and hyoscine (Avery 1959:48). Atropine is present in small amounts in Datura and can be extracted from hyoscyamine in a commercial process. The alkaloid has a paralyzing action that helps relieve bronchial spasms in the treatment of asthma. Old-fashioned methods of treating this respiratory problem included use of an inhaler containing stramonine and belladonna (also a primary source of atropine).” (34) Atropine containing solanaceous plants like belladonna and datura have been known throughout the ages to work wonders on the mind, though mostly due to the toxic effects. These medicines play an important role in witchcraft and the persecution of the witches of the Middle Ages. In 1545, Andres Laguna, physician to Pope Julius III, reported on a married couple, arrested as witches who confessed under torture to the crimes, In Laguna’s words: “Among the other things found in the hermitage of the said witches was a jar half-filled with a certain green unguent, like that of Pouleon [white poplar ointment], with which they were anointing themselves: whose odor was so heavy and offensive that it showed that it was composed of herbs cold [refers to the classification of medicines as “hot” and “cold”] and soporiferous in the ultimate degree, which are hemlock, nightshade, henbane and mandrake.” (35) The Zunis call datura inoxia a neg-la-kya and use it as medicine and pain reliever and poultice. Only the priests are allowed to collect it. One method of using it is to powder it down and place it on the eyes at night for communicating with the animal kingdom and praying for rain. The Zunis highly value the datura plant and consider it divine. (36) |
Richard Evans Schultes writes: “In India it was called tuft of Shiva…. Dancing girls sometimes drugged wine with its seeds, and whoever drank the potion, appearing in possession of his senses, gave answers to questions, although he had no control of his will, was ignorant of whom he was addressing, and lost all memory of what he did when the intoxication wore off.” He goes on to say that “during the Sanskritic period, Indian medicine valued Datura metal for treating mental disorders, various fevers, tumors, breast inflammations, skin diseases and diarrhea.” (37) Fairies & Witches In 1952, Margaret Murray published The God of the Witches, originally published in 1921, in which she first introduced the notion that Somerset witches in 1664 used a “greenish” oil to fly to the witches’ meeting. The book is very important for a number of reasons. There are accounts from the witch trials in the original language and reveals how the Inquisition against the witches in Europe was all about the mushrooms and herbs used, but mostly, it was about the mushrooms. We can gather this from the discussion of “fairies.” But first, a little on ointments. (38) Murray writes in her book about a particular case in which it was never proven anyone actually flew: “The method of locomotion which has most impressed the popular imagination and has become proverbial was riding on a stick, generally said to be a broomstick. It must, however, be remembered that one of the earliest cases on record of stick-riding does not definitely state that the witch flew through the air. This was the case of the Lady Alice Kyteler in 1324, when ‘in rifleing the closet of the ladie, they found a Pipe of oyntment, wherewith she greased a stafte, upon the which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin, when and in what maner she listed’.” Though Holinshed is not always a reliable authority, it is worthwhile to compare this account with the stick-riding of the Arab witches and the tree-riding of the Aberdeen Covens.” (31)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium (32) Siegel 1989:36 (33) The Genus Datura: From Research Subject to Powerful Hallucinogen by Kirsten Bonde (34) The Genus Datura: From Research Subject to Powerful Hallucinogen by Kirsten Bonde (35) Hallucinogens and Shamanism, Edited by Michael Harner ,Oxford University Press, 1973, p. 135 (36) Flesh of the Gods, The Ritual Use of Hallucinogens, Peter Furst, Praeger Publishers, NY, WA., 1972, p. 47 (37) Apples of Apollo, p. 114-15; Plants of the Gods, Richard Evans Schultes, Revised Ed. P. 108 (38) Hallucinogens and Shamanism, p. 130 |