On any Pagan forum I've been on, and in almost every Pagan chat room I've been in, and any group of budding witches, inevitably someone will ask, "so, what's the deal with flying ointment?"
Flying ointment is the stuff of legends, really. Comes right out of the Malleus Maleficarum and the Salem witch trials. It was a special ointment witches slathered themselves in so they could fly to their sabbats, either on brooms or in shape-shifted form. Flying ointment could do that, too.
Back then, it was meant that the ointment actually enabled witches to physically defeat the laws of physics and gravity, lift up into the air and fucking fly. Or change their shapes into all manner of beastie. Over the years, flying ointment became a way for a witch to astrally travel. Most of the time, flying ointment was made from baby fat and mandrake root, along with various and sundry other ingredients, like eye of bat and wool of toad.
Historically speaking, I'm not sure when it started, or who first proposed it, but now it is assumed that 'flying ointment' was a psychotropic substance that placed the user into an altered state of consciousness, in which the witch would travel in the Otherworlds and beyond. Why do witches show up riding on broomsticks, you ask? Well, that was how they applied the ointment internally - to put it bluntly, by using their ointment-slathered broom handle as a dildo & riding it like a hobby-horse (yeah, that theory has never set well with me either - medieval people did have fingers...). Using ethnobotanical studies of plants and animals commonly available to indigenous peoples of Europe and Asia, most of the ingredients are now assumed to be various members of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), possibly with some bufotoxin from frogs and maybe ergot, which is a fungus that infects rye.
Ok, now, most nightshades contain various toxic tropane alkaloids. Some of these have uses in modern pharmaceuticals. Atropine was used until quite recently to dilate pupils in ophthalmology, and it's used as an antispasmodic for irritable bowel, Crohn's disease & colitis. In uncontrolled amounts, any one of the tropane alkaloids or other ingredients thought to be in traditional flying ointment can seriously harm or kill a person. It's not an exaggeration, it's not a misunderstanding of chemistry, or anything like that. Atropine, hyoscyamine and scopolamine are deadly. Aconitine, from aconite (more commonly known as wolfsbane) is deadly. Ergotamine, while being the precursor to LSD, can not only kill a person, it can destroy their fertility. Bufotoxin is pretty close to tetrodotoxin, found in the infamous fugu sushi that kills horny Japanese businessmen. Don't even get me started on the mushrooms that have found their way into flying ointment recipes. Basically, flying ointment is the Eurasian equivalent to Vodou's 'zombie powdre'. It's not stuff the untrained herbalist wants to party with.
When I was 12, and could probably have been considered a 'special dark snowflake', I had an unbridled lust for flying ointment. I wouldn't let go of the idea. The thought that there was this magic lotion out there that could make me 'fly' was soooo intoxicating. I knew the whole baby fat was probably bullshit, and I had just enough knowledge of herbalism and wildcrafting to be dangerous to myself and others. My aunt and uncle lived along the Mississippi river valley, home to a wealth of medicinal and magical herbs and plants, and my uncle had many field guides and herbal treatises in his library. Not only did I find deadly nightshade and henbane, but a person I knew had a very rare plant in his hydroponic garden (that guy grew most of the stuff on erowid and some that erowid visitors probably haven't had the opportunity to try). My friend had a true mandrake plant, and with some persuasion, I talked him out of a bit of root and a few leaves.
My first attempts at brewing a flying ointment were pretty much a no-go. I made a stinky gloppy mess of melted Vaseline with chunks of plant floating in it like bugs waiting to be turned to petrified amber. It reeked and had a vague unhealthy greenness to it. I slathered myself in it under an almost full moon, sat around naked in the back forty, waiting for something to happen. Strangely enough, the mosquitoes and gnats avoided me, can't understand why... after about 4 hours, I could see in the dark like it was noon. Then I started to feel ill. Dizzy, headachey, heart racing, weird taste in my mouth. Then the vomiting and shaking started. I made it back to the house before I shit myself. With my aunt banging on the bathroom door, I tried to wipe as much of the gloop off me as I could so I could assure her that I was not dying, I only had some stomach bug. My pupils were the size of my entire eyes and I could barely see anything in the well-lit bathroom, but there was about 15 of everything and it was shifting and melting like Jell-O. I was sick for three days. Couldn't move without the room shifting & rocking around me, couldn't get up to puke, just horrible. The worst part of it all was my aunt taking me to the ER & me having to tell the nurse exactly what drug I had taken - and where I had gotten it. The ER doc told me he wanted to just let me suffer for being so stupid, but he took pity on my aunt & gave me anti-nausea meds. Fun times, fun times.
I didn't learn much from it though. When I moved to Washington, there I was, surrounded by the Gods of the Green again. Oh dear Gods... nightshade and jimsonweed and mushrooms, oh my. I also had a better understanding of things like 'fat soluble', 'water soluble' and 'alcohol soluble', LD50s, potentialization... Yeah, my next flying ointment? Much more successful. Complete with bone-wracking convulsions and 'difficulty' breathing. I killed myself again. The bone lady smacked me back into life. At least there was no ER doc to try and explain myself to that time, but it was a much longer walk back to the house, covered in my own shit, vomit & blood - I did something to myself while in a drug-induced frenzy... I don't know what inspired me to chew on my own hands, arms and boobs, but I did a number on myself.
What this all boils down to is that I do have some experience with flying ointment and the nightshade family. So on the pagan forum, when someone asked about flying ointment, because people do get curious, I responded with basic plants used and many warnings. Almost every person on the thread responded with warnings and suggestions to use weed or LSD. One person, though, chimed in with this (slightly snipped):
Common knowledge, nightshades are a great source for fast infection killing, fever dropping, blood thinner, pain control, insomnia treating, etc when used correctly. It's the base of a widely used modern medicine for heart patients. This is where I use it most. I have a mix of belladonna, datura and mandrake that I put into infusions and boiled down into tincture concentration for when I get strep throat. Much faster than more steroids and more antibiotics. Use it to help when other pain pills won't and helps my insomnia much more effectively than weed. With a side effect of weigh loss, don't ask lol.
For the glance over. Aconite is a primary ingredient in flying ointments. It is the counter-poison to atropine. Mixing belladonna/dautra and aconite will nullify the poisons, but must be done in the right proportions. In case of atropine poisoning, use aconite till can get to the hospital and visa versa...
This person claims to have a great deal of experience with medicinal herbalism, and is not much younger than myself. I have doubts about either their truthfulness in their personal experience, or their knowledge. Or, what may be possible, is that the person is using homeopathic medicine, (in which case the amounts of the herbs used are medically insignificant), but there's no indication of that in their post.
Aconitine is a good way to cause a heart attack. Giving someone suffering from tropane alkaloid poisoning aconite is probably going to kill them. As little as 2mg of aconite can kill someone within 4 hours. While Chinese Traditional Medicine is generally as safe as homeopathy, people do still get poisoned because of bad directions in the use of aconite and the tropanes from their doctors.
Anyway, I read that post last night & just about flipped my lid. As an herbalist, I find myself trying to educate people in the usage of plants, contraindications, drug interactions, effective dosages, correct diagnoses, etc. I treat the herbs like pharmaceutical drugs, because that's what they are. Why else would herbs work to treat disease? Why else would so many of our modern medications be based on plants? They are drugs. Like any drugs, used properly and with mindfulness, they are wonderful and miraculous. They cure disease, they treat symptoms... it's as if certain plants evolved with the goal of helping us in mind. We are who we are today greatly because of our relationship with plants.
Because of their miraculous nature, because they may at times be less expensive or more attainable than modern medicine, many many people want to use them and learn about them. Because they are effective but 'all natural', people tend to forget that in the wrong dose or in the wrong circumstances, these plants, these drugs can harm as much as they can heal, and sometimes moreso. Cyanide is 100% organic, but that doesn't make it safe.
I love poisonous plants. I respect them. They are my allies and guides in the plant worlds. I've rolled in patches of poison ivy and jimsonweed. I've ingested every green thing I can get my hands on. I stuff them up my nose and rub them into my skin. Can't grow 'em for crap, but eh, that doesn't stop me from encouraging them to grow in the wild places in the hearts of the cities.
With all that in mind, no matter what I may do with my poisonous friends in my spare time, I'm not going to be sharing it. It will be between my allies and myself. That extends to many of the psychoactive plants as well, because stupid people take drugs and do stupid stuff on youtube, which gets a perfectly innocent plant put on the DEA Schedule for Narcotics. No more encouraging people to go out there and take herbal medications. I won't be responsible for some curious 14-year old Goth deciding to experience the wonders of tropane alkaloid poisoning for themselves. Nothing that may potentially kill anyone or put a plant on Schedule will cross my lips or keyboards again.
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