Flying Ointments: Some Recipes
Since witches were famed above all other feats for their powers of flight, our most potent image of the witch is that of a woman on the wing. From antiquity onward, it has been rumored that witches flew. Up chimneys, on broomsticks, over the billowing clouds, they flew to their Sabbats, flew to do mischief or healing, flew on the backs of winged familiars—crows, bats, or owls.
Those of us who have flown in our dreams and fantasies find this perfectly plausible. Why should witches fear flying when witches are, above all, the first liberated women? But the sober historian or anthropologist or other rationalist must find a material explanation for the flight of the witch. Hence the preoccupation with flying ointments.
It is reported on excellent authority that witches at their great Sabbats (and even their little Sabbats—or esbats, that is, weekly meetings) employed hallucinogenic ointments that disordered their senses and gave the illusion of flight. It has even been rumored that these ointments were introduced into the mucous membranes of the vagina with a broomstick—thus enabling a witch to “fly off the handle” even more speedily. It is well known that hallucinogens can be absorbed through mucous membranes; given the potent ingredients in many of the flying ointments, only a small amount would have been needed to convince even the soberest historian of witchcraft that he, too, flew!
Dear Reader, I give the following recipes with a large pinch of caution. The ingredients are perilous and often illegal, and the recipes that have come down to us are often treacherously imprecise. Caveat Anointer:
Traditional English Flying Ointment
3 |
grams annamthol |
30 |
grains betel |
50 |
grams extract of opium |
6 |
grams cinquefoil |
15 |
grams henbane |
15 |
grams belladonna |
15 |
grams hemlock |
250 |
grams cannabis Indica |
5 |
grams canthreindin |
Blend with oil of your choice—baby fat, vaseline, safflower oil, or butter.
Modern American Flying Ointment
1 jar hand cream
1 tsp. vegetable fat
½ tsp. belladonna
3 drops liquid detergent
½ tsp. wolfbane juice
Mix well with perfume of your choosing.
French Flying Ointments: Three Recipes
I |
Du persil, de l’eau de l’Aconite, des feuilles de Peuple, et de la suye. |
(Parsley, essence of aconite, poplar leaves, and soot.) |
II |
De la Berle, de l’Acorum vulgaire, de la Quintefeuille, du sang de chauvesouris, de la Morelle edormante, et de l’huyle. |
(Water parsnip, sweet flag, cinquefoil, bat’s blood, deadly nightshade, and oil.) |
III |
De graisse d’enfant, de suc d’Ache, d’Aconite, de Quintefeuille, de Morelle, et de suye. |
(Baby’s fat, juice of water parsnip, aconite, cinquefoil, deadly nightshade, and soot.) |