Flying ointment
Encyclopedia
Flying ointment, also known as witches' flying ointment, green ointment, magic salve and lycanthropic ointment, is a hallucinogenic
ointment said to be used by witches in the Early Modern period (first described by Johannes Hartlieb
in 1456).
herbs that contain the alkaloid
s atropine
, hyoscyamine
and scopolamine
. The herbs' essential oil
s are extracted when heated in the base. These oils are poisonous when ingested; when applied to the skin, the alkaloids are absorbed more slowly into the body. Typical ingredients in alleged recipes include hemlock (Conium
spp.), deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), wolfsbane (Aconitum
spp.), and henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), usually in a base of animal fat
.
It was said that witches were able to fly to the Sabbath on their broom
s with help of the ointment. Likely the riding of the broom has a different origin.
Some sources (such as The Botany of Desire
) have claimed that the ointment is absorbed best through mucous membranes, but henbane essential oil, for instance, blisters mucous membranes, so it is doubtful that it was applied to a stick that was inserted in the vagina
. There is in fact only a single source that makes such an assertion, one that is not based on knowledge of the herbs themselves or on any historical evidence.
One possible key to how individuals dealt with the toxicity of the nightshades usually said to be part of flying ointments is through the antidotal reaction some of the solanaceous alkaloids have with the alkaloids of Papaver somniferum (opium poppy). This is discussed by Alexander Kuklin in his brief book, How Do Witches Fly? (DNA Press, 1999). This antagonism was utilized by the Eclectic movement of botanical medicine. For instance, King's American Dispensatory, an Eclectic materia medica, states in the entry on belladonna: "Belladonna and opium appear to exert antagonistic influences, especially as regards their action on the brain, the spinal cord, and heart; they have consequently been recommended and employed as antidotes to each other in cases of poisoning; this matter is now positively and satisfactorily settled; hence in all cases of poisoning by belladonna the great remedy is morphine, and its use may be guided by the degree of pupillary contraction it occasions."
The interaction between belladonna and poppy was made use of in the so-called "twilight sleep
" that was provided for women during childbirth
beginning in the Edwardian era. Twilight sleep was a mixture of scopolamine, a belladonna alkaloid, and morphine
, a Papaver
alkaloid, that was injected and which furnished a combination of painkilling and amnesia for a woman in labor. A version is still manufactured for use as the injectable compound Omnopon.
There is no definite indication of the proportions of solanaceous herbs vs. poppy used in flying ointments, and most historical recipes for flying ointment do not include poppy.
in 1456. It was also described by the Spanish theologist Alfonso Tostado in Super Genesis Commentaria (Venetia, 1507), whose commentary tended to accredit the thesis of the reality of the Witches' Sabbath.
Psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants
This general group of pharmacological agents can be divided into three broad categories: psychedelics, dissociatives, and deliriants. These classes of psychoactive drugs have in common that they can cause subjective changes in perception, thought, emotion and consciousness...
ointment said to be used by witches in the Early Modern period (first described by Johannes Hartlieb
Johannes Hartlieb
Johannes Hartlieb was a physician of Late Medieval Bavaria, probably of a family from Neuburg an der Donau. He was in the employment of Louis VII of Bavaria and Albert VI of Austria in the 1430s, and of Albert III of Bavaria from 1440, and of the latter's son Sigismund from 1456.In 1444, he...
in 1456).
Composition
The ointment contains a fatty base and various herbal extracts, usually including solanaceousSolanaceae
Solanaceae are a family of flowering plants that include a number of important agricultural crops as well as many toxic plants. The name of the family comes from the Latin Solanum "the nightshade plant", but the further etymology of that word is unclear...
herbs that contain the alkaloid
Alkaloid
Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...
s atropine
Atropine
Atropine is a naturally occurring tropane alkaloid extracted from deadly nightshade , Jimson weed , mandrake and other plants of the family Solanaceae. It is a secondary metabolite of these plants and serves as a drug with a wide variety of effects...
, hyoscyamine
Hyoscyamine
Hyoscyamine is a tropane alkaloid. It is a secondary metabolite found in certain plants of the Solanaceae family, including henbane , mandrake , jimsonweed , tomato and deadly nightshade...
and scopolamine
Scopolamine
Scopolamine, also known as levo-duboisine, and hyoscine, is a tropane alkaloid drug with muscarinic antagonist effects. It is among the secondary metabolites of plants from Solanaceae family of plants, such as henbane, jimson weed and Angel's Trumpets , and corkwood...
. The herbs' essential oil
Essential oil
An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils or aetherolea, or simply as the "oil of" the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove...
s are extracted when heated in the base. These oils are poisonous when ingested; when applied to the skin, the alkaloids are absorbed more slowly into the body. Typical ingredients in alleged recipes include hemlock (Conium
Conium
Conium is a genus of two species of highly poisonous perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the family Apiaceae, native to Europe and the Mediterranean region as Conium maculatum, and to southern Africa as Conium chaerophylloides....
spp.), deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), wolfsbane (Aconitum
Aconitum
Aconitum , known as aconite, monkshood, wolfsbane, leopard's bane, women's bane, Devil's helmet or blue rocket, is a genus of over 250 species of flowering plants belonging to the buttercup family .-Overview:These herbaceous perennial plants are chiefly natives of the mountainous parts of the...
spp.), and henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), usually in a base of animal fat
Animal fat
Animal fats are rendered tissue fats that can be obtained from a variety of animals.- Pet nutrition :In pet nutrition, the source of animal fat concerns food manufacturers. AAFCO states that animal fat is "obtained from the tissues of mammals and/or poultry in the commercial processes of rendering...
.
It was said that witches were able to fly to the Sabbath on their broom
Besom broom
A besom broom is a traditionally constructed broom made of a bundle of twigs tied to a stouter pole. They are still made today and sold at gardening stores as an outdoor broom.- Construction :...
s with help of the ointment. Likely the riding of the broom has a different origin.
Some sources (such as The Botany of Desire
The Botany of Desire
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World is a 2001 nonfiction book by journalist Michael Pollan. This work explores the nature of domesticated plants from the dual perspective of humans and the plants themselves...
) have claimed that the ointment is absorbed best through mucous membranes, but henbane essential oil, for instance, blisters mucous membranes, so it is doubtful that it was applied to a stick that was inserted in the vagina
Vagina
The vagina is a fibromuscular tubular tract leading from the uterus to the exterior of the body in female placental mammals and marsupials, or to the cloaca in female birds, monotremes, and some reptiles. Female insects and other invertebrates also have a vagina, which is the terminal part of the...
. There is in fact only a single source that makes such an assertion, one that is not based on knowledge of the herbs themselves or on any historical evidence.
One possible key to how individuals dealt with the toxicity of the nightshades usually said to be part of flying ointments is through the antidotal reaction some of the solanaceous alkaloids have with the alkaloids of Papaver somniferum (opium poppy). This is discussed by Alexander Kuklin in his brief book, How Do Witches Fly? (DNA Press, 1999). This antagonism was utilized by the Eclectic movement of botanical medicine. For instance, King's American Dispensatory, an Eclectic materia medica, states in the entry on belladonna: "Belladonna and opium appear to exert antagonistic influences, especially as regards their action on the brain, the spinal cord, and heart; they have consequently been recommended and employed as antidotes to each other in cases of poisoning; this matter is now positively and satisfactorily settled; hence in all cases of poisoning by belladonna the great remedy is morphine, and its use may be guided by the degree of pupillary contraction it occasions."
The interaction between belladonna and poppy was made use of in the so-called "twilight sleep
Twilight sleep
Twilight sleep is an amnesic condition characterized by insensibility to pain without loss of consciousness, induced by an injection of morphine and scopolamine, especially to relieve the pain of childbirth...
" that was provided for women during childbirth
Childbirth
Childbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus...
beginning in the Edwardian era. Twilight sleep was a mixture of scopolamine, a belladonna alkaloid, and morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
, a Papaver
Papaver
Papaver is a genus of 70-100 species of frost-tolerant annuals, biennials, and perennials native to temperate and cold regions of Eurasia, Africa and North America. It is the type genus of the poppy family, Papaveraceae.-Description:...
alkaloid, that was injected and which furnished a combination of painkilling and amnesia for a woman in labor. A version is still manufactured for use as the injectable compound Omnopon.
There is no definite indication of the proportions of solanaceous herbs vs. poppy used in flying ointments, and most historical recipes for flying ointment do not include poppy.
Sources citing ointments
The use by witches of flying ointments was first described, according to known sources, by Johannes HartliebJohannes Hartlieb
Johannes Hartlieb was a physician of Late Medieval Bavaria, probably of a family from Neuburg an der Donau. He was in the employment of Louis VII of Bavaria and Albert VI of Austria in the 1430s, and of Albert III of Bavaria from 1440, and of the latter's son Sigismund from 1456.In 1444, he...
in 1456. It was also described by the Spanish theologist Alfonso Tostado in Super Genesis Commentaria (Venetia, 1507), whose commentary tended to accredit the thesis of the reality of the Witches' Sabbath.
Appearances in Fiction
- In Mikhail BulgakovMikhail BulgakovMikhaíl Afanásyevich Bulgákov was a Soviet Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which The Times of London has called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.-Biography:Mikhail Bulgakov was born on...
's The Master and MargaritaThe Master and MargaritaThe Master and Margarita is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, woven around the premise of a visit by the Devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics consider the book to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, and one of the foremost Soviet satires, directed against a...
, Margarita, after agreeing to act as hostess at Dr Woland'sWolandWoland is a fictional character in the book The Master and Margarita by the Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov. Woland is the mysterious foreigner and professor whose visit to Moscow sets the plot rolling and turns the world upside-down. He appears differently to different people. "[t]he first says...
ball, uses the ointment to become a witch and fly to the estate where the event is being held.
- In Clayton RawsonClayton RawsonClayton Rawson was an American mystery writer, editor, and amateur magician. His four novels frequently invoke his great knowledge of stage magic and feature as their fictional detective The Great Merlini, a professional magician who runs a shop selling magic supplies...
's Death from a Top HatDeath from a Top HatDeath from a Top Hat is a locked-room mystery novel written by Clayton Rawson.It is the first of four mysteries featuring The Great Merlini, a stage magician and Rawson's favorite protagonist....
, two recipes by Johann WeyerJohann WeyerJohann Weyer , was a Dutch physician, occultist and demonologist, disciple and follower of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. He was among the first to publish against the persecution of witches...
, a 16th-century demonologist, are given in a footnote:
- 1-Water hemlock, sweet flagSweet FlagAcorus calamus, commonly known as Sweet Flag or Calamus and erroneously as "rush" or "sedges", is a plant from the Acoraceae family, in the genus Acorus. It is a tall perennial wetland monocot with scented leaves and more strongly scented rhizomes...
, cinquefoil, bat's blood, deadly nightshadeDeadly nightshadeAtropa belladonna or Atropa bella-donna, commonly known as Belladonna, Devil's Berries, Death Cherries or Deadly Nightshade, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Solanaceae, native to Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. The foliage and berries are extremely toxic, containing tropane...
and oil. - 2-Baby's fat, juice of cowbane, aconiteAconiteAconite may refer to:*Aconitum, a plant genus containing the monkshoods*Aconitine, "the queen of poisons", a toxin derived from some of the Aconitum genus plants*Winter aconite, a plant in the genus Eranthis...
, cinquefoil, deadly nightshade and sootSootSoot is a general term that refers to impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of a hydrocarbon. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolyzed fuel particles such as cenospheres,...
.
- In the movie serial WarlockWarlock (1989 film)Warlock is a 1989 American cult horror film directed by Steve Miner, written by David Twohy and produced by Roger Corman. It was also produced by New World Pictures and distributed by Trimark Pictures. The cast includes Julian Sands, Lori Singer, and Richard E. Grant...
, the villain kills an unbaptised boy to get this "Flying Ointment".
- In Jodi PicoultJodi PicoultJodi Lynn Picoult is an American author. She was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for fiction in 2003. Picoult currently has some 14 million copies of her books in print worldwide.-Early life and education:...
's Salem FallsSalem FallsSalem Falls is a 2001 novel by Jodi Picoult about what happens to a person when he is given a label and not allowed to escape it.-Plot summary:Jack is a highly educated high school teacher at a private school for girls in New England...
, a group of four girls practicing witchcraft ingest a flying ointment made of belladonna. It has disastrous results for the main character of the story.
- In the book Calling on DragonsCalling on DragonsCalling on Dragons is a young adult fantasy novel by Patricia C. Wrede, third in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.-Plot summary:In this book, the witch Morwen is introduced in greater depth. She has been a fairly minor character in previous books, but Book Three is told from her perspective...
(Book three of the Enchanted Forest ChroniclesEnchanted Forest ChroniclesThe Enchanted Forest Chronicles is a series of four young adult fantasy novels by Patricia C. Wrede titled Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, and Talking to Dragons....
), the witch Morwen uses a flying potion on a straw basket and a broomstick, not on herself. Both objects perform their duties as expected.
- In E. L. KonigsburgE. L. KonigsburgElaine Lobl Konigsburg is an American author and illustrator of children's books and young adult fiction. She is one of five authors to win two Newbery Medals, awarded annually for one contribution to American children's literature.Her first two manuscripts were submitted to editor Jean E...
's Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, ElizabethJennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, ElizabethJennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, or Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth and Me in some editions, is a children's novel by E. L. Konigsburg. It was her first book published, in 1967, the same year as her second book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler...
, two characters try to make a flying ointment.