Hallowe'en Season - Witches Brew

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Hi Guys,

Continuing with our Hallowe'en themed posts, and carrying on from the Flora Friday's Mandrake post, I have decided to look at a concoction referred to as Witches Brew.

Also known as:
  • Witches' flying ointment
  • Green ointment
  • Magic Slave
  • Lycanthropic Salve
  • Hexensalbe (German) translates as Witches Salve
  • Flugsalbe (German) Translates as flying salve
  • Unguentum sabbati (Latin) translates as Sabbath Unguent
  • unguentum pharelis (Latin) translation unsure 
  • unguentum populi (Latin) translates as poplar unguent
  • unguenta somnifera (Latin) translates as sleeping unguent

Ingredients are said to vary between those who documented its use in the Late Middle-ages, but are said to include:

  • The fat of a babe from its grave
  • Meal of fine wheat
  • Smallage (a type of celery)
  • Cinque-foil
  • Wolf's bane (Aconite - toxic)
  • Mandrake  - toxic
  • Belladonna - toxic
  • Hemlock - toxic
  • Jimson Weed (Devil's Snare - toxic)
  • Black Henbane - toxic
  • Henbane Bell - toxic
Due to the toxic nature of this brew, it is NOT RECOMMENDED that you try this at home.

When applied as a salve, usually inserted into the vagina via an object such as a broom handle, it has a psychotropic effect that leads one to believe that they are variously meeting the Devil, shapeshifting or flying. This is, in my opinion, where the myth that witches fly on broomsticks stems from.

Anything we have left out or got wrong, please let us know in the comments below.

Kerenza x


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