flying ointment flying ointment flying ointment is a hallucinogenic ointment said to have been used by witches in the practice of european witchcraft from at least as far back as the early modern period, when detailed recipes for such preparations were first recorded and when their usage spread to colonial north america. preparation for the witches' sabbath by david teniers the younger. note on the left an older witch reading from a grimoire while anointing the buttocks of a young witch about to fly to the sabbath upon an inverted besom with a candle upon its twigs a witches' sabbath by frans francken the younger. note on extreme right pots of magic ointment and older witch applying ointment to back of naked younger witch name the ointment is known by a wide variety of names, including witches' flying ointment, green ointment, magic salve, or lycanthropic ointment. in german it was hexensalbe (lit. 'witch salve') or flugsalbe (lit. 'flying salve'). latin names included unguentum sabbati lit. 'sabbath unguent'), unguentum pharelis, unguentum populi (lit. 'poplar unguent') or unguenta somnifera (lit. 'sleeping unguent'). composition francis bacon (attributed as "lord verulam") listed the ingredients of the witches ointment as "the fat of children digged out of their graves, of juices of smallage, wolfe-bane, and cinque foil, mingled with the meal of fine wheat." ingredient: deadly nightshade, atropa belladonna ingredient: black henbane, hyoscyamus niger witches flying to the sabbath: capricho no. 68: linda maestra (pretty teacher) by francisco goya - from the series los caprichos unrelated to francis' account, poisonous ingredients listed in works on ethnobotany include: belladonna, henbane bell, jimson weed, black henbane, mandrake, hemlock, and/or wolfsbane, most of which contain atropine, hyoscyamine, and/or scopolamine. scopolamine can cause psychotropic effects when absorbed transdermally. these tropane alkaloids are classified as deliriants in regards to their psychoactive effects. extreme toxicity of active ingredients with the exception of potentilla reptans, the plants most frequently recorded as ingredients in early modern recipes for flying ointments are extremely toxic and have caused numerous fatalities when eaten, whether by confusion with edible species or in cases of criminal poisoning or suicide. the historian, occultist and theosophist carl kiesewetter of meiningen, author of geschichte des neueren occultismus in 1892 and die geheimwissenschaften, eine kulturgeschichte der esoterik in 1895, was one such casualty. bodily flight versus flight in spirit he little knows the devil who does believe that witches and wizards can be borne through the air at wondrous speed to far distant places and there hold revels, dances and suchlike with folk of the same type the mediaeval witch-ointments...brought visionary beings into the presence of the patient, transported him to the witches' sabbath, enabled him to turn into a beast. magic ointments...produced effects which the subjects themselves believed in, even stating that they had intercourse with evil spirits, had been at the sabbat and danced on the brocken with their lovers...the peculiar hallucinations evoked by the drug had been so powerfully transmitted from the subconscious mind to consciousness that mentally uncultivated persons...believed them to be reality. it has been a subject of discussion between clergymen as to whether witches were able physically to fly to the sabbath on their brooms with help of the ointment, or whether such 'flight' was explicable in other ways: a delusion created by the devil in the minds of the witches; the souls of the witches leaving their bodies to fly in spirit to the sabbath; or a hallucinatory 'trip' facilitated by the entheogenic effects of potent drugs absorbed through the skin. an early proponent of the last explanation was renaissance scholar and scientist giambattista della porta, who not only interviewed users of the flying ointment, but witnessed its effects upon such users at first hand, comparing the deathlike trances he observed in his subjects with their subsequent accounts of the bacchanalian revelry they had 'enjoyed'. body in coma and riding on beasts witches prepare a magic salve. note naked witch top left riding through the air mounted upon a goat. (woodcut, 1571) anointing themselves with certain unguents...they are carried by night through the air to distant lands to do certain black magic...but nothing of this is true, though they think it to be...while they are thus dead and cold, they have no more feeling than a corpse and may be scourged and burnt; but after the time agreed upon...their senses are liberated, they arise well and merry, relate what they have done, and bring news from other lands. dominican churchman bartolommeo spina of pisa gives two accounts of the power of the flying ointment in his tractatus de strigibus sive maleficis ('treatise on witches or evildoers') of 1525. the first concerns an incident in the life of his acquaintance augustus de turre of bergamo, a physician. while studying medicine in pavia as a young man, augustus returned late one night to his lodgings (without a key) to find no one awake to let him in. climbing up to a balcony, he was able to enter through a window, and at once sought out the maidservant, who should have been awake to admit him. on checking her room, however, he found her lying unconscious - beyond rousing - on the floor. the following morning he tried to question her on the matter, but she would only reply that she had been 'on a journey'. bartolommeo's second account is more suggestive and points toward another element in the witches' 'flights'. it concerns a certain notary of lugano who, unable to find his wife one morning, searched for her all over their estate and finally discovered her lying deeply unconscious, naked and dirty with her vagina exposed, in a corner of the pigsty. the notary 'immediately understood that she was a witch' (!) and at first wanted to kill her on the spot, but, thinking better of such rashness, waited until she recovered from her stupor, in order to question her. terrified by his wrath, the poor woman fell to her knees and confessed that during the night she had 'been on a journey'. light is cast on the tale of the notary's wife by two accounts widely separated in time but revealing a persistent theme in european witchcraft. the first is that of regino of prüm whose de synodalibus causis et disciplinis ecclesiasticis libri duo (circa 906 c.e.) speaks of women who 'seduced...by demons...insist that they ride at night on certain beasts together with diana, goddess of the pagans, and a great multitude of women; that they cover great distances in the silence of the deepest night...' 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