Atropa belladonna: Witch Culture and other uses in Middle Age Europe

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Atropa belladonna Witch Culture and other uses
in Middle Age Europe

• Marc Seguin

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Rise of Paganism ?14th 15th Century

• Tightly bound to heresy
• Rebellion against the church and struggle for
  beliefs beyond its boarders
• Any challenge to church also seen as challenge to
  order of society and His majesty society
  responded
• One who worshipped the Christian Devil must first
  be a Christian

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• First flourished in the wealthy lowlands where
  heresy was strong and spread to mountainous
  regions of Toulouse and Paris
• Alps acted as a refuge
• Mainly poor, illiterate people a large
  proportion of them unmarried womenPlagues,
  Loneliness?

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A. Belladonna Deadly Nightshade

• Widely distributed over central and southern
  Europe
• Belong to the Solonaceae
• Mainly in disturbed site, calcareous soils
• Perennial
• Grows up to 5 feet tall when mature
• Flowers dark purple, berries form in September
  and turn blackseemingly pleasing to children
• Gerard banish therefore these perennial
  plants out of your gardens and all places neare
  your houses where children do resort

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• The name arose from the following story
• The plants belong to the Devil who tends and
  trims them every dayexcept one. This day is
  known as Walpugis, preparation day for the
  witches Sabbat.
• Every year on this day the plant takes on the
  form of an enchantress exceedingly beautiful
  but deadly to look upon
• or from Italian women doucing their eyes with it

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• Atropa comes from the Greek Atropos one of the
  3 fates who held the shears which cut the thread
  of human life
• Deadly nightshade contains Hyoscyamine and
  Atropinepolymers of each other
• Roots are used most frequently berries are
  actually the least potent part of the plant

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Finallythe good stuff

• The notorious flying ointment most accounts
  point to belladonna as one of the prime
  constituents of this salve conjured to convey
  witches to the Sabbat
• Ingredients
• Parsley, Hemlock, water of Aconite, Poplar
  leaves, Soot, Bats Blood, Belladonna, Henbane,
  and Hasish

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Inquisitions and Witch Hunts

• Somewhere between 40 ? 50,000 people executed
  estimated by male historians citing
  political/religous motives
• Some estimates range up to 9 million by some
  female historians blaming sociological reasons
• Political reasons gatherings viewed as a
  semi-organized preparation for a massive uprising
  of common people over government rule
• Religious reasons devil worship posed a serious
  heretical threat to the church
• Sociological reasons male-dominated society
  attempted to rid themselves of uncontrollable
  women afraid of intellectual superiority
• Torture cannot be ignored as the means of
  wrongful conviction and control of society over
  impoverished peoples
• The first real form of substance control??

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Switching GearsWerewolves

• Lycanthopy belief that one can change himself
  into a wolf or other predatory animal
• Naranjo I wasnt a fish anymore, but a big
  cat, a tiger. I walked, though, feeling the same
  freedom I had experienced as a bird and fish,
  freedom of movement, flexibility and grace. I
  moved as a tiger in the jungle, joyously, feeling
  the ground under my feet, feeling my power my
  chest grew larger. I then approached an animal.
  I only saw its neck, and then experienced what a
  tiger feels when looking at its prey
• Observations made during these trials describe
  symptoms that closely resemble clinical effects
  of atropine (dryness of throat, mouth, difficulty
  swallowing, thirst and impared vision)

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• Church Inquisitor (Pierre Bourgot, 1521) admitted
  to having tried a certain ointment, transformed
  into a wolf for one or two hours in this state
  physically attacked, murdered, and consumed body
  parts
• - the ingredients of this ointment were
  belladonna, henbane, aconite, opium, and hashish

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• Peter Stump executed in 1590 for werewolfism
  confessed that the Devil bestowed a fur girdle
  upon him.
• - similar accounts also suggest this first they
  anoint themselves then the Devil covers them in
  wolf skin only to run around the countryside on
  hands and knees chasing animal or man.whichever
  their appetite prefered.
• -Imprisoned individuals were not about to
  exemplify these accounts declared they could not
  without access to the ointment

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• So is this the same ointment? The same
  constituents?
• Bouguet (1602) declared that this was the same
  salve used by witches to attend the Sabbat as
  that used for the werewolf transformation.
• Modern explanations expectations and desires
  influence of immediate environment use of
  broomstick or cloak of wolf skinall powerful
  tactile, suggestive devices

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References

• Adams, Francis, 1844. The Seven Books of Paulus
  Aegineta. Translated from the Greek. Sydenham
  Society, London.
• Baroja, Julio C., 1961, The World of Witches. The
  University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
• Castaneda, Carlos, 1969. The Teachings of Don
  Juan A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. Berkley and Los
  Angeles University of California Press,
  California.
• Davies, Owen, 1999, Witchcraft, Magic and Culture
  1736-1951. Manchester University Press, New York.
  
• Gerard, John. The Herbal or General History of
  Plants, 1633 Revised Enlarged by Thomas
  Johnson. Dover Publications Inc., New York, 1975
• Grieve, M., 1971. A Modern Herbal. Dover
  Publications Inc., New York
• Harner, Michael J., 1973. Hallucinogens and
  Shamanism. Oxford University Press, New York.
• Kreig Margaret, 1966. Green Medicine. The Search
  for Plants That Heal. Bantham, New York
• Porta, Giovanni, 1957. Natural Magic. Translated
  from Italian edition of 1589. Basic Books, New
  York.
• Rodker, John, 1929. An Examen of Witches. Barnes
  and Noble Inc, New York
• Russell, Jeffrey B., 1972. Witchcraft in the
  Middle Ages. Cornell University Press Ltd. London
• Schultes, Richard, 1979. Plants of the Gods.
  McGraw-Hill, England
• Tompkins, Peter, 1973. The Secret Life of Plants.
  Harper Row Publishers, New York