It is commonly believed that Early Modern women accused of being witches, made ointments from local plants containing powerful psychoactive agents, which caused hallucinations of flight and other supernatural events. These videos examine the history of the hallucinogenic flying ointment narrative, and present evidence discrediting the myth of witches’ hallucinogens.
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Bever, Edward. “‘Postmodernist, Deconstruct Thyself’: A Response to Michael Ostling’s “Babyfat and Belladonna: Witches’ Ointment and the Contestation of Reality”.” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 11.2 (2016): 249–63. https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2016.0017.
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Bott, Rachel. “To Blåkulla They Flew: An Analysis of the Child’s Sabbath Narrative during the Swedish Witch Hunts.” Honors, University of Texas, 2018.
Bradshaw, Lisa. “Congo to Request Return of Famous Ishango Bone.” Text. The Bulletin, 23 November 2021. https://www.thebulletin.be/congo-request-return-famous-ishango-bone.
Briggs, Robin. “‘By the Strength of Fancie’: Witchcraft and the Early Modern Imagination.” Folklore 115.3 (2004): 259–72.
Carruthers, David M.J. “Lines of Flight of the Deadly Nightshade: An Enquiry into the Properties of the Magical Plant, Its Literature and History.” Mosaic 48.2 (2015): 119–32. https://doi.org/10.1353/mos.2015.0025.
Clifton, Chas S. “If Witches No Longer Fly: Today’s Pagans and the Solanaceous Plants.” POME 13.10 (2012): 17–23. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v13i10.17.
———. “Witches Still Fly: Or Do They? Traditional Witches, Wiccans, and Flying Ointment.” Pages 223–43 in Magic and Witchery in the Modern West: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of “The Triumph of the Moon.” Edited by Shai Feraro and Ethan Doyle White. Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15549-0_11.
Donno, D, G.L Beccaro, A.K Cerutti, M.G Mellano, and G Bounous. “Bud Extracts as New Phytochemical Source for Herbal Preparations — Quality Control and Standardization by Analytical Fingerprint.” Phytochemicals: Isolation, Characterisation and Role in Human Health. Edited by Rao Venketeshwer and Leticia Rao. IntechOpen Book Series. InTech, 2015.
Doyle White, Ethan. “The Life of Margaret Alice Murray: A Woman’s Work in Archaeology, Written by Kathleen L. Sheppard.” Aries 16.1 (2016): 154–56. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700593-01501015.
Even-Ezra, Ayelet. “Cursus: An Early Thirteenth-Century Source for Nocturnal Flights and Ointments in the Work of Roland of Cremona.” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 12.3 (2017): 314–30. https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2017.0034.
———. “Cursus: An Early Thirteenth-Century Source for Nocturnal Flights and Ointments in the Work of Roland of Cremona.” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 12.3 (2017): 314–30. https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2017.0034.
Fatur, Karsten. “‘Hexing Herbs’ in Ethnobotanical Perspective: A Historical Review of the Uses of Anticholinergic Solanaceae Plants in Europe.” Econ Bot 74.2 (2020): 140–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-020-09498-w.
Fatur, Karsten, Matjaž Ravnikar, Vitjan Fras, and Samo Kreft. “Pipes and Potions: Testing the Efficacy of European Folk Preparation Methods for Anticholinergic Solanaceae Plants.” Plants 11.1 (2022): art. 1, p. 126. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11010126.
Ferraro, Shai, and Ethan Doyle White, eds. Magic and Witchery in the Modern West: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of ’the Triumph of The. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Gannon, Megan. “A Bewitching History: Why Witches Ride Broomsticks.” Livescience.Com, 30 October 2013. https://www.livescience.com/40828-why-witches-ride-broomsticks.html.
Geeta, R., and Waleed Gharaibeh. “Historical Evidence of Datura in the Old World and Implications for a First Millennium Transfer from the New World.” Journal of Biosciences 32 (2008): 1227–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-007-0132-y.
Harper, Clive. “The Witches’ Flying-Ointment.” Folklore 88.1 (1977): 105–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1977.9716057.
Hatsis, Thomas. The Witches’ Ointment: The Secret History of Psychedelic Magic. Simon and Schuster, 2015.
Henningsen, Gustav. “The Witches’ Flying and the Spanish Inquisitors, or How to Explain (Away) the Impossible [1]: Research Article.” Folklore 120.1 (2009): 57–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/00155870802647833.
Institoris, Heinrich, and Jakob Sprenger. The Malleus Maleficarum. Translated by Montague Summers. Manchester University Press, 2007.
Jonasson, Michael, and Reza Afshari. “Chronicle of Datura Toxicity in the 18th and 19th Century.” Asia Pacific Journal of Medical Toxicology 5.4 (2016): 101–6. https://doi.org/10.22038/apjmt.2016.8134.
Kohnen-Johannsen, Kathrin, and Oliver Kayser. “Tropane Alkaloids: Chemistry, Pharmacology, Biosynthesis and Production.” Molecules 24.4 (2019): 796. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24040796.
Kroll, David. “The Origin Of Witches Riding Broomsticks: Drugs From Nature, Plus Shakespeare.” Forbes, 31 October 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkroll/2017/10/31/the-origin-of-witches-riding-broomsticks-drugs-from-nature-plus-shakespeare/.
Mann, John. Murder, Magic, and Medicine. Oxford University Press, 2000.
Mathers, S. L. MacGregor. The Sacred Magic Of Abramelin The Mage. Dover Publications, 1975.
Mesler, Katelyn. “The Latin Encounter with Hebrew Magic.” The Routledge History of Medieval Magic. Edited by Sophie Page and Catherine Rider. Routledge, 2019.
Michael, Coby. The Poison Path Herbal: Baneful Herbs, Medicinal Nightshades, and Ritual Entheogens. Simon and Schuster, 2021.
Musgrave, John Brent, Houran, James. “Flight and Abduction in Witchcraft and UFO Lore.” Psychol Rep Psychological Reports 86.2 (2000): 669–88.
Norri, Juhani. Dictionary of Medical Vocabulary in English, 1375–1550: Body Parts, Sicknesses, Instruments, and Medicinal Preparations. Routledge, 2016.
Ostling, Michael. “Anti-Anti-Culturalism: A Response to Edward Bever’s ‘Culture Warrior.’” Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural 5.2 (2016): 237–41. https://doi.org/10.5325/preternature.5.2.0237.
———. “Babyfat and Belladonna: Witches’ Ointment and the Contestation of Reality.” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 11.1 (2016): 30–72. https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2016.0008.
———. “Introduction to the Special Issue: How (and Why) Do Witches Fly?” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 11.1 (2016): 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2016.0004.
———. “The Witches’ Ointment: The Secret History of Psychedelic Magic by Thomas Hatsis.” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 12.2 (2017): 271–74. https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2017.0031.
Östling, Per-Anders. “Blåkulla Journeys in Swedish Folklore.” Nordic Yearbook of Folklore. Vol. 62. Almqvist & Wiksell., 2006.
Penicka, Sarah. “Caveat Anoynter! : A Study of Flying Ointments and Their Plants.” The Dark Side: Proceedings of the Seventh Australian and International Religion, Literature and the Arts Conference, 2002. Edited by Christopher Hartney and Andrew McGarrity. Sydney: RLA Press, 2004.
Piomelli, Daniele, and Antonino Pollio. “In Upupa o Strige. A Study in Renaissance Psychotropic Plant Ointments.” History of Philosophy of the Life Sciences 16 (1994): 33.
Pruitt, Sarah. “Why Do Witches Ride Brooms? The History Behind the Legend.” History, 19 October 2020. https://www.history.com/news/why-witches-fly-on-brooms.
Pumfrey, Stephen. “Potts, Plots and Politics: James I’s Daemonologie and The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches.” The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories. Edited by Robert Poole. Manchester University Press, 2002.
Soni, Priyanka, Anees Ahmad Siddiqui, Jaya Dwivedi, and Vishal Soni. “Pharmacological Properties of Datura Stramonium L. as a Potential Medicinal Tree: An Overview.” Asian Pac J Trop Biomed 2.12 (2012): 1002–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2221-1691(13)60014-3.
St. Clare, Lisa Dawn. “As the Crone Flies:The Imagery of Women as Flying Witches in Early Modern Europe.” University of Oklahoma, 2016.
Walker, William T., and H. Sidky. “Witchcraft, Lycanthropy, Drugs, and Disease: An Anthropological Study of the European Witch-Hunts.” Sixteenth Century Journal 30.2 (1999): 563. https://doi.org/10.2307/2544763.
Wilson, Leigh. “Modernism and the Occult by John Bramble (Review).” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 12.2 (2017): 274–77. https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2017.0032.
