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Witches and magic plants
contents
- The cat - from the goddess to the devil
- The Unicorn
- Strigen and goat milking
- The black hen
- The Raven
- The devilish serpent
- The bat
- magic plants
- The mandrake
- monkshood
- The datura
- henbane
- witches mushrooms
The cat - from the goddess to the devil
The European wildcat was a symbol of physical love for Teutons: Freya, the goddess of sexuality, traveled in a chariot pulled by wild cats. Freyatag, Friday, was the wedding day, the chubby cats, unmistakable in their amusement, and it was just this connection to fertility that put the cats to a standstill in Christian times. The sexuality of the woman became the epitome of the work of Satan for the Christian clergy, the cat became his animal. The goddess Freya became the witch who committed her evil deeds in cat form.
Black cats are still being associated with impending events by many people. (Image: dicktraven / fotolia.com) The monk Berthold of Regensburg rushed against the cat: "The breath that comes out of her throat is plague; and when she drinks water and a tear falls from her eyes, the tear is spoiled: anyone who drinks from her henceforth experiences death. "
In the 13th century the devil appears as a black cat with fiery eyes. The blessed Dominic is said to have converted 1235 nine women possessed by the devil. This devil looked like this: "The eyes of this cat were like those of an ox, yes, they were like a flame; the animal stuck out the tongue, which was half a foot long and resembled a flame; it had a tail of almost half an arm's length and was as big as a dog; at the saint's command, it slipped through the hole left for the bell rope. "Even today, many believe that black cats have special qualities. Biologically, that's nonsense.
The English witches allegedly did not have black, but white spotted cats. Through these cats they practiced magic damage. In 1565, Agnes Waterhouse and her daughter and Elizabeth Francis were tried for witchcraft. This allegedly proved - a cat. Elizabeth's grandmother would have given the devil her blood; and she would give it to him in the form of a white-spotted cat. This animal would then have murdered her child and her lover. The grandmother donated the killer Agnes Waterhouse. Which in turn would have rushed the cat at her husband, and thus killed him - also a neighbor. Agnes Waterhouse was executed as a witch.
Cats feel when the rain comes and stroke their paws over their ears. Therefore, the English believed that they caused storms and thunderstorms. Agnes Sampson was therefore in court: "The witch has taken the cat into the church, she baptized her and tied her after several bones of a dead person. The bones had stolen her from the cemetery. Then the witch swung herself on her broom, took the cat in her arms and rushed far out into the sea. There she let go of the cat, which, to avoid falling into the water, unleashed a terrible storm. The storm threatened the city of Leith. "
The Unicorn
The most magical animal of the Middle Ages did not really exist, more precisely - not really. The Greek physician Ktesias wrote 400 BC. From a donkey in the country India. This animal should be wearing a horn on his purple head. The horn of this unicorn made all poisons harmless, as the Europeans believed in the Middle Ages. Alexander the Great should have ridden on such a unicorn.
The beast existed, of which everyone was convinced in the Middle Ages: no one ever saw it, but kings guards the winding horns like gold treasures. After all, they healed epilepsy, fever and just about everything else; a horn held in poison brought this to a boil. The Norwegian crown knew the animal. Not in far-off India, but in the sea off Greenland, the unicorns romped about - more precisely, the narwhals. These whales carry a tusk; and so did the Vikings flourish business. Their colonists in Greenland provided them with tusks of narwhal, and the supposed miracle horns were outweighed by gold many times over. Ole Worm, a naturalist from Denmark, discovered the dizziness in 1638.
The unicorn should be strong as an elephant; only a virgin could tame it. A penis symbol on the forehead made the chastity fantasy blossom. But what about the Indian unicorn, which supposedly fought with the elephant, a wild beast? Marco Polo already reported about this unicorn and his horn was found in the pharmacies of China? This unicorn really exists; and because of its supposedly healing horn it is about to die out. It has little to do with the beautiful horse. The Indian rhinoceros is rather a colossus. The unicorn may also have its origin in representations of the ancient Orient, which show antelopes in side view.
In addition, the Hebrew original was translated incorrectly in the Latin Bible. Unicornis, also seen from the side, is the auroch. Did the ancient cultures breed unicorns for religious reasons? If a calf, whose skull is not yet solidified, joins together the horny trunks, it will grow one horn - not two. Cattle were at the center of religion in Mesopotamia and Persia; and the magical thinking of Europe has a root here.
Strigen and goat milking
The owl is a witch - a Striga, at least its Latin name is Strix. A striga called the witch hunters of the early modern times a witch; and they referred to ancient Rome. There, the Strigen were demons that flew in the shape of birds at night in the houses and children sucked the blood, but also appeared as women - a stereotype of the subsequent magic damage.
Owls were always magically occupied, and at the same time ambivalent - birds of wisdom and knowledge, sensuality and healing. An eagle owl led the Germanic Odin's army through the night. But the owl also brought the plague; she announced death; and she worked as a scout for the witches. Already Ovid believed that owls kill children; and the banshee, the Irish banshee, cries out in the voice of the barn owl.
The "Kuwitt" of the Little Owl understood the humans of the early modern times as "Come with". So he called the dying to hell their souls. Sexually self-conscious women grew an "owl dress". But this was not only understood negatively: so sewed the Palatine owl feathers in the bridal gown to promote fertility.
The natural abilities of the owls promoted the superstition: owls fly at night - and they fly silently. Their eyes amplify the smallest amounts of light so that they look great on moonlit nights. The big eyes are aligned to the front - as in humans. Owls can not move them; instead they turn their heads up to 270 degrees. Barn owls also live in the places where even the spirits and witches bypass: in cemeteries and ruins. Until this day, farmers nailed them to barn doors.
Also the goat milker made entry into the witch beliefs. The insect eater, also called the night-swallow, is nocturnal like the owls. He flies very fast, and you only see a shadow whiz past. As an eerie animal he was therefore just as well as owl and bat. To this day, he carries his witch name, because people believed that he sucked the goats, sheep and cattle milk from the udder at night, more precisely: The witch turned into such a bird to steal the milk in such a way.
The black hen
Chickens were widespread in magic - probably because they existed everywhere. If a black hen put an egg without yolk, then it could be witched with it. Because such an egg was created by sex with a snake. The housewife threw the egg over the roof, so witches and devils could not harm the house.
The Raven
Ravens and crows are among the most intelligent birds. They plan and remember experiences; they put on pseudo-shelters to deceive their black relatives; they drop nuts at traffic lights so the cars crack them. To make matters worse, they are still black. No wonder then that they were considered magic birds.
In antiquity, they were regarded as a visionary. The raven "rattled," the future looked raven black for the Romans. The raven also feeds on carrion. That brought him near the necromancer. A raven on the roof of a dying man announced in Germany that his soul was damned. The Germanic skalds were considered death birds, but the god of death was also Odin; the ravens were bleak, but not evil. Hugin - think, and Munin - remember, knowledge drew the ravens, and the Vikings carried tame ravens on their ships with them.
Ravens were considered evidence of witchcraft. 1656 stood Anna Thony as a witch in court. Her guilt was proved by a raven who would have sat on her shoulder. The poor woman confessed under torture and was beheaded.
Plague, hunger and war: the early modern era was a time of desperation. People and rulers craved to find the "cause" of evil. The "smart" raven was actually offering. Raven swarms accompanied the Grim Reaper, they flew ahead of the plague; they nest on the Galgenberg, where the witches meet, and a "Rabenaas" was a rotting corpse.
The devilish serpent
Dragons are hybrid creatures that combine skills and body parts of reptiles, birds and mammals. Mostly they are predators. For example, Chinese dragons have elements of snake, carp, bovine, deer antlers and tiger paws. European kites connect snake bodies with bat wings. Both in Europe and in Asia, the body is covered by dandruff like a reptile. The heads are reminiscent of crocodiles, snakes, wolves or big cats. Some kites have wings, the Chinese kites fly without such aids, some have six legs, others four, others only two. Dragons spit fire or trigger tidal waves. European dragons often have a split tongue and a poisonous breath.
The animal that most characterizes the dragon is the snake. Many dragons are barely distinguishable from monstrously distorted snakes. In Europe, this even shows in the root word. The dragons of Greek antiquity are mostly a kind of snakes, so Python in Delphi. The strangling song Python is named after him, not the other way around. The many heads and necks of the Hydra are also serpents. Often these dragons guard treasures, in caves and under the earth.
In Christianity, the snake is the lowest animal, condemned to crawl on its stomach. The serpent is a symbol of the devil; even though the dragon in Christian depictions is provided with various attributes of the "ugly" such as bat wings and frog eyes, these remain variants of the snake theme. An important Christian myth, that of St. George, who defeats the dragon, shows the struggle between good and evil, God and the devil.
In Europe, there are no big strangling snakes and the model is to be seen in the venomous snakes, the adder, the aspis viper, the mountain otter and allied species. On the hot Mediterranean, where the term dragon, meaning snake, comes from, poisonous snakes are common. Their way of life allows conclusions to the dragon myth: dragons live in caves and guard hidden treasures; Snakes also hide in caves, crevices, under roots, etc. In the winter stagnation, they gather there too many; Red otters form so-called serpent knots.
The snake's sloughing connected them with the cycles of life in nature; this could be an indication of why dragons are at the beginning of world order.
The European snakes are not "dragons" in size, but some of their "poison odor", their poisonous bite. Who enlarges them a lot, has created a dragon. In Asia, also in China, however, live snakes in dragon size, which have their name of a dragon, net and the tiger python. The net python wrestles with the anaconda of South America for the place of the largest living snake. The Tiger Python is only a little smaller. Adult animals of both species can easily strangle and devour deer, young water buffalo or goats. Even a human being would not be a problem for her digestive tract. For Asian tales, in which dragons fall on elephants, was probably the Python role model. However, to develop a kite out of the python requires little exaggeration. At least the descriptions in the European Middle Ages of the dragons of India strangling animals and humans are clearly based on pythons.
The bat
In superstition and horror movies, bats accompany the witch. Alfred Edmund Brehm wrote in "Animal Life": "From all the cracks, holes and caves creeps the gloomy, nocturnal flock of bats, as they should not show themselves in the light of the sun [...]. The more the twilight falls, the greater the number of these dark fellows, until on the approaching night all have become alert. "And he quavered:" With the bat's flying skin he [the priest] spit on the devil, the greatest miscarriage of morbid delusion . "
Fear of the dark, to which human eyes are unadapted, remains - even with knowledge of bats. Caves that avoid humans are the refuge of the bat. Humans are also cemeteries; Bats feel at ease where people bury their dead. Bats awaken as soon as people dream, in places that also reflect the unconscious.
We learn from Brehm why the bat offered itself as a fabulous monster: "The stay of the bats in the dark, the mouse-like [...], the airports, as well as [...] the facial expression [mediate] something uncanny, [...]. While the good spirits appear with wings of the dove, they designed [...] demons with the wings of the bat. Lindwurm and Drachen had [...] borrowed their wings from the bat, as the caricature of the devil with bat wings or the army of evil spirits [...] appear in the form of bats today. [...] Considering their great utility, the bats [...] appear as a friendly, invigorating appearance of the silent landscape. "Brehm described the appearance of the bats in 1864:" In the overall formation they agree [...] with monkeys. "[...]. Her hands are transformed into flying tools, [...] of all the features the skin's [...] development is the strangest, because it causes [...] the facial expression and thus the cause that many bat faces have a monstrous appearance. "
After Brehm, the bat resembled the monkey. Her hands (sic!) Are flying tools, her skin looks like a monster. About monkeys we learn from Brehm: "Our aversion to the apes is based [...] on their talents. They are too much and too little for humans. "
A bat flies as a caricature of man in the dark. It is a grotesque image. Bats carry the head upright. An animal resembling a monkey, able to see and fly at night, caused a shudder; an animal similar to humans - but with inhuman abilities.
magic plants
The cauldron, in which the Maleficia brews their potions, belongs to the belief in witches like the ice to the Arctic. The people of the Middle Ages knew the effect of medicinal and poisonous plants and interpreted them magically. The dose makes the poison, even in the scientific sense - and the line between white and black magic, between healing and harm, was permeable.
Magic plants helped against witchcraft. Vervain repelled curses, Elderberry helped against the demons. Evil spirits expelled people with juniper. Garlic, wild garlic, valerian, fennel and dill were weapons against the devils who brought disease. Sage kept her at a distance from the dying. The gauchheil was considered as a remedy against the Lyssa and should drive out the devil. The belladonna (belladonna) was also known as a medicinal plant against rabies. Their root was excavated on St. John's Day.
Both in the accusation that the witches used a fly ointment and in ointments, with which werewolves should rub their metamorphosis, hallucinogenic plants were found. He should become a wolf who put on a wolf skin or rubbed his skin with an ointment of wolf fat, poppy, Christmas rose or datura.
Psychogenic plants are common in shamanic rituals to this day: the liana ayahuasca, the peyotl cactus with the alkaloid mescaline, datura, tobacco smoke, juniper, sage, rosemary or raspberry are considered as teacher plants and as a residence of spirits. They do not have the meaning in the shamanic ritual that hippies or Goa techno disciples suspect. Many shamans reject these means of influencing the consciousness and get into their condition by concentration alone.
Spiritual practitioners as well as the sick can fall into a kind of "fake death". The trance of the shaman, and the obsession of the voodoo trailer is based on such conditions, enhanced by opium, belladonna, henbane or fly agaric. Henbane can lead to rigidity, in which the unconscious is alive. Shamans consider their spiritual journey into the world of ancestral spirits a passing death. Her body lies motionless while her other self travels the invisible dimension. It is very likely that a basic motive of the Snow White fairy tale is based on such rituals: Let us replace the apple that Snow White bites, and which she gets from a witch, for example, by toadstool and limit sleep to one day we the little death of the shaman.
The mandrake is one of the most famous "magical" plants. (Image: FRÜH / fotolia.com) The mandrake
The mandrake, Mandragora, we know from Harry Potter as a screaming homunculus. The mandrake root has a human-like shape, with some fantasy: two legs and two arms. Not the sale of the mandrake root, which also gave Hildegard von Bingen magical power due to its remotely reminiscent of a human form, was the fraud. The trick was to carve roots other than mandrakes; "Alraundelberin" means witch or magic woman. The Russians believed that a child would jump out of the root.
The scholars knew about the effect of the plant. Albertus Magnus wrote about her numbing quality. Hildegard von Bingen saw the inner state of the believer as decisive for the effect: "For which reason man, according to his wishes, is aroused by the Mandragora, just as he once did with the idols." The naturalist Conrad Gessner described the nightshade. Plant as "herb, which the land-drivers talk about". In Italy, she was considered "Mistress of all witchcraft".
monkshood
The poisonous iron hat was the means to kill wolves and dogs. Witches should use them to evil spells and thus kill their victims. In Poland it was called hell herb, in Germany dead flower or devil herb.
The datura
"Magical" plants were sometimes real poisonous plants, especially the nightshade. The common datura not only triggers hallucinations, it can threaten life. Even today, the popular names for him refer to its importance as a magical plant: Gullwede, witchwort and devil's apple.
henbane
Henbane should also mix witches into their potions. The "toothy weed" is anesthetizing in small doses. Today it occurs only rarely, but was widespread in Europe in the early modern period. It also served to stretch the wine and the beer. Freaks claim that the German Purity Law for beer has been issued to get the "Bilsen" from the beer. There is no evidence for that. Henbane causes daydreams. Fantasies of witchcraft and sexual intercourse with the devil may have been compounded by this drug.
witches mushrooms
A mushroom ring is still called Hexenkreis or Hexenring today. The toadstool with red hat and white spots looks impressive - and it creates hallucinations. No wonder he was considered a witch's mushroom. To date, our pictures of toadstool are contradictory. Children in the countryside learn that the fly agaric contains deadly poison: white tubers are much more dangerous.
New Age gurus claim that the church demonized the fly agaric because shamans traveled with it into the unseen world. This can not be proven; It can be proved, however, that the toadstool in Eurasia played a significant role in shamanic rituals and still plays: Siberian shamans drank the urine of reindeer who had eaten the mushrooms. The toadstool contains Muscimol, this substance changes the consciousness and produces hallucinations.
Ergot, Claviceps purpurea, is the name given to an ascomycota fungus that parasitizes rye, other crops and grass. The symptoms, ergotism, cramps and paralysis follow on eating cereals that the fungus infects. Hallucinations are a side effect, resembling the horror images of witchcraft. Mass epidemics of the Middle Ages can be explained with ergot. Bread, baked from poisoned flour, claviceps in the straw and hay, the sleeping place and the cattle shed - the toadstool was part of everyday life. Like heroin, the fungus develops its effect through inhalation. Mowing and threshing distributed the parasite, the villagers inhaled Claviceps. Agricultural historians assume that one-third of the grain was affected by ergot.
The psychologist Linda Carporael suspected ergot behind the witch hysteria and examined the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Eight girls told then that they were animals and monsters. They accused locals of having bewitched them. Eighteen of those denounced were sentenced to death. Then the symptoms stopped. Carporael explained the climate at the time of the witch trial as ideal for the spread of the fungus. Rye, his chief host, was the most important crop in New England. The girls went crazy in winter after the peasants threshed the grain.
Folk names for different mushrooms still indicate that they were thought together with witches: witch's butter, witch's pipe and Satan's mushroom.
The witch researcher Christa Tuczay from Vienna intensely researched drugs in the magic concepts of the early modern period: She considers it clear that drug addiction flowed into the notions of witchcraft. However: "What exactly the humans ate, can not be derived from the sources."
Especially positivist physicians suspect ergot poisoning as the trigger of the witch craze. The "little ice age" of the early modern times had given him excellent conditions. Ergotism does not explain the belief in witches, but it could have been a catalyst for mass psychosis associated with witchcraft. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)
Initial release: Witches and magic plants in Carbuncle Codex No. 12/2014
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Hiller, Helmut: Encyclopedia of superstition. Süddeutscher Verlag GmbH. Munich 1986.
Rosenbohm, Alexandra: Marburg Studies on Ethnology. Hallucinogenic drugs in shamanism. Myth and Ritual in Cultural Comparison. Berlin 1991.
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Stewart T., Caroline: The emergence of the werewolf faith. In: Bolte, Johannes (ed.): Journal of the Folklore Society. Founded by Karl Weinhold. 19th year. Berlin 1909. p. 30-49.