Table Of ContentTHE FLYING OINTMENT:
A MODERN EXAMINATION
Frater E.S. – A.A.O. In Class X
For Public Use & Discourse
DCCCLXXXVIII
This document is presented for
historical and educational purposes
only, alongside the potential for the
reduction of physical or mental harm.
Neither the author nor the A.A.O.
condone or partake in the use of any
psychoactive plants, legal or illegal,
which may or may not produce the
historical effects mentioned here.
Tropane alkaloids are known to be
extremely toxic and may result in
dizziness, headache, dry eyes and
mouth, loss of vision, sedation and
stupor, uncoordinated movement, fear,
anxiety, panic, confusion, intense
delirium, amnesia, blockade of sweat
glands, difficulty breathing, inability
to distinguish hallucinations from
reality, numbness and cardiac failure at
larger doses.
The techniques presented here should
not be attempted by anyone or under
any circumstances.
“The lady of moth and moon unfurls her shy and deadly petals. These
navigators of the midnight sea – occultists and poets and devotees
seeking after that which seduces them – are familiar with the dream of
intoxication that follows her scent. She is the woman in the song, the
night-blooming narcotic, gorgeous and strange. She is the horned
blossom, the guardian of the threshold, the keeper of madness.”
from Macbeth
In the poison'd entrails throw.— Witches' mummy; maw and gulf
Toad, that under cold stone, Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;
Days and nights has thirty-one; Root of hemlock digg'd i the
Swelter'd venom sleeping got, dark;
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot! Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Double, double toil and trouble; Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Fire burn, and caldron bubble. Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;
Fillet of a fenny snake, Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
In the caldron boil and bake; Finger of birth-strangled babe
Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,—
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Make the gruel thick and slab:
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
sting, For the ingredients of our
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,— caldron.
For a charm of powerful trouble, Double, double toil and trouble;
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble; Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Fire burn, and caldron bubble. Then the charm is firm and good.
Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
P R E L I M I N A R Y N O T E S
We encourage that this document be freely shared at the
practitioner’s leisure so as to both educate and safeguard those
interested in a working preparation of the so-called flying ointment.
Indeed, there exist many hazardous recipes claiming authenticity which
include such additives as foxglove, hemlock and others which result in
naught more than outright poisoning and at times, even death. On the
other side of the spectrum are some neo-pagan derivations which are so
far from the original plant components as to be called mere perfumes.
This document aims to distill and discard the many superstitions,
falsities and potential health risks inherent within such pursuits.
That said, a proper product is not without its dangers, as
nightshade-derived tropane alkaloids continue to serve as the primary
inebriant. We urge that the practitioner proceed with great caution
when attempting any such preparation as the possibility of overdose is a
very real one. It is true that by the technique of topical absorption the
risk may be somewhat dulled, though this is by no means a guarantee.
It should be clearly stated and understood that the ointment and
the ingestion of tropane-rich nightshades in general should not be
utilized as a recreational outlet of any sort and under any circumstances.
Those seeking hallucinations and other such psychedelic states shall
quickly find this avenue to be a poor one. Indeed, hallucinations of any
sort when using the ointment are a sure sign that the practitioner has
found himself on the thin threshold of a potentially adverse effect.
It is our wish that these warnings be gravely heeded before
proceeding, and that this document serve as a continued source of
information for any occultist daring enough to allow such plants into
his or her regular practice. One practitioner’s ally may quickly become
another’s painful downfall if caution and respect are nowhere given.
C H A P T E R O N E : T H E L O R E
Wherever there was found the Solanaceae, there was also
found their utilization in various forms of sorcery, shamanism
and witchcraft. Perhaps more so than any other family of plants,
the Solanaceae (Nightshades) have found themselves, for better
or worse, entangled within such traditions so firmly as to create
the thick air of superstition which maintains in trace amounts
even to this day, though particularly in Europe, where they are
still thought to attract cross spirits such as troublesome fairies,
gnomes and the like. Obviously, such ideas are dying out, and
most superstition has turned to the very real danger which the
ingestion of various forms of flowering nightshade (such as the
Datura) presents. For the time being, however, let us briefly
review the strange status which some of these plants have held.
For the purposes of our research, these would include
Datura, Brugmansia and Mandrake, though related domesticated
plants such as tobacco, tomato, potato and eggplant have
maintained a near-equal air of historical superstitious approach
likely due to their mere categorization as nightshades in
relation to the “witch’s allies”. Unrefined or “sacred” tobacco,
for one, was and remains the most often used shamanic drug the
world over, particularly in Native American communities,
although its status and natural form (and potency) have been
greatly altered due to selective breeding along with cultural
changes brought upon by the conquest of the new world.
Indeed, although Datura was known to have toxic
properties early on, the stigma seemed to be unfairly carried
over onto the tomato and potato, both of which were thought
to be poisonous for many years until the superstition was
debunked. They are now found as trusted additives to a
stupefying amount of recipes the world over. Fear of the
nightshade poison which was said to cause madness and death
was however, as we well know, only half of the story.
The other side of the nightshade stigma is found within
their long-time connection to various forms of sorcery.
Although the flying ointment was first described by Johannes
Hartlieb in 1456, the use of Datura and other alkaloid-rich
flowering nightshades predates the fabled salve by many
uncountable years, even going back to before written record, as
the use of Datura is explicitly mentioned in the Hindu Rig
Veda; one of the oldest written texts that we know of (between
1700–1100 BC). It is still used by some sects in India today as a
supposed gateway to Nirvana, though in some historic
Caribbean and other Vodoun-laden traditions it was used at
least in part to create “zombies” in an admixture of puffer-fish
venom and other ingredients. This practice of zombification has
likely ceased, though it would not surprise the author if some
variations were still utilized today. These opposing uses serve to
illustrate the role of Datura as either angel or devil depending
on its intended preparation, which oddly enough is likewise
mirrored within two of its more prominent labels – devil’s
weed and angel’s trumpet. It would appear that one man’s
nirvana is another man’s zombie, as far as Datura is considered.
WEREWOLF: ERGOT VS. THE NIGHTSHADES
Another interesting account is that of its use in traditional
Native American and Brujo (Mexican shamanism) practices,
which marks a likely original candidate for our modern
conceptions of the so-called werewolf, which we shall revisit
later. Indeed, the author is well aware of the popular theory
which attempts to link our conceptions of the werewolf to
some sparse accounts of rye fields being infected with the
fungus ergot (known in German as “the tooth of the wolf”) – a
precursor to LSD. In sufficient amounts, the infected rye and
the bread which was made of it may indeed have caused the
intoxication known as Ergotism, perhaps coupled by
hallucinations of the sort which would have caused a man to
think he was transforming into a wolf or other such animal
alongside the documented effects of maddened, irrational
behavior, much like rabies, which is usually, if it might provide
a further connection, contracted through the bite of an already
infected animal (much like the myths of lycanthropy).
Even though ergot, in German, translates to “tooth of the
wolf”, a most humble form of nightshade trumps the
connection by leaps and bounds in its lore and scientific naming
still used today: Lycopersicon esculentum, sometimes Solanum
lycopersicum, or in other words, the common tomato. This
naming stems from German folklore, which states that
members of the nightshade family, of which the tomato is
included, were used by witches to create werewolves. Linnaeus,
the man who coined the current scientific naming system of
binomial nomenclature, supposedly recalled this legend and gave
the tomato the name Lycopersicon esculentum, which translates
to “edible wolf-peach”. Unlike the sloppy appropriation of
ergot as the root of the werewolf myth, this much more ancient
lore regarding the use of nightshades as agents of shape-shifting
seems much more apt, as it may be directly found and mirrored
within many European, Native American and Brujo traditions
which had utilized Datura and related plants as purposeful agents
for animist transformation, otherwise known as Skinwalking.
By comparison, there is nowhere found except by mere
speculation the purposeful cultivation and use of ergot by any
indigenous society for the use of shamanic flight, shape-
shifting, totemic journey or otherwise. This is perhaps because
ergot arrives rather spontaneously and via fluctuating spore
distribution, as it is a fungus, and any reliable means of
cultivation would pale in comparison to the accessibility of
atropine-rich nightshades, such as Datura. Since many of these
shamanic societies were animistic and totemic in nature, it lends
even further credence to the importance of assuming a sacred or
spiritual animal form, and Datura holds ancient usage as such.
With this considered, it is the author’s opinion that the
werewolf myth as we know it had arrived via the handed down
accounts and early anthropological attempts of “civilized folk”
to record and take note of the bizarre shape-shifting attempts of
shamanic peoples who had utilized Datura as a transformative
agent. The legend was by result carried onto other members of
the nightshade family, of which the tomato is a member. Like
so many nightshade accounts, the superstitions attributed to one
member were unfairly planted upon all related members.
THE FLYING OINTMENT: A HALLOWEEN ICON
Aside the werewolf, there is one particular modern icon
which is seen every year upon the plastic candy-carrying
pumpkins and festive decorations of all shapes and variety which
links much more fluidly to the antiquated use of tropane-rich
nightshades, and in particular, the fabled flying ointment. This
would be the iconic and whimsical “witch on a broomstick”
which small children seem to be so fond of. The historical root
of the image, however, tells quite a different story.
While sparing the reader from the various other accounts
of nightshade superstition, we then cut to the desired chase,
which is the flying ointment itself. As was mentioned, and as far
as we know, the preparation itself was first mentioned by
Johannes Hartlieb in 1456, although with any such accounts, we
may quite easily assume that it had been in use and practice for
years uncounted. Indeed, the ointment itself shares remarkable
similarities to Native American and Brujo preparations which
involve the addition of Datura or related nightshades into a base
of animal fat which is then topically smeared upon the skin so
that the fat-soluble alkaloids are slowly but steadily absorbed
into the skin of the shaman or practitioner. This salve was
traditionally rubbed upon an area with high blood flow, and to
expedite the process, likely during activities of stimulation or
arousal. By this, we mean the male or female genitalia.
The increased blood flow and soft tissue of such bodily
regions were and remain the ideal location for any such topical
ointment. For men, the penis and testicular region in whole is
