![Hexensabbat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Hexensabbat.jpg)
A Witches' Sabbath is a purported gathering of those believed to practice
witchcraft
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...
and other
ritual
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...
s. The phrase became popular in the 20th century.
Origins
![La Danse du Sabbat (no caption)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/La_Danse_du_Sabbat_%28no_caption%29.jpg)
In 1668,
Johannes Praetorius published his literary work "Blockes-Berges Verrichtung", which has the subtitle "Oder Ausführlicher Geographischer Bericht/ von den hohen trefflich alt- und berühmten Blockes-Berge: ingleichen von der Hexenfahrt/ und Zauber-Sabbathe/ so auff solchen Berge die Unholden aus gantz Teutschland/ Jährlich den 1. Maij in Sanct-Walpurgis Nachte anstellen sollen". As indicated by the subtitle, Praetorius attempted to give a "Detailed Geographical Account of the highly admirable ancient and famous
Blockula
Blockula (Blåkulla in modern Swedish, translated to "Blue Hill") was a legendary island where the Devil held his Earthly court during a witches' Sabbath. It was described as containing a massive meadow with no visible end, and a large house wh ...
, also about the witches' journey and magic sabbaths".
Emergence in the 20th century
Prior to the late 19th century, it is difficult to locate any English use of the term ''sabbath'' to denote a gathering of witches. The phrase is used by
Henry Charles Lea in his ''History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages'' (1888). Writing in 1900, German historian
Joseph Hansen who was a correspondent and a German translator of Lea's work, frequently uses the shorthand phrase ''hexensabbat'' to interpret medieval trial records, though any consistently recurring term is noticeably rare in the copious Latin sources Hansen also provides (see more on various Latin synonyms, below). Lea and Hansen's influence may have led to a broader use of the shorthand phrase, including in English.
Prior to Hansen, German use of the term also seems to have been rare and the compilation of German folklore by
Jakob Grimm
Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm's law of linguistics, the co-author of th ...
in the 1800s (''Kinder und HausMärchen, Deutsche Mythologie'') seems to contain no mention of ''hexensabbat'' or any other form of the term ''sabbat'' relative to fairies or magical acts. The contemporary of Grimm and early historian of witchcraft, WG Soldan also doesn't seem to use the term in his history (1843).
A French connection
In contrast to German and English counterparts, French writers (including Francophone authors writing in Latin) occasionally did use the term and there would seem to be roots to inquisitorial persecution of the
Waldensians
The Waldensians (also known as Waldenses (), Vallenses, Valdesi or Vaudois) are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation.
Originally known as the "Poor Men of Lyon" in ...
. In 1124, the term ''inzabbatos'' is used to describe the Waldensians in Northern Spain. In 1438 and 1460, seemingly related terms ''synagogam'' and ''synagogue of Sathan'' are used to describe Waldensians by inquisitors in France. These terms could be a reference to Revelation 2:9. ("I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the
synagogue of Satan
In the letters to the early Christian churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9, reference is made to a synagogue of Satan ( gr, συναγωγή τοῦ Σατανᾶ, ''synagoge tou satana''), in each case referring to a g ...
.") Writing in Latin in 1458, Francophone author
Nicolas Jacquier applies ''synagogam fasciniorum'' to what he considers a gathering of witches.
About 150 years later, near the peak of the witch-phobia and the persecutions which led to the execution of an estimated 40,000-100,000 persons, with roughly 80% being women, the
Francophone writers still seem to be the only ones using these related terms, although still infrequently and sporadically in most cases.
Lambert Daneau
Lambert Daneau (c. 1530 – c. 1590) was a French jurist and Calvinist theologian.
Life
He was born at Beaugency-sur-Loire, and educated at Orléans. He studied Greek under Adrianus Turnebus, and then law in Orléans from 1553. He moved to Bourges ...
uses ''sabbatha'' one time (1581) as ''Synagogas quas Satanica sabbatha''. Nicholas Remi uses the term occasionally as well as ''synagoga'' (1588).
Jean Bodin
Jean Bodin (; c. 1530 – 1596) was a French jurist and political philosopher, member of the Parlement of Paris and professor of law in Toulouse. He is known for his theory of sovereignty. He was also an influential writer on demonology.
Bodi ...
uses the term three times (1580) and, across the channel, the Englishman
Reginald Scot
Reginald Scot (or Scott) ( – 9 October 1599) was an Englishman and Member of Parliament, the author of '' The Discoverie of Witchcraft'', which was published in 1584. It was written against the belief in witches, to show that witchcraft di ...
(1585) writing a book in opposition to witch-phobia, uses the term but only once in quoting Bodin (The Puritan
Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter (12 November 1615 – 8 December 1691) was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymnodist, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he ...
writing much later (1691) also uses the term only once in the exact same way–quoting Bodin. Other witch-phobic English Puritans who were Baxter's contemporaries, like
Increase and
Cotton Mather (1684, 1689, 1692), did not use the term, perhaps because they were
Sabbatarians
Sabbatarianism advocates the observation of the Sabbath in Christianity, in keeping with the Ten Commandments.
The observance of Sunday as a day of worship and rest is a form of first-day Sabbatarianism, a view which was historically heralded ...
.)
In 1611,
Jacques Fontaine
St. Bernard's-Jacques Fontaine is a town in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The town had a population of 433 in the Canada 2021 Census, a drop from 470 in 2011.
History
The town of St. Bernard's-Jacques Fontaine was amal ...
uses ''sabat'' five times writing in French and in a way that would seem to correspond with modern usage. Finally, writing a witch-phobic work in French the following year (1612),
Pierre de Lancre
Pierre de Rosteguy de Lancre or Pierre de l'Ancre, Lord of De Lancre (1553–1631), was the French judge of Bordeaux who conducted the massive Labourd witch-hunt of 1609. In 1582 he was named judge in Bordeaux, and in 1608 King Henry IV commande ...
seems to use the term more frequently than anyone before.
Following more than two hundred years after Pierre de Lancre, another French writer
Lamothe-Langon (whose character and scholarship was questioned in the 1970s) uses the term in (presumably) translating into French a handful of documents from the inquisition in Southern France. Joseph Hansen cited Lamothe-Langon as one of many sources.
A term favored by recent translators
Despite the infrequency of the use of the word ''sabbath'' to denote any such gatherings in the historical record, it became increasingly popular during the 20th century.
Cautio Criminalis
In a 2003 translation of
Friedrich Spee
Friedrich Spee (also ''Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld''; February 25, 1591 – August 7, 1635) was a German Society of Jesus, Jesuit priest, professor, and poet, most well known as a forceful opponent of Witch trials in the early modern period, wit ...
's ''Cautio Criminalis'' (1631) the word ''sabbaths'' is listed in the index with a large number of entries. However, unlike some of Spee's contemporaries in France (mentioned above), who occasionally, if rarely, use the term ''sabbatha'', Friedrich Spee does not ever use words derived from ''sabbatha'' or ''synagoga''. Spee was German-speaking, and like his contemporaries, wrote in Latin. ''Conventibus'' is the word Spee uses most frequently to denote a gathering of witches, whether supposed or real, physical or spectral, as seen in the first paragraph of question one of his book. This is the same word from which English words ''convention'', ''convent'', and ''coven'' are derived. ''Cautio Criminalis'' (1631) was written as a passionate innocence project. As a Jesuit, Spee was often in a position of witnessing the torture of those accused of witchcraft.
Malleus Maleficarum
In a 2009 translation of Dominican inquisitor
Heinrich Kramer
Heinrich Kramer ( 1430 – 1505, aged 74-75), also known under the Latinized name Henricus Institor, was a German churchman and inquisitor. With his widely distributed book ''Malleus Maleficarum'' (1487), which describes witchcraft and endorse ...
's ''
Malleus Maleficarum
The ''Malleus Maleficarum'', usually translated as the ''Hammer of Witches'', is the best known treatise on witchcraft. It was written by the German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer (under his Latinized name ''Henricus Institor'') and first ...
'' (1486), the word ''sabbath'' does not occur. A line describing a supposed gathering and using ''concionem'' is accurately translated as an ''assembly''. But in the accompanying footnote, the translator seems to apologize for the lack of both the term ''sabbath'' and a general scarcity of other gatherings that would seem to fit the bill for what he refers to as a "black sabbath".
Fine art
The phrase is also popular in recent translations of the titles of artworks, including:
*
''The Witches' Sabbath'' by
Hans Baldung
Hans Baldung (1484 or 1485 – September 1545), called Hans Baldung Grien, (being an early nickname, because of his predilection for the colour green), was a painter, printer, engraver, draftsman, and stained glass artist, who was considered t ...
(1510)
* ''Witches' Sabbath'' by
Frans Francken (1606)
* ''Witches' Sabbath in Roman Ruins'' by
Jacob van Swanenburgh (1608)
* As a recent translation from the original Spanish ''El aquelarre'' to the English title ''
Witches' Sabbath
A Witches' Sabbath is a purported gathering of those believed to practice witchcraft and other rituals. The phrase became popular in the 20th century.
Origins
In 1668, Johannes Praetorius published his literary work "Blockes-Berges Verrichtu ...
'' (1798) and
''Witches' Sabbath'' or ''The Great He-Goat'' (1823) both works by
Francisco Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...
* ''
Muse of the Night (Witches' Sabbath)'' by
Luis Ricardo Falero (1880)
Disputed accuracy of the accounts of gatherings
Modern researchers have been unable to find any corroboration with the notion that physical gatherings of practitioners of witchcraft occurred.
In his study "The Pursuit of Witches and the Sexual Discourse of the Sabbat", the historian Scott E. Hendrix presents a two-fold explanation for why these stories were so commonly told in spite of the fact that sabbats likely never actually occurred. First, belief in the real power of witchcraft grew during the late medieval and early-modern Europe as a doctrinal view in opposition to the canon Episcopi gained ground in certain communities. This fueled a paranoia among certain religious authorities that there was a vast underground conspiracy of witches determined to overthrow Christianity. Women beyond child-bearing years provided an easy target and were scapegoated and blamed for famines, plague, warfare, and other problems.
Having prurient and orgiastic elements helped ensure that these stories would be relayed to others.
Ritual elements
Bristol University's Ronald Hutton has encapsulated the witches' sabbath as an essentially modern construction, saying:
The book ''
Compendium Maleficarum'' (1608) by
Francesco Maria Guazzo
Francesco Maria Guazzo, ''aka'' Guaccio, ''aka'' Guaccius (1570–16??) was an Italian priest. He is most well known for authoring the '' Compendium Maleficarum''.
Life and work
He was a member of one of the oldest of the Catholic Ambrosian or ...
illustrates a typical witch-phobic view of gathering of witches as "the attendants riding flying goats, trampling the cross, and being re-baptised in the name of the Devil while giving their clothes to him, kissing his behind, and dancing back to back forming a round."
In effect, the sabbat acted as an effective 'advertising' gimmick, causing knowledge of what these authorities believed to be the very real threat of witchcraft to be spread more rapidly across the continent.
That also meant that stories of the sabbat promoted the hunting, prosecution, and execution of supposed witches.
The descriptions of Sabbats were made or published by priests, jurists and judges who never took part in these gatherings, or were transcribed during the process of the
witchcraft trials
A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern perio ...
. That these testimonies reflect actual events is for most of the accounts considered doubtful. Norman Cohn argued that they were determined largely by the expectations of the interrogators and free association on the part of the accused, and reflect only popular imagination of the times, influenced by
ignorance
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge and understanding. The word "ignorant" is an adjective that describes a person in the state of being unaware, or even cognitive dissonance and other cognitive relation, and can describe individuals who are unaware ...
,
fear
Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear ...
, and religious intolerance towards minority groups.
![Francisco de Goya y Lucientes - Witches Sabbath - Google Art Project](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Francisco_de_Goya_y_Lucientes_-_Witches_Sabbath_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
Some of the existing accounts of the Sabbat were given when the person recounting them was being
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...
d, and so motivated to agree with suggestions put to them.
Christopher F. Black claimed that the Roman Inquisition's sparse employment of torture allowed accused witches to not feel pressured into mass accusation. This in turn means there were fewer alleged groups of witches in Italy and places under inquisitorial influence. Because the Sabbath is a gathering of collective witch groups, the lack of mass accusation means Italian popular culture was less inclined to believe in the existence of Black Sabbath. The Inquisition itself also held a skeptical view toward the legitimacy of Sabbath Assemblies.
Many of the diabolical elements of the Witches' Sabbath stereotype, such as the eating of babies, poisoning of wells,
desecration of hosts or
kissing of the devil's anus, were also made about heretical Christian sects,
leper
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damag ...
s,
Muslims, and
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
s.
The term is the same as the normal English word "
Sabbath" (itself a transliteration of Hebrew "
Shabbat", the seventh day, on which the
Creator rested after creation of the world), referring to the witches' equivalent to the
Christian day of rest; a more common term was "synagogue" or "
synagogue of Satan
In the letters to the early Christian churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9, reference is made to a synagogue of Satan ( gr, συναγωγή τοῦ Σατανᾶ, ''synagoge tou satana''), in each case referring to a g ...
"
possibly reflecting anti-Jewish sentiment, although the acts attributed to witches bear little resemblance to the
Sabbath in Christianity
Sabbath in Christianity is the inclusion in Christianity of a Sabbath, a day set aside for rest and worship, a practice that was mandated for the Israelites in the Ten Commandments in line with God's blessing of the seventh day (Saturday) making it ...
or Jewish
Shabbat customs. The ''Errores Gazariorum'' (''Errors of the Cathars''), which mentions the Sabbat, while not discussing the actual behavior of the
Cathars
Catharism (; from the grc, καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure ones") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. F ...
, is named after them, in an attempt to link these stories to an heretical Christian group.
More recently, scholars such as
Emma Wilby
Emma Wilby is a British historian and author specialising in the magical beliefs of Early Modern Britain.
Work
An honorary fellow in history at the University of Exeter, England, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, she has published ...
have argued that although the more diabolical elements of the witches' sabbath stereotype were invented by inquisitors, the witchcraft suspects themselves may have encouraged these ideas to circulate by drawing on popular beliefs and experiences around liturgical misrule, cursing rites, magical conjuration and confraternal gatherings to flesh-out their descriptions of the sabbath during interrogations.
Christian missionaries' attitude to African cults was not much different in principle to their attitude to the Witches' Sabbath in Europe; some accounts viewed them as a kind of Witches' Sabbath, but they are not. Some African communities believe in witchcraft, but as in the European witch trials, people they believe to be "witches" are condemned rather than embraced.
Possible connections to real groups
Other historians, including
Carlo Ginzburg
Carlo Ginzburg (; born April 15, 1939) is an Italian historian and proponent of the field of microhistory. He is best known for ''Il formaggio e i vermi'' (1976, English title: '' The Cheese and the Worms''), which examined the beliefs of an Ita ...
,
Éva Pócs, Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen hold that these testimonies can give insights into the belief systems of the accused. Ginzburg famously discovered records of a group of individuals in northern Italy, calling themselves ''
benandanti
The ("Good Walkers") were members of an agrarian visionary tradition in the Friuli district of Northeastern Italy during the 16th and 17th centuries. The claimed to travel out of their bodies while asleep to struggle against malevolent witches ( ...
'', who believed that they went out of their bodies in spirit and fought amongst the clouds against evil spirits to secure prosperity for their villages, or congregated at large feasts presided over by a goddess, where she taught them magic and performed divinations.
Ginzburg links these beliefs with similar testimonies recorded across Europe, from the ''armiers'' of the
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...
, from the followers of
Signora Oriente Madonna Oriente or Signora Oriente (Lady of the East), also known as La Signora del Gioco (The Lady of the Game), are names of an alleged religious figure, as described by two Italian women who were executed by the Inquisition in 1390 as witches.
T ...
in fourteenth century
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
and the followers of
Richella
''Goniothalamus'' is one of the largest palaeotropical genera of plant in family Annonaceae.
Iban people beliefs
It is believed by the Iban people that when burnt it repels mosquitoes because of its strong scent and thick smoke it creates. It ...
and 'the wise Sibillia' in fifteenth century northern Italy, and much further afield, from
Livonia
Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...
n
werewolves
In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely ...
,
Dalmatian ''
kresniki'',
Hungarian ''
táltos
The táltos (; also "tátos") is a figure in Hungarian mythology, a person with supernatural power similar to a shaman.
Description
The most reliable account of the táltos is given by Roman Catholic priest Arnold Ipolyi in his collection of fo ...
'',
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
n ''
căluşari'' and
Ossetian ''burkudzauta''. In many testimonies these meetings were described as out-of-body, rather than physical, occurrences.
Role of topically-applied hallucinogens
![Aconitum napellus - Köhler–s Medizinal-Pflanzen-151](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Aconitum_napellus_-_K%C3%B6hler%E2%80%93s_Medizinal-Pflanzen-151.jpg)
Carlo Ginzburg's researches have highlighted shamanic elements in European witchcraft compatible with (although not invariably inclusive of) drug-induced altered states of consciousness. In this context, a persistent theme in European witchcraft, stretching back to the time of classical authors such as
Apuleius
Apuleius (; also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis; c. 124 – after 170) was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He lived in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern- ...
,
is the use of unguents conferring the power of "flight" and "shape-shifting." Recipes for such "flying ointments" have survived from early modern times, permitting not only an assessment of their likely pharmacological effects – based on their various plant (and to a lesser extent animal) ingredients – but also the actual recreation of and experimentation with such fat or oil-based preparations. Ginzburg makes brief reference to the use of entheogens in European witchcraft at the end of his analysis of the Witches Sabbath, mentioning only the fungi
Claviceps purpurea
''Claviceps purpurea'' is an ergot fungus that grows on the ears of rye and related cereal and forage plants. Consumption of grains or seeds contaminated with the survival structure of this fungus, the ergot sclerotium, can cause ergotism in h ...
and
Amanita muscaria by name, and stating about the "flying ointment" on page 303 of 'Ecstasies...' :
In the Sabbath the judges more and more frequently saw the accounts of real, physical events. For a long time the only dissenting voices were those of the people who, referring back to the '' Canon episcopi'', saw witches and sorcerers as the victims of demonic illusion. In the sixteenth century scientists like Cardano or Della Porta Della Porta is an Italian surname. It may refer to:
* Antonella Della Porta (1927–2002), Italian actress
* Antonio della Porta (died 1702), Swiss Baroque architect
* Ardicino della Porta, ''iuniore'' (1434–1493), Italian Roman Catholic bishop a ...
formulated a different opinion : animal metamorphoses, flights, apparitions of the devil were the effect of malnutrition or the use of hallucinogenic substances contained in vegetable concoctions or ointments...But no form of privation, no substance, no '' ecstatic technique'' can, by itself, cause the recurrence of such complex experiences...the deliberate use of psychotropic or hallucinogenic substances, while not explaining the ecstasies of the followers of the nocturnal goddess, the werewolf
In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely ...
, and so on, would place them in a not exclusively mythical dimension.
– in short, a substrate of shamanic myth could, when catalysed by a drug experience (or simple starvation), give rise to a 'journey to the Sabbath', not of the body, but of the mind. Ergot and the Fly Agaric mushroom, while hallucinogenic, were not among the ingredients listed in recipes for the flying ointment. The active ingredients in such unguents were primarily, not fungi, but plants in the nightshade family
Solanaceae, most commonly
Atropa belladonna (Deadly Nightshade) and
Hyoscyamus niger
''Hyoscyamus niger'', commonly known as henbane, black henbane, or stinking nightshade, is a poisonous plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae. It is native to temperate Europe and Siberia, and naturalised in Great Britain and Ireland.
Histor ...
(Henbane), belonging to the
tropane
Tropane is a nitrogenous bicyclic organic compound. It is mainly known for the other alkaloids derived from it, which include atropine and cocaine, among others. Tropane alkaloids occur in plants of the families Erythroxylaceae (including coca) ...
alkaloid-rich tribe
Hyoscyameae
Hyoscyameae is an Old World tribe of the subfamily Solanoideae of the flowering plant family Solanaceae. It comprises eight genera: '' Anisodus'', '' Archihyoscyamus'', ''Atropa'', '' Atropanthe'', '' Hyoscyamus'', ''Physochlaina'', ''Przewalskia ...
. Other tropane-containing, nightshade ingredients included the Mandrake
Mandragora officinarum
''Mandragora officinarum'' is the type species of the plant genus '' Mandragora'' in the nightshade family Solanaceae. It is often known as mandrake, although this name is also used for other plants. , sources differed significantly in the specie ...
,
Scopolia carniolica
''Scopolia carniolica'', the European scopolia or henbane bell, is a poisonous plant belonging to the family Solanaceae. It has dark violet flowers on long hanging stems. It grows to in height. Its toxicity derives from its high levels of tropan ...
and
Datura stramonium
''Datura stramonium'', known by the common names thorn apple, jimsonweed (jimson weed), devil's snare, or devil's trumpet, is a poisonous flowering plant of the nightshade family Solanaceae. It is a species belonging to the ''Datura'' genus a ...
, the Thornapple.
The alkaloids
Atropine,
Hyoscyamine and
Scopolamine present in these Solanaceous plants are not only potent and highly toxic hallucinogens, but are also fat-soluble and capable of being absorbed through unbroken human skin.
[Sollmann, Torald, A Manual of Pharmacology and Its Applications to Therapeutics and Toxicology. 8th edition. Pub. W.B. Saunders, Philadelphia and London 1957.]
See also
*
*
*
*
* ''
Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath'' – 1989 book by Carlo Ginzburg
*
*
*
*
*
Shabbat Chazon - Sabbath of Vision, aka "Black Sabbath"
*
*
References
Further reading
* – See the chapter "The Role of Hallucinogenic Plants in European Witchcraft"
* The first modern attempt to outline the details of the medieval Witches' Sabbath.
* Chapter IV, ''The Sabbat'' has detailed description of Witches' Sabbath, with complete citations of sources.
* See also the extensive topic bibliography to the primary literature on pg. 560.
*Musgrave, James Brent and James Houran. (1999). "The Witches' Sabbat in Legend and Literature." ''Lore and Language'' 17, no. 1-2. pg 157–174.
*Wilby, Emma. (2013) "Burchard's Strigae, the Witches' Sabbath, and Shamnistic Cannibalism in Early Modern Europe." ''Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft'' 8, no.1: 18–49.
*
*Sharpe, James. (2013) "In Search of the English Sabbat: Popular Conceptions of Witches' Meetings in Early Modern England. ''Journal of Early Modern Studies''. 2: 161–183.
*Hutton, Ronald. (2014) "The Wild Hunt and the Witches' Sabbath." ''Folklore''. 125, no. 2: 161–178.
*Roper, Lyndal. (2004) Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany. -''See Part II: Fantasy Chapter 5: Sabbaths
*Thompson, R.L. (1929) ''The History of the Devil- The Horned God of the West- Magic and Worship.''
*Murray, Margaret A. (1962)''The Witch-Cult in Western Europe.'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press)
*Black, Christopher F. (2009) ''The Italian Inquisition''. (New Haven: Yale University Press). See Chapter 9- The World of Witchcraft, Superstition and Magic
*Ankarloo, Bengt and Gustav Henningsen. (1990) ''Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press). see the following essays- pg 121 Ginzburg, Carlo "Deciphering the Sabbath," pg 139 Muchembled, Robert "Satanic Myths and Cultural Reality," pg 161 Rowland, Robert. "Fantastically and Devilishe Person's: European Witch-Beliefs in Comparative Perspective," pg 191 Henningsen, Gustav "'The Ladies from outside': An Archaic Pattern of Witches' Sabbath."
*Wilby, Emma. (2005) ''Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic visionary traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic''. (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press)
*Garrett, Julia M. (2013) "Witchcraft and Sexual Knowledge in Early Modern England," ''Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies'' 13, no. 1. pg 32–72.
*Roper, Lyndal. (2006) "Witchcraft and the Western Imagination," ''Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'' 6, no. 16. pg 117–141.
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