Veneficium Moon
Or, the Witch is visited by the Professor and the Poisoner.
The Poisoner gives me a single blood-red rose and a bouquet of flowering monkshood he’d grown. We talk of midnight guerilla rituals, goblin markets, and secret entheogenic gardens. Smoke from the long-stem ritual pipe curls around us. The Professor rings and shows up at my door white-bearded with a straw hat and mischief-filled eyes. As I make us all tea, he unpacks gifts to me of poisons from his garden.
On my workbench appeared three quarts of fresh belladonna berries from his freezer, a very large bag of dried belladonna stalks, and a paper bag of datura leaves, seed pods and flowers –freshly harvested that morning.
A mutual academic friend told the Professor the work I’ve been up to recreating old flying ointment recipes and he’d been eager to meet me since –the labour day long weekend finally working for the both of us. We talked of method, dosage, reactions, safety, and history of flying ointments. He and I, along with the Poisoner, shared our tales and knowledge of growing and working with poisons: “henbane grows like a weed, but you need to plant it every year …belladonna will over-winter here, but mandrake won’t; you need to plant it in containers and bring them inside in autumn”.
The Professor’s passions, aside from archaeology and anthropology, include witchcraft and the poisonous plants associated with it. He brought me manuscripts he’d typed up in the 1960s: one with notes and recipes of witches’ ointments, ancient and modern, and one of his translation of The Sworn Book of Honorius for its hallucinogenic incense recipes.
It was nice to find out where some of the recipes floating around the internet (since the old bbs system days) originated from. Don’t forget to sleep naked in front of your statue of Baphomet after applying your flying ointment folks! I love the title “Satanic Electuary” and may have to use it for something…
The three of us spoke of magic, our local community, metalwork, our own woodcarvings, and those of Bel Bucca, until the Professor had to leave for another appointment. I sent him off into the world with the jar of Aves Ointment he’d requested and three small samples of my other ointments he was curious about. Thanks to him I can now experiment with a simple belladonna ointment made with a grapeseed oil base and a simple datura ointment with a rendered pork fat base.
After he left, the books came out. The Poisoner showed me two of his chapbooks, one on legal highs and the other on growing hallucinogens. I brought out Dale Pendell‘s three Pharmako volumes and the beautifully illustrated Toads and Toadstools by Adrian Morgan. Then it was off into the forest to scout spots for rituals. We found a perfect one – a large triangular island in the forest created by three paths forming three crossroads at each point. To get to it you must pass the giant toadstone, cross the wooden bridge over an ivy-strangled stream, and climb the hill.
On the night of the full blue moon me and a group of friends met at the Poisoner’s place in the woods and we feasted very well. We drank home brewed mead and lemon drop shots –another witch and I coming up with a lemon drop chant (lemons are sacred to the Moon so it’s a completely legit sabbat wine…er rum …yes). We drummed around a small bonfire outside late into the night, some of us with bell rattles, and chanted and sang. We stared at the moon as it rose through the trees. I dipped my fingers in the natural spring forming beneath the road and anointed my forehead, mimicking the ritual I usually do at home for the full moon.
We smoked a cigar in offering and celebration, continuing the poisonous plant theme. A handful of us spoke of entheogens, traditional witchcraft, and talismanic grimoires. It is curious that the more insular I become, the more I find local magicians of like-mind when at first I thought there were none. Overall, it was a very good veneficium-themed weekend of magic and mischief.
Sounds like a lot of good goings-on…. it was a beautiful moon, indeed! I was out anointing myself with water, too, listening to the low singing of a stream and greeting fireflies that just happened to be twinkling on the grass in each of the cardinal directions….
I’ve had this theory bouncing about in my head that we have misled ourselves in separating the magic from the science specifically involving poisonous plants. Every entheogen has a binding affinity to a receptor site, from what I understand. So, the chemical must mimic certain chemicals in the human body to achieve an effect. My thought is that we have much more in common with plants than many (not all) of us would like to accept. We share the same chemicals, therefore we share the same spirit. (I would love to ramble on about this at length, but alas I do not wish to hijack your incredible post.) To get to the nuts and bolts of it,and again this is a very simple version, every time you ingest , etc. etc. a certain plant, things in your being, your spirit and mind are irrevocably changed. The receptors are permanently attuned and familar with said drug and will set up a specific physiological (psychic/spiritual) reaction each time it is successively ingested. It opens doors, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly that will change your personality, by changing your perspective and perception. This sounds so simple minded, but I am leaving out the range of dangers (psychosis, death), and variables and of reasons for specific combinations, to make this all as brief as possible. Please throw me some ideas about what you think of this, as I admire your thoughts, philosophies, and spiritual outlook. Mind you I am by no means trying to take the “magic” out of magic, but trying to reconcile the so called “mundane” into a magical worldview.
I’ve heard it called a “trigger”. You train your brain and body to react a certain way to these substances and you will usually react the same every time and more and more quickly and intensely the more you use them. So you would train yourself to go into trance, to receive visions, or to fly when you ingest, smoke, or apply an entheogen. It most definitely works, but you have to do it over and over for your body to trigger.
How wonderful that you’re finding kindred spirits! Sounds like a lovely gathering.
Also, I like how you’re “watermarking” your photos. Is that a special setting in Instagram? It looks really nice.
It sounds like you had a wonderful time, and what interesting people to know! I wish I had that where I live but alas, the only spiritual allies I have are those of the plant variety. The photos are stunning by the way!
Sigh. I wish I had your life.
I’ve read the Prof’s CV and I’m staggered…good grief I could stay up for days just talking round for round about hunter-gatherer sociology and whether gender stereotypes really had anything to do with it. So…many…subjects. The richness of your community amazes me. Colour me very envious.
I love this, I really do. Thanks for sharing.
Sarah how wonderful to arrive here and see sister monkshood ! I have a dear friend who walks with Monkshood alot and it was she who helped me not be fearful of the poison path 7 yrs ago .
I’ve been harvesting so much as the winds have been changing , now need is focused on firewood ☺
I wanted to tell you I did so well at goddess fest . I had such doubt driving there , so far to go, why was I doing it . and so much came via Baba Yaga , the change was great .
I sold more than anyone else and encountered so many blessed souls Took on a few youngins for mentorship .. My flying ointments & sticks were a big seller ☺
Thanks for sharing once again sweet sister ♥
I love reading your blog and wish I could find someone who could mentor me in plant magic. Could you suggest any books for the study of poisonous plants/entheogens? What flying ointment would you suggest for someone who has interest in journeying, but little experience? Thank you!
If you could only get one book, it should be The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants by Christian Ratsch, but other authors you should look for include Dale Pendell and Daniel Schulke.
If you don’t have any experience with poisons recreationally or magically I recommend starting with the Witches’ Ointment, if you have a little bit of experience than I recommend the Mandrake Ointment.
Can you share the name of the Poisoner and/or point us to where his chapbooks are sold? I am trying to increase my plant knowledge and his works sound interesting.
Oh, oops! He didn’t write the books, they belong to him. They were “Growing the Hallucinogens” by Hudson Grubber and “Legal Highs” by Adam Gottlieb.
I received my copy of Daniel A. Schulke’s recently released book Veneficium beautifully published by Three Hands Press about three days ago. I have only read about a third of it, but, so far, it is excellent, filled with valuable information and well written as always.