I’ve been a very busy witch and have been spending most of my time in my kitchen cooking, crafting, and shipping for Stang and Cauldron rather than writing for my blog (though I did miss it!). All my supplies arrived so it was time to make new batches of fairy and flying ointments. I made my well-loved Aves Ointment for attaining spirit-flight and this time added the fat of wild birds blended with high quality grapeseed oil (very good for the skin) instead of my usual pure duck-fat recipe – the active ingredients of belladonna, mandrake, mugwort and wormwood are still the same. I made more of my insanely popular Porta’s Flying Ointment. I think you guys must all have datura and belladonna fetishes as you’re buying it up like crazy, but keep in mind they give you a hangover, belladonna can cause blurred vision for hours or a day after use, and henbane shouldn’t go near your sensitive bits.
Mandrake Ointment is also restocked (formerly known as Medea’s ointment/salve) which is a simple salve just with atropa mandragora root, grapeseed oil, and the best local beeswax. If you’ve never used a flying ointment before or are maybe a bit scared of them, then the Mandrake Ointment is for you. Mandrake is the most friendly of its poisonous solanaceae cousins and only has pleasant effects (think of it like topical weed). It’s also useful for a ton of different magical purposes and therefore excellent to have in your bag of tricks (read that as sex magic, baby, oh yeah).
I was finally able to make more of my fairy ointments too! My Forest Spirit Ointment recipe is used for seeing and communing with wild forest and plant spirits and contains the traditional European fairy-sight ingredients of fern seed, fly agaric, and oak, ash, and thorn along with enchanter’s nightshade and the herb of Robin Goodfellow – all wild harvested by me from the forest of course!
My Toadman’s Ointment, also made with fly agaric, is for those who work with toads and frogs as familiars and for shapeshifting. They make excellent allies for those who follow the poison path since they often contain their own natural poisons which some scholars believe were used in flying ointment recipes in Europe.
Amidst all this crafting for Stang and Cauldron I made a test batch of a flying ointment made with henbane seed harvested from my old garden and the bear fat I rendered with the shaman a few months ago. It’s not strong enough for me yet so it still needs some tweaking and more testing before I’m comfortable selling it. I did get some excellent dreams from testing it so far.
If you’re looking for info on flying ointments (what they are for, how to use them, what to expect, etc), I’ve written an article about their history and use called “On Flying Ointments” and also did a HedgeFolk Tales podcast episode with stories, poetry, and ancient literature about flying ointments.
As always I crafted more poisonous offerings for the shop on top of the flying ointments; poison plant spirit vessels of a night-blooming datura flower, black henbane, and bittersweet nightshade from my garden, genuine mandrake root, and fly agaric I wild harvested last autumn. People really love these little skull bottles full of poisons so, alas, only the Black Henbane spirit vessel is left looking for a home they’ve all sold.
I have an Ancestor Spirit Vessel with poison too – it’s layered with owl bone dust, graveyard dirt, althea root, yew needles, and owl feathers. The skull is handcarved from deer antler and hard to find. It would be an excellent tool for a necromancer, psychopomp, grave-tender or ancestor worshipper.
There are also roots available for those who want to turn them into fetiches or alrauns. I’ve sold out of the belladonna, yarrow, and rue, but I still have two large prize Black Henbane Roots available.
As if that’s not enough, there are more goodies! Blackthorns for cursing or reversing curses, Blackberry Witch’s Whisks for smudging a place to purify and chase away evil spirits, Rowan Berry necklace charms, Rowan Crosses handwoven with red silk and wool, protective Witch Ball charms of rowan berries, red thread, and goose feathers… You’ll just have to come by the shop and see what’s there!
