And the serpent is riding

over the voice of the

raven, the Other God, to
his spouse, magic, the
poison of death, in which
Samael, the Other God,
becomes complete.

TIQQUNEI ZOHAR
 Veneficium
Magic, Witchcraft, and the Poison Path

Daniel A. Schulke
T H R E E HANDS PRESS

2012
 IPSE V E N E N A BIBAS

© Copyright 2012 Daniel A. Schulke, all rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written
permission from the Publisher.

'The Path Envenom'd', and "Ihe Matter of Man' were first

published in The Cauldron.

'Infernal Vapours' and 'Leaves of Hekat' were adapted from

papers composed for the California Institute of Integral
Studies, 2000.

This book concerns dimesnions of personal research into

plants which maybe illegal in some areas, or present severe
health risks or danger to the human organism. Neither the
author nor the publisher are responsible for the
inappropriate, unprofessional, criminal or ill-fated misuse
of such plants. Let the wise reader and the fool beware.

Three Hands Press

www.threehandspress.com

Cover Art: Dust jacket image 'Sacred Heart', frontispiece

and preface images, and cover stamp of cloth edition by
Benjamin Vierling, © Copyright 2 0 1 1 , 2012 by Benjamin
Vierling.

Jacket Design: BobEames

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 Veneficium

Preface 9

The Path Envenom'd 15

Purity, Contamination, and the Magical Virgin 27

The Corporeal Laboratory 39

Leaves of Hekat 53

The Matter of Man 69

The Witches'Supper 79

Infernal Vapors 103

Eden's Body 129

The Devil's Chrism 145

Glossary 164

Bibliography 170
 Preface

In 1994, in consideration of seven years' formal study of

rit ual magic and ethnopharmacology, I began to assemble a
book of experiments and operations in the arena of
psychotropic sorcery entitled Hypnotikon. Its pages held
precise materia magica, first hand descriptions of obscure
psychoactive sacraments, records of the magical practice and
expansion of the sensorium into realms beyond my previous
knowledge. Also present were detailed reports of ritual
operations, performed in solitude; with lodges of varying
si /.es and magical aims, and also as part of a dyad with a single
partner. In some instances I was also allowed access to closed
societies as a guest or participant observer, or permitted to
record material from informants possessing unique and
specialist knowledge.
Alongside this pursuit of the Mysticism Botanick, my
practical studies of herbalism, folk magic, and agriculture
complimented this magical tutelage. A deeper passage into
l he endarkened bower of the wildwood became a source of
direct understanding: time spent at length in the wilderness
served as a clarifying lens for beholding emergent patterning
of the work, and as a 'divine emptiness' apart from the
1111 positions of humanity. This vastness was, nonetheless, an
Otherworld densely populated with allies, enemies and
1 ricksters, oppressive spirits, voices, storms, telluric powers,
(rials, injury, death, revelations and above all the ethereal
majesty of the eldritch race of Faerie. It was largely through
these solitary encounters that Hypnotikon assumed clarity
and purpose, and grew into a living and dynamic form.
I lowever, the primary motivation for compiling this work
was that it serve as a primary resource for my own spiritual
development, a record of learning, its essential nature being
private. The thesis of Veneficium, being a small but potent cup
drawn from the vernal well of the Hypnotikon, is thus a
convergence of perspectives I have had for some time: that
of the herbalist and the natural magician in congress with
poison.
Poison is a glyph for magical power itself: complex,
concentrated, liberated in the hands of the elect, and
disastrous in the hands of the fool. Its very nature is
transmutative, changing all it touches, the maker and
breaker of laws, policies, and epidemiological systems. It
encompasses what industrialized society conceives as 'drugs',
being both the therapeutic agents of medicine, as well as the
sanctioned or banned ministers of pleasure and con-
sciousness alteration. Poison also embraces the toxin:
destroyer and mutilator of flesh, whether weaponized in the
arsenal of soldier or farmer, or lurking in the environment:
the scorpion's engorged tail or the industrial pollutant
silently pervading the water table. All of these venom clades,
for good and ill, penetrate magic and sorcery on manifold
levels, and imply a spiritual discipline of magical toxicology,
which in recent times has been called "Hie Poison Path'.1
Such a path necessarily implies a confrontation with
power, but also its effigies, and how these manifest according
to the skill of the practitioner. Strewn with thorns, cobbles,
and false diversions, the Poison Path offers its own retinue
of spirit-guardians to slay or liberate. Poor judgment,
irresponsibility, delusion and ego serve as the great enemies,
and in any encounter with poison they must be transmuted
or bound long in advance.
The intersection of magic, mysticism, and poison has
naturally assumed some concretized and limited shapes in
our present era, mostly negative. Perhaps the most
important of these has, without sufficient self-examination,
been called drug culture', presented as a legacy of the

I. Pendell, Dale. Pharmako/Poeia, Pharmako/Dynamis, Pharmako/Gnosis. Similar

terminology has been present in 19th and 20th century witch cults, namely the term
"The Way of Poison'.
i ultural revolutions of the 1960s. In the 1990s psychonaut
1 ulture began to publicly redefine itself as 'Entheogenic',
stressing ethnology, human-plant congress, art, science,
religion, and popular culture.
Typical of this exotery is an insufficiently-explored
dualism which has haunted the approach of the seeker, that
which divides usage of drugs into 'sacred' or 'profane'
purposes. At one side of the ideological bifurcation one
encounters the hardened arena of the Mystic, devotee, or
magician whose approach is one of idealized sacrality in the
I .ice of the Gods of Poison. In this stance, of which there are
myriad variations, an implicit morality suggests (or preaches)
1l1.it the legitimate use of consciousness-expanding drugs
lies in the realm of the spirit. Common to this approach is
1 he idea of mindfulness, purpose, and direction, as well as
1 he usage as adjunctive to non-pharmacological approaches.
At the other side, which might be called the arena of the
I .ilnrrtine, is the idea that drugs are to be used for pleasure,
soc ializing, and the sensorial pursuits of the body. To some
<i|>crating within this rubric, the 'spirit approach' is a waste
ol prime vintage which otherwise might be enjoyed by the
«clehrant, an unnecessary imposition of the mental
«• instruct of spirit upon the body.
Hoth approaches possess unique teachings, and examples
ol the uses and abuses of these stances. The Dionysian
quittance, which transects these philosophical zones, reminds
ns that the experience common to both is the generation of
r« stasy, inducing a state of being 'beyond oneself.'
Witchcraft, ever transfigured by the magic of need, makes
use of both 'sacred' and 'profane' venefic states without
adopting these socially-derived boundaries.
111 consideration of the vast and ancient vaults of power
poison encompasses, both 'sacred' and 'profane' positions
die ultimately moral or religious ones, and in particularly
|Htinted examples, can be considered an unconscious
theological debate about the nature of God. Neither approach
considers, for example, the use of poison for achieving work
or maximizing productivity (as with stimulants or neurohy-
pophysial hormones), mental coercion of others (as with
the Haitian zambi powder or sodium pentothal), infliction
of pain or physical harassment (as with Toxicodendron diver-
silobum). To these we may add poison's use for destroying
malignancy of the flesh (as with anti-cancer compounds
such as vincristine derived from Catharanthus roseus), building
immunity, inducing insanity or, indeed, treating it. Outside
this limiting rubric also lies the usage of poison as a weapon,
either in the arsenals of man or the Armies of Nature. All of
these approaches proffer a spiritual dimension which may
lead to great insights, wisdom, and evolution of the soul.
The alternate, shadow-way is also ever-present. These are
what I have called the philosophical poisons or Astral Venom:
the energies, entities or states of being which, though not
primarily induced chemically, are nonetheless toxic to mind,
spirit and body. As an incarnate being, the first poison is
often the attempted destruction of the soul, and where this
insidious corruption has gained purchase, it may present
considerable challenges to any spiritual practice. Thus, a part
of the work of the Adept is in realigning or re-forging such
psychic artifacts in a shape which serves the practitioner,
rather than vampirizes power from the Self. Among the
retinue of Astral Posions we may also encounter such spirit-
toxins in the black heart of the curse, unrequited love,
unexamined motive, and the blight of foisted political
ideology. In fact it is a truism that the world, as much as it
presents a garden of earthly delights, also presents a
concentrated and many-tiered stew of poisons.
Unequivocal admonitions are essential to them who seek
after the nigrescent grail, affirmed by the seal of the death's
head upon the forbidden bottle. Upon this path I have
witnessed addiction, maiming, disease, criminality, degra-
dation of character and talent, and death as a result of
misuse, each in itself a cobble upon an already thorny
footpath. Where the would-be socerer seeks to traffic with
I he Demon, he must be aware that the Faustian Bargain is
hut one pathway among many, but a compact which
nonetheless is absolute in its ruthlessness. That the Abyssal
(l.irden does not suffer foolishness and stupidity is certain:
neither should the seeker after these mysteries, especially his
own. An essential phial in the sorcerer's medicine-chest is
II uis the holism of knowing one's own power and
vulnerabilities relative to the retinue of the Gods of Venom.
Some readers will also know my work from writings
produced through the magical order Cultus Sabbati, whose
(H-rpctuation of the archaic Sabbatic Current of witchcraft is,
in part, driven by ritual generation of ecstatic states. Though
us history encompasses a multitude of magical techniques,
s|K'lls, customs, and lore, a small amount of these specifically
i < incern poison and antidote. As much as any practical usage
this corpus of secret teachings has also catalyzed a strong
magical philosophy amongst its initiates, having unique
parameters of understanding applicable not only to the
practice of magic but all spheres of daily life. The present
Ix »ok is thus informed by this interior perspective, as well as
t hat of magical history and ethnobotany, and my two decades
i if herbalist practice. Because of this multiplicity of vista, it is
my hope that the book serves as a small contribution to the
field of the study of both magic and poison.
C x-rtain chapters present herein also originate as essays in
occult journals. In recent years, it has bedcome necessary to
^at her these together, largely due to the increased interest in
t his work and the waning availability of the publications in
which they originally appeared. In the process of doing so, it
lias become necessary to present them in a more cohesive
architectonic. The reader already familiar with these will
note that they have been slightly expanded for their presen-
tation here.To the question of what poison is and its relevance
to magic, I shall provide several perspectives, and broaden
the inquiry by asking several more questions. Yet, for myself
as a seeker and practitioner, the unitive concept to which I
return is the magical modification of the body to attain a
state of otherness, wherein the sensorium becomes perme-
able to that which lies beyond. Whether the agency thus used
is conceived of as chemical, astral, or some other categoriza-
tion, the vigor of this princple lies in its power of opposition.
Each of these perspectives serves to expand awareness of
the nature of poison and how it functions in the arena of
magical power. Certain magical approaches and their bodies
of knowledge are thus implied for the practicing sorcerer and
magician. In its exaltation, this efflorescence of dark wisdom
serves as the antidotum to the toxic malediction of'Original
Sin', and the rank flowers of the Garden of Abomination are
transmuted.
Daniel A. Schulke
St. Walburga's Eve, 2 0 1 2
 The Path Envenom'd

$
I he writhing host of worm and snake; the venoms of spider,
scorpion, and toad; and the corrupt seeds and nectars of
c u rse-worts all comprise the mythic pharmacopoeia of the
witch. Such are the constituents of the Cauldron in its
sinistral guise, which, together with the hearthfire itself,
seethe in the very midst of the Sabbat's Round.
Throughout time, mundane distortions of this vessel
luve assumed the grotesques of momentary fancy. In the
invective of the religious inquisitor, it is the stew-pot to
render human fat and reduce, by depraved ritual, all Earth's
accursed to a potent hell-broth. Through the occluded lens
of the archetypal, it is become an intellectually palatable
'cauldron of transformation' or womb of feminine mystery.
Yet to the witch, whose commerce with the writhing host is
Ivuind by the sorcery of spirit-liaison, it is, and has always
!>een, the Black Well of Execration, source of veneficiutn, the
magic of poisons, for the power of both good and ill.
Poison, like witch, is a word burdened with problematic
associations. In vulgar parlance it has come to indicate an
agent of destruction, be it of spirit, mind or body, whose
inevitable bequests are wounding and death. However,
ancient definitions often implied a poison's healing nature
as well as its capacity for harm. The Latin veneficium can be
interpreted as drug, poison, or magic; the old Greek
pharmakon could equally indicate a poison or a cure. 2 These
paradoxical definitions of toxins, wherein powers of both

i I'm urn, or Mistletoe, a plant known for its poisonous as well as its curing powers,
nil mutely derives from the ancient Proto Indo-European roots Weis 'to melt away,
Hi >w'; .Sanskrit Visam - poison; Avestan Vish - poison.
destruction and healing are present, suggest a certain lost
wisdom in the magical pharmacology of antiquity, and are
aligned with the folk-wisdom of the witch.
To the sorcerer, poison is the ingress of external power
initiating crisis. The fruits of its temporal field are the
product not only of dosage, but also such factors as route of
administration, strength of the physical vessel, purity of the
Deed of Arte, and the favor of the spirits presiding. As with
all destabilizing power, the repercussions can create or
destroy; liberate or repress, illuminate or obscure. As
Alchemical adepts well knew, poison is the point of first
beginnings from which all must arise; it is power, both in
its raw state, and in all its potentials for transmutation. As
Paracelsus noted, it is both omnipresent and absent in
Nature.
Self-poisoning for the attainment of mystical knowledge,
ecstasy, and congress with spirits, we call 'The Poison Path'3.
This designation separates the mystical endeavor of Trans-
mutation from the vulgar dross of hedonism or criminal
activity. Ours, therefore, is an Art of subtle discrimination,
of observation and caution. Gnosis of the Poison Path arises
not from the first matter of its toxin, nor its mundane so-
matic effects, but in its Transmutation via the Art Magical
to serve the Path of the Seeker. This Art is thus the holy do-
minion of Shiva Vishpan, or Shiva the Poison-drinker, em-
blematized imbibing venoms from a conch, and whose blue
skin-colour resulted from its ingestion 4 . In Islamic lore, it
is the domain of the uphir, or Hell's Physician, possessing
the secret lore of medicines and and dead bodies; akin to

3. Pendell, Pharmako I-111 passim, which regard sacred poisoning as one of the most
ancient forms of the Art Magical, and Eve as its patron Saint.
4. This azure tint brings to mind marine gastropods of the genus Conus, common
in the seas of the South Pacific, which possess a dart-like proboscis capable of
injecting a painful and potentially lethal neurotoxin. One of its poisoning
symptoms in humans is cyanosis, or blue skin colouration.
 i In- shadowings of the Bulgar-
ian iwpirorvampire and also the
I ui kish upir or 'sorcerer'.
Among the great tributaries
• •I ancient magical knowledge
• c.nliing the present, certain
limns of Traditional Witch-
• i.i 11 reckon the Fruit of Eden's
II «T as the dispensation of
Vim.icl, or Lucifer, unto mortal
Liiul. As a so-called 'fallen
.inm'l', this intelligence is thus
ilir herald of Witchdom's
Dawn, emissary of light to
,, ansgress the first tenebration l ^ Z ^ T ^ I t
limit ihalt TlOt eat. symptoms include muscle paralysis,
... • • distortion ofvision,respiratoryfailure
l Mverse ancient cosmogomc a n d d e a t h . Antivenoms are elusive.
narratives also relay angelic
Ix-mgs as bringers of forbidden power; many are also
• 1111 s idered gods of poison. In one ancient pseudepigraphic
i !• x t, Kve relates that the Fruit of the Tree was sprinkled with
i lir Serpent's poison, which she then ate after giving an oath
it 11 lie angel 5 . Here is found the Poisoning Art in its spiritual
rmrrgence, conterminous with other primeval deeds of
witchcraft: congress between angel and human, trans-
it rssion against the demiurge, self-liberation, and the
assumption of N e w Flesh 6 . C o m m e r c e between the
Sri pent and Eve thus inaugurates a pattern of initiatic
pi di ess which continues throughout magical time. That
ilirse beings were male, and their first human initiates
women, invokes precise arcana of sexual sorcery.

i I >le of Adam and Eve, 19:3.

A myM ii al concept of Sabbatic Witchcraft concerning magical augmentation of
••< II. using ecstatic ritual, atavistic power, and the magical formula of Will, Desire,
<»<l Hrl iff. See Chumbley 'Wisdom for the New Flesh' and Schulke, Lux Haeresis.
 An essential feature of Traditional Witchcraft is rural life
and its allied corpus of tradition, lore, and custom. It thus
serves as a repository of the practical teachings of farm and
countryside, true to its source, despite centuries of contact
with urban influences. This peculiarity is not ossified —it is
alive and actively engaged by those whose trades are shaped
by the land and its laws. Part of this granary of knowledge
concerns the immediacy of death in daily life, whether it be
the killing of livestock, hunting, the destruction of vermin,
or the threat of human death from varied causes. Rural
knowledge readily accepted this aspect of its world; from
the storehouse of country wisdom comes our great legacy
of common plant-names, many of which carry the warnings
of their venomous nature. For example, the suffix "bane"
appears in the common names of numerous botanical
poisons such as Cowbane (Cicuta spp.), Wolfsbane
(Aconitum spp.), Dogbane (Apocynum spp.), Henbane
(.Hyoscyamus spp.), and Baneberry (Actaea spp.).
The skilled ritual use of Hellebore, Fly Agaric, as well as
several toxic plants of the Nightshade family, has been
present in several closed circles of Traditional Craft to
which I belong 7 . Where custodianship of these Arts is held
as an office within covine, the one who stands in this station
may bear such names as Verdelet, Hayward, or Green
Mantle. More often, however, specialization of herb-
cunning is held among many members of the circle,
according to interest, training, need and proclivity. In
addition to practical knowledge, some of these teachings
are mystical or poetic, or survive as simple charms,
suggestive of an earlier historical context in which
knowledge of poisons and counterpoisons was prevalent.
However also present alongside such traditional teachings

7. Knowledge of ritual poisons is also present in other Traditional Witchcraft

groups. Robert Cochrane, past Magister of the Royal Windsor Coven, possessed
knowledge in this area. See John of Monmouth's Genuine Witchcraft is Explained, and
Gavin Semple's 'A Poisoned Chalice', The Cauldron No. 1 1 4 .
41 «• c e rtain admonitions. The chief of these is that the use of
»isionary plants is in no wise a substitute f o r a sober and
• porously-focused magical practice, and that the verity of
•pirit-congress may easily be contaminated by the very
|Niison regarded as sacred. Thus, within the Circle of A r t ,
i lie magical poison is but one colour on the palette of the
I >ivmc Artist.
I his is not, however, to dismiss the magical potentials for
i lie visionary sacrament, for such have existed in traditional
iitu.ils from the dawn of sorcery. One such example of
|Mi (icular relevance to European magic, and the oneiric
iiM^ic of Sabbatic Witchcraft in particular, was documented
l»> the nineteenth-century researcher Julius Klaproth.
Iliese were the rites of the Ossetians of the northern
< .iticasus, early modern descendants of the ancient
V yt liians. Dominant in their religious iconography was the
Prophet Elijah, to w h o m goats were sacrificed in caves f o r
4 Ix uintiful harvest and to avert hail. They practiced a rite in
winch leaves and branches of Rhododendron caucasicum were
•mouldered in sacred caves. The resulting smoke f r o m the
plant drew seers into a sleep pregnant with omen-rich
dicams." Visionary poison is not limited to the heathen, as
i lie serpent-handling Christian Pentecostal sects in rural
North America reveal. Interaction with live venomous
uiakcs and drinking strychnine, when they do not result in
duality, often bring religious ecstasy and spirit-contact with
(•« KI t he Father, Christ, or the Holy Spirit.
(>thcr areas of investigation relevant to the witchcraft
l>i act ices is the so-called Witches' Flying Ointment of
lege nd, an unguent which, despite the mystery surrounding
•». has a number of ethnobotanical precedents. For
i'sample, the Aztec priests of the god Tezcatlipoca
Smoking Mirror') compounded an ointment called

• l •m/lnirg, Carlo. Ecstasies, Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath pp. 162-3.

Teotlacualli containing copious amounts of tobacco, the
ashes of poisonous insects and spiders, caterpillars,
salamanders, vipers and soot. To this was added crushed
seeds of Ololiolique (Turbina corymbosa), a plant of the
Morning Glory family. According to the writings of the
Spanish prelate Acosta, the priests thus smeared "became
cruel in spirit. At night they went alone into obscure caves
and boasted that wild and savage beasts feared them
because of the strength of their mixture". 9
Sacred Poison may serve as visionary, but may also bestow
physical distress as magical catalysis. The wayside herb
Stinging Nettle is not commonly considered poison, but
those whose bare flesh has been excruciated by manifold
stings will know the measure of its ferocity. The ancient
ritual practice of urtication, whereby the ascetic devotees
of the Christian cultus mortified their flesh with nettles,
probably has sorcerous antecedents far more ancient; the
histamine shock to the flesh and corresponding endorphin
release, in a focused ritual context, can precipitate ecstatic
trance. Ceremonial infliction of pain —in this case blistering
irritation— finds corollaries in a number of important
rites, such as thePe'a, the tattooing rituals of Samoan men,
which, among other purposes, create a sympathetic simu-
lacrum of the pains of childbirth. Irritant poisons as a
source of power are also known among the Kawaiisu tribes
of California, who esteem red ants as an Holy Medicine 10 .
Apart from the use of Sacred Poison upon the body,
poison may manifest as sign or omen. The stings of

9. See also Ruiz de Alarcon, Treatise on the Heathen Superstitions that Today Live Among
the Indians Native to This New Spain, 1629.
10. Zigmond, Maurice. Kawaiisu Ethnobotany and The Supernatural World of tht
Kawaiisu. In addition to irritant effects, the live ants, balls ofwhich were swallowed
in eagle-down, were also a hypnotic and preserver against evil spirits. The Kawaiisu
also practiced walking naked through thickets of Stinging Nettle to gain power, 11
rite reminiscent of the 'Rite of Making Green' present in one form of English
Witchcraft, where power is gained directly from the wilderness (See Chumbley, A.
"The Secret Nature of Ritual").
|HM\onous flora o r fauna may serve as the summoner or
|Mi n tn daimon or familiar spirit of the Witch, heralding the
unfolding of blessing or bane, or the indication of poison
4% ti source of her power. Like the bestial retinue which
«iir nds upon the dark children of the serpent, a harrowing
•llncss too may also serve as the toxicon's ordalium, and in
•onii" cases bring dream or vision. Certain other signs,
while not poisonous in the chemical sense, may still
• 111.11late foul influences or contagion, such as the Evil Eye.
An extrapolation of this was the medieval belief that the
H4/r of a menstruating woman could dull mirrors, which
H»ive rise to association with the basilisk; transmission of
M-iioinous humours was thus passed to the unsuspecting
«i.i I he passive receptacle of the eye. 11 Objects or places may
«Uo be considered exceptionally malefic, and thereby
. • mspecific with poison; an example is 1 9 0 Scorpio, known
I»I Arabic astrology as the 'Accursed Degree' and identified
with the star Serpentis. In all cases where contact is made
with such forces, it is the successful Transmutation of
imison by the sorcerer which determines its potential f o r
Hii« isis, thus liberating its true power.
I lie Poison Path echoes the dual-ethos of healing and
l»4i tiling found as a strand of many forms of Traditional
Witc he raft. This is echoed in the domains of certain deities.
I ike the ancient words used f o r poisons, certain gods of
l*nson also command healing, as with Gula, Sumerian
goddess of healing and fertility, also linked with poisons
4111I sorcery. Omolu, the plague-doctor of Fon Vodou,
* irlils the power of contagion and virulence, but it is H e
who is beseeched by the faithful f o r deliverance f r o m
•lisease. This duality may extend to poisonous plants
ilieniselves: the Mandrake, for example, is a plant with a
well documented and ancient attachment to sorcery. A s
well as its place in enchantment, its drug virtues have long

•» I * >|iiiirt and Thomasset. Sexuality and Medicine in the Middle Ages, pp 74-75.
been known, including exhilaration, sedation, anaesthesia,
and lethal poison. These characteristics, as well as their
utilization in diverse kinds of magic, have led to its
association with the Devil. Yet, the Man-Root's diablerie
notwithstanding, it was also co-identified with Christ in
early Christian theology. 12
As a young man, part of my spiritual training was in the
so-called curanderismo 'green medicine' or Mexican folk-
magic of the southern United States, a syncretism of Native
American sorcery, Roman Catholicism, and vestiges of
European magic, particularly Spanish witchcraft and the
grimoric traditions. Though the name for this Art directly
invoked curing, its attendant body of lore and magical
praxis placed equal emphasis on so-called 'left-hand' spell-
craft. By tabu, the practitioners known to me referred to
themselves not as brujos (witches), but rather as curanderos,
or sometimes charismos, and mysticos. In this respect, my
own teacher's self-identification was as a 'white magician'
whose sorcerous repertoire included practices to induce
death, disease, torment or other harm, as well as healing.
Such rites of cursing were considered 'defensive magic',
used against 'black magicians': those who exacted them
had no compunction calling upon both Christ and the Devil
for aid in the same prayer.
This dual magical ethos of helping and harming, and the
complex mysticism which reconciled their artificial
polarities, was called 'The Crooked Path' by Andrew D.
Chumbley, who identified it as a pervasive feature of folk
magic and sorcery. 13 The so-called Powers of the Opposer, M
a deific embodiment of transgressive power, is the force of
magical catalysis summoned in the moment which allows

12. Rahner, Hugo. Greek Myths and Christian Mystery, p 247.

13. Chumbley, Andrew D. Quttib, and "The Crooked Path I and II", Cham
International, 1992.
14- The godforms Set, al-Shaitan, Satan or the Devil are often posited, but within
Traditional Witchcraft I am equally acquainted with the lore of Cain and Lilith 4*
the forms of the Opposer.
 2. Bestial archetypes of driinkenness, fromlhomas Hey-
wood's Philocothonista, or, The Drunkard, Opened, Dissected,
and Anatomized, 1635.

• •HI throw of Self, and thereby transmutation. To the

I •« Hiked Path sorcerer, poison is the power of opposition
>« »« lf. defined not by its mundane toxicity or its potential
Innate to the flesh, but by its capacity to facilitate
' »ilirrness - the twilit dominion of the Sabbat where
•« mporal reference is suspended and the world becomes
•<>.titrable. It is thus the Manifest Trident as opposite arcs
•11 In- I'oison Path: balsam, poison and the Opposer as the
n HiMibstantiator between, the mediating path between
r mat aea the all-healer, and Pantrauma, the all-wounder.
il»r Path Envenom'd is thus the current manifest against
S .11 lire herself, the self-slaying Genius of Opposition, and
IIM (iod Without: all must be turned to serve the Path of the
"Hii.ite. This is the ethos present in the magical
II .iiisnuitation of Poison.
 Of equal concern to the particulars of earthly toxins is
Spiritual Poison and its attendant host of powers, which
produce opprobium of spirit. Like their material
counterparts, their entity retains an external allure, but
beneath their masks writhe an infectious host. The sorcerer
does well to consider the three Buddhist Poisons of greed
(lobha), hatred (dosa), and delusion (mola). Whilst these
attributes are variously regarded in the world of men, to the
sorcerer they are clavis adultera the 'false keys' which are
impediments to power and the seeds of self-defeat.
Spiritual Poison is transmuted by the sorcerer through the
Formulae of Opposition, but also byway of the traditional
healing charm, and magical methods to 'earth' poison into
a fetishistic susbstrate. A curious instance of this is the 'Fear
Cup' (Tasat al-Tarba) of Islamic folk-medicine, a brass bowl
engraved with prayers to angelic divinities, and having
suspended around its border forty small brass "keys"
engraved with prayers. The cup is exposed to the night air,
and the dew thus collected is drunk by the afflicted to cure
physical symptoms having been struck by fear or super-
natural terror. 15 However, where Spiritual Poisons are
concerned, the most important of such venoms are not self-
administered, but given of the Fates: disease, heartbreak,
the death of a loved one, a stroke of ill fortune. It is not mere
coincidence that Atropa belladonna, Elf-Queen of poisons,
is named for the Lady of the Shears. Those who have truly
escryed her black mirror know the proximal liaison betwixt
revelation and adumbrated finality.
From the Crooked Path perspective, knowledge of the
Poison Path must concern itself equally with Poison's
opposite. Such knowledge needs must encompass counter-
poison or antidote, the magical hypostasis of which is
Balsam or Nectar. Traditionally this has been the realm of

15. Abd al-Rahman Ismail. Tibb-Al-Rukka (Old Wives' Medicine).

ilie Theriac or Mithridate, the ancient preparation
i ontaining both toxins and therapeutics, used as a 'hedge'
• »r preventative, against poison. Dioscorides made a
i < infection of viper's flesh called Sal Viperum, as an antidote
i« i |M)ison; the snake was roasted with figs, salt, honey and
Spikenard. 16 The Official Mithridate, containing over sixty
ingredients, was compounded and prescribed up until the
i vi h century. The principles and concerns of the Mithridate
.iiul (/ounterpoison continue presently in modern Official
Medicine in the form of innoculation and vaccination,
|H iwers constantly at play in Nature herself.
I he mysteria of Poison and Antidote demand that the
I lerhalist look not only at the healing potentials of poisons,
I MI I also at the harming potentials of those worts normally
«onsidered innocuous or curative, and all states between.
Iliology instructs that in plant and animal evolution,
venoms arose as defensive boundaries, but also as offensive
weapons. This knowledge contains the recurring Arcanum
«>1 ()pposition present in transgressive forms of magic such
witchcraft, liberating power from inversion.
I 'n igressive doses of poison are ever-wider gates unto the
»pirit-realm, the last ofwhich is physical death. Not all gates
4ie pleasurable, and many bring great pain. 17 Yet within the
4inl>it of the Art Magical we may posit a schemata of
(niostic Poisoning, a continuum whose polarities are
Henefic and Malefic, healing and harming. Movement
.•li nig the axis in one direction is progressively innocuous,
HI I he other, progressively lethal. For some poisons, there
«*ists betwixt these two points a state of Divine Madness,
ilie rapture of Ecstasis wherein the personal 'I' is
11.distressed and sorcerous traffic with the spirit-world is

>« Wlirrl wright, Edith Grey. Medicinal Plants and Their History, p. 81.
• • I lit- myth of the 'peaceful death' using natural animal and plant poisons finds
Mil«- < nmllary in practical reality. With the notable exception of opium, most
("••lilt r painful and ghastly side-effects.
facilitated. This continuum is expressed differently with
every plant or animal venom, and in every enchantment
utilising it. Strychnine, which is a stimulant in small doses,
becomes a fatal nerve toxin at high ones.
A perhaps more germane exemplar lies with the
Visionary Nightshades, a particular group of plants
sometimes referred to as "The Hexing Herbs', frequently
associated with a variety of milieus of witchcraft. These are
plants of temperate and tropical distribution with ancient
histories of magical use, and characterized by demoniac
visions at shamanic doses. The most important brethren in
this clan include Henbane, Belladonna, Thornapple,
Mandrake, Angel's Trumpet, and Tobacco, which, when
used traditionally, is hallucinogenic. Though each of these
plants is chemically and magically different, they all
correlate to similar Gnostic Continua. From low to high
dose, these Nightshade 'Gates of Poison' are Exhilarant,
Aphrodisiac, Inebriant, Stupefacient, Phantasmagoric,
Anesthetic, and Fatal Poison. Gnosis may wait behind every
gate, but the doors may also slam shut - proffering naught
but agony and chastisement.
For those who tread the Poison Path, perhaps the best
•Knowledge of Antidotes lies not in any enchanted balm or
chemist's receipt, but in the balanced and proper Devotion
to Fear. In its exaltation, Fear is the simultaneous
knowledge and respect of those powers which can
annihilate us. Its irrational axis, manifest in action, is
cowardice and impulse; its flowering is courage and
prudence. Robert Cochrane cautioned that the use of the
poison sacrament in the hands of the fool was a 'quick way
to the underworld of insanity', and this skull and
crossbones stands as a waymark on the Path Envenom'd.
Other spirit-roads may abide the fool, but not the Dark
Lady of Venoms, for Mercy is a virtue alien to her dark
droplets.
 Purity, Contamination
&

$
The Magical Virgin

St »ri cry and toxins in combination is a potent admixture,

tlisiilled over the course of millennia, amalgamating
meaning, implication and emotional investment. H o w a
pi.utitioner of the Art Magical defines poison is wholly
.nit idler matter, and self-conception of poison itself is an
rssential part of the work of the adept.
Kindred concepts implied by the dual archaic usage of the
< ireek pharmakon (poison and magic) lead us to further
11 insider the distinctions between sorcery and intoxication.
I he word "intoxication", whose usage in modern English
i» almost universally linked to the effects of intentionally
ingested drugs or alcohol, was once used in pathology to
mean poisoning in general, more often than not connoting
harmful physical effects as a result. And yet, the adjective
intoxicating has in the present day become entwined with
notions of ecstasy, allure, and sensual delight in a poetic
»ense, if not the lingua vulgaris. The word toxic, by
i oinparison, has emerged at the fore of chemistry and
environmental science to strictly denote a substance of
|H Mential physical harm or fatality, while in recent English
vernacular it may refer to emotional or relational
opprobrium. Venom, linked etymologically to veneficium,
implies poisons of animal origin, but may also refer in
II mi mon parlance to human malediction, in word or deed.
I he multiplicity of meanings that poison and its associated
lelinue of concepts encompass may seem contradictory to
i lie linguist, but to the adept possess an internal consistency
suggestive of infinite power.
 In Eurpoean witchcraft, as it came to be shaped through
the printed word, the linkage between poison and
maleficium prompted many attempts at clarification of
terms. Johannes Weier, in his DeLamiis of 1577, remarks:

Venefici are those who with poisons made from

metals, plants, animals, excrements, or mixed
bodies, swallowed, rubbed in, or placed where
their vapors are breathed bring diseases with the
most cruel symptoms, wasting of the body,
imbecility of strength, loosening of the joints, and
other atrocious sufferings, sometimes prolonged
but generally causing speedy death with
intolerable pain.

Weier, a student of Henry Cornelius Agrippa, here

advances a purely materialist explanation of the poisoner-
witch. Though unquestionably a Man of God, he was ever
ready to attribute enchantments and fables of witchcraft to
superstition, or an otherwise rational explanation stripped
of magical romance. Historians frequently laud him as an
early and praiseworthy example of a skeptic counterpoised
to the 'witchcraft delusion', but the above position also
anticipates the modern discipline of criminology. The
position is echoed in the Tractatus de Sortilegiis of 1592 the
Italian jurist Paolo Grillandi:

With these compositions and poisons they can

render men impotent and women averse to
congress... all these diseases and deaths and
impotence and love philtres produced by these
mixtures are not the effect of the ceremonies and
observances and abuse of sacraments described
above.18

18. On a separate level the definition is of interest due to its mention of impotence-
causing sorcery, a subdivision of malefic magical charms which persists today in
various forms of traditional magic.
 lit >t h definitions may fall within a legal framework, but
if we consider the predominating currents of the time,
ilidt of Natural Magic. This discipline, straddling magic and
M ir ncc, was concerned with harnessing powers emanating
f 10111 Nature direct, many of which bore the trappings of
ilw miraculous. These cladistics, considered in distinction
in »orcery, were anticipated by Ibn Wahshiyya al Nabati in
Im Hook of Poisons, circa 850 A D :

Poison is something which overpowers and

destroys that which is called the life force of an
animal. When it overcomes this force the
functioning of the organs in the body is disturbed.
The liver, stomach, and veins cannot function so
that the strength of the heart, liver, brain, arteries,
daily warmth and sinews cannot be transported
through the body as they were previously The
quality of this condition-is the property of death,
since, in consequence of these things, it corrupts
the breath which gives rest to the body. Then the
life of the animal is affected without delay. This is
the definition of poison.

In this important volume we have recorded a thorough

formulary of plant, mineral, and beast-derived venoms as
K«iihered by Wahshiyya from diverse ancient and
lontemporary works, some of which are now lost. Each is
4iiompanied by a painstaking description of its
l»irparation and administration, as well as the ghastly
i-llrets each wreaks upon the body. Expanding the book's
mandate beyond lethality, a considerable number of
iiniulotes are also given. The Book of Poisons resists simple
«lansification, but is nonetheless considered a classic
iicatise of Arabian toxicology. Beside the more scientific
•• * positions on the nature of poison and a clearly empirical
»irand informing the author's approach, we also find
sections on magical poisons, such as the preparation of a
poisonous drum, whose sound kills those who hear it, or
fatal compositions, like the foetid emanations of the
Gorgon, which slay merely upon been glimpsed. In many
formulae, despite carrying out a complex compounding
procedure, the final ingredient animating the mixture to
efficacy—particularly the antidotes— is 'God's help'. These
definitions stress the corrupting nature of poison, and
despite their more rational approaches to the subject,
presuppose a contrasting physical homesostasis.
To my own experience as a magical practitioner, there is
an additional criterion worthy of our consideration.
Poison, in its characteristic modality, is marked by its origin
beyond, occupying a station exterior to the adept. Whether
descending from the Fang of the Viper, the grail-cup of the
Beloved, or as an astral parasite swooping from the abyss,
poison contains within it an inception of otherness, or power
alien to Self, and thus is an embodied metaphysic of the
Sabbatic concept of the Opposer.
Simply defined, the Formula of Opposition describes
magical contact of the adept with that which lies beyond,
and the liberation of power thus resulting. 19 In its higher
mystical forms in Traditional Witchcraft, it is the perfect
embodiment of contrary magical principles as trans-
mutative power. When conscious and active in the initiate,
it has been termed Crooked Path Sorcery, and as an ethos
driving magical practice may be found in the most ancient
magical texts, up to those of the present day.
Returning to the realm of the healer, the Formula of
Opposition is also found in certain protocols of pharmacy.
The art of utilizing deadly poison as medical therapeutic is
a fundamental feature of medicine, especially oncology and
the use of antivenins. Here, the governing script concerns

19. Chumbley, Qutub, and The Dragon-Book of Essex, passim.

i iglit dosage, in perfect resonance with the iatrochemistry
• •I Paracelsus. The botanical family Apocyanaceae or Dog-
IMIU'S, is rich in plant exemplars providing potent medicines,
•ik It .is the genera Catharantbus and Vinca, providing alkaloids
Vincristine and Vinblastine, important in chemotherapy
•HI I he destruction of neoplasms. 20 However, an important
li'.11 ure of such therapeutics is the selective poisoning of
min ted tissues. In further consideration of the Poison
I'dili, magical principles of Opposition are also embodied
m I he form of the antidote, which Arab physicians of old
•• >inctimes referred to as 'the remedy which opposes'.
I he cartography of poison belongs to realm of the other,
4111I its function as a power of opposition is resonant in
•1 line measure with the ancient Anglo-Saxon concept of
llying venom', elf-shot and wyrms, all contaminants
i inrrgent from the Outside. Though different in ontology
in 1 in r modern pathogenic theory of disease, both share in
. 1 million an exterior origin of poison and corruption.
I his magical relationship between interior-exterior is
i' »|H'cially evident in the magical operation of the exorcism,
1 lir work of purification or a 'casting out' of malign spirit-
l»nwcr. Indeed, the exorcistic charm be far from here, all ye
l>n>fti nc contains within it the designation of malign
mlltience as external from the operator. The corpus of
I uropean high magical ceremony found in the grimoires
• •li ITS a precise anatomy of exorcisms, as it is a corpus
IMiticularly rich with them. In addition to its cleansing
imii t ion, the exorcism may also serve as a protective barrier
• •1 prophylactic against astral contaminants. Whether the
runties conjured are celestial, infernal, planetary, or the
•lm arnate dead, these technical functions link the exorcism

Nat ure provides other exemplars in abundance, such as the lectin Vincumin,
• «••«. inl from Mistletoe (Viscum album), and desmoteplase, derived from the saliva
J ilic vampire bat, useful in the prevention of stroke.
to similar practices in Christian liturgy. In the arena of rural
sorcery, the exorcism may take a more direct route in
medicinal magic. Folk magic has long made use of charms
against poison, of which several types have been identified.
Of note are charms against snakebite, of which one
taxonomic category is Snake Bit Christ Spoke, allied in
essence and ritual technique to charms for easing the
damage caused by burns. 21 The number of charms for
countering poison and for expelling noxious spirits is vast.
The presence of these concepts in exorcism and magical
thought once again exposes strata of magical ontology em-
phasizing purity and contamination, an essential consid-
eration for the adept of the Poison Path. These draw obvious
parallels with the arts of medicine. Foundational medical
training begins with hygiene, and the best and most effective
magical tutelage is no different. Sterile procedure, meant
to contain pathogens and avoid cross-contamination, bears
many similarities to magical operations, not only of exorcism,
but also divination and the magical circle. Relevant too is
recognition of one's own potential to infect, and taking re-
sponsibility in containing it. In another example, when
administering care to a patient, the portions of the body
must be bathed in a specific order, in order to preserve the
purity of the cleaning vehicula; similarly, magical operations
often follow specific sequences of ritual action identifiable
across diverse eras and locales. The adept will recognize
this is less a reflection of rote adoption, but rather that
certain operations have a progression of power which, by
their nature, is both cumulative and effective.
In currents of magic, ideas of purity and contamination
are often imported from religions: Islam, Hinduism,
Christianity, and Judaism. Similar frameworks occur in
certain Native American societies such as the Navajo, where

21. Roper, Jonathan. Charms, Charmers, and Charming, p. 180.

i lit* dead are known as corrupting influences, and a retinue
ol charms and herbs are employed for protection of the
living." The Evil Eye, or mal ojo, nearly a universal phe-
i>< imcnon, is a prime example of this magical paradigm. The
out pour of malefic emanation ascribed to the eyes of certain
individuals, in some cases even without their knowledge, in
known to transfix, infect, or drain the power from the
victim beheld. Ancient Gnostic perspectives, particular
i hose of Manichaeism, hold particularly powerful examples
ol these concepts. Here, poison is acknowledged as a by-
pr< iduct of creation, but in encountering it, the work of the
elect consists of continual purification, of'liberating the
light' which is co-mingled with darkness, and using the
vessel of the body as well as the spirit to do so. Though
Iwnind by dualism, this view is important because of its
«lassification of various kinds of darkness, poisons,
impurities, or 'abortions'.
As concepts of purity and contamination affect the
ind ividual adept, so too they manifest in the collective body
ol initiates, where magicians are organized into a lodge or
• ovine. Like the human body, a robust mystery cult
imssesses an active immune response. Part of this
patterning arises from lore and customs of initiation, or of
»|K'cialized means of recognition of appropriate potential
nut i.ites. Brethren may also serve as enfleshmentss of the
• >ld god Terminus, being the keepers of the boundaries.
I nappropriate persons, encountering this immune system
.it it s periphery, create specific astral interference patterns
which facilitate their rejection. Likewise those appropriate
101 he work emanate certain harmonics which initiates are
i.night to recognize, such as the so-called 'Awen on the
llrow' or 'Mark of Cain'. This magical immune function is

• i I li.ivc discussed these ideas at length in my essay "Botanical Charms For

HIIIIIIIIK the Dead in European Folklore". Though both nations have markedly
•l>ll«'irnt histories, their magico-religious subcultures are pastiche, given their
iinml history of global empire and hegemony.
analogous to the station of the Tyler in Freemasonry, the
outer guard of the lodge whose charge is to prevent
intrusion by the uninitiated, curious, or inappropriate. 23
Magical orders and sodalities, if they are living and vital,
also possess their own 'karmas', amassed from the collective
deeds of their initiates, in addition to the horde of atavism
and ancestral force energizing the flesh of the present
moment. Both the magical and mundane actions of each
adept serve to advance the animated essence of the current,
and feed it, or elsewise, in the case of parasitic action,
degrade it. The moment of induction provides the new
initiate with a great many new powers, but also the
collective inheritance of the Order's astral legacy, for good
or ill. This is why transmutation of these karmas is a
paramount magical concern, and the responsibility of every
initiate. Pendell concedes that an important part of the
work of the Poison Path is in 'undoing the mess left by the
bad shamans', whose weapon is the Lie. 24
This raises the shade of so-called 'cultural contamination'
in magical subculture, the idea that foreign influences
behave as corrupting toxins to a closed group. Amid certain
rural magical lodges in both Britain and North America, I
have encountered varying attitudes about purity and
contamination. Most often these relate to a fantasies of
'pure' nationalist or regional magical types, much of which
are naked xenophobia. In these situations one must
seriously question prevailing attitudes of 'culturally pure*
magic where practice and lore have been syncretic for many
generations, and influences such as Solomonic conjur-
ation, Christian folk charming, Afro-Caribbean, and
Native American lore have been locally adopted. Similarly,
where magical practice has made its home in urban centers,
one encounters a kindred bigotry advancing the primacy of

23. Similar stations of appointment also exist in other esoteric orders.

24. Pbarmako/Poeia, p. 4.
ilu illiteracy or egalitarianism, whilst simultaneously
-•udemning and attacking all those found to be
>«•« ulogically abhorrent. In both cases, the poison relates
t'niu (tide neither to interior and exterior, but rather to
iiiscious action and unexamined fallacies in individual
n« 4toning, projected upon others. The phenomenon is not
»CMI«|IIC to esoteric orders, and indeed its endless variants
he discovered as an infectious by-product of human
">K.im/.ation.
I lie |>ower to reject or embrace the External is not merely
«»M pierogative of groups. It is a power daily exercised by all
"ulividuals, though frequently in an unconscious manner.
I «>i I he Adept of the Poison Path, actions of inclusion or
• »• lusion are of critical import. All such actions must be
»«.n led consciously, knowing full well one's rationales.
Vl»*tery-cults have long been accused of elitism, or of
• • •• it ealing criminal activity, but in my own experience, the
«*i H males for secrecy and exclusion are considerably more
K'« i< iic.il. More often, they arise f r o m concerns of privacy
•ii. I preserving intimacy among initiates, as well as barring
d o o r to fools and criminals. This is a rationale operant
•» law to the individual; where it is violated, a profanation
•l i lie Self occurs; likewise the violation may occur at the
»«•! of a group, which is an association of individuals.
• >1 >\ ii uisly, as with Poison itself, the negotiation between an
«I« I ior and exterior mode of engagement forms a critical
• • l i t t of the Work, and is allied with the Arcanum of the
1|>lllllX.
As t he Point at the center of a confluence of poisons and
tH-ers, the Adept will perpetually be called to develop his
• •« Iter powers of discernment and self-discipline. Poison
«IMI it s effects are systemic, thus its action is interpenetrative,
• •.net he emanations of the most efficacious operations of
nlti Art Magical. This implies embracing a perpetual con-
•« Miusnessofthe magical bodywhich may, at will, embrace
or reject power, corrupt or purify, and the concept of the
Magical Virgin.
Magical operations recorded in remotest antiquity often
prescribe a virgin as the adept's ritual assistant, often in the
capacity of a seer or in divinatory operations such as
cleidomancy. 25 European grimoire texts frequently specify
virgins for mediumship 26 ; the practice of using a young
virgin boy as the assistant to magical operation permeates
Arabic sorcery and is still present in the modern era. 27 This
'unblemished' state, also common in sacrificial rites of
ancient religion, marks conscious divisions of numen
between 'purity' and 'contamination', and ascribes to them
specific magical properties. The state of the body being
metaphorically'Edenic' further implies a state of receptivity
which, like the liaison of First Woman and Serpent, assists
the adept of the Poison Path.
In magical applications Zeroth or Void-mind states,
though paradoxical by their very embodiments as concepts,
are often the goal of specific magical praxes. Usually falling
within the boundaries of asceticism, they are more often
divertive from obsession or distraction than actual
emptiness. Such psychostases are achieved by ritual
techniques which collapse conception and awareness to
their rudimentary components. Likewise a void-mind state
may serve to stratify perception such that its center is
receptive, whilst its periphery is protective: the very
definition of the Magic Circle. If successful, the resultant
state provides the most neutral media possible for
impression during operations of the Art Magical, the better
to provide the prepared vessel for encountering that which
lies beyond it. When considering this magically generated
'ground', analogies with the painter's art are most apt: one

25. Augury by use of a suspended key, auspicious when certain planetary powers arc
dignified in the zodiacal sign of the Virgin.
26. The Key ofSolomon the King, Book II, Chapter II.
27. Lane, WE. An Account of the Manners and Customs ofModern Egyptians, p. 95.
• HI scarcely express the overwhelming and alien ecstasy
• *|H'i ienced by the artist upon first beholding the blank
. .invas, a similar state to the Virgin Dyad first beholding
< .i< li other in mutual desire. The state is important to the
• mi lent of poisons; Dale Pendell has referred to this point
•i '< iround State Calibration'.
U | hi n the poison path, we may speak of many 'firsts' - the
• MII ial sting or bite of a poisonous animal; the first adverse
"«.u I ion from a prescription drug; the first experience of
••Mi-sthesia; the first visual apparition borne of an
•i.illiu inogenic' substance. This inceptive consciousness
»M.IV also be applied to Astral Poison: heartbreak, betrayal,

. inniional violence, nightmare. Each situation may be

»«yarded as 'initiatic' in a technical sense, for all consist of
• U-turning, possessing unique powers under the monadic
Hn-iald of inception. 28 If viewed from the perspective of
«»>i i-1 age, each virginal experience incepts a new pattern of
»«.n lung and amplifies the experience by making use of a
•i .Hi- of previous un-knowing.
I lie value of this embodied station is manifold. In
v .ilih.it ic Witchcraft, marked by the presence of a highly-
•« dualized magic in some applications, there is the notion
•I I lie Sabbatic Virgin', a zone of magical experience and
i iv 11 y where-in each magical interaction with the Other is
• i .ivishing anew. 29 Importantly, this station demands the
- n iut-s of distinction, discernment, humility and the
••illuigness to admit fallibility. It is thus the conscious
• ullcsliment of Void by the adept in preparation for
. -iint less betrothals to power, an embodied practice I have
• "inc to call 'cultivating the perpetual neophyte'. Even in a
M ilin of mastery, claimed as one's own and executed in
.!«i d, nothing is static, nor does the true adept ever cease

• i l» I .imi,aquaternianmanifestationofinceptivepowersoccursinthefourAce
• i< "I i In- minor arcana.
• i I "N7i,i and Lux Haeresis.
learning. Thus may the Master embrace the station of o° =
neophyte, proceeding 'as i f each situation is entirely new,
or on a basis whereby he or she may be challenged, proven
wrong, or re-made in the Forge of Initiation. This is a
critical aspect of Crooked Path Sorcery, and brings to mind
the cyclical reversal of roles, such as that of slave and master,
essential to ancient festivals such as the Saturnalia.
And yet the parameters of the Virgin are ever-shifting,
subject to a great many conceptions, most importantly Her
own. Whilst she may not have consummated the sexual act
with a fleshly companion, she is certainly aware of her
desire to do so, and of the tides of attraction, arousal, and
physical compulsion, all of which are potent reservoirs of
power. The touch of her own hand will be well known to her,
and thus the initiating force of First Agapte arises in the pre-
figuration of previous accreta of sensual knowledge and
fantasy; the difference in consummation is in the presence
of the Other. This body of self-knowledge, a combination
of limited experience and vast imagination, is in every wise
as important as each connubium which follows. Whilst,
clinically, the inception-point of coitus marks a technical
and spiritual terminus of the individual, it nonetheless is
part of an eroto-magical continuum for the Virgin-Adept.
This addresses the notion of preconception as a
'contaminant' to 'pure' magical experience.
Where the study of magical poisons is concerned, the
station of the Magical Virgin, beyond all restrictions of the
Self, is in fact determined by such factors as temperament,
devotion, and embodied presence. The ability to attach with
ferocious passion, and detach as readily, is also paramount.
Here, we advocate no prudish avoidance on the basis of fear
or morality, but an holistic recognition that each encounter
with the unfamiliar may be a source of great power to the
adept. One tenders oneself as bride or bridegroom unto
Experience, wholly devoted in love, respect, and desire —
the emblem of Sacrifice, whose lifeblood feeds not only the
ancient gods, but one's own incarnation.
 $
The Corporeal Laboratory

I Alchemists of Asia, Europe, and the Near East pursued

I»m i i mystical knowledge through replication of the
« inverse in the microcosm of the laboratory. Some of the
>'»mi»i dangerous compounds known to humanity were
CM »enl in their operations, whether due to toxicity,
" • I j n l u y , or corrosive action upon the human organism.
MH» ihemical pilgrimage occurred in the sealed and
* «i«'i n.il proving grounds of cucurbits and retorts, furnaces
••MI h.K hs, according to the skill and subtlety of the Arts of
lltimes.
I lie philosophers' own bodies also served as proving
ftKMiiuls for their reagents and nostrums. F o r many, this
•»|x mure was unintentional, the flesh serving as a filter f o r
luxic stew of mercuric vapor, corrosive acids, and
••M ullic sublimates. For others, like Basil Valentine, direct
-mliilution of transmuted metallic poisons, such as
\iiinnony, was a deliberate and spiritual act. 30 The inter-
i««lion of magic, mysticism, natural science, metallurgy,
i»>i.iny, and medicine collectively embodied in Alchemy
•••plied a melothesic construct of the divine mysteries, the
1
«'i|»oreal Laboratory. By this route of inquiry, the powers
'I heaven and hell were embodied in man, as were the
i»>ieniials of the earthly body as furnace, retort,
«n« iluilum, and all the transmutative apparatus of the
rinlosopher.
I h i s noetic path of corporeal self-discovery in relation to
MSI in is exemplified by Dale Pendell in his trilogy of books
rnutko/Poeia, Pharmako/Dynamis, and Pharmako/Gnosis.

Ilw I (Soft Ttriumphal Chariot of Antimony, in which Valentine describes numerous

•i'» i •«!>•< 11 (impounds of antimony, some taken orally.
By use of a kind of poetic empiricism, the Ally of each
poison under investigation was made manifest to the adept
by the act of its imbibition. This marked a return of needful
subjectivity to the Poison Path, not as an unacknowledged
flaw, but as the restoration of an estranged and essential
part of 'objectivity'. Inquiry was not limited merely to the
routes of history, therapeutics, and chemical assay, but also
through mantic embodiment of the poison genii
themselves and their alignments with the adept's own
magical trajectories. As an ever-present shade haunting,
and at times directing, the exposition, the oracles were
received from the poison daimones direct and revealed their
important nature as trickster. As a critical theme of the
works, Pendell rightly situates the mystical study of poisons
within Alchemy, not only for its controlled work with
deadly compounds, but also due to its heterodox occult
pedigree.
Prior to the flowering of alchemy, many of the com-
pounds subjected to laboratory trials had a long history of
human use. The substances present in most ancient
cosmetics of the Near East reveal a number of beautifying
substances composed of poisonous metallic oxides of
mercury and lead 31 . This provides a link with the luminary
Azazel, the Goat-headed One who in some elder accounts
was the captain of the Watchers or Fallen Angels who
rebelled against God, and led humankind astray with magic
and forbidden arts. Each angelic reprobate governed .1
different dominion of magic, divination or technology,
which he then taught to his human wife. Azazel instructed
in both cosmetics and metallurgy, especially forging the
weapons of war. The link between smithcraft and cosmetics

31. For example, the classic renaissance skin-whitener Venetian Ceruse, also known
as Spirits of Saturn, derived from the toxic mineral cerussite or Lead carbon,He,
PbCC>3. Until relatively recently, white exterior paints contained a mixture of 71'*-
lead carbonate and 25% oil.
i« in the first instance alchemical-metallurgic: the smelting
I »i i ness promotes the natural emergence of oxide pigments
l*ri/ed for beautification. We may also view cosmetics and
weapons of war as traditional armaments of each gender;
x-t s have often described Feminine Beauty as a poison by
which one is 'smitten'. Though there is significant
ilioological and historical debate about the origins of the
Watchers legends, a convincing case has been made that
many of their features were borrowed from Greek legends
• i| Prometheus, another transgressor of divine order and
.i I so figure aligned with the Alchemical art. 32
I lie legends of transgressive gods stealing heavenly fire
imply an important principle upon the poison path:
knowledge must be embodied in order to become active
.ind realize its potential. This embodiment is both passive
i as with its situation in the mortal flesh) and active (as a
t«nit inual wellspring of teaching from direct experience).
Int lie legend of the Watchers, embodiment occurs by two
important routes: through the 'earthing' of angelic beings
.iller being cast out of heaven, and the angels' transmission
i »l forbidden knowledge through direct teaching of human
women. That these liaisons of heaven and earth contain a
»i rotigly sexual component further underscores the theme
• il l lie reception and attainment of knowledge through the
m- 11 ic le of the body. This is known in some forms of modern
witchcraft as "The Alembic of the Wise', an Arcanum
i «• ac li i ng the transmutative aspect of the body, culminating
HI it s realization of "The N e w Flesh" a magical paradigm
muting Self and Other in a dynamic and gnostic
|M-richoresis.
Where experiential knowledge of poison is concerned,
i lie legacies of Alchemy are many, not.merely restricted to
i lie shrouded byways of occult tradition. The antimonial

n N ii kelsburg, George W.E. Enoch I Hermeneia.

 mm
* * f i

3. Saturn as the ouroboros-wielder, from Vincenzo

Cartari's Imagini delli Dei de gl'Anticbi, 1581.

cup, an ancient remedy persisting until the early modern

' era, is a prototype par excellence of the poison chalice-type
pharmakon, but also of the use of the human laboratory for
the transmutation of poison. Cast in metallic antimony, the
vessel was filled with wine and allowed to stand a day,
whereupon the toxic virtues of the metal leached into the
mild ethanolic solution, creating a powerful emetic. Known
also as pocula emetica or calices vomitorii, there is evidence
that such cups, passed down in families from one
generation to the next, accreted a kind of power or ritual
significance not unlike saints relics and the magical regalia
of witches, cunning folk and Freemasons. The Paracelsian
legacy of alchemical iatrochemistry endured in nineteenth-
century pharmacopoeias in such official remedies as syrups
 •l lead, White Lead, and mercuric chloride. The medical
• »i.il»lishment's relation to these poisonous alchemical
les is cyclical, with therapeutic metallic salts falling in
*ntl out of favor over time. 33 Still, the medical efficacy of
««ii li preparations has arisen in part by humanity's ancient
*ml ongoing role as a test subject in a crucible of metallic
num.
In Astrology and Alchemy, poisons and their malign
«4ili.itinns are governed by the planet Saturn, the
. mmbalistic god of time, agriculture, and also the metal
i'« .id i.ind, esoterically, antimony). This association with
.nl, whose symptoms of gradual poisoning (plumbism)
•Hlu t multiple organ systems, including the brain and
ives, is consistent with the iconography of the deity,
-•licit portrayed as old, crippled, or swathed in bandages
«Hil plasters. The Doctrine of Signatures, known f o r its
• utiplcx arrays of magical correspondences, generally
• •»i^n s poisonous plants to the dominion of Saturn, as well
• i 11 lose inhabiting low, boggy, and contaminated soils.
Nii< li places are the dwellings of the rotten, the verminous,
«lir and the dense precipitates of sublunary miasma.
Astrological aspects with Saturn are always concen-
M ,n ions of force, and often presage plague and famine; in
«Miirs past the god was often evoked in planetary magic with
• 1111 x t u re of respect, fear, and horror. This underscores the
nl's astrological station as a transpersonal planet, whose
mat ions have wider effects upon humanity as a whole,
to.l m ivern transcarnative powers of the individual, such as
'In Sramanic concept of karma. This transection of the
»li of the present moment with past and future
• mlvoiliments is atavistic in nature, and links Saturn with
>»i old Greek forbear Kronus, lord of time. Saturn's

. i X . ommon mercury compound for topical use, mercurochrome or 'monkey

Mi i . 1 , w a i .(common household medicament in the United States until banned in
governance of temporal cycles also accretes related
concepts of decay, mortality, and the horror of personal
demise, all kindred to poison and its associated complex of
fears. A n ancient Nabataean enchantment reads in part:
I ask of Thee in Thy name, the kept one, the hidden
one, in thy unending knowledge to hear my prayer,
and to save mefromthe evil ofSaturn, the old chief,
the great one, the bright one, the luminous one, and
from his killing, mortifying, and torturing my soul,
and to keep life in my body.34

Giordano Bruno's descriptions of Saturnian power are

thoroughly taxonomic. A m o n g the great host of the god's
attendants are Putrefaction, Stench, Meagreness, Squalor,
Indecency, Infamy, Poverty, Hatefulness, Sorrow, Vomiting,
Stuttering, Crabbiness, Morosity, Severity, Impatience,
Invalidism, Foolishness, Rigidity, Wrinkles, Toothlessness,
delirious Imagination and Horror.3S Each of these character-
istics is applicable in its own way to poison; indeed some
read like precise debilitative symptoms of intoxication.
The alchemical tradition furnishes us with a unique
occult wisdom of poisons, both in philosophy and
semiotics. The Caput mortuum or dead head, being a
residuum of the alchemical Work, is especially apropos the
study of magical venoms, not only f o r its status as the
excreta of the Grand Operation, but also its iconography of
the skull. A s with both Nature and the Alchemical Art, all
conscious magical operations produce aetheric waste and
detritus, and the art of discernment between them is of
paramount importance. 3 6 When subjected to the proper

34. Ibn Washiya, Book on Poisons.

35. On the Composition of Images, Signs and Ideas, 1591 (1991).
36. Caput Mortuum was also a purple pigment used in oil painting - often, ironically,
for rendering the vestments of religious personages. For this reason it was al»n
known as Cardinal Purple. Also associated with oil painting is the malady known
as Painter' wrist-drop, a peripheral toxic neuritis also called lead palsy, caused by
gradual ingestion of soluble salts of lead common in many pigments.
«»i e M >1" Art, the skull may become the vessel of future work,
• lie 'purified body 5 which receives vivifying force. The
I > I I K ess bears certain features active in the Mysteries of

» In ist: migration of the Body of the Saviour f r o m

«Milgotha, Place of the Skull, to the vessel of the tomb,
• In i nigh the flames of Hell's Harrowing, to the Light of the
Meswrrected Body.
In the most rustic of environments this principle is
live, true to the ancient words of Hermes. In my youth, I
».is privileged to meet and study directly with a number of
••Mticrs of herbalism to further my own knowledge of
(•l.uits. One such master, an Englishman, shared with me
.inecdote about having learned part of his craft amongst
«IM- hereditary fairy-doctors descended f r o m the Welsh
• IrtUygon Myddfai. H e relayed that his hardened skepticism
• •I lolk medicine was strongly challenged when he
witnessed a complete cure of shingles using the topical
•l»plu.ition of urine f r o m a pig fed on certain herbs.
I ike wise, feces and excreta of various kinds often f o r m the
38
"MSIS of folk medicines.
In Sabbatic Witchcraft, the Caput M o r t u u m finds its
.••lollary in the vulgar, uninitiated flesh of the Profane
Man, symbolized by the corpse of Abel after his murder by
• .nil.1'' It is the Accurst Matter, that which rejected after
• lie purifying fires of the Forge of Initiation. The so-called
•• par.ition of the corpse f r o m the angel' acts as the
«>•< »liative bridge allowing passage f r o m the circle of
•••nielined matter into the Circle of Art. Unlike usual
\l< heinical operations, the Death's H e a d is afforded
. < nam legitimate powers rather than merely being rejected
'•••in the Work or passed into a highly refined or purified
'••llll.

• ••i cn.miple, sheep dung used for baldness, JraA Country Cures.
> i < liiiinlilcy, A.D. The Dragon-Book of Essex, 1997; Semple, G. The Devil's Noctuary
« >it 1. Schulke, D. "Cainite Gnosis and the Sabbatic Tradition", The Cauldron,
'' •«'<<ijiv J.< >12, and The Psalter of Cain.
 As it contains the antithesis of bodily transmutation, it
serves as a concentrated Principle of Opposition, and is
assigned to the Dominion of Curse or 'the Dark Body'.
Thus, the Black Skull, as it sometimes called, possesses a
malefic quality serving both the operations of healing and
harming. In its bound and aright form, it may manifest as
destructive force or blight; in its bound averse form it is a
healing salvific - the medicine cup fashioned from the skull
of the profane corpse. This recognition of a spectrum of
power inherent in filth arises from an underlying ethos,
pervasive in some forms of Traditional Witchcraft,
emphasizing knowledge of right usage, rather than
rejection or acceptance on a purely moral basis. Here, we
return to the idea of embodiment as a necessary engine of
magic and transmutation. As a feature of Crooked Path
sorcery, the initiate is perpetually refining poison into
nectar, a process sometimes described by its adherents as
'self-overcoming'.
In the modern era, toxic environmental contamination
may be regarded as a Caput mortuum an otherwise detrital
consequence of advanced materials technologies such as
chemical synthetics, nuclear power, industrial agriculture,
and munitions manufacture. Their common aspect of the
contaminants being hidden, subterranean, secreted, and
lying just below the perceptible surface also resonates with
the classic alchemical description of the estate of Nigredo,
whereby the Stone conceals itself in the foulest filth. In op-
position, especially from the view of the Poison Path, we
also recognize a similarity to the magical-alchemical formula
of V I T R I O L : Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Oc-
cultum Lapidem,39 Though the example of industrial waste
is clearly the result of human activity, it is important to
note that, geologically, Nature keeps her poisons 'locked

39. "Visit the innermost zones of the Earth and by Rectification shall you discover
the Hidden Stone".
•wav" the Earth's crust,
< ailu-r deep below the sur-
»,»«cor in the form of less
«.«MC minerals w h i c h
•mist be smelted to ex-
<i ,it it lie poison. Nature,
«•» I in 'pre-alchemic' state,
•ili'i s one order of poi-
I. MI, but the Royal Art, or
s. ii-nce its bastard, may
"Minify it many times be-
• ••ml.
Iiiilustrial manufac-
• muig paradigms have
•••Hen rejected the prin-
• »l»l«- that both product
*M«I by-product are dual +• Alcnemical I'utretaction, snowing carrion
c . . bird, black matter, and worms. From Anatomia
emanations ot a Single A u n byjohann Daniel Mylms, 1628.
-•l*-iation, and that each
.11 sits respective powers and responsibilities. From an
•l« lit-mical perspective, such have given rise to a shadow-
• lulil of the Royal Art, a demonic alchemy which not only
t* in-rated gold f r o m the wonders conjured in its
tlHiratories, but also manifold poisons which spawned a
« K.h v of death, disease, mutation and sterility. Like the
f.i/'/xi//i or shadow-emanations of the Kabbalistic sephira,
'«»< liusk-like impurities of industry do not merely cease
^ 1 ivity once buried in the ground, but continue to leach
• upt influences over time and space. Depending on the
• uni t- of the poison, their venomous nature may endure
«.tdrs, centuries, or millennia and fuse with the strata of
N unit- herself. Persistent residue of the agricultural
i)"i «tu itle lead arsenate ( P b H A s 0 4 ) is a classic example.
«»»«»• used extensively in orcharding, it remains in the soil
for decades and can also be systemic, migrating into the
tissues of trees and their fruit —the witches' poisoned apple
bearing the mark of Samael.
The modern era of recycling, in which an ethos of
responsible re-use has been advanced in some milieus, has
provided a needful first step in reversing the damage. Yet
those involved in the recycling industry are forced to admit
that the process on an industrial scale generates pollutant s
of its own. This necessitates a viewpoint where-in .1
necessary part of fabrication is envisioning an object's
architecture as both its alchemical lapis (the desired object)
and its caput mortuum (its waste-product) before it
congeals as a manifest form. Once thus aligned with the will
of its creator, its future destiny is accordingly secured.
Again, this dual ethos returns us to the Formula of
Opposition, and the Crooked Path. Removing these
principles to the Corporeal Laboratory, the entirety of the
substance of the Initiate, fair and foul, must truly be
tempered by its opposite, that a new and more powerful
refinement may occur.
For the practitioner, all forms of poison, be they chemical,
astral, emotional, or otherwise, provide opportunities for
hermeneutic tutelage. Medical anaesthesia, which, far from
being an exact and safe procedure, is a prime example of
this. With the sensorium catapulted downward into leaden
twilight, both the body and its extension consciousness
trace the boundaries of Death's own circle; a small percentage
of patients do not emerge alive. More importantly, the ma
jority who do return from the aethers of anesthesia frequent ly
report visits to fantastic realms and intercourse with the
dead, in many ways identical to well-known documentation
of near-death experiences.
A surgeon associate of mine discovered, through ti
routine checkup, that he required a surgical intervention
himself. In accordance with the privileges of his practice
 Ins i liorough knowledge of drugs, he was permitted to
i'«» m ribe his own regimen of anesthesia for the operation,
• ln« li included liberal levels of ketamine. 40 He later re-
ft •« led t hat the resulting waking delirium was suffused with
• « l » « T W o r l d l y music, singing, and a seductive retinue of
'k*iM nig nymphs which cavorted about him in the operating
"•••iii. I he features of this tableau superficially resemble
features of the classic iconography of the witches'
i*MmiIi, particularly the 'fairy sabbaths'. 41 Similarly, my
-«»ii anesthetic experiences with clinically-regulated scopo-
lamine have produced monstrous distortions of the senso-
• mm which resembled the affected visual state arising from
»MHii al atavistic trance arising from non-pharmacological
• mi.il lechniques. This is characterized by a grotesquerie of
r«"|Mirtion, and strange amalgams of beasts, men, women,
»KNI natural landforms.
An important 'spiritual"legacy' of Alchemy, and of
ial import to the Corporeal Laboratory, is the modern
"wiMgerie of synthetic psychoactives such as 2CB. 4 2 Often
Kumsscd by drug-takers as inferior to 'natural' drugs, or
kiting no spiritual component, these novel substances
l*«|trrly belong to the genii of minerals, allied in spirit to
'metallic consciousness' of Manuel DeLanda's
I-JMII »sophy of matter. 43 This particular spirit of discovery,
< ••Miluning the purified marrow of empirical inquiry and
*>•«•• ( visionary experience is exemplified in our current
"•">«• hy the chemist Alexander Shulgin. The originator of
"i i 1 psychoactive and euphoriant compounds, he has
> *u.ipolated the reverent innovation of the alchemical

x k. 1 >1 nunc, C j j H j g C I N O , important as a veterinary and pediatric anesthetic,

ii". «• J recreational drug for its inebriant and hallucinogenic effects. Both
1 1 . . » h i u and non-medical usages have multiple applications.
1. • II. miinmcn, 'The Ladies From the Outside'. Centres and Peripheries.
I. • 11, ir I tpcitk of the Royal Art's virtues of Love of Sophia (Wisdom), exploration,
- <I I. HI, and reverence in approach to Nature and God.
1.1 li. I JIUI.I, Uniformity and Variability.
philosopher into the chemist's laboratory, and wed it to the
pilgrimage of self. Each substance was thoroughly tested on
himself and volunteer participants before a chronicle of its
manifestation was published.
Applications of the Corporeal Laboratory have long been
known to the witch-cult, although the name such magical
formulae may take varies with time and place. The power
which arises from its furnaces and bellows is chiefly atavistic
and draws upon the great reservoir of the pre-incarnate
body. Within, the most ancient wellsprings of fleshly power
may be tapped by venerative and magical means, and
empower the body into a proliferation of forms, each
capable of manifold powers and hypostases. This is the so-
called 'New Flesh' or Transmutation of the Body from a
gross state to the angelic, wherein all possibilities arc
manifest through corporeal form, and the latent and
vestigial attain radiance. This has historically been
expressed in a variety of symbols, namely the beast-masked
revelers of the midnight conventicle, and the theriocephalic
forms, half human, half beast emergent as spirits by the
light of the Circle's fire. The formulae may take on a
multitude of extrapolations according to the desire of the
witch, but a recurring pattern commands originative,
formative and expressive phases. That is, the conjuration of
raw atavistic power from the repositories of the flesh, giving
it form, and breathing life into it anew even as it is presently
embodied. Such techniques are aided by a variety of ecstatic
sorcerous pathways, including the mesmeric, nostalgic,
hypno-sexual, and routes of the poison path.
These formulae may be accomplished by a single
practitioner, but the force of the power is multiplied many
times over in the Sabbath assembly. This is demonstrated
by a magical operation known as Circulatum Sabbati,
which magnifies and multiplies the mesmeric sexual power
of eight adepts, comprised of four couplings of male and
 V Circulatum Sabbati, showing serial distillation of the magico-sexual
(Hiwcrs of eight witch-adepts, as represented by retorts. From theirs
I'hillron series of diagrams, 2008.

IOIIMIC, into a spirit-concrescence which is at once

I'm haristic and Egregoric. This octriga, or coven of eight,
represented as a symbolic circle of eight conjoined
lirmical retorts. The Elixir is generated in each individual
<« lort, whose function is to cook and distill, and in doing
••», i he elixir passes from one body to the next in a repeated
m l<\ female to male to female, here seen as a conjunctive
*»tnil solar and lunar. The force applied to each retort must
i«< 11I concordant resonance, but the participation of
ouiliiple vessels, combined with perpetual cycling in
> "nidation of the alchemical Circulatio leads to a processed
<l«iulic medium which is many times more potent than a
• tniple and separate combination of four 'alchemical
•M-ddings' of Sun and M o o n .
I lie active, operant aspect of the Work demonstrates,
through the Laboratory, that drinking the poison cup is
easy; turning its black venom to gold is not. One of the
highest and most essential responsibilities of the Poison
Path is transmutation. Such a mandate necessitates a rubric
whereby progress can be rightly judged and the mere
appearance of transmutation separated from the Stone.
Here one must heed the sages of old when they chose such
words as skillful and subtle to frame the successful
approaches to the Art. As Basil Valentine observed:

The bee extracts honey from theflowerby the art which

God has given to her; but when once the honey is visibly
perfect, that sweet andfragrantliquid can be prepared
in such a way as to become a potent and deadly poison.
This is a fact which no one will believe who has not seen
experimental proof of it.

Despite the wisdom attained in experience, the use of the

flesh for executing the operation of Art also presents
vulnerabilities associated with subjectivity, namely mis-
perception, and the pitfalls of addiction, tolerance, and
over-intoxication. That which empowers and transforms
the path of the adept must ultimately be held in greater
esteem than that which concentrates existing constructs of
illusion, delusion and dysfunction. More particular to
poison, that Operation which effects a change in quin-
tessence such that its power is no longer destructive to the
vessel but creative is worthy of advancement to the next
stage in the Work. Restriction ceases, motion ensues, and
the dynamism of flesh and spirit expands in a reverberatory
manner. The question must be asked: has the poison served
as Muse or as Master? Has the Laboratory and its vessels
become stronger, or more degraded? By answering such
questions truthfully we may discern the Black Stone from
the Green, and, perchance, witness the resurrection of the
Dead Head into a living oracle of prophecy.
 Leaves ofHekat
$
I Irk.itc was the ancient goddess of the moon, sorcery and
-I i lie night-traveled pathways, later syncretised with
\ 11 e 111 i s. The Greeks accounted her the daughter of Perseus
•ml Asteria, and the mother of Scylla, the water-demon.
1le1 ce n ter of worship was in Aegina, where annual mystery
<ii<"> established by Orpheus occurred. Artistic repre-sen-
« t u n s show her bearing torches; where roads or paths met,
* 111pic effigy of Hekate arose f r o m masks placed at the
I<«MII I ion, and she was venerated by a largely female lunar

- »»li. Patron of the enchantress Medea, it was said that great

•M mor came to those whose prayers Hecate received favor-
ably, for she was regarded as a bestower of wealth. H e r
k ii< iwn period of worship was 8oo B . C . until the Christian
•••a, hut according to G o r d o n S i m o o n s , the researcher
* In ise book Plants ofLife, Plants ofDeath addressed the sub-
in« l ol plant-taboos, her veneration continued much longer:

It is likely no accident that Hekate, chthonic

goddess of sorcery who brought on or cured
illness, was offered garlic in the form of a wreath
to accompany the suppers provided her at
crossroads, which, as we have seen, were
associated with her, and that Hecate was believed
to punish with madness anyone who dared eat
her suppers. Despite the rise of Christianity,
Hecate and crossroads offerings did not
disappear. Crossroads offerings persisted as late
as the eleventh century, when there are reports of
the Church attempting to put an end to them.
I locate herself, moreover, led the well-known
witch ride of medieval times. 44

». Clintons, Frederick J. Plants of Life, Plants of Death, p. 143.

 Persons who died early or unnatural deaths, such as
suicides and murder victims, were "restless spirits flying
abroad in the wind with Hekate". 45 As some archaeological
yields have revealed, Hecate was invoked in conjunction
with the use of humanoid fetishes known as kolossoi,
sometimes for cursing; her rites including protective and
exploitative magic, were practiced at crossroads. From
antiquity to medieval times, Artemis-Hecate was strongly
identified with the hordes of the dead, who traveled in
procession during the Ember Nights, the twelve days from
Christmas to Epiphany, and who were visible to certain
seers. 46 Greeks called Hekate triceps or triformis; and she
was thought to have three heads: that of a lion, a dog, and a
mare; along with three goddessforms— Phoebe (the
Moon) in heaven, Diana on Earth, and Proserpine in hell.
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the sorceress Medea invokes
"Thou, three-faced Hecate, who comest conscious of my
design, and ye charms and the arts of the enchanters, and
thou, too, Earth, that does furnish the enchanters with
powerful herbs", thelhessalian sorceress Erichtho invokes
Hecate in Lucan's Pharsalia. As we shall see, the invocation
of Hekate emerges as a common feature of the magical arts
bf the Thessalian witches, as do a specific retinue of
poisonous herbs.
Though this magical reference occurs within mythical
narrative, Hekate was invoked by folk magicians and
sorcerers, and this is substantiated by the archaeologic.il
record. For example, P G M LXX4-25, a surviving Demotii
Greek spell, invokes Hecate-Erishkagal for protection
against daimons of punishment in the underworld. In
addition to a protective incantation, the supplicant is
instructed to simultaneously scatter sesame seeds aboui

45. Duerr, Hans Peter. Dreamtime, p. 193.

46. ibid., p.35.
.11 a crossroad. 47 The 12th century scholar and religious
reformer Eusthasisus of Thessalonika wrote:

...the name Empousa [is given] to the demon

that appears to the unfortunate [at Hecate's
bidding] under various forms or apparitions
around midday, when solemn sacrifice is offered
to the spirits of deceased relatives.48

Her attributes as patroness of sorcery, providing

protection, and having provenance over the dead and evil
spirits, permeate the core of her deific power. They are also
lite fount f r o m which the image of the Thessalian Witch
llows, the source of her power, and, arguably, later witch
archetypes of medieval Europe.
' rhessaly (or modernThessalia) is the geographical region
1h.1t occupies the central section of mainland Greece.
(ieographically isolated except for its eastern shoreline on
lite Aegean, it is surrounded by high mountain ranges
encircling a low plain, and has a higher percentage of
ll.ttland than any other district in Greece. It borders
Macedonia to the north, Sterea Ellada to the south, and
I'lpirus t o t h e w e s t .
From the earliest Greek writings, Thessaly has been
regarded as a hive of maleficia, and famous Thessalian
sorceresses from antiquity include such personages as
( arce, Medea, Erichtho, Calypso, Dido and Folia. Their
ireatments in ancient histories are afforded the kind of
s 1111 u ltaneous heroic respect and revulsion that leads one to
suspect that the legends were grounded firmly in reality. In
Ins De praestigiis daemonum, a 1583 rational-skeptic
1 reatment of the witchcraft phenomenon, Johannes Weyer
equates the sorcery of the region with veneficium. He seems

l • Hrt/,,The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, pp. 297-8.

i 1 Wcyer, Johannes. Witches, Devils, and Doctors in the Renaissance, p. 71.
to sum up the old legends of Thessaly by remarking:

There is an ancient phrase, cited by Suidas, for

the poisonings wrought by women: BeaaaXixT)
yuvt), Thessalian woman, which we use, of
course, because the Thessalian race, and
especially the women, are notorious above all
others on this account.49

This ancient notion persisted from antiquity into the

modern era. Paul Christian, author of the 1870 occult
compendium Historie de la Magie, du Monde Surnaturel et de
la Fatalite a travers les Temps et les Peuples, wrote:

The origin of witchcraft was very ancient; it

began in Thessaly, a country as celebrated for its
witches and wizards as for its Vale ofTempe or its
Thermopylae. The Thessalian women, who
dedicated themselves to the profession of this
spurious magic possessed, says Plato, the power
to stop the sun in its course, to bring upon the
earth the spirits of evil, to raise or calm tempests,
to bring the dead back to life or kill the living.50

Anacharsis, in his travels, observed these women

working their magic, and noted their use of spells to kill
bees and flocks of domestic animals, as well as the children
of newly-married couples; particularly interesting was their
use of wax fetishes pierced with needles to exterminate
people. Public superstition was so great that people who
saw themselves modelled in this way believed they

49. Ibid, 560. Weyer goes on to qualify poisoning as being chiefly within the domain
of women. There is one mention of male Thessalian sorcerers in Juvenal; writing in
his Satirae, he relays that "this man produces magical charms, this other sclln
Thessalian philtres with which they [wives] can torment the minds of their
husbands."
50. Christian, pp. 203-204
were destined to die, and often this terror shortened their
lives.51 In his Elegies, the poetTibullus remarked of a certain
Thessalian enchantress:

Now she makes the infernal hosts swarm round

her with her magic screamings, and now she bids
them be gone, sprinkling them with milk. When
she pleases, she sweeps away the clouds from the
sombre sky; when she pleases, she calls down the
snow in summer by a word from her mouth. She
is said to possess alone all the evil herbs known
to Medea, alone to have brought the fierce dogs
of Hekate under subjection. This witch has
composed for me chants by which you may
deceive all eyes.

The powers wielded by these sorceresses were diverse. We

are told that Medea blasted crops and fruit, and dried up
springs; Horace tells of the enchantress Folia "who with
Thessalian voice enchants the stars and moon and snatches
them from the sky." Homer reports that Circe, by use of a
golden rod and poisons, turned her spouse Picus, into a
colored bird. This transmutation of man into beast by
means of sorcery was also accomplished by Circe on a grand
scale with Ulysses'men. And Lucan, in Pbarsalia 6,line 451:
'Through the charms of the Thessalian witches a love not
induced by the Fates has entered into hardened hearts; and
stern old men have burned with illicit flames.'As Anacharsis
reported, these enchantresses had the powers to 'bring
upon the earth the spirits of evil, to raise or calm tempests,
to bring the dead back to life or kill the living,' a magical act
firmly within the chthonic domains of Hekate.

51. ibid., p. 204. Anarcharsis also noted of these witches that 'their sordid poverty
equaled their ignorance.'.
 Another reference of interest comes again from
Anacharsis, who, having hidden himself nearby, observed
their sorcery first hand. The sorceress was spell-casting to
retrieve the youth Polyclete, who had spurned his lover
Salamis. The place of working was bedecked in

laurel-boughs and aromatic plants; some brass

plates engraved with unknown letters; tufts of
lambs'wool dyed purple; nails from a gibbet, still
bearing traces of human flesh; skulls half-eaten
by wild beasts; fragments of fingers, noses and
ears, torn from corpses; entrails ofvictims stolen
from temples; flasks in which was stored the
blood of men who had died a violent death; a
waxen figure of the goddess Hecate, painted
white, black, and red and holding a whip, a lamp
and sword intertwined by a serpent; several
vases, some full of water from sacred fountains,
others of milk and mountain honey....

This squalid description may be exaggerated, but some

of its components are familiar to the cult of Hekate, and, in
modern times, to the practices of traditional folk magic,
charming and witchcraft. Porphyry wrote concerning how
images should be consecrated to Hekate; they were to be
surrounded with wormwood, and that domestic mice were
to be painted, and "the finest ornaments such as were most
pleasing to her, and so many mice as her forms were to be
taken; then blood, myrrh, storax, and other things were to
be burnt: which things if they were done, she would appear,
and answer the worker thereof by dreams."
Another characteristic feature of the magic of the
Thessalian witches was enchantment which relied heavily
on the use of herbs, especially those considered to have a
wretched, toxic, or baneful nature. In Ovid's The Heroides,
)a.son's lover Hypsipyle speaks of her rival, the sorceress
Medea:

By her incantations has she influenced thee; and

with her enchanted sickle does she reap the
dreadful plants.

Virgil relates Circe changing Ulysses' men into pigs and

asses by means of her 'potent herbs'. Ovid writes, in The
Making Up of the Face, that "love touch us, and not through
the strong herbs cut with the dreadful art of the witch's
hand. Trust not the grasses and mixed juices; try not the
noxious poison of the lusting mare." The reference here is
to Hippomanes (unro[xae^) or 'horse-rage'; perhaps the
most famous ingredient in aphrodisiac potions among the
(i reeks of antiquity. It referred both to "the sluggish poison
that flows from the pudenda of mares in heat" and to a
small piece of flesh the size of a dried fig that clings to the
brow of a newborn foal. It was usually incorporated into
lood or wine. In The Golden Ass, Apuleius described the
sorceress Pamphile in this way:

She is a magician of note; and she is believed to

be mistress of every sepulchral enchantment. By
breathing upon sprigs and pebbles and other
trifling objects, she knows how to plunge the
entire light of this starry world into the depths of
Tartarus and into the Chaos of old.

Also curious was the mode of gathering these herbs.

Many of the sorceresses gathered their plants by
moonlight. The full moon, according to Weyer, infects the
herbs gathered "with its evil froth". This recalls Phebe,
I lekate's lunar aspect. Virgil also remarked that
"flourishing herbs are sought, clipped by moonlight with
brazen sickles," Weyer argues that this was because it was
believed that bronze possessed medicinal powers, and there-
fore the witch cut the herbs with brazen sickles rather than
iron; however, there are also widespread European beliefs
that iron is annoying or poisonous to evil spirits; thus it is
possible a sorceress working with such spirits as familiars
would necessarily degrade her magic by use of iron.
Herbs used by these practitioners of the magics of
Hekate were sometimes collectively referred to as the
"Pontic herbs". Virgil, in his Eclogues, remarked:

Moeris herself gave me these herbs and these

poisons culled in Pontus; many such things
grow in Pontus. I have often seen Moeris
become a wolf by their means and hide in the
forests, and rouse souls from the depths of
the tomb, and move the planted crops from
one place to another.

Here we not only find a reference to herbs and poisons in

the same source, but also (in addition to translocation of
crops) two types of magic they give rise to: transformation
from human to animal, and the summoning of the dead.
These, in addition to Erichtho's love-charm as mentioned
by Lucan, are of interest to us in examining what specific
herbs the sorceresses of Thessaly may have been using.
Pontus was known to harbor many species of toxic plants,
some of which resulted in mass-poisonings. An example of
this occurred in 4 0 0 B C , when a Greek mercenary army
returning via Pontus was poisoned by Mainomenon, a
Honey whose chief source of pollen and nectar was a toxic
Rhododendron species. A large number of the soldiers fell
unconscious, and some perished. Two of the poisonous
species endemic to the area are Rhododendron luteum and R.
ponticum.
 In his examination of the magico-shamanic con-
sciousness of medieval Europe, German scholar H.P.
Duerr remarks that "There is the tradition that Circe mixed
some sort of'bewitching juices' into the kykeon, which was
prepared from grated cheese, flour, honey, and pramnic
wine, so that Ulysses' men forgot their homeland and
changed into pigs... In the later literature we read on
occasion that poppy, mint, rue, and coriander were mixed
into the kykeon.. ," 52 Kykeon is ancient Greek for 'mixture'
and was also used for the ceremonial brew adminstered at
t he mystery Rites of Eleusis.
One favored plant often associated with Circe's brew in
the research of magical poisons research is Henbane
(Hyoscyamus spp.). A hairy, sticky, odorous biennial or
annual plant, it is found in wastelands, rural byways, and
sandy areas of Europe and also naturalized in North
America. It is rich in tropane alkaloids, including atropine,
hyoscine, hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and cuscohygrine,
which entheogenic plant researcher Jonathan Ott has
collectively named the 'visionary tropanes'. 53 Taken
internally, Henbane specifically effects the central nervous
system: initially stimulation, soon followed by confusion,
stupor, and disturbing visions. This is almost always
accompanied by the classic side-effects of the Nightshades:
dilation of pupils, a gradual drying of all bodily humors,
reduced peristalsis, and vasodilation accompanied by
increased blood pressure. Overdose gives rise to central
narcotic paralysis, coma, and death.
The ancient Greek name Hyoskyamos, from which the
plant's botanical nomenclature derives, means 'hog-bean';
it has long been conjectured that the name refers to the
(lirce legend of magically transforming men into hogs.
I lowever, as the Danish plant historian Harold Hansen

w. Duerr, p. 208.
\ 1. Ott, Pharmacotkeon.
notes, the German herbalist Otho Brunfels (1488-1534)
claimed the name was a reference to the fact that pigs get
cramps when they consume Henbane. Despite the debate
about the origins of the name, Hansen's position with
regard to Henbane as used by the Thessalian witches is
clear:

In the works of Apollonius Rhodius... as well as

of Homer, there are stories of magic drinks
which indicate that the alkaloid hyoscyamine was
the most active ingredient. The first two authors
mentioned above give detailed descriptions of
the way in which Circe and her brother's
daughter Medea, who was equally skilled in the
magic arts, gathered their magical herbs. There
can scarcely be any doubt that these to sinister
mythical figures were based on actual people—
contemporary Greek witches who knew the
dangerous powers of henbane.54

Hansen argues that the two species employed in ancient

Greece were Golden Henbane (Hyoscyamus aureus), and
White Henbane (H. albus), as they were localized there; this
does not rule out the better-known Black Henbane (//.
nigef), or Egyptian Henbane (H. muticus). The latter is
recognized as the more powerful species, and is grown
commercially as a source for pharmaceutical Hyoscyamine,
Dioscorides was clear that H. albus was more desirable as .1
therapeutic medicine because it was less likely to cause
madness; perhaps making it simultaneously less desirable
as an herb for bewitching others.
In terms of the applicability of Henbane's pharmacology
for sorcery, it is indeed more suited to shape-changinn
spells involving the magical transmogrification of man inn >
beast. Grieve cites the case of a monastery in which the

54. Hansen, The Witch's Garden, pp. 44-45.

monks mistook the roots of Henbane for Chicory wherein
l lie monks were "attacked with a sort of delirious frenzy,
accompanied in many cases by such hallucinations that the
establishment resembled a lunatic asylum." Hyoscyamine,
along with the tropane alkaloid scopolamine, have long
!»oen known to inspire visions with strong phantasmagoric
< »r erotic content; delirium, frenzy, and varying degrees of
aiunaesia upon return to the senses. A poem by the 5th
1 entury Roman philosopher Boethius recounts the shape-
1 hanging sorcery of Circe:

With a hand skilled in the use of herbs, she

changes these guests in various ways. One of
them has assumed the countenance of a boar.
Another, as a Marmaric lion, grows long teeth
and claws. This other, recently joined to the race
of wolves, makes ready to weep but howls
instead; and yet another, as an Indian tiger, walks
tamely though the house.... These poisons more
effectively lead a man away from his true self—
the dread poisons which enter deep within and
harm not the body but savagely wound the mind.

Such descriptions are consistent with other accounts of

|tnisoning by Nightshades containing scopolamine and
hyoscyamine, including my own experiments with
I lenbane, wherein a feral, 'hyperkinesthetic consciousness'
arises, a kind of muscular cognition which functions as a
sensory organ, specifically with relation to perception of
movement at one's visual peripheries and imminent
threat." Additionally, Henbane is also known historically
.is a frequent addition to love philtres.
I he 'visionary tropane' alkaloid complex occurs in many
I uropean solanaceous plants, importantly the Mandrake

II SI liulke, "Riding The Solanaceous Nightmare", Esoterra:A Journal of Extreme

1 allure, 1998. The article was an early and rough recension of material from
ihpnolikon, my personal formulary of magical work in this theatre.
(.Mandragora spp.), Belladonna (Atropa spp.), and Scopolia
spp., and these, as well as other nightshades, should not be
ruled out when considering possibilities for the Thessalian
pharmakopoeia.
According to Pliny, Thessalian witches employed Black
Nightshade (Solatium nigrum) in a magic Philtre to evoke
"obscene desires, forms, and images." Mandrake bore the
folk name Circieum in some regions. Challenging the
supposition of R.de Ropp that the Dinoysian maenads of
antiquity drank wine laced with belladonna, Duerr notes
that the plant was rare in ancient Greece, found only in a
small number of woods in Thessaly; this, however, would
not prevent the magicians of Thessaly from using it in their
rites and philtres. The plant's reputation in sorcery is well-
established; the priest-physicians of ancient Sumer
employed it for driving out disease-causing Noxious
Spirits; and in his 1589 Magia Naturalis Porta wrote of it:

A drachm of the root of which, among other

properties, has this, that it will make men mad
without any hurt. So that it is a most pleasant
spectacle to behold such mad whimsies and
visions, which is also cured by sleep. But
sometimes they refuse to eat. Nevertheless, we
give this precaution, that all those roots or seeds
which cause the takers of them to see delightful
visions, if their dose be increased, will continue
this alienation of mind for three days. But if
quadrupled, it brings death. Wherefore we must
proceed cautiously with them.

Belladonna is easily cultivated, and even if Thessalian

sorcerers did not grow it, tropane alkaloids survive the
drying process where dessicated material mat have been
available. Thorn apple (Datura stramonium), while
possessing the necessary virtues to effect theriomorphii
and amatory sorcery, was almost certainly a latecomer to
the European flora, thought to have been brought by the
Romany from India; the earliest references in European
herbals occur in the early to mid-sixteenth century.
Thessalian witches were credited with necromancy, that
is, raising the dead. Of this type of magic, there are often
classified two types: the first, known as sciomancy, is the
raising of the disembodied spirit of the deceased, either to
visible or auditory appearance or by mediumistic means;
the second, necyomancy is the re-animation of dead tissue,
such as those works of necromancy attributed to Jesus of
Nazareth. Though Thessalian witches are documented as
using both types of necromancy 56 , the first is more common
and the type we shall discuss in the context of plant-magic,
involving Aconite and Poison Hemlock.
Greeks held Poison Hemlock and Aconite sacred to
Hecate, and that both plants have intimate associations
with death. Diodorus reports in Book 5 of his Ancient
History that Hekate first discovered Aconite and "expended
all her efforts in making up deadly poisons." Aconite, also
known as Monkshood and Wolfsbane, was believed by the
ancient Greeks to have sprung from the banks of the
Acheron, a river in Hades; and, alternatively, from the
slavering jowls of the hell-hound Cerberus. Aconite is also
supposed to have been the poison that formed the cup
which Medea prepared for Theseus. Plutarch gives an
account of Marc Antony's army being in want of food,
digging up some of these roots, and devouring them with
the result that every man dying in paroxysm. In some
myths, Hekate poisoned her father with Aconite.
Correct botanical identification of the ancient Greek
aconite is still unresolved. There are a number of species
native to Europe besides Aconitum napellus, which is

(ft. Reanimation of a corpse is accomplished by Erichtho in Lucan's Pharsalia (6,

lines 750-2).
 generally regarded as the
most potent and certainly
the best known. European
species include Yellow
Wolfsbane (Aconitum lyco-
ctonum), as well as A.
compactum in the Western
alps; A.orientale is known
in the Caucasus Moun-
tains, and A. paniculatum,
A. tauricum, A. variegatum,
and A. vulparia are all
common to southern or
southeastern Europe. What
most Aconite species share
in common is a propensity
for causing death or near-
death if administered in the
correct amounts. In the
time of Theophrastus, it
was a crime to own Aconite
7. Yellow Monkshood, Aconitum lycoctonum. p l a n t s , SO f e a r e d W a s its

venom and the poisoners

who would employ it; this is an early example of drug
prohibition. Chemically, Aconite contains a range of
Diterpene alkaloids including mesaconitine, hypaconitine,
non-nitrogenous compounds including salsolinol;
picratonitine, aconine, benzoylamine, and neopelline. The
roots and leaves contain the greatest concentration of
poisons. These toxins possess a characterology of
envenomation which clearly echoes not only the proclivities
of Hekate, but of the dead and necromancy itself. The
ancient Greek writer Nicander of Colophon (c. 270-200
B.C.) wrote of Aconite in his Alexipharmaca:
 When one takes aconite, the drinker's jaws and
the roof of his mouth and his gums are
constricted by the bitter draught as it wraps itself
about the top of the chest, crushing the man with
evil choking in the throws of heartburn. The top
of the belly is gripped with pain -the swelling,
open mouth of the lower stomach, which some
call the 'heart' of the Digestive Vessel, others the
'receiver of the stomach—and the gate is closed
immediately upon the beginning of the intestines
where a man's food in all its abundance is carried
in. And all the while, the moisture drips from his
streaming eyes; and his belly sore shaken throws
up wind, and much of it settles below about his
mid-navel; and in his head is a grievous weight,
and there ensues a rapid throbbing beneath his
temples, and with his eyes he sees things
double...

Modern toxicologists agree on these symptoms, with

one curious addition: those who survive aconite poisoning
report hallucinations and bizarre sensory disturbances for
some time after the poison has been excreted. It would
seem that, even if we lack clear references on the use of
Aconite in Thessalian sorcery, the plant was known to the
(i reeks sufficiently to attribute it to their goddess of the
dead and sorcery. Given what is known of the powers and
idiosyncrasies of Aconite poisoning, it possible, even
probable, that this plant may have been used as an adjunct
to rites calling forth the Mighty Dead.
Aconite has potential as a candidate for other types of
ancient Thessalian sorcery, such as love-philtres. InTaoist
sex magic, Fu-tzu or Chinese Aconite (Aconitum carmichaeli)
was combined with oyster shells, travertine, and other
herbs to create the much esteemed Hanshi, or Five Mineral
Powder, a stimulating aphrodisiac taken in brandy. It is a
frequent characteristic of plants known for their powers
of lethal poisoning that minute doses have different effects,
such as the stimulating effects of strychnine from Strychnos
nux-vomica. Aconite, along with Poison Hemlock and
nightshade plants such as belladonna, is also frequently
identified with medieval Witches Flying Ointments.
A final consideration of the Thessalian pharmacopeia is
Poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum), the presumed agent
by which Socrates was forcefully ushered out of this world.
The ancient Greek poison Conium was derived from a plant
called koneion, whose precise botanical identity is still
unknown to us. Dioscorides left a description of the plant,
which is certainly a member of the Dill Family, but
Linnaeus, when creating his system of plant taxonomy,
assigned the generic Conium to this plant. According to
Plato, there were no violent symptoms of Socrates' demise,
an observation at odds with what we know of Hemlock
poisoning; it is probable that opium was an adjunct to the
suicide-potion for its narcotic and anaesthetic effects. Like
Aconite, Poison Hemlock was also considered sacred to
Hekate by the ancient Greeks, and appears in a number of
medieval recipes for 'Witches' Flying Ointments. Harold
Hansen in The Witch's Garden writes:

Chemical experiments have proved that the

poisons of the two hemlocks [C. maculatum and
Cowbane, Cicuta virosa], especially coniine, taken
in small doses and rubbed into the skin, can
produce the sensation of gliding through the air.

As we have already seen, Hekate has been associated with

the flights throughout the air of the dead. This link with the
dead, through the medium of drug-induced flight, or by
employing Conium in conjunction with trance techniques,
could indeed have been part of the sorcerous necromantic
repertoire of the Thessalian witches, and their spiritual
ancestors, the Lamiae of the Middle-Ages.
 $
The Matter of Man

In the lexicon of Sabbatic Witchcraft, mumia refers to

sacrificial offerings from the human temple, living or dead,
used as foci of sorcerous power. Such substances are diverse
i n their origin and usage, but most often encompass blood,
flesh, bone and the generative seed of woman and man. Its
origin as a word comes in part from the mumia of the
medieval alchemist and apothecary - the medicinal
preparation compounded from human flesh, most often
the pulverized corpse.58 Not limited to magic and medicine,
the putrefactive material of the corpse also achieved
apotheosis in the form of the eternal image, as dessicated
cadavers of Old Egypt were also ground to render the
pigment Mummy Brown, used in oil painting in the 16th
and 17th centuries.
The origin of the magical praxis and iconography of
sorcerous mumia is rooted in ancient necromancy and the
lore of the charnel gods themselves, whose holy medicines
i nclude blood of the virgin, fat of the unbaptised infant, and
the hand of the convict killed on the gibbet. Inseparable
Irom the unholy apparition of the Witch, such constituents
are to the mundane mind a morbid haunting, steeped in
criminal implication, psychosis and the putrescence of
(christian heresy. Magical use of human remains was, in the
late Middle Ages through the early modern era, often linked
with veneficium, the Art of Magical Poison. This linkage,
frequently on the basis of corpse-desecration of the

For additional insight into mumia and its related arcana, see Kenneth Grant's
iliscussion of the concept d-mammu or the 'effigy of blood' in Aleister Crowley and the
Hidden God.
polluting factors of mortal decay, occurred most frequently
in witch-hunting literature and demonological tractates.
This criticism also arose from other magical sectors, such
as theurgy, astrology, and planetary magic:

These Witches and Necromancers who are also

called Malefici or Venefici, sorcerers or
poisoners; of which names are rightly called, who
without the Art of Magick do indeed use the help
of the devil himself to do mischief, mixing the
powder of dead bodies with other things by help
of the devil prepared... 59

Apart from its shadowy radices in magical history, the

mumic aspects of European witchcraft and necromancy
were also extrusions of socio-religious currents already in
operation. The culture of morbidity and sanguinous per-
versions which pervaded European religion, art, medicine,
and philosophy has been captured in exceedingly visceral
detail by the Italian scholar of micro-history Piero Cam-
poresi. 60 The ravages of bubonic plague in fourteenth cen-
tury Europe, annihilating a third of her souls, witnessed a
spectacle of pestilence, death, and decay scarcely imaginable
to the modern mind; this cultural trauma impressed itself
deeply in the collective psyche. Plague doctors, flagellants,
and guilds of undertakers and corpse-carriers were surface
phenomena of the spectral forces ravaging the land at an
invisible level. Secret guilds such as the Antient Order of
Bonesmen, whose precise history is obscure, represent a
curious nexus of death mysticism, funerary custom, custo-
dianship of the corpse, and occult power. 61

59. Heptameron, attributed to Peter de Abano, 1496. See Also De Prestaegiis Demonum
by Johann Weirus, a disciple of Agrippa.
60. Juice ofLife,Anatomy of the Senses, et al.
61. Certain traditions of British witchcraft and folk magic arising in localities nca r
ancient plague-pits also preserve lore related to the corpse, its care, burial, and itn
magical power.
 Yet within this broth of seeming foulness is found not
only the wellspring of the sorcerer's power, but of his very
1 ife. European folk magic has a long history of mumia cures
and as the materia magica of spells. In the eighth and ninth
centuries alone, no less than eight penitentials imposed
strict penance for drinking semen or blood; abundant
references reveal a stratum of folk belief utilising those
substances for love and healing magic. 62 Also documented
i n this period was the practice of women making enchanted
medicines from charred human skulls, usually to cure their
husbands' impotence. A Bohemian manual of magical
cures discovered on a Texas ranch contains the following
formula:

When you have a toothache, go into an ossuary,

take a skull and extract a tooth out of it and rub
the gums until they bleed so that the tooth will be
covered with blood. Place the tooth back in the
skull but not with bare hands and pray the Lord's
prayer and the creed once. Say: as sure as you are
dead, so sure it is that my tooth will stop hurting, as
nobody hurts you. So help me God. Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. Amen. But it has to be done at 12
o'clock.63 (italics mine)

This procedure, allied to the rural grimoire traditions of

Germany and Scandinavia, is remarkably similar to some
of the charms preserved within extant corpora of present-
day British cunning-craft. The same manuscript also
preserves a recipe to heal wounds caused by weapons using
Cranium Moss, thought by some to be of astral or
empyrean origin. This moss, said to grow upon choice
skulls after long exposure to the elements, was also called

hi. Filotas, Pagan Survivals, p. 260.

ft J. The manuscript is entitled Perfect and Tested Secrets or Various Medical, Magical,
Chemical, Sympathy and Anti-sympathy Treatments.
Usnea 64 , and according to some apothecaries who stocked
it, was gathered from the skull of a criminal who had been
hung in chains. From a similar corpus of magical 'black
books' is found a charm for accuracy of aim when shooting
a gun: "Take a human bone, crush it to powder, and blend
it in gunpowder.Use this blend of gunpowder in the gun.
This is a mixture that has been well tested." 65 Apulieus
documented the magical power ascribed fingers and noses
of persons crucified; the power of corpseflesh (particularly
that of a criminal or those who had died violent deaths) for
healing, harming and cunning is a widespread feature of
folklore. Perhaps the best known such relic is the so-called
Hand of Glory, a number of which are preserved in private
conservatorships.
Sacrifice, arguably the most ancient sorcerous act,
reaches its apex when that which is offered is ourselves -the
Matter of Man. When the very substance of our earthly
being is given unto the gods, daimones and spirits, its
mortal function as a vessel is transcended and it becomes a
spiritual intercessor. Unlike the Host of the Christian
Sacrament, where communion bread must ape the Body of
Christ, the witches mumia, correctly prepared according to
traditional magical formulae, brings the adept into direct
spiritual contact with the atavistic retinue, the Assembled
Host of the Good, or the companie of Future Flesh.
The value of human material in curing was greatly
exploited by the masters of the Alchemical Art, occupying
the nether ground between magic, medicine, and
chemistry. Sovereign remedies for the preservation of
health, of incomparable subtlety and power, were distilled
from the rudest of skeletal remains. The Alchemists made

64. Not to be confused with Beard Lichen (genus Usnea) which possesses manifold
healing properties including antimicrobial and stypic activity. Skull-moss W4»,
nonetheless, an official drug in many pharmacopoeias until the nineteenth century
65. Rustad, Mary S., trans. The Black Books ofElverum, p.15.
 8. Witches roasting an infant, from Guazzo's Compendium Maleficarum, 1608.

use of Axungia de Mumia, the corpse-fat known as Marrow

of Mummy, Liqua Mumia or human grease, and Liquor
Mandibulum, a prized oil extracted from the jawbone.
Exalted draughts were also prepared from the blood of the
living. This process was perfected by the fire, alembic, and
cucurbit, as in such complex formulae as Quintessence of
Blood, found in the Tyrocinium Chymicum of Beguinus. 66
Implications of an 'alchemy vampyric' are of course
obvious, especially in consideration of an incarnate
continuity of blood once separated from the human body,
and assuming a kind of resurrection in diverse bodies and
vessels. At a more important level, the physiologically
invigorating aspect of highly-refined human blood also has
magical extrapolations, particularly for the energetics of

66. Book Three, Chapter 1. The blood must be taken in great quantities from 'sound
men in the flower of their youth'.
blood sacrifice and the manifestation of sorcery upon the
material plane. We recall the words of Mercea Eliade:

The sum total of vital energy that is left available

by the interruption of an existence still far from
reaching it natural end is 'creative', in the sense
that it is capable of animating any object made by
man.67

Though the procedures utilized to formulate such

remedies evoked the abominations of the witch's cauldron,
they also anticipated the glandular medicaments of
organotherapy and modern pharmacy, and, it may be
argued, hormone and steroidal therapies. The perfection of
human-derived Azoth however, lies beyond the flasks and
bulbs of the alchemical philosopher, in magico-sexual
generation of the medicine by a focused sorcerous
application using the human body as the laboratory. 68
The mortal body, as the temple of spirit, is also known to
sorcery for its strengthening mumic projections into the
material world. Possessing the power of highly organized
homeostasis, it serves as the building blocks of other
bodies, but also of the stone artifices of man. Well-known
to archaeology, the foundation-sacrifice and apotropaic
house-charm wield the protective power of bone, and its
extended potency as a substance of mediation between the
worlds of flesh and spirit. This principle is particularly
important for its implications in esoteric Freemasonry.

67. Zalmoxis: The Vanishing God, p. 246.

68. See, for example, Crowley, Aleister De Arte Magica, passim; Grant, Kenneth
Nightside of Eden, magico-sexual operations of Temphioth; Chumbley, Andrew,
Azoetia, emanations of the Lunar Triplicities. "Ihe Emanant of Lunafaction', a
critical subsection of this arcanum in Sabbatic Witchcraft, is also treated in my own
Ars Philtron. There are far older exemplars which are religious expressions, such an
the medieval Kaula rites; one formula is described in detail in the late medieval
Kamapanacdstiram "Treatise on the Arrow of Lust".
A similar principle would appear to animate the con-
secrated stones of theTahitian marae, ritual areas central to
the cults of the Society Islands, beneath which human
sacrifices were interred. 69
Ancient deposition of human skulls in wells and sources
of sacred waters was a tradition of pre-Roman Britons, as
in Carrawburgh - h o m e of a water deity sometimes known
by the inscription Coventina.70 Such sacrifices find a curious
corollary in the Americas, where the Mayans of old made
skull depositions in cenotes, vast underground freshwater
caverns. According to tradition, these offerings were made
to Chac, the Rain-god.
Cephalomantic augury, utilising skulls and disembodied
heads as oracles - was not the sole preserve of the so-called
Celtic 'cult of the head', but was also well known to ancient
Greek sorcery, and earlier in Mesopotamia. 7 1 That the
practice was established in ancient times is illustrated by a
magical operation from the Papyri Graecae Magicae whose
purpose is to restrain a falsely-prophesying or incoherent
skull deemed unsuitable for soothsaying. The mouth of the
offending bone was to be sealed with grave-earth; its
unseemly predilections further bound with a ring of iron
engraved with a headless lion wearing the crown of Isis, and
trampling a skeleton. 72 The practice of the oracular skull
persists in a number of syncretic sorcerous traditions in
modern times; a skull frequently occupies the Ganadero,
or sinistral side of the mesa, the altar of the Peruvian

69. Many marae to this day remain tapu and retain palpably resonant fields of power,
centuries later.
70. Merrifield, TheArchaeology of Ritual and Magic, pp 45-46. Also of note are the oil-
preserved human skulls incorporated in the fourth-century rubble of the Basilica
atWroxeter.
71. Ogden, Greek and Roman Necromancy, p. 208. Consider also the Hebrew Teraphim
known to Rabbinic lore, some forms of which were mummified heads, as in the
Targum ofPseudo-Jonathan.
72. P G M IV. 2125-39.
curandero, where it is used as an oracle of the Dead. 7 ' The
parallels between the sorcerous complex of the curanderos
and the traditional witchcrafts of Britain, Europe, and
America are striking.
Though the skull is often considered the first throne ol
sorcerous power, other skeletal remains are attested in
conveying the oracular powers of the Holy Dead, includii^
the femur, knuckle and finger-bones, and the scapula. A
number of such rites, including the incubation of visions by
drinking potions compounded from ale and human ashes,
are practised by the Bonesmen of East Anglia, to whom
veneration of the bone is central. Together with their
traditional stewardship of graves and boneyards, the
Bonesmen possess a sophisticated understanding of the
interplay between bone and spirit, the features of which are
often shamanic in outline. 74
The Skull is also held sacred as a magical object in some
forms of Wicca, such as Alexandrian Craft, and in extant
streams of Traditional Witchcraft, including Clan Tubal-
Cain and the Cultus Sabbati. A modern, exoteric recension
of one such ritual venerates the skull as the living oracle of
Cain Sa'Ira ('Cain the Hairy'), the Green Man or patron of
wilderness, agriculture, and occult herbalism. 75 Though
some Craft streams have, as a portion of their sorcerous
heredity, come to embrace certain ritual elements of
Freemasonry relating to the skull, the inner magical uses
serve a far higher station than a mundane symbol of
mortality. Use of skull and bones were also well attested

73. Donald Joralemonand Douglas Sharon, Sorcery and Shamanism. Human hour*
and their fetishistic representations are also employed in the syncretic spirit in
religions of the Americas including Santeria and Vodun; and in sorcerous tradition,
such as Brujeria and Palo Mayombe.
74. Pennick, Secrets of East Anglian Magic, pp. 62-63.
75. The exoteric recension of this rite is known as "Ihe Perfumed Skull'; the spccifu
aspect of Cain, Sa'Ira, is associated with the Seirim, the hoary spirits or djinn of 1 hr
wilderness.
among English cunning-folk such as Eggy Roberts, whose
lioary cranium-cup was often brought forth in local pubs as
a morbid drinking-vessel. This cup, along with other ritual
skulls, now resides in the Museum ofWitchcraft, Boscastle.
The great power of the Memento Mori has not, his-
torically, been the exclusive preserve of folk magicians and
sorcerers. The Latin church plied a vast trade in Saints'
Relics, including highly-venerated bones, ampullae of
blood, and corpses entire of incorruptible flesh. At times,
the zealous pursuit of this fascination led to grave-burgling
on a massive scale:

In the twelfth century the shrine at the cathedral

at Cologne obtained the skulls of the Three Wise
Men of the East who brought gifts to the infant
Jesus. In competition the church of St. Gereon
produced the relics of St. Gereon and his whole
band of martyrs. The competitive spirit spread to
the church of St. Ursula, and a whole cemetery
was despoiled to cover the interior walls of the
monastery with the relics of St. Ursula and her
eleven thousand virgin martyrs.76

We should not be surprised at this example, despite its

grotesque nature: in the middle ages necromancy was
practised within the cloister with some frequency, and
constituted a kind of 'clerical underworld' as magical
historian Richard Kiekhefer has observed. 77 Still, the line
between good Christian and folk-charmer often lies
obscured in the mists of spirit-time, wherein there is a
considerable accumulation of heathenism. The water of St.
Teilo's well in Llandeilo Llwydiarth, drunk ceremonially
from the skull of St. Teilo, a sixth-century Welsh bishop,

7f>. Haggard, Devils, Drugs, and Doctors, p. 301.

77. Magic in the Middle Ages, pp. 153-156.
was of great renown for the healing cures it effected.
However the ceremonial draught was presided over by
members of the Melchior family, in whose custodianship
the skull resided for many years, rather than a priest. Other
healing skull-vessels in Wales and Ireland are also attested.78
Perhaps the most potent usage of osseous mumia lies in
the sorcerous veneration of the Mighty Dead and petition
for their intercession within the Circle of Art. These
remains, reborn as wands, staves, enchanted horns, or
simply left in their natural forms, become the unique
preceptors of spirit-wisdom accessed by means of atavisms
of ghost and flesh, the gate-keepers of the realm of the
Dead. 79 Such is the effectuation of bone as material legacy
- an incarnative monument raised by the cunning of the
body in accord with lineage, having assimilated the diverse
wealth of the earth unto its foundations. Stripped of its
putrefactive stages, it is become purified as a new incarnate
form, the encharmed bridge betwixt Living and Dead.
Here stands the Monastery of Ancestral Shadow, within
whose catacombs the bones of the brethren are conserved
by the Faithful as strata of osseous power, the foundations
of Atavism which underlie the very Temple of Wiseblood.
Bones thus empowered are become the crystallisation of
the initiatic truths realised by the departed. More than
simply facilitating contact with them, they serve the
sorcerous praxis of summoning the genius of one's own
death, for sacrifice, knowledge, and immediation of power,
And if one calls by way of bone, and a voice calls back, it shall
be as the creaking wheels of Old Ankhou's grave-cart, come
either to stop, or to pass by.

78. Bord, Cures and Curses, pp. 123-124; and Logan, Irish Country Cures, p. 42.
79. Andrew D. Chumbley's Dragon-Book of Essex notes that the Sorcerer's Truni|<ri
is made from "a human femur, best stolen from the grave of a saint or a crinuiiitl,
elsewise taken from the corpse of one's brother in Arte."
 The Witches'Supper

The figure of the witch in the early modern era was an

amalgam of religious typologies including blasphemer,
heretic, spiritual malefactor, idolater, consort of fallen
angels, and liege of the Devil. In parallel the witch accreted
the substance of secular criminality: poisoner, thief,
abortionist, grave-robber. These opprobrious brands were
impressed on the accused by those whose written records
survive, often in the form of legal tractates or penitentials.
Yet as command of the printed word spread beyond legal
and religious centers, other typologies emerged: healer,
folk-charmer, superstitious rustic, impoverished wretch,
and others. This procession of witch-guises has continued
well into the present day, to include the glamorized images
suffused in popular culture: the witch as diabolist
caricature, illusion-maker, emanant of sexual allure, and
repository of the unexamined ejecta of Christian
orthodoxy.
An important and little-examined dimension of the
witch-guise is that of the reveler at the Devil's Sabbath
banquet. The imagery of this feast appears frequently in
woodcuts and is occasionally innocuous, but at other times
proffers the image of the witch as necrophage. The
assembled coven is alternately portrayed as consuming
u 11 baptized infants or the grisly products of desecrated
graves; human bones are also included at the table, as they
.ire in portrayals of the witches' Grand Rite. From the
perspective of desecration taboo, the array of grim
foodstuffs is no less appalling than the relics held in
veneration by the Roman and Eastern Orthodox Churches:
leeth, fingers, jawbones, foreskins and skulls, incorruptible
corpses and vials of blood which liquefy and coagulate at
auspicious moments. Yet, witches too have their saints and
ossuaries, their hallowed relations to the Holy Dead. It is
the passage from stewardship and veneration of remains to
ritual consumption that triggers affront in the common
mind, and has also contributed to the fear of witchcraft.
Despite its abhorrent qualities, this forbidden lore persists
and is known to some modern practitioners of folk magic
as "Ihe Witches Supper' —a clandestine and disturbing
meal which is, in some cases, a cipher for profound spiritual
arcana, as well as the lore of poisons.
The process of bodily decomposition was a matter of
fascinative obsession and repulsion to our ancient forbears,
from both religious and magical perspectives. Upon death,
the body naturally undergoes myriad biochemical changes
bent toward the singular goal of material retrogression, the
descent of the incarnative vessel to the mortified estate of
the Profane Adam. Discoloration of tissue, stiffening of the
body, abdominal bloating and pooling blood are mere
precursors of the great corporeal tumult whose horrific
imagery resembles the demonic horrors of the witches'
cauldron. 80 Bodily decay produces its own array of chemical
poisons, many of which are responsible for the fetor so
viscerally offensive to the living nose, but, also serving as
inviting beacons to scavengers and detritivores. The fortress
of primordial Adamas, once inviolable with God-given
dominion over Nature, is rapidly transformed into a food
source for a great variety of organisms, this status heralded
by the production of corpse-poisons. Many of these
putrefaction-derived compounds, in isolation, can be
intoxicating or deadly to Homo sapiens8l; some of them, in

80. As a dead body decays, a crucial threshold is reached on day three, hence the
prevalence of funerary customs allowing the body to lie in state for that period, and
a likely factor in the chronology of Christ's Resurrection.
81. Such as the 'blue haze', halo effect, and other visual distortions accompanyiii||
exposure to critical levels of triethylamine, a product of organic decay.
 SELECTED CORPSE POISONS

Compound Formula Source

Putrescine NH 2 (CH 2 )4NH 2 Carrion

Cadaverine NH 2 (CH 2 )sNH 2 Carrion

Trimethylamine N(CH3)3 Fish

Crataegus spp.
Carrion
Triethylamine C6H15N Carrion
Dog's Mercury

Skatole C9H9N Intestinal Putrefaction

Microorganism death
Feces
Coal Tar
Neroli and Jasmine

Methanethiol CH3SH Organic decomposition

Feces
Coal Tar
Swamps

Asparagus metabolite
Pyridines base C5H5N
Bone Oil
Vaginal secretions
Atropa belladonna
Althea spp.
Spermidine C7H19N3 Carrion
Semen

Citrus xparadisi
Muscarine C9H20NO2+
Carrion
 9. Witches and diabolic consorts at the Sabbath-feast.

minute amounts, are also associated with pleasure or sexual

allure, thereby recalling the ancient connubium between
Eros and Thanatos. In some cases the corpse-poison also
served a magical function before physical death: the power
to cause flesh to rot on a living body, by forced infection and
CQrrupt magical principles, was a known power of Zuiii
medicine men and a documented procedure during the
slow execution of witches. 82 This odorous stew of
nitrogenous cadaver-compounds falls into the ancient
toxicological classification of ptomaines, from the Greek
ptoma, indicating a corpse or 'fallen body'. Their
provenance is the graveyard and charnel house, the crypt
and plague-pit, and they are united in both science and
magic as the vaporous effluent of the necropolis.
N o less than the natural decomposition of the human
body, foodborne illness is also caused by organic decom

82. Simmons, Witchcraft in the Southwest, p. m .

position, and has been colloquially referred to today as a
kind of poisoning. Corrupted food been a perpetual fact of
civilized existence and has required ingenious solutions to
forestall the advance of decay. Transmitted by the noisome
taint of worms and micro-organisms en masse, putrefaction
was a philosophically confounding process both dead and
alive; the stench and ugliness generated in contaminated
victuals were likewise an offense to reason as well as the
senses. Early technologies of food preservation included
cooling, drying and salting to arrest decomposition, or, in
some cases, to mask the objectionable flavors of
rancidification. 83 The ancient arts of meat preservation
naturally share a kinship with embalming: the outrage of
post-mortem decay was of prime importance to the Old
Egyptians, whose methods of providing salvific respite for
the corpse may rightly be considered a magico-religious art
form. In Christianity, the processes of corporeal decay were
assigned to the dominion of the Devil, likely one reason for
the folklore that Satan cannot abide the presence of salt.
Persons who claimed to have attended the medieval
Witches Sabbat remarked on the absence of salt at the feast.
Similarly, when salt was brought in, the spectral revelers of
midnight's table suddenly vanished, leaving the guest alone.
The power of salt for slowing or arresting decay also relates
to its magical uses for exorcism, blessing and consecration.
The magician's exorcised circle is thus both fortified and
mummified, a perfectly-preserved moment in time and
space.
Both the corrupted products of Death and the means of
slowing or arresting them bear crucial relationships to the
Witches' Supper, which in one interpretation (stripped of
its heretical elements) can be seen as fostering a ritual

H 3. Spices such as Juniper and Ginger played an important role for overcoming the
effluvia of rotten meat, as with medieval European cooking, which bears certain
parallels to the Witches Supper.
intimacy with the deceased. That the witches' delectations
should be portrayed in the first instance as necro-
cannibalistic is consistent with the position of witchcraft as
transgressive, and as operating in spheres roundly
condemned by religious and social orthodoxy. The witches'
relation to the dead vis-a-vis their atrocious meal is, on the
surface, portrayed as a mock Christian communion, or as
the vulgar tactic of demonizing enemies by implied
cannibalism. On a different level, the Supper operates as a
hieroglyph of specific witchcraft power, namely the unique
magical relationship between witches and the so called
'Mighty Dead', the retinue of ancestral shades and fountain
of pre-incarnate atavism. The art of necromancy, or
magically calling forth the shades of the dead, has long been
a vibrant strand of witchcraft and magic of many epochs,
and in many recensions may be considered its driving
engine. Linked with more ancient currents of shamanism,
this art was known from the writings of ancient Sumer,
Chaldaea, and Greece, the latter providing the prototypal
witch-figure and poisoner Circe, the sorceress of Homer's
Odyssey.
The materia of the Dead —flesh, blood, and bones— is
the mumia of art, known well to witchcraft, alchemy, folk
magic, and medicine. 84 The act of its ritual consumption,
presented in early modern Witches' Supper depictions as
vulgar cannibalism, encodes a number of precise ritual
formulae and powers in necromantic magic. The most
important of these is the elevation of 'dead' matter to a
living state by its incorporation into the living body. This is
the active principle underlying the Holy Eucharist,
wherein, through divine transmutation of elements

84.Pulverized corpses were for centuries an essential part of the official preparation,
of the apothecary and pharmacist. After falling out of favor for a short time, tllr
ancient wisdom has been embraced again in the form of medical transplant
technologies. A common usage in the present era is the bone powder derived from
donor cadavers for use in bone grafting and dental implants.
symbolizing the mumia, Christ's body and blood are come
forth from the tomb, and commune with the Body of the
Faithful. The potent necromantic implications of the Holy
Communion, as a magical act, would have been instantly
recognizable to practitioners of folk-sorcery, particularly in
contexts where funerary rites maintained close
communication with the departing spirit.
Present within the Feast of the Dead is also the Formula
of Opposition, a precept which underlies many historical
patternings of witchcraft. Named by Andrew D. Chumbley,
who wrote about it extensively 85 , the Formula is an operant
dynamic between the sorcerer and the 'Other', that being
the zones of spirit-alienation external to personal
experience and containing ungathered seeds of occult
numen. In the case of historical folk magic, Formulae of
Opposition are often transgressive against law, religious
orthodoxy, or social convention, but above all against Self;
as exacted they often make use of inversion. 86 In violation
of strongly-held personal Tabu, the structure normally
governing conception and use of magical power is
overturned, resulting in a liberation of consciousness, and
the acquisition of previously-forbidden realms of power. 87
At the Feast of the Witches, a culinary encounter with
dismembered limbs, organs, and heads serves as an
oppositional force on a multitude of levels, from the basic
violation of the senses, to affronts against personal and
group morality. Whilst the actual consumption of
decomposing human flesh by historical practitioners of

H5. Azoetia, A Grimoire of the Sabbatic Craft (1992) Qutub (199 5), and The Dragon Book
of Essex (1997) are exemplary in this regard; see also my own Lux Haeresis (2011)
which treats of the matter as active upon the Path and its perception.
H6. For example, spells using stolen goods, utterance of the Lord's Prayer backward
lor gaining diabolical power, the 'profanation of the Host' etc.
87. When manifest in actuality, the Formula acts as both a rejuvenative force and as
.1 sublime mechanism of spiritual equilibrium. However the Formula is often
misconstrued by those seeking a dogma to excuse sociopathy and a pretense of the
'diabolic'.
Sabbatic rites is an open question, it is, perhaps, the wrong
question. More relevant is the depictions of the moribund
Feast as a symbol of initiatic power gained through the
Formula of Opposition.
The Accursed Victual, as a component of the Feast, may
also mask the presence of initiatic power, conveyed through
mumia. A recurrent component of magical charms is the
secretion of semen, menstrual blood, feces, or urine into
food as a spell of control over one's victim. This action
mimics the spoor secreted by many mammals for the
'marking' or 'claiming' of territory and if correctly engaged
draws upon a vast astral repository of atavism, and belongs
to an ancient stratum of magic reaching into prehistory.
Spells employing such secreted matter are transgressive of
ancient dietary laws wherein food, and the feast itself,
represents a sacrosanct compact between the dining
parties. However, when the parties are wholly conscious of
the nature of their food, and eat nonetheless —as they are
shown doing in portrayals of the Witches' Supper— it may
be presumed that there are religious or magical reasons for
doing so, namely reverence for the deceased, the
acquisition of power, or both.
All such approaches to the Feast are essentially
necromantic, and as a coercive approach to spirits, it is
properly classed as sorcery. It is thus aligned with early
modern witchcraft, but ritual communion with the dead
using food and drink is also a feature of ancient religion.""
Roman cults of the dead persisted into the early centuries
of Christianity, with night-long memorial feasts in honor
of those whose bodies had passed, often in situ at the tombs
themselves. Archaeological evidence, as well as the written
record, reveals remains of ancient graveside banquets,
including drinking and cooking vessels. Church pro-

8 8. Lucian reports theuseofthe pipe for grave libations; Hebrews planted trees on
famous graves and made libations there; known as mazzeboth.
hibitions on pagan rites honoring the dead occurs in
written form as late as the thirteenth century, indicating
that such observances were still in practice.89 Feasts offered
in honour of the dead persist into the modern era, even in
exemplars largely bereft of religious trappings. Ritual
consumption of the dead as part of a socially acceptable
funerary practice, is also documented. 90
The abominable meats, bones, and sundered limbs often
pictured at the Witches' Supper may be afforded an
additional interpretation with regard to their magical role
at the Witches Sabbath. In certain inquisitional records, an
emergent pattern among some groups, which differed from
the usual clerical projections, involved a banquet with
archaic features which scholar Wolfgang Behringer has
called "Ihe Miracle of the Bones'. 91 This features the
restoration of life to a cow or other animal from a disjointed
skeleton. The implicit power of this mystery as a magical
practice is captured in a section of Robert Fitzgerald's
Midnight's Table, a manual of witchcraft lore and spellcraft
concerning the arcane powe of the witches' banquet:

The Mind void yet the Thoughtfully formed.

The Body hungry yet the Spirit replenished.
The Wood unfinished yet the Table carved.
The Platter empty yet the Larder full.92

Here the desolation of the witches' feast remains, as well

as their potentiality as nutritive victuals or even as living
beings, is invoked, the suggestion of Voidful Presence
through the juxtaposition of emptiness and corporeal flesh.
Extrapolated beyond the objects themselves, the table may
be seen as the witches'altar or circle, the zeroth vessel of

89. MacMullen, Ramsay. Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries.
90. As with the Aghori, Yjnomamo, and other cultures.
91. Shaman ofOberstdorf.
92. Privately circulated, the book's publication is forthcoming.
of all-potentiality which, like a cornucopia, may contain a
multitude of fruits by way of ritual power. This symbolic and
emblematic patterning is completely consistent with the
atavistic patterning evident in the orally-transmitted
magical lore of the Sabbatic Cultus.
The natural transformative processes of rot and decay are
crucial strands of the magical currents feeding folk magic
and witchcraft. The alchemists of Europe explored
putrefactive states thoroughly, borrowing the process from
Nature, then emulating, calibrating, and magnifying it
under precise fractionations in glass vessels. It is likely that,
as with the Royal A r t itself, a considerable portion of
putrefactive magic in Europe was a direct inheritance of
Arabic and Islamic magic; such texts as Gayat al-Hakim and
Kitab al-Sumum employ numerous members of dead
animals, some ritually killed, f o r cursing, poison, and
magical power. These usages also occur in the later corpus
of European grimoire formulae. However, the powers of
putrefaction and decomposition had a f a r more ancient
pedigree, one of which is of specific interest to the Sabbath
banquet. Correctly harnessed, they give rise to both of the
primary mysteries of the witch sacrament: the Bread and
Wine.
In the Bread and Wine of the Witches Supper, some have
seen the historical outlines of the ritual consumption of
psychoactive substances at the Sabbath, specifically
conveyed through f o o d and drink, and indeed this
interpretation is present in some modern-day witchcraft
practices. Historical references are u n c o m m o n , but
suggestive. The Inquisitor Pierre DeLancre reported that
the bread of the Basque witches'was black and revolting, its
flour ground f r o m black millet, and served with 'false
meats'. Aside f r o m its resemblance to cadaverous flesh, the
'black bread' is of potential toxicological interest. In
centuries past, white flour was a privilege of the wealthy,
 10. Hie Nocturnal Assembly gathering corpses for the Witches' Supper.
Compendium Maleficarum, 1608.

and poorer classes resorted to eating so-called 'black

breads', made of rye and barley, and which also contained
diverse adulterants from the harvest. Piero Camporesi in
his Bread of Dreams has speculated that psychoactive
contaminants of grain such as darnel (Lolium temulentum)
and ergot (Clavicepspurpurea) were so common in the flours
of some regions and eras that the average peasant was in a
constant state of intoxicatio as a consequence of poor diet.
If true, the evidence cited suggests that the psychoactivity
of such breads was an accidental by-product of a fouled food
supply, but if the phenomenon was understood by
herbalists and magical practitioners, there would be little
to stop the cunning from crafting experimental loaves. 93
Indeed, as with the Thelemic 'Cakes of Light', the Sabbath
Bread has its own secret formulations.

93. The obvious problem in formulation is that the biochemically active adulterants
of such speculative breads carry considerable risk of undesirable pathologies, such
as gangrene, necrosis, and convulsions brought on by ergotism.
 The old term "Crow's Bread" originates in the founding
lineages of the witchcraft order Cultus Sabbati, and
originally referred to the intoxicating mushroom Psilocybe
semilanceata as a gift of the spirits for visionary ritual use. In
the late 20th century, the term was applied within the group
for broader use to refer to any psychoactive ritual substance
gathered from Nature, but its nature as 'Bread' is linked
both with the Communion Host of Christ and the male
generative power linked with the 'Lord of Light', in some
cases identified with Lucifer. In this latter association, the
Bread's power as Revelator is especially notable. Covines
and lodges of the Cultus have long made use of venefic
gnosis in various forms; its oldest known recensions, dating
from the second half of the nineteenth century, contain
obscure charms against poison, as well as certain ritual
transmissions of power using a prepared psychoactive
sacrament. Oral teachings long pre-dating the Great War
concern another poisonous species of note in Britain:
Belladonna. There are also adjunctive practices concerning
a multitude of other plants of power, specifically their
Eucharistic power. 94 M y contacts with other Traditional
Witchcraft groups outside of the Cultus have, on occasion,
affirmed the presence of such sacraments elsewhere, some
of which have themselves passed into a largely symbolic or
chemically inert form.
Within the Sabbatic Cultus, the Bread of the Sabbath
Feast operates upon many magical levels, its essence is
intimately tied to British agricultural cycle, the God of
Harvest, Corn and Sheaf, sometimes manifest in the
mythical divinity of John Barleycorn. The germ of this myth
encloses the great mystery of ritual murder and
resurrection embodied in the Holy Loaf, and the resulting

94. Chumbley, A. "The Golden Chain and the Lonely Road", Opuscula Magica Vul.
1. Ritual use of psychoactive substances was also an interest of the traditional witch
Robert Cochrane (1931-1966); see Monmouth, John: Genuine Witchcraft 11
Explained.
sustenance of the kingdom. This quintessential^ English
expression of the Bread is thus seminal, nutritive, life-
giving, and radiant, but also embracing the mysterium of
Death and a patterning of seasonal time and tide. Here
Barleycorn is sometimes identified as the Witch-Father
Mahazhael. He is thus often depicted as a skeletal god with
an erect phallus, bearing a scythe, sickle, and stalk of grain;
his mystery is well encapsulated in his invocation from
Chumbley's The Dragon-Book of Essex:

On the first day I awoke within the furrow.

On the second day I knelt in prayer cneath the sun.
On the third day I stood in the long green robe.
On the fourth day my head was crowned with gold.
On thefifthday the sickle laid me to rest.
On the sixth day my body was ground between stone.
On the seventh day I was raised anew
to feed the brethren at Midnight's table -
to serve at the Round Feast for both the Living and the Dead.95

In addition to the process of ritual murder which births

the Bread, the putrefactive processes used for its
fermentation, via yeast or bacteria, are also reckoned as a
part of the Corn-God's dominion. As a natural agent of
corruption, yeasts are widespread and penetrate countless
strata of the world, often contaminating foodstuffs, as well
as the human organism. Even where fermentation
conditions are controlled, the process of making bread and
wine relies on the mass death of these microorganisms.
This catastrophic loss of life, on the order of hundreds of
millions of individuals per loaf, nonetheless provides a
delectable crumb serving as both an holy sacrament and the
common man's 'Staff of Life'. A further relation between

95. "Invocation of Mahazhael-Deval, Our Lord of Midnight", from the Rite of

BHA, Dragon-Book of Essex also excerpted in the journal The Cauldron.
bread and the grave is its frequent off-white colour,
recalling bone, and the hardness it attains when stale,
sometimes petrifying, as a skeleton, over the course of
centuries; and amongst some witchcraft practitioners, the
churchly Communion Wafer is sometimes addressed
within the circle simply as "The Corpse' or "The Skeleton*.
The magical corollary to the Witches' Bread is the Vinum
Sabbati, orWinecup of Midnight's Table. Its alignment is
with the Moon and the Lunar emanation, the feminine
principle, and the many humours of the body, primarily
blood, but also the female sexual secretions, both gross and
subtle. In witchcraft contexts, as well as other secret
societies and magical orders, the Wine is of legendary status
and a great deal of lore and doctrines have emerged
concerning its generation and use. To some it is a cup
producing fantastic visions, to others, an initiatic ordeal
which serves as the most harrowing trial for the drinker.
Certain teachings, through its association with both the
Living Cup and its Wine as a single entity, have two
essential natures which in combination, magically unify to
create a Blessed Third, an apotheosis of both. Within the
Cultus Sabbati, the 'Graal of Midnight' has precise
formulations to empower and support the various
pathways of Sabbatic Congressus: Thanatomantic,
Atavistic, Sexual, and many others. By a metaphorii
pathway, the Wine of the Sabbath is not only a fluid it-
medium, fermented and distilled within the Flesh of the
Initiate, but also the entire process of corporeal
transmutation during its imbibition at the High Sabbat.
As an actual drink conveying ritual power, a medieval
prototype of the Wine of the Sabbath is to be found in
Johannes Nider's Formicarius (1435), which alleged the
witches of the Simmenthal region of Switzerland were
initiated using a potion brewed from the ashes of infants.
More important than the composition of the brew was its
alleged effect: the beguiling draught conferred upon the
initiate an instant knowledge of the Art Magical. Though
described prior to the advent of the Sabbath as a major
component of witchcraft, it is the ritual cup and its function
as a bestower of witch-power which links it to the Witches'
Supper.
The bridge between wine and the incorporeal host is also
relevant to the nature of the witches' cup. Historically, the
grape was considered divine not only by mankind but also
by spirits of the Dead. 96 In ancient Greece, the Vine-shoot
was regarded as possessing strong properties of
purification; wine was often poured there as a libation for
the dead, as well as to chthonic deities. This custom of
offering alcohol to the deceased resisted the strongest
attempts at eradication; Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus
(427-449) reports with outrage pagans bringing wine to the
deceased in evening rites. Cassarius relays a legend in which
two servants at the monastery of Laach, charged to guard
the vineyard by night, bribed the devil to do their work with
a cophinum full of grapes, a deal which was apparently kept.
Amongst the nocturnal activities later alleged of the
Vaudois witches was the invasion of wine cellars, led there
in a troupe by the Devil. "Under lead of the demon they
enter cellars and drink wine, all of them first urinating in
the cask from which it is drawn." 97 The threefold linkage of
wine to the Dead, witches and the Devil draw additional
lines of arcane association with the Sabbatic Grail, both as
a form of communion with the Dead and with the Black
Man of the Sabbath, the God of the Lamiae.

96. Let it be remembered that the first Deities of the Vine were goddesses; this was
to change in Egypt, where Osiris achieved primacy. As lord of the Dead, he was
appeased with vinous libations. Wine was also used as nourishment while
journeying in the Spirit Realms.
97. Alphonso de Spina, Fortalicium Fidei, 14.94. "Men lying awake in bed will often
hear someone walking and breaking things with heavy blows, especially on wine
casks..."
 The presence of Wine in historical English witchcraft and
folk magic may indeed arise from its aspect as mock-
sacrament, the 'polluted blood of Christ' which featured in
invertive and blasphemous sorceries. However, wine was
present in England before the advent of Christianity;
introduced by the Romans, there is evidence for viticulture
among the Anglo-Saxons; one conservative estimate
identifies at least 139 definite or possible vineyards in
medieval Britain. 98 Though climatological trends in past
centuries have fluctuated, and viticulture has prospered or
suffered accordingly, the Genius of the Vine has been
present in England for millennia. This is certainly sufficient
time for a body of lore and rites to have accreted around the
Grape and its divine expressions, drawing from numerous
magico-religious currents, as well as the inevitable corpus
of agrarian lore which accompanies so important and
venerated a crop. This is to say nothing of England's great
tradition of hedge wines, a testament both to the ingenuity
of her vintners and the botanical diversity of her lands.
The Cup of Wine which features so prominently at the
Feast of the Witches may be understood as the mechanism
of sorcerous transmutation of the body, not only its vehicle,
but- its symbol, process, teaching, and legacy. This symbol
in activated form unfolds, as an opening rose, the entire
ecstatic algorithm of the Sabbat. Within the rites of
Sabbatic Witchcraft, the Wine of the Devil's Graal appears
in radiance at the confluence of sorcerous enchantment and
spirit-veneration. Where the covenant of adepts is of
sufficiently focused will, desire, and belief and of sincere
devotion 99 , the Cup is vinted, filled, mixed, and drunk. The

98. Younger, William. Gods, Men, and Wine, pp 237-39. Often dismissed as a winr
producer, England produces many outstanding wines, such as the emergent market
of English sparklers, noted for their resemblance in product and terroir to the famed
vintages of the Champagne region of France.
99. The former is linked with magic, the latter with religion.
motto Ipse venena bibas100 or 'drink thou thine own poison'
encodes the truth that the Grail of the Witch is both the cup
from which it is drunk, and the initiate into whom the wine
passes. The alpha-numeric essence of this matter is
eloquently contained within the number 7 1 0 , which
corresponds both to the grail-poison ([tar'elah) and the
Sabbath itself. 101
The active magical nature of the Witching Graal, and its
function as the intermediary in rites of 'Communion'
naturally evokes the Body of the Goddess as the portal of
mystery. In the Sabbatic traditions of witchcraft, the shade-
mother Lilith or Liliya Devala is identified with the witches'
cup in both its exalted and desecrated forms, aligned with
sex-magical moduli of Void-mind (the empty cup) and the
conjured circle of spirits (the full cup). Other permutations
occur, especially those co-identified with the body of the
Priestess or ritual adjuditrices. Each wine vinted within
these cups is as much a product of the Vessel as the Vine.
Kenneth Grant has linked the Sabbatic Wine to the blood
of Charis, wife of the smith-god Haephestos, and also
known as the threefold goddess Charites, or the Graces.
Expanding upon the writings of Massey, which quote the
ancient writings of the Gnostic Marcus, Grant links the
Vinum Sabbati with the blood of Charis, the 'original
Eucharist' of the early Gnostic Christians. The vintage is the
central component of the ancient magico-sexual rites of
trance mediumship wherein the goddess spoke through a
chosen medium. 1 0 2 This bears certain similarities with
kindred operations in the Order of Eastern Templars, as

100. From the Catholic exorcistic formula Jfade retro satana or 'step back, Satan',
certain forms of which are known as Traditional Witchcraft charms.
101. Biblical instances of tar'elah are scarce, but see Psalm 60:63 for theyayin tar'elah
or 'wine of trembling or staggering'; also in Isaiah 51:17 and 51:22, it is "Ihe Chalice
of Reeling'.
102. Grant, "Vinum Sabbati", Carfax Monographs. The Wine of the Sabbath was also
mentioned at length by Arthur Machen in his 1895 novel The Three Impostors.
well as those of at least one Traditional Witchcraft lineage
informing the Cultus Sabbati. Likewise, a cup-blessing
used for the Wine connects its use to the forgotten intimacy
of Samael and First Woman:

Bright Host ofSaint Hawa, draw nigh unto this, my Cup.

Before mine eyes, the Well of Abomination,
Betwixt thy thighs, the Red Stream ofEternal Fire.
Behold thou the Good Companie assembled
To feast upon the grave-wandering corpse,
Draught ofManbane, and dew of the Forest grail,
The blood-fouling thorn, the Fang and Toad-froth,
Tea, All Delights ofResurrection's Vineyard:
O, Mercy of the Spirit I pray!

Here 'Communion' also relates in mystery both to the

Witches'Agapae or love-feast as well as the coition of spirit
transpiring within the circle of the High Sabbat itself. This
resonates with the witches' Fortunum or Cup of Good
Fortune, a specific preparation of male and female sexual
secretions, ritually expressed in the correct lunar phase, and
empowered through conjuration of precise spirit-
presences. Withing these covines are preserved teachings
concerning 'the vinting and pouring' of the Agapae-wine,
as well as its function at the Feast. It is impossible to
pinpoint with certainty the origin of the oldest of these
witch-rites, though their resemblance to some practices of
South Asian Tantra is striking. This may be an occult
adaptation ofTantric practice, as perpetuated through such
magical orders as the Ordo Templi Orientis, with which
some covines have had contact. However, the oldest witch-
praxes of this type pre-date the Oriental Templars' contact
with Tantra, and in fact retain elements marking their
origin as specifically English and Northern European.
Additionally, their foci incorporate atavistic formulae,
 tflmtni

Fig 13. Herakles slays the Hydra. G e r m a n Schutzblatt, or apotropaic

paper talisman, offering protection against poison.
Fig 13. Mandrake image, Richel-Eldermans collection
of artifacts, M u s e u m of Witchcraft, Boscastle, Corwall.
Fig. 18. Narco-Aesthesis, an image by the author.
Fig. 19. Autosentience of the Venom-I, by Andrew D. Chumbley.

100
placing them squarely within the precincts of an ancestral
cult, as well as incorporating elements which would to
many occult lodges, be considered "low magic".
Despite the linkage of these sexual witchcraft formulae
with the Dead, their strata of magical expression very much
concern the living, the present body of initiates, woven into
the perpetuity of magical time. In addition to the powers of
manifestation their perfected exaction radiates, they are
capable of simultaneous intoxication, empowerment and
nourishment —the great 'Transmutation of the Body' in
which one becomes magic entire. Its linkage with the
ghastly imagery of the demonologist lies in its formulation
from the Corpus Humanis. Under correct conditions, the two
give rise, like the antediluvian pillars, to the Great Temple
of the New Flesh.
Returning to the concept of Crow's Bread, within the
Sabbatic Cultus, the Liberty Cap mushroom (Psilocybe
semilanceata), when encountered growing in the wild, is
regarded as an omen of ancestral favor. A prime concen-
trator of atavistic force, it is a gateway to the dominion of
Faerie and a guardian of the Way. It is never hunted, but
when encountered must be acknowledged by certain ritual
customs and sacrifices.
Importantly, it eschews dung, unlike other visionary
mushrooms of its genus, and thus in mystical terms is
separated from Abel, the unrefined or 'profane' nature of
flesh prefiguring the sorcerer Cain. Proceeding as it does
from the soil and thus the subterranean vaults of the
Mighty Dead, its fruiting body is the brief apotheosis of
those fallen and yet come again: the ephemeral Risen
Phallus of the Spirit-Meadow. The mushroom thus
subsumes three important mysteries of the Witches' Supper
in one body: the Corpse, the Phallus, and the Visionary
Sacrament. From a devotional entry in Hypnotikon:
 Amongst the true-born of its flesh, it is known as
"The Watcher on the Moor' and this is precisely
where I was introduced to this Friend. It speaks
of many things: great spectral mists uncurling
before the moon; of time and the procession of
bodies upon bodies; of hedge-haunting devils;
of the deeds of the Saints' bones, resonant and
deep in the earth; of the Immovable Stone and
its wisdsom; of symmetries and arrangements
of things - trees, plants, beasts; of holy books
writ in ossuary dust; of the delectations and
radiances of the flesh; of the Round Dance and
the Fallen Star; of the Sovereign and Horn'd
Head detached from the body, ruling over the
Land; of the telescoping of the soul into
indescribable abysses. When it has spoken its
final word, and revealed its last vision, what
then remains? The accumulated counsel of
every incarnation as 'I'.

In the abyssal heart of ancestral shadow, the 'Bread' of

Midnight's Table is served both for the Living and Dead. For
those who sup in flesh, and walk in the world of men, it is a
sacred loaf broken for remembrance: to honor the Dead
with sensation and savor, and to call forth into the body,
through the rite of necrodeipnon, what has gone before. For
them who abide in shade, the Bread is the Lantern of the
World, shone as a beacon for return to the flesh, if ever
briefly. Through the medium of poison, and its child ecstasy,
the decay and annihilation of Death is cast aside, the spirit
clothed anew in the radiance of corporeal transfuguration.
 $
Infernal Vapours

The formularies of the continental grimoire or 'black book'

harbor a corpus of incense recipes unique to the magic of
spirit-conjuration, and of preeminent significance in the
traditions of occult botany. Texts such as The Sworn Book of
Honorius, The Sacred Book of Abramelin the Mage, and The
Grand Grimoire are classic examples of the genre and
include, among the magician's needful regalia, the brazier
and incense, in order to facilitate conjuration of angels,
demons, and helper spirits. Plants comprising these
incense or suffumigation formulae are of interest to the
toxicologist as well as the practitioner, as are their powers
of incepting preternatural states in the sensorium.
Likewise, a number of allied incense recipes appear in other
accounts of sorcerous practice, where poisonous plants
play an important role.
Incense has a very ancient pedigree, and its use in sorcery
and religion makes its appearance in the earliest writings.
While the perfumed offering has enjoyed magical uses as
diverse as purification, protection from demons,
invisibility, storm-raising, and other thaumaturgic aims,
the two most important powers attributed the suffumigant
are as a votive or sacrificial offering to spirits or god (most
often the concern of cultic religious practice), and as a
means of summoning and commanding spirits (the work
of sorcery). In addition to these, we may also include the use
of incense as an aid to meditative and visionary states,
which is present both in religion and sorcery, but may also
exist as a secular pursuit.
Considering the concealed nature of sorcery, as well as
historical cycles of the mass destruction magical books, it
is certain a vast number of ancient formulae for conscious-
ness altering magical incenses are now lost. Despite this
many exemplars are preserved in written form, containing
plant constituents with known psychoactive properties.
Herodotus spoke of an inebriating rite of the Massagetan
peoples, who, due to their proximity to the Scythians,
probably employed Cannabis: the 'fruit' of a certain plant
was thrown onto coals, and the resulting smoke provoked
intoxication, song and dance. 104 A potent suffumigant is
also prescribed in the Sword ofDardanos, a Graeco-Egyptian
love spell summoning demons under the auspices of Eros
and Aphrodite to 'bend and attract the soul of whomever
you wish':

The burnt offering / which endows Eros and the

whole procedure with soul is this: manna, 4 drams;
storax, 4 drams; opium, 4 drams; myrrh, [4 drams];
frankincense, saffron, bdella, / one-half dram each.
Mix in rich dried fig and blend everything in equal
parts with fragrant wine, and use it for the
performance. In the performancefirstmake a burnt
offering and / use it in this way.105

The Sword ofDardanos incense composition is notable for

the presence of opium, known to produce expanded
sensoria when the smoldering gum is inhaled; it is also
categorically hypnotic, and generative of fantastic reverie.
When burned, Saffron is a putative psychoactive and is
present in numerous medieval and early modern incense
recipes; it is medicinally considered an exhilarant and
aphrodisiac, which when orally ingested to excess, has
narcotic effects. Frankincense, generally ignored in

104. As noted in Pbarmako/Poeia, at least two Russian archaeological finds

substantiate ceremonial use of cannabis among the ancient Scythians (pp. 184-185).
105. BPGMIV. 1716-1870. See Betz,1he Greek Magical Papyri inTranslation.
entheogenic literature and investigations, is also
significant. Recent scientific investigation has provided
physiological confirmation of what sorcerers, ecstatics, and
religious devotees have known experientially for millennia:
inhaled Frankincense smoke is psychoactive. 106 The
confluence of Opium, Saffron, and Frankincense vapor in
an enclosed working space, together with the repetition of
mantic utterances and the force of singular magical focus,
may be considered the sorcerous matrix par excellence for
manifestation of the spirit. Indeed, the words of the
incantation itself are adumbrative of the plant-gods in the
incense formula, as well as their effects. The Daimon is
described as most headstrong, lawless, implacable, inexorable,
invisible, bodiless, generator offrenzy,archer, torch-carrier, master
ofall living / sensation and ofeverything clandestine, dispenser of
forgetfulness, creator of silence, through whom the light and to
whom the light travels.
Other ancient incenses used to contact the spirit world
possessed psychoactive properties. Siberian Tungus
shamans burned Wild Rosemary (Ledum palustre) some-
times mixed with Juniper, for trance induction; the plant
was likewise used by the Giljacs for oracular work. The
plant's strong inebriating properties are capable of causing
"frenzy and deliria". 107 Ledum's use as a traditional trance-
inducing and calming incense has been noted by
Fischer-Rizzi in her modern incense formulary, which
provides a recipe using the plant, compounded with I part
chopped, dried Ledum; 4 parts Pine bark and resin; V2 part
Hops; 1 part Juniper berries and 2 parts Frankincense. 108
Reated Rhododenron species also possess similar properties.

106. Moussaieff, Arieh et al. "Incensole acetate, an incense component, elicits

psychoactivity by activatingTRPV3 channels in the brain". FASEB Journal, 22,2008.
107. Ratsch, Dictionary of Sacred and Magical Plants, pp 187-188. Genus Ledum is
now classed as Rhododenron.
108. The Complete Book of Incense.
The modern ecstatic rites of the Hunza bitan, wherein the
ways are opened to communicate with the ferocious spirits
known as pari, are assisted in no small part by the
smoldering branches of Juniperus macropoda.109
Though irresistible to spirits, ancient magical perfumes
also command the opposing powers of this axis: that of
chasing, or expelling spirits from the arena of occult
operations. This magical knowledge is widespread and
interpenetrates the magical traditions of many locales and
eras. We find written examples of this in antiquity such as
that mentioned in The Testament of Solomon (c. 3rd century
AD), in which the venerable magician "frustrates" the arch-
demon Asmodeus with the smoke of liver, fish gall, and a
storax branch. 110
In more recent times, wild cherry wood has been
smoldered as a fumigant by Greek peasants to drive away
the Kallikantzaroi, the rapacious theriomorphic beings of
the underworld known to walk the earth during the Ember
Nights, and who wander the earth at noon and midnight.
Cherry and its arboreal kin (Prunus spp.) contain varying
amounts of hydrogen cyanide ( H C N ) or or Prussic acid in
the leaves and kernels. 111 The psychoactivity of the inhaled
burning products of and its relatives are touched upon by
Pendell in Pharmako / poeia, specifically with reference to
Prunus emarginata.

109. See Sidky, MH. "Shamans and Mountain Spirits in Hunza ."Juniperus species
are used throughout the Himalayas in traditional incenses, as are the leaves and
twigs of the toxicologically important Rhododendron anthopogon and R. setosum, with
which they are sometimes mixed. The magical significance of the goat as an
intercessor of the pari is also notable.
no.TheTestament of Solomon, 6:4. J. Priest, trans. (OldTestamentPseudepigrapha,Vo\.
1 1983). Though preceding the main corpus of European grimoires by many
centuries, the Testament is in many ways an essential part of their ontological
foundation, specifically with reference to the legend of Solomon commanding
demons by means of Angelic power.
III. Hydrocyanic acid was an agent of human extermination employed in Nazi
concentration camps, U.S. gas chambers for judicial executions, and also stockpiled
as a chemical weapon by both the United States and the Soviet Union.
 The corpus of European suffumigations burnt to purify
the airs during outbreak of plague constitute a significant
stratum of this art, with juniper branches being a favoured
medium. Christianity, particularly the Roman Catholic,
Coptic, and Greek Orthodox Churches, have retained the
fumigant as a ceremonial purifier. In modern times, when
one is taken ill by an inexplicable cause, it is not unknown
for Greek Orthodox priests to make a house call to the
afflicted, and use, among other things, fumigants to banish
the illness-causing spirits or influences.
The magical virtues of fumigants were also well known
to those promoting the witch-hunts of the Inquisition, and
though associated with sorcery and diabolism, this did not
prevent the good fathers from using them for Christian
means. Johann Christoph Frolich, a professor of law in the
late 17th century, advises that the torture chamber for
extracting confession from witches be "constantly
sprinkled with holy water and a smoke be made with
blessed herbs." Valerio Polidori's book Practica Exorcistarum
ad Daemones etMaleficia de Christi Fidelibus Pellendum of 1626
gives three incenses (Profumigatio Horribilis) for driving
away devils:

I. 6 drachms each of seed of Hypericum, Rue

and Frankincense.

II. 1 drachm each of Frankincense, Storax,

Galbanum, Laudanum, and Garyophyllum.

III. 1 drachm each of Galbanum Sulfur,

Asafoetida, Aristolochia, and Rue.

Agrippa relates, though in guarded language, that "the

souls of the dead cannot be called up without blood and a
carcass: but their shadows to be easily allured by the
fumigations of these things..." In addition to propitiation
and control of spirits, fumigants had other uses in sorcery,
even to the point of having magical nomenclature.
Divination by smoke, particularly using burning poppy
seeds, was known as Capnomancy; Libanomancy was a
more general term for divination by the fumes of incense.
The eleventh century manual of astrological sorcery
Picatrix contains a series of sophisticated incense
formulations, mainly for planetary genii, whose
composition bears a close resemblance to suffumigants
later appearing in European grimoires. The Incense of
Saturn, is notable for its inclusion of Opium, together with
Myrtle, Saffron, Plantain, Bush Grass, Soiled Wool,
Colocynth Grease, black cat hair, and black goat wool. 1 1 2
The publication of Henry Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books
of Occult Philosophy in 1531 marks an important point in the
development of the magical fumigant; this large tome was
the largest collection of pagan Neoplatonic magic ever
compiled, and was of great influence in its time and for
centuries to come. Two chapters are relevant to our study:
"Chapter X L I I I : Of Perfumes, or Suffumigations, Their
Manner and Power" and "Chapter X L I V : The Com-
position of Some Fumes Appropriated to the Planets." A
number of these recipes contain poisonous plants of known
or suspect psychoactivity, for example:

So they say, that if of coriander, smallage,

henbane and hemlock be made a fume, that
spirits will presently come together; hence they
are called the spirits' herbs.

Pertinent to our investigation of the fumigants of

grimoires, however, is that locus where sorcerous control
of spirit and psychoactivity intersect. A final recipe, perhaps

112. Also of note in the Picatrix are numerous other incenses using Frankincensc
and Saffron, as well as a suffumigant for unbinding magical talismans which utilizes
the seed of Mandrake.
 20. Magicians in circle conjuring a spirit, with horn brazier for suffumigation.
Das Kloster grimoire corpus, circa 1845.

more relevant to our investigation, is a Bavarian Hexenrauch

or 'witches smoke' preserved in folklore, and used "against
evil", containing Elderberry, Henbane, Vervain, Fern,
Cannabis, Belladonna, Poppy seed, Mint, Rue, Tansy,
Greater Celandine, and Maidenhair Fern." 3
We shall now examine some fumigant recipes as they
appear in the grimoires and works of grimoric magic, with
especial attention given those plants with known
pharmacological activity. These recipes constitute only a
portion of total incense recipes from the grimoiric corpus;
there are many other formulae which feature plant
ingredients not known to produce visionary effects or
altered consciousness, whose provenance is chiefly of
planetary correspondence, desirable odor, and that which
some researchers call 'sympathetic magic'.
Liber Juratus, or The Sworn Book ofHonorius, is a grimoire
dated to at least the 13th century which is particularly rich
in fumigant recipes. The text informs the reader of "a
suffumygacion made of these hearbes as foloweth causeth
visions of the earthe to appeare", probably referring to the

113. Fischer, L. "Ein 'Hexenrauch'", Bayerische Hefte fur Volkskunde, cited in Duerr,
p.142, n . n .
summoning of earth-elementals. The incense mixture is
made from root of Cane Reed, root of Giant Fennel,
Pomegranate skin, Henbane, Red Sandalwood, Black
Poppy and "the hearbe tassi barbassi". 114 Another recipe is
made from Coriander, Henbane, and skin of Pomegranate
and causes "visons in the air or elsewhere to appear."
The common psychoactive ingredient of known efficacy
in these two incenses is Black Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger),
a plant of the nightshade family long associated with
diabolism. Together with Wolfsbane (Aconitum napellus),
Poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum), and a number of
other nightshades, Henbane comprises the essential
botanical template for the Unguentum Sabbati, or Witches'
Flying Ointment, which are also contemporary to the time
frame of our study. Henbane and other solanaceous plants
bear a class of chemicals collectively referred to as the
tropane alkaloids, the most important of which are
atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine. These alkaloids
—particularly scopolamine— have long been known to
inspire visions with strong phantasmagoric or erotic
content; delirium, frenzy, and varying degrees of amnesia
upon return to the senses. IIS The smoke of burning
Hyoscyamus is also known to be psychoactive, with
historically attested uses in Asia, the Near East, and North
Africa. Of particular interest are is the usage of the
smoldering leaves by Bedouin sorcerers and thieves for its
stupefying effects." 6 Jonathan Ott cites the experiments of

114. Tassi barbassi is most often considered to be Mullein (Verbascum thapsis), known
in folklore as Hag's Taper. In both European and Asian magical traditions, Mullein
was held to possess the power to chase demons and noxious spirits. In some streams
of lore, burning Mullein stalks illuminated the night flights of witches. Giant Fennel
may refer to apiaceous aromatics such as Galbanum, Armoniac, or Asafoetida, or
indeed poisonous plants in the umbel family such as Hemlock.
115.Richard Evans Schultes, Plants of the Gods, p. 86; Hansen, The Witches' Garden,
pp.63-67.
116. Penacchioetal, pp. 102-103.
Gustav Schenk (1954) 1 1 7 inhaling the vapors of burning
Henbane seeds, the psychoactive efficacy of which I have
been able to verify personally; clearly the use of Henbane in
the form of a smoldering fume, especially employed
indoors with no ventilation, and in conjunction with other
ecstatic technologies, could give rise to visionary and
ecstatic experience.
Poison Hemlock is frequently found in ceremonial
suffumigant recipes. Agrippa states that an incense made
from Sagapen, juice of Hemlock, Henbane, Mullein, Red
Sandalwood, and Poppy, makes "spirits and strange shapes
appear;" as well as a second recipe containing Hemlock but
of simpler composition. Agrippa's demon-summoning
formula is echoed by Girolamo Cardano, in his 1550
encyclopedia of natural science entitled De Subtilitate, who
notes that vapors of smoldering coriander, celery, henbane,
and poison hemlock will "instantly cause demons to
assemble".
The toxic principle in Poison Hemlock is the alkaloid
coniine, considered a carcinogen, occurring in all parts of
the plant, but concentrated strongest in the unripe fruits.
Symptoms of poisoning include retching, vomiting,
increasing muscular weakness and pain, rigor of the limbs,
inability to speak, blindness, respiratory dysfunction, and
death. Coniine paralyzes motor nerves, ultimately causing
death by respiratory failure. Toxicological studies on
coniine poisoning from oral ingestion indicate little in the
way of visual distortion or hallucinogenic activity; and in
fact one symptom is blindness. 118 Routes of coniine
absorption other than oral are a somewhat different matter.
In the context of discussing the Witches' Flying Ointments,
Hansen cites unidentified clinical studies which indicate

117. Pharmacotheon, p. 369.

118.Turkington, Carol. Poisons and Antidotes, p. 132.
coniine ingested orally in small doses or rubbed into the
skin can produce the sensation of gliding through the air. 119
My own experience of accidental transdermal poisoning,
in contexts unrelated to magical incense, confirms this to
some degree. The dominant sensation was acute physical
constriction, combined with lightheadedness, vertigo, and,
in seeming, an increased sensitivity to light. Removed to an
area of darkness and quietude, a sensation of lateral
undulating floatation was noted, several inches above the
ground attended. This may be crudely described as lying
supine on a conveyor belt which has a smal amount of rise
and fall, as with waves on a body of water. The sensation was
in no way ecstatic, and indeed was pervaded by a constant
and tenebrous fear of death.
If transdermal absorption of fresh plant alkaloids may be
considered 'entheogenic', burning the plant is another
matter. Coniine is an unstable alkaloid and begins to break
down soon after the plant is harvested. Dried leaves and
roots contain almost no coniine. The alkaloids are some-
what more stable in the seed, and these have been harvested
for incense usage in magical circles in which I have
participated. In this particular case it should be noted that
the suffumigants were initially not meant to be conscious-
ness altering; rather, seed of Hemlock was incorporated for
their planetary resonance, usually that of Saturn. Mixed
with other ingredients of sweeter and more bouyant
character, Hemlock did not dominate the mixture's
aromatics or energetics.
Smoldered alone, the seeds of C. maculatum are known to
generate headaches and brief disorientation, but nothing
close to atmospheres conducive to visionary trance or
ecstatic intoxication. A 1 9 9 8 report from my private record
of magical operations is instructive. Here, four braziers

119. Hansen, p. 74.

were set in the inner chamber of a cave, each filled with an
abundance of burning Hemlock seeds:

The smoke was opaque, plentiful, and at first

unremarkable, having a carbonaceous odor and
in no way intrusive to the operation. Within
minutes, however, it grew acrid and became a
stench, like burning tar or hair. As the smoke
thickened, the lamps in the cave grew dim... it
had a putrid, oleaginous quality, like a vaporized
oil whose minute droplets fiercely adhered to the
nasal passages and throat. At the cellular level I
seemed to be experiencing a mounting somatic
outrage or revolt; seeing was made difficult,
breathing impossible. In less than ten minutes
we were driven from the cave and spent the better
part of an hour fighting off a smoke-induced
migraine. Due to the foul nature of this incense,
presumably due to volatilized compounds, much
of the regalia was ruined, especially that made of
cloth and paper.120

When fresh, Hemlock is a foul-smelling plant, often

compared to rodent urine; the odor of the fuming seeds is
no better. If a demon can be described in terms of being a
singularly wretched vapor, smoking Hemlock will duly
summon him, for it exceeds in foulness both sulfur and
brimstone. Still, it must be noted that the poisonous
denizens of the Apiaceae or Dill Family are numerous, with
many exemplars bearing folk names 'Hemlock' and being
as toxic or moreso than C. maculatum. In addition, several
of the historical grimoire incense recipes explicitly mention
the juice of the plant, not the seed.
Opium Gum, or products of the Opium Poppy (Papaver
somniferum) also occur with some frequency in grimoiric

120. Hypnotikon.
suffumigants. We have already examined two incense
recipes, one from the Greek Magical Papyri using Opium;
the other from Liber Juratus for summoning earth-spirits,
using Black Poppy in combination with Henbane. A second
fumigant from Liber Juratus is compounded from
"coriander, and saffron, henbanne, parslie and blake popie
the water therof the popie dysstilled and tempered wt the
iuce of the poungarnet skine". It is unclear what part of the
poppy is first mentioned, but the "water of the poppy
distilled" is probably tincture of opium or laudanum, or
some other fluidic concentration of the plant's narcotic
virtue. The same grimoire gives a suffumigant recipe for
calling forth the planetary genius of Saturn, compounding
seeds of Henbane and Poppy, together with Root of
Mandrake, Myrrh, ground lapis lazuli, and the blood or
brains of a bat. In this recipe, smoke from the seeds of Black
Poppy is probably insufficient to account for an appreciable
narcotic effect when burned, but the addition of henbane
and mandrake would certainly lend pharmacological
potency to the mixture, and, unlike coniine, tropane
alkaloids are notoriously stable over time and a wide
platform of administration routes.
We now turn our attention to The Sword ofMoses, a ioth
century Hebrew-Aramaic book of magic in which we find
the following spell:

To walk in the street and not to be recognized by

anyone, take wormwood, perfumes, and soot,
and moke thyself with it, and take the heart of a
fox, and say the 'Sword,' and go out in the street.

Though this fumigant is clearly burned for invisibility, it

is notable for the presence of Wormwood (Artemisia
absinthium, an asteraceous herb best known as the "Green
Fairy" whose distilled spirits engendered the popular
inebriant Absinthe. Wormwood contains Thujone, an
isomer of camphor, with known psychoactivity. A second
Wormwood-bearing fumigant recipe appears in the
Clavicula Solomonis: a suffumigation for the planetary genii
of Mars, consisting entirely of dessicated Wormwood and
Rue. Wormwood, along with such herbs as Poison
Hemlock and Monkshood, in classical times fell under the
dominion of Hecate, Goddess of sorcery. 121 Its use as a
suffumigant is also known in modern collations of
necromantic spells. 122
As noted, the Thujone in Wormwood is chemically
related to Camphor, a crude resin extracted from the
Lauraceous Camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora). It is
also naturally present in other plants such as Rosemary and
Mint. This refined botanical substance has been banned or
regulated in some countries, including the United States,
and its potency as a toxin should not be minimized. In
addition to less pleasant side-effects of camphor poisoning,
"dizziness, disturbed vision, delirium, and convulsions" are
noted. 123 Its action upon the heart in certain cases may also
classify it as an exhilarant. The resin appears in several
grimoiric suffumigants of note, and is of known
psychoactivity: Christian Ratsch observes that camphor "in
high doses can elicit powerful states of ecstatic
inebriation." 124 Turning to our corpus of'black books', we

1 2 1 . Agrippa, paraphrasing Porphyry, writes: "Hecate commanded how images

should be constituted to her, and that they were to be surrounded with wormwood,
and that domestic mice were to be painted, and the finest ornaments such as were
most pleasing to her, and so many mice as her forms were to be taken; then blood,
myrrh, storax, and other things were to be burnt: which things if they were done,
she would appear, and answer the worker thereof by dreams."
122.Wright, Elbee. Book of Legendary Spells, p. 40. This use of Wormwood is often
quoted as a medieval spell in modern compilations of magic and herb-lore, such as
Herbs in Magic and Alchemy (C.L. Zalewski).
123. Blumgarten, A.S. Textbook of Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics,
7th ed. MacMilllan, New York, NY 1942.
124./I Dictionary of Sacred and Magical Plants, p. 68.
find a number of significant camphoraceous incense
recipes. Echoing Agrippa's recipe for a Lunar suffum-
igation, Liber Juratus employs an almost identical recipe
employing Camphor and seeds of White Poppy. 125
Camphor's chemical relationship with Thujone is sig-
nificant and forms a link in incenses with Wormwood,
which has shown mild psychoactivity when burned and
inhaled.
In the Grand Grimoire, the conjuration of the devil
Lucifuge, Prince and Master of Rebel Spirits, is prefaced by
burning copious amounts of pure Camphor in the brazier.
Camphor-bearing incenses are found in other grimoires:
in the section concerning suffumigations for invoking
planetary genii from The Key of Solomon the King, we find a
Lunar fumigant compounded from White Sandalwood,
Camphor, Aloes, Amber, pounded seeds of Cucumber,
Artemisia, and Ranunculus. This includes Wormwood and
Ranunculus, a plant of significant toxicological standing. 126
Helleborus niger or Black Hellebore, is a poison of decided
infamy; all parts of the plant render up potent venoms. The
extract of the rhizome was used in antiquity and medieval
times as an utensil of murder, most notably by King Attalus
I I I of Pergamos. The glycosides heleborin and hellebrin
also assert a strong presence in the plant; chemically related
to telo-cinobufagin (a venom of toad skin), they affect
cardiac muscle in a similar manner as Foxglove, slowing
heart rate. At least two grimoire incenses employ Black

125. Kenneth Grant notes the magical relationship of Camphor to the Lunar
current, the subtle emanant qualities of the sexual elixirs, and also to Siva and his
retinue of powers. SeeAleister Crowley and the Hidden God, p. 116.
126. The genus Ranunculus, or true buttercups, comprises some 400 species, many
of which contain important poisons (See Stary, pp. 166-171). Perhaps the most
important are Meadow Buttercup (R. acris), Lesser Celandine (R.ficaria), Creeping
Buttercup (R. repens) and Cursed Buttercup (R. sceleratus). The chief toxins arc
ranunculin and protoanemonine; these manifest poisoning symptoms, sometime*
fatal, when ingested. Many species of Ranunculus are irritant vesicants and raise
blisters when applied topically. Data on the phototoxicity and psychoactivity ol
buttercups when burnt and inhaled is apparently lacking.
Hellebore. One is listed among the suffumigations for
planetary genii from The Key of Solomon the King:

Spell for vivifying a talisman with the genius of

Saturn: "This consecration consists in exposing
the talisman to the fumes of a scent composed of
alum, assa-foetida, scammony and sulphur,
which are burned with cyprus [sic.] ash, and
stalks of black hellebore lighted in an
earthenware chafing-dish which has never been
used for any other purpose and which has to be
ground to dust and buried secretly in an
unfrequented spot after the operation.'

For conjuring the planetary genius of Mars, the Liber

Juratus recommends a fumigant made from Euphorbium,
Bdellium, Armoniac, two kinds of Hellebore, Myrrh, brains
of a raven, human blood, blood of a black cat, sulfur, and
"the powder of the stone called magnes". Severe Hellebore
poisoning is a grim affair: before the bleak twilight of
unconsciousness or cardiac arrest, the victim suffers
burning of the mouth, slavering, a great roaring in the ears,
and visual aberrations. Some persons report visionary
effects and delirium from smoking the dried leaves 127 , but
given the disagreeable relationship between Hellebore
toxins and the human organism, this is discouraged.
A number of other plants of known psychoactivity appear
in other fumigants used as adjuncts to grimoire incenses or
in later magical usage. One medieval rite of thaumaturgy
made use of burning cannabis as a fumigant while invoking
spirits for the purpose of a love spell. 128 Another incense is

127. An infrequent but known practice in certain rites of modern Essex witchcraft;
I thank Frater A. for permission of reference here.
128. Wright, pp.69-70. This action followed casting of Cannabis seed powder to the
Four Winds, beginning in the East, and moving in a counterclockwise direction.
documented as being employed in the 1 7 0 0 s by le
Chevaliers Elus Coens, the magical order of Martinez de
Pasqually:

The most important ceremonies took place

during the first quarter of the moon and were
accompanied by the use of an incense
compounded of storax, olibanum, saffron,
poppy seeds, agaric spores, cinnamon, nutmeg
and mastic; at least two, and probably more, of
these substances are possessed of hallucinogenic
properties, so it is not surprising that the Elect
Cohens seem to found their magic effective. 129

While this incense contains Poppy, which we have already

examined, it is most interesting for its inclusion of "agaric",
probably the Fly Agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria), a
well known but highly variable entheogen. While it is
doubtful that burning spores alone would suffice to
provoke a visionary trance, there is some evidence, cited by
Christian Ratsch, suggesting the smoke of the mushroom
may be inhaled for inebriating virtues, particularly among
the Chuj Indians, who smoke the dried mushroom with
tobacco to induce a clairvoyant trance for healing. Saffron
and Frankincense, both possessing subtle effects alone, and
possibly potentiated together, are also important. Nutmeg
additionally possesses a complex of psychoactive principles
which manifest euphoria and mild hallucinogenic activity
when ingested orally, though whether these would become
bioavailable when small amounts were volatilized in
burning incense is unknown. It must also be remembered
that synergistic effects with multiple botanical compounds
are also known.

129. King, Francis. The Secret Rituals of the O.T.O., editor's introduction. Pasqually's
magical system combined elements of Gnostic, Manichaean and Cathar currents,
as well as Hermetica. Spirit-summoning and conversations with angels were also
important.
 In The Testament of Solomon a smudge preparation is
revealed to the wizard in the course of conversing with a
demon:

But I Solomon questioned him, saying: Tfthou

wouldstgain a respite, discourse to me about the
things in heaven.'And Beelzeboul said: 'Hear,
O king, if thou burn gum, and incense, and bulb
ofthe sea, with nard and saffron, and light seven
lamps... thou wilt firmly fix thy house. And i f ,
being pure thou light them at dawn in the sun
alight, then wilt thou see the heavenly dragons,
how they wind themselves along and drag the
chariot of the sun.'

Aside from the fantastic serpentine visions described to

manifest from the enchanted smoke, this formula is
important due to its inclusion of Saffron (Crocus sativus), a
plant appearing in many ancient incense recipes, and also
present in many of the aforegoing formulae. Crocus is the
genus to which true Saffron belongs, but in ancient recipes
'Crocus' or 'Saffron' often referred to a number of different
iridaceous plants, some of which were many times more
toxic, such as Meadow Saffron (Colchium autumnale). An
incense found in The Leyden Papyrus to summon or reveal a
thief, employed powdered Crocus and Alum. An obscure
fifteenth-century grimoire entitled The Book of Angels, Rings,
Characters, and Images of the Planets employs a Saffron
fumigant for conjuring solar genii; it appears in another
recipe in Liber Juratus, this one used to "cause visions in the
air and the shadows of sepulchres of the earth to appear."

Take the naturall seed of the fyshe called a whalle,

lingnum aloes, costus, muske saffronne,
armoniacum, wt the blude of the foule called a
lapwinge, and make a conffeccion therof, wt this
sayde conffeccion make a fumigaccion in a
 conuenient place, and you shall see visyons in the
ayer, take of the sayd conffeccion and make a
fumygacion aboute the sepulkers and vissions of
the dedd shall and wyll appeare... 130

Agrippa also lists the most powerful fumigant "according

to Hermes", which contains one herb for each of the
planets, including Saffron to resonate the powers of Venus.
Though its aromatic and pigmenting virtues are known,
the psychoactivity of C. sativus, when burned, is in debate.
However when ingested orally it is considered aphrodisiac,
and in excess narcotic. Saffron has also been found in at
least one recipe for Witches' Flying Ointment. 131
Another ingredient of interest in the Testament of
Solomon incense is "Bulb of the Sea". While there is some
speculation about precisely what plant the demon
Beelzeboul is referring to in the text, it is likely Squill (Scilla
spp.; Urginea maritima), a hardy plant of the Lily Family
widespread in the Mediterranean and having a large,
enspissated bulb. The vulgar name by which this plant was
most commonly known is Sea Onion. Though traditional
use of Squill as a mind-altering plant is not documented,
the plant does have a rich magical pedigree for hex-breaking
and purification. The bulb of Maritime Squill (.Drimia
maritima) was, and still is, affixed to doors as a magical
specific against unwelcome visitors and noxious spirits. The
ancient Greek ceremony of the Pharmakos, or Scapegoat,
involved taking the human victim to the place of sacrifice
and fed with figs, cheese, and barley cake; flogged seven

130. Fanger, Claire ed. Conjuring Spirits: Texts andTraditionsofMedieval Ritual Magic,
pp. 67-69. The manuscript in question is Cambridge Univ. Lib. MS Dd .xi-45.
131. Hansen, p. 90. The quote is from a 1626 publication by Sir Francis Bacon: "The
ointment that witches use, is reported to be made out of the fat of children digged
out of their graves; of the juices of smallage, wolf-bane, and cinquefoil, mingled
with the meal of fine wheat. But I suppose, the soporific medicines are likeliest to
do it; which are henbane, hemlock, mandrake, moonshade, tobacco, opium,
saffron, poplar leaves, etc."
times on the genitals with Squill; and then burnt on wood
gathered from wild trees. The ashes of the victim were later
scattered to the winds of the sea. Additionally, the
pharmacological profile of Sea Onion is interesting. Urginea
maritima contains such cardiac glycosides as scillaren A and
B and scillirosid. Mild poisoning results in inflammation
and cramping in the gastrointestinal tract; distortions of
the vision may also occur, as well as heart irregularity.
Though what we know about Squill poisoning usually
comes from overdoses when administered orally as a
medication, it is plausible that the burning smoke of this
plant might contain the same or related poisons. Its linkage
with spirit-summoning incenses may also stem from the
Levantine folklore associating the plant with graveyards
and the spirits of the dead.
In considering incense adjuncts of animal origin,
mention must also be made of Ambergris or sperma-ceti,
an aromatic gastronintestinal secretion of the sperm whale
used in the perfume industry, which also appears in
grimoric suffumigation formulae. In magic and folk
medicine Ambergris is traditionally considered an
aphrodisiac, added to food or tonics and worn as a
fragrance. Assays of the substance reveal that it contains
substantive amounts of cholestanol sterols and the fragrant
compound ambrein, recently shown in animal trials to
increase arousal and sexual behavior. 132 Given the
adrenergic effects of sterols, as well as hormonal roles in the
physiology of arousal, the volatilization of ambergris via
incense likely plays a significant role in the somatic and
psychic states during and immediately following
suffumigation.

133. Taha, SA et al. "Effect of ambrein, a major constituent of ambergris, on

masculine sexual behavior in tits." Archives Internationales de Pharmacodynamic et de
Therapie, 1995 Mar-Apr; 32g(2):283-94.
 The phenomenology of spirit-conjuring incenses raises
a multitude of questions and possible approaches for the
practitioner. Certainly, a detailed pharmacopoeia of
venomous incense plants is a necessary component for the
study and mastery of this Art. Chemically, the grimoric
incense formulae are complex witches' stews with many
botanical ingredients. However, it is necessary to recognize
that a great many vectors align to promote their efficacy of
fostering a 'bridge of smoke' to the spirit-world. Together
with our suffumigation materia magica, all, when
approached wisely, provide a deeper understanding of the
Censing Art and an elementary patterning for its magical
refinement.
The rational toxicologist will, according to inclination,
focus wholly upon the biochemical constituents of the
suffumigation and their physiological effects. Here, the
essential question becomes: does the smoke of the burning
or smoldering incense ingredients elicit a somatic response
consistent with the appearance of demons, angels, gods,
spirits of the undead, and their oracular transmissions?
Where affirmative, the underlying botanical skeleton of
such incenses in the first instance is comprised of
ingredients whose psychoactive poisons are active or
potentiated when volatilized through the agency of fire or
heating. Opium, Henbane, Camphor, Wormwood, Hash-
ish and other Cannabis products, all of which are found
within grimoiric incenses, are well situated within this
category. A second tier of adjuncts includes fragrant
arboreal resins such as Frankincense or Juniper, with lesser
but established psychoactivity, to assist the trance state and
provide aromatic counterbalance to the often foul odor of
burning carbonaceous plant materials. Non-psychoactive
ingredients include pure aromatics; binders such as Gum
Arabic or the organs of certain animals; coloring agents
such as Saffron; incendiary or accelerant adjuncts such as
charcoal, sulfur, or saltpeter; and smoke-producing agents.
Ingredients which are added for their talismanic qualities
are also an important category, and there are many
ingredients which possess more than one of these
properties. Beyond the individual contributions of each
suffumigant ingredient, we may also posit unique
synergistic interaction between them which gives rise to
novel phychophysiological effects.
In addition to volatilized psychoactive compounds and
aromatics arising from magical incense, the presence of
carbon dioxide and monoxide —both toxic and capable of
producing dizziness and disorientation— are present in the
ritual operation during suffumigation. Carbon dioxide, a
lethal poison to animal life in surprisingly low proportions
to Oxygen, has also been used as a therapeutic drug,
anaesthetic, and as a psychoactive to deliberately alter
consciousness. The hypoxia induced by autoerotic
asphyxiation, when it does not result in death, is one such
use, attributable to mounting levels of C O 2 in the blood
and the endorphin release associated with orgasm. States
of terror and panic, also common during the conjuration
of certain spirits, are part of an initial physiological reflex
to carbon dioxide intoxication, as Pendell notes. 133 The
prophecy-inducing vapors of the Oracle of Apollo at
Delphi, described as emanating from a telluric chasm
during certain periods of its ancient use, have recently been
proposed by science as a mixture of C O 2 and H 2 S ,
periodically released during fault rupture. 134 Characteristic

133. Pharmako/Gnosis, "On Elementals", pp. 265-274.

134-Piccardi, Luigi, et al. "Scent of a myth: tectonics, geochemistry and
geomythology at Delphi". Journal of the Geological Society 2008; v. 165; p. 5-18.
The scholars highlight the link between the site's original name Pytho='rotten' and
the stench of Hydrogen sulfide fumes. The site became sacred to Apollo after he slew
its serpent guardian; the mantic fumes arose from her corpse.
of carbon dioxide intoxication is initial fear and feelings of
suffocation followed by peaceful sensations and syn-
aesthesia, appropriately situated at the Veil of Death.
In assessing the efficacy of spirit-summoning incenses,
consideration must also be given to the locus of the magical
operation. Certain grimoire images illustrate operations of
magical conjuration situated out of doors, in graveyards,
ruins, forests, or remote places. But such manuals of
sorcery were disseminated through a kind of magical
underground, and spirit summoning operations during the
age of grimoires were often illegal and carried real
consequences. It is therefore reasonable to assume that a
great many of these rites were carried out inside buildings,
parlours, churches, or enclosed crypts, where the incense
fumes would rapidly increase and concentrate, rather than
be dispersed in the open air. The same principle is operative
in the Native American purification rite of the sweat lodge,
and has led to unintended fatalities when the rite has been
appropriated outside traditional culture.
An historical imagining of grimoric spirit conjurations
must also consider contemporary understanding of spirit-
natures and their relation to the influence of air, odors, and
vapors. Written spirit-conjuration rites, as a magical genre,
have in varied eras portrayed the entities as composed of fire
and smoke, of amorphous or partially congealed shape, a
face or torso suddenly manifesting from a churning brume.
In other instances, conjured spirits are described as the
smoke or fire itself, a morphology similar to that of the
Hebrew god Yahweh, variously portrayed as formed of
smoke, fire, or cloud. 135 This fulminant guise, in terms of
the appearance of the divine spirit, is similar in many
respects to the Jinn of Arabian and Islamic lore, considered
angelic or diabolic beings depending on spirit and context.

135. Book ofExodus, passim.

The nexus of this magical lore with an area possessing an
ancient history of fire offerings, and advanced traditions of
incense formulae should not surprise us.
More relevant to the operations of grimoiric conjuring,
is John Dee's Compendium Heptarchiae Mysticae of 1588, a
record of his angelic spirit summoning. The work contains
physical descriptions of some of the entities summoned,
several of which appear as amorphous wisps of vapor. One
of these is Princeps Bralges, who "to my seer appeared like
little smokes, with out any forme"; another group of spirits
were the 42 ministers of the spirit Bynepor, who were "like
ghostes or smokes without all forme having every one of
them a little glittering spark of fyre in the middest of them:
and every spark a letter in it."
We must also consider that in ecstatic rites the human
soul itself is frequently beheld as a vapor, as with the egress
of the souls of the night-walking benandanti in the form of
smoke, and the well-known passages of witches up
chimneys and through locks. 136
The votive, offertory aspect of the suffumigant as food for
the spirits, or a vehicle for conveying the numen of prayer
and adoration must also be considered as a portion of the
art. The notion that censing perfumes are irresistible to
spirituous entities permeates both religious and magical
usages of incense. In the European grimoire corpus, this
phenomenon is perhaps best illustrated in the grimoireylre
Almadel. Using a suffumigation of Mastic (Pistchia lentiscus)
the scribe remarks:

as soon as the angell smells it he beginneth to

speake with a low voice asking what your desire
is and why you have called the princes and
governors of his Altitude...

136. Ginzburg, Ecstasies, pp. 166.

 The documented appearance of spirits assuming the
forms of vapor or smoke is balanced by other grimoires
containing fanciful descriptions of the spirits invoked.
However, as is often the case in the magical art of scrying,
one value of the vapor cloud lies in its simultaneous opacity,
monochromatic hue, and fluidity of form, which under
precise ritual conditions could congeal or harden into a
fixed form before the eyes of the operator. This admixture
of physical virtues is essential for the ancient magical
disciplines of capnomancy and libanomancy (divination by
smoke) and aeromancy (divination by clouds). 137 The
inquisitor Pierre deLancre reported that one method by
which the Basque witches could travel to the Sabbath was
to emit through their mouths a certain thick steam in which they
see all that happens there, as if they are seeing in a mirror.13S
In medieval magic, air, and in particular vapors and
odors, were acknowledged carriers of power, for good or ill.
Agrippa was precise on the matter of good and bad odors
and their magical jurisdiction. Deferring to the "opinion of
magicians", he states:

In every good matter, as love, goodwill, and the

like, there must be a goodfume, odoriferous and
precious; and in every evil matter, as hatred,
anger, misery, and the like, there must be a
stinkingfume, that is of no worth.

The early corpus of Christian demonological literature

played also some part in this: the early church father Justin
Martyr, relates that demons oppress mankind partly with
magic, partly with fear and punishment, partly with the discipline

137. Agrippa: 'The like things reports Dion in his Roman History, in a place which
they call the Nymphs: where frankincense being cast into the flames, oracles were
revived concerning all those things which he did desire to know, especially
concerning death, and those things which belonged to marriages."
138. De Lancre, On the Inconstancy of Witches, p.113.
ofsacred odors burnt.139 Evil vapors, as well as good, could be
manufactured as well as naturally occurring. Felix
Hammerlin (1389-1460), a church authority at the Council
of Brasle, wrote in his Dialogus de Nobilitate et Rusticitate,
that women "boil in a pot foul and venomous herbs and
things, and then upon exposing it to the rays of the sun a
vapour arises to the second region of the air and condenses
into clouds which send down hail and tempests." Though
such descriptions may or may not be viewed as "witch-hunt
propaganda", it clearly reveals a complex cartography of
vapor belief, as well as notion of a prototypal grimoric
fumigant.
Considering these perceptions of the appearance of
spirits we see a cosmology in which air is not only
responsible for the transmission of evil and good, but also
for the generation of demons and angels: it is the very stuff
whereof they are composed. Thus is conveyed the notion
that the powers of these entities, as manifest through air,
are inherent in both material and action, force and form.
Angelic and demonic entities were also thought to be
formed of fire. Air and fire are both necessary in the action
of suffumigation: fire to ignite and transform the perfume,
air to distribute the smoke and nourish the flame. An
historical user of grimoiric magic whose cosmology
included these concepts would probably regard a suf-
fumigant as a material base allowing greater ease for the
manifestation of a spirit. This belief combined with
prolonged chanting, praying, and circumambulation, could
easily potentiate an incense comprised of psychoactive
plants and contribute to the sorcerous experience of
congress with spirits.
Standing within the fuming vortex of the magic circle
itself, it quickly becomes clear to the operator that all

139. Apologia ad AntoninumPium; c.A.D. 165.

diverse factors of suffumigation must coverge in alignment
for the efficacy of the operation. Prolonged incantation of
sacred or barbarous words, the obsessive focus upon
singular telesma or sigils, the nexus of Will, Desire and
Belief, and the restriction of certain senses and the
elevation of others, are of themselves often sufficient to
generate trance states. The perfumed aromatic, accessing a
favorable stratum of magical correspondence, builds and
multiplies a refractory ambience which is an extension of
the enchanted circle itself. The atmospheres thus generated
are then become receptive to a further key: chemical
psychoactivity. In greater or lesser amounts, this element
may serve to throw wide the gates where other factors have
merely cracked them, and as an additional armament of the
magician of the Poison Path.
 $
Eden's Body

One meets, along the path, the sorcerer who wears no

clothes, reads no book, and fashions no implements or
tools. In the places of desolation, he or she calls upon the
gods with the living blood and bones, and the somatic
permutations which cast the circle as the Living Round of
Flesh. This stance is in direct contrast to a strongly
materialist occultism: its audacity often offends the book-
learned, but the force of its appearance, conviction and
efficacy remains. When such adepts are asked about this
approach, one frequent response is that the Great Temple
lies within, and that all external objects are mere
encumbrances or distractions. For some it is an act of
humility before the spirit-world; for others a transgressive
state, overturning societal norms of modesty and property
ownership. Whether it be the night-frolicking revelers of
the medieval Witches' Sabbath, the ash-smeared Aghori, or
the Transylvanian maidens dancing nude before the
Mandragora, the unadorned sorcerer is a potent image of
power and communion with the spirits.
In obscure magical tributaries of witchcraft praxis, this
concept is known as the Edenic Body, the concept of 'the
Garden Within' —a state of primordial power, its bowers
bearing the strangest and most potent of fruits— before the
imposition of exterior 'garb'. It posits the body as an arena
of sorcerous power, a series of magically-attuned
instruments and zones of numen capable of generating
ecstasy, receiving occult knowledge, and performing
miracles. In such a conception the magical radiance of the
Body is sovereign, and self-contained, but it is also
permeable and penetrable by the Other, existing as a
potential for infinite magical power. Above all, it expresses
the Arcanum that, in order to manifest the work of the Art
Magical, power must be embodied. 140
The obsession with metaphysical Eden is not confined to
Jewish and Christian theologians; it has been the
preoccupation of occult and heretical groups since the story
was recorded in writing, and likely earlier. Metaphysical
extrapolations on the Green Primordium abound in such
Gnostic scriptures as Apocalypse of Adam, and non-canonical
gospels such as The Life ofAdam and Eve. Similar magical
books of alleged Edenic origin are extant, such as the
medieval kabbailstic text SeferRazielHaMalakh, said to have
been revealed to Adam by the angel Raziel. John Dee,
arguably one of the most important figures in western
magical traditions, during his spirit-discourse with the
angel Uriel, is taught the Edenic and pre-Adamitic origin
of a magical book in his possession, the Book ofSoyga.I41
In the teachings of Sabbatic Witchcraft, the Edenic
concept of the Primordial Body is closely linked with the
metaphysics of poison, chiefly as a dispensation of the rebel
angel Samael. However, instead of focusing upon this
transmission as the source of the 'Original Sin' or 'Fall' of
mankind, it is seen as the primordial Initiation, an Ascent
of the status of humanity or 'Raising' to an angelic or deific
state. Such a state is implied in the orthodox concept of
'Knowledge of Good and Evil', but within occult traditions,
'Knowledge' is often a cipher for hidden power, conveyed
of spirit to an elite body of initiates. In Traditional
Witchcraft, one may interpret such Knowledge as the
Power of Healing, and the Power of Harming, an ethos
which has been called 'Crooked Path Sorcery' because of its

140. The Arcanum of the Revealed Garden, being the occult powers of herbs in
witchcraft, was the subject of my book Viridarium Umbris: The Pleasure-Garden of
Shadow (Xoanon, 2005). The Arcanum of the Concealed Garden is the subject of a
separate volume.
141. Liber Primus, March 10,1582.
embrace of both zones. Additionally, the estate of'opening
the eyes' of Adam and Eve is considered cognate with the
attenuation of bodily centers to newly-ingressed witch-
power. The hypostasis of Adam in this all-realised state is
known in the Sabbatic Tradition as Malachadamas, 'Kingly
Man', also called the 'Trimorphic Attainer' who commands
his uncreated, present-plenary, and all-potential states. 142
The station bears certain similarities to the kabbalistic
concept of Adam Kadmon or 'Original Man'.
This transmission of power originates with Samael, the
transgressive Serpent-Angel and tempter offering poison
unto First Woman. Indeed, the Hebrew name Samael may
be translated "poison of G o d " or "venom of God". The
name is also ascribed a Syrian origin in Shemal (meaning
" L e f t " ) , the God of the Sabaeans sometimes identified as
the prince of demons or djinn. In some ancient esoteric
doctrines this angel incepted the growth of the very tree of
Eden's heart, for he 'Planted the Vine which caused Adam
to stray'. 143 In other kabbalistic lore, Samael forms a
conjugal union with Lilith, also a patroness of witches in
some traditions, and further linking him with a bodily —in
this case sexual— transmission of power. 144 The Serpent-
Angel remains, in some angelic hierarchies, a servant of the
High God; although he acts to seduce humankind or lead
them astray, the implication being that poison and deceit,
if not holy in themselves, at least operate under divine
authority. Whether the Fruit he proffered was itself poison,
or whether it became infected, the scriptures do not agree
upon; in some legends Samael 'injected' his venom into the
fruit of the Tree.

142. By gematric permutation, Malachadamas = 484, or 22 2 being the number of

copulative permutations of the 22 Sacred Letters of the Witches Alphabet.
Chumbley,Azoetia (1992,2002), and Schulke, Viridarium Umbris (2005). The arcana
of Malachadamas is treated in Chumbley's unpublished workAuraeon (2004).
143. I l l Baruch 4:8.
144. Treatise on the Left Emanation.
 The transmission of poison, first from angel unto tree,
thence unto Eve, then f r o m Eve unto Adam, conceals an
initiatic formula of the Poison Path: the principle of the
transmigration ofvenom, which accounts for the transfer and
evolution of destructive principles from one body to
another. Ibn Wahshiya's Book on Poisons describes the
production of a lethal compound beginning with the
confinement of a mouse and scorpion inside a brazen
vessel. After the creatures expire from mutual attack, the
corpse of the rodent serves as the base matter of the
developing venom, fermented in a leaden vessel with
spurge, 145 opopanax, mustard, aloe and saffron. This
principle also participates as an evolutionary strategy in the
botanical world, as in such plants as the semi-parasitic
Mistletoe, whose medicinal virtues result from the age of
the plant as well as the peculiar phytochemical symbiosis
shared with its host. Depending on the nature of its
therapeutic use, the most potent Mistletoe may be found
growing on Rowan, Apple, Oak, Hawthorn, or, indeed, and
of a number of other sylvan hosts. Though semi-parasitic in
nature, the mature mistletoe, when harvested for its
magico-pharmacological usage, is as much a radiance of its
wedded host as any singular virtue on its own.
Similarly, certain poisons, when distilled through the
Alembic of M a n and Woman, may be potentiated in the
humours of the body, and magically expressed therein.
These operations may take place on the gross chemical
level, as with the distillation of the Fly Agaric or Psilocybin
mushrooms, whose visionary compounds pass into the
urine, largely scrubbed of other poisons by the liver. Under
the precise physiological parameters of magico-sexual
operations, this potentiation may also occur with astral
poisons and nectars, which form the principal elixirs of the
Corporeal Laboratory. Knowledge of this permeability

145. Genus Euphorbia, known for its foetid, irritant latex-like sap.
between the phantasmal order (or the imaginal mind) and
the subtle alchemisms of the flesh has been the preserve of
Tantrics and certain occultists, but also, on vastly different
ontological levels, the witch-current. The matter has
engaged the fascination of a considerable number of
writers, but the process only assumes a living quality when
engaged with the highest levels of private devotion.
Zones of occult power residing in bodily centers have
been mapped extensively in the esoteric matrices of
mystical and magical systems, as with the Tantric chakras
of Hinduism and Bon. More recently occult cartography
has included the points chauds or 'hot points' of the Voudon
Gnosis system of Michael Bertiaux, which importantly
assign both power and sentience to these foci. 1 4 6
Traditional Witchcraft, especially the forms giving rise to
the Sabbatic Current, also contains a unique Cartography
of the Flesh. Some of these bodily zones of witch-power
possess hypercorporeal attributes which may be extended
into the magical realm, one term for this being 'Assumption
of the New Flesh'. Mysteries of these fleshly zones of power
have been re-presented in Andrew Chumbley's Azoetia, in
particular the organ of the Eye. 147 Certain oral teachings of
Traditional Witchcraft also appertain a kind ofArs Memoria
correlating magical powers to objects such as stones, trees,
animals, or physical loci. These imbedded teachings find
precise locations in the physical body and may be physically
manipulated to express their magical potentials.
An important stratum of witch-power animating the
Edenic Body is the incarnative perpetuity of atavistic
wisdom, the procession of spirit-knowledge comprising
and informing the present body. These dark reverberations
of power operate on the deepest ancestral levels, and, being
pre-human, are devoid of human morality and attribute.

147. Chumbley Azoetia, pp. 194-195. Also Schulke, Lux Haeresis for concepts and
methodologies for magical expansion of the senses.
Brought forth by specific forms of ritual trance-induction,
as well as the usage of plant poisons such as Atropa belladonna,
they assist in the resonance of specific divinatory vectors,
especially the non-vocal sensorial. When manifest in the
body, they may assume a concrescence in the blood or
sexual fluid, reminiscent of the mythic stone Dracontias,
torn from the brains of living serpents and revered by the
ancients. These 'philosophical stones' or material emanations,
like the bezoars of the Alchemists, effect certain cures, such
as healing poisonous wounds and served as protection
from venomous animals. In spell-craft they assume the
First Matter of the Living Fetish.
In the witch-cult, a traditional form of atavistic
resonance lies in the magical embodiment of the Serpent-
Angel Samael. Allied praxes venerate a preparation called
'The Serpent's Graal' — a draught prepared according to
two essential formulations. The Lunar Cup, being the
production of a sorcerous atavistic emanation, is vinted
from the sexual emission of Eve and the Serpent, and
prepared in accordance with the strictures of the Agapae. 148
The Solar cup makes use of Mandragora, the Mandrake or
'Man-Dragon' allied to the notion of the Embodied
Serpent. Other formulations are for the Assumption of the
Serpent Corpus are known; the Arcanum may manifest
along differing trajectories but all are united in the
Admonition of the Snake: Take, Eat, and Be Wise.
One of the primary routes of'magical embodiment' is the
use of the cultic fetish, the poppet or eidolon giving form to
the spirit or magistellus of the witch. The European alraun
traditions of sorcery using the carved root of Mandrake
(Mandragora spp.), a unique member of the Nightshade
grouping of plants sometimes called 'Hexing Herbs' is of
especial relevance to the Adept of the Poison Path. At the

148. The Serpent in its aspect of the Kundalini force is also relevant to this version.
center of the magical concerns of Mandrake effigy- spells
are enchantments for empowerment of the human body:
increased fertility, sexual vigour, and attracting a sexual
consort. The crudely anthropomorphic form of the root has
been advanced as the reason for this, as many of the
examples of Mandrake effigies have pronounced phalli or
vulvas. 149 However, certain preparations of the Mandrake,
especially in a fermented alcoholic form, behave as an
aphrodisiac in small doses, and have had this reputation
among cunning folk for centuries. More recently, scientific
research has identified withanolides and sterols present in
Mandragora ojficinarum, a species which has also amassed a
considerable amount of aphrodisiac lore. 150 Curiously,
many of the tabus surrounding the magical usage of
Mandrake fetishes demand a kind of marital, or consort
relationship between the fetish and the operator, in which
one pledges body and soul to the Root. Affirmation of the
Pact through adoration of the fetish brings power, but
neglect brings absolute ruin.
One of the largest and most diverse collections of
Mandrake fetishes presently resides in the Richel-
Eldermans collection in the Museum of Witchcraft in
Boscastle. Providing evidence for a continuation of archaic
traditional Mandrake sorcery into the twentieth century,
the collection was, until recently, the privately-held magical
cache of several obscure European magical orders. These
carved figures are often accompanied by a specialized coffin
for their interment and a number of the effigies appear to
have been regularly anointed with votive offerings of blood,
and likely sexual fluids as well. The effigies are accompanied
by a considerable corpus of written and graphical material
concerning Mandrake sorcery, much of it in magical

149. In some exemplars I have seen in private collections, the entire root is
ithyphallic, carved as an olisbos for ritual sexual penetration.
150. Suleiman, Rami K. et al. "New withanolides from Mandragora ojficinarum: first
report of withanolides from the Genus Mandragora", 2010.
cipher, and some highly sexualized. When considered in the
context of the Richel-Eldermans collection as a whole, with
its strong component of sexual sorcery, the function of the
effigies, or their accompanying practices, were likely eroto-
magical in nature. One image from the collection, showing
male and female Mandragora plants, not only hypostasizes
the plant into sexualized bodies but also suggests, by its
symbolism, a connubium of the male and female essences,
united by or within an object which appears to be a flask,
cauldron, or alchemical vessel (Fig 21). The 'embodied
magical' and 'sexual' arcanae of the Mandrake are
potentiated when one considers the lore of the plant's
genesis in the ejaculate of the gallows-corpse, a mystery
which is also represented graphically in the Richel
collection. This conjures to mind the Latin phrase Semen
profusam Diabolo dicant, "Dedicate the spilled semen to the
Devil" —a motto of the witch-cult concealing a specific
Eucharistic formula of magia sexualis.
Further, my own personal work with the Mandrake as a
prepared ritual sacrament has yielded a strict protocol of
prepration and administration which results in an ecstatic
profile that is highly somatic. Skilfully prepared, its phases
of action upon the bodily centers of power are at once
aphrodisiac and illuminant, stimulant and hypnotic. This
combination of mechanisms is difficult to attain with any
single plant, and, for that matter, in the realm of synthetics
or prescribed psychotropic medications. At once one receives
and transmits power through the agency of the body, both
modalties simultaneous to each other, and mutually pleas-
urable. However, this pathway of the sacrament is a narrow
one, restricted by strict protocols of traditional preparation
and administration, as well as accompanying magical tech-
nique. Falling short of the mark, the path may terminate in
stagnant lassitude or else descend into a nightmare of sen-
sorial abomination and narcosis.
 21. Womandrake and Mandrake in cipher manuscript, from the
Richel-Eldermans collection of magical artifacts.

The occult cartography of Eden's Body also posits that

'the internal garden' of the physical vessel may be magically
tended to produce a harvest of endogenous chemical
inebriants as the central work of the Adept. These are
attenuated and expressed through specific stimuli such as
pain, orgasm, karezza, and strategies of physical
exhilaration, exhaustion or quietus. Though properly
situated in the scientific realm of Biochemistry, these
'corporeal potions' have occult applications, and are of
specialized esoteric import to the Poison Path.
Sex-magical praxes for the expression of these corporeal
potions, conveyed to a secret body of adepts, are known in
many occult schools. The potency and magical potential of
these biochemical elixirs is great, but the notion of locating
a 'pantheon within' the flesh of the body has long been
heretical. In the Edenic prohibition "Ihou shalt not eat',
some have glimpsed a cipher for veiling the Mysteries from
the eyes of the profane, whilst others regard it as the 'fall' of
the Demiurge himself, conquered by the insecurity of an
initiated estate in his own creations. One often-made
criticism of modern drug prohibition is that it is driven by
fear of gnostic revelation or knowledge arising from bodily
ecstasy, and the consequent shattering of state or religion-
enforced paradigms. Though the phenomenon of drug
prohibition transects cultures and is far too complex to be
pinioned with a single motive, one must wonder if the same
fears lie at the root of state repressions of sexual freedom
and expression. The medieval conception of sexual fluid as
poison, an artifact of Christianity, is thrown into stark relief
when we consider its higher magical usages: the seed of
Man and Woman serves as the impressed tabula rasa or
magical altar, a bridge between astral and material.
Expressions of the corporeal powers referred to as the kalas
and ojas have been written of at length by Kenneth Grant. 1 ' 1
Biochemical principles underlying the mechanism of
pheromones are of relevance to our path, with particular
import to the philter or love-charm, and the herbal
disciplines of aromatherapy. Magical rites using such
adjunctive materials as incense, anointing oils, and
strewing, engage the subtle routes of the olfactory sense

i$i.Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God; Cults of the Shadow.

and play important roles in ritual atmospherics, and the
transdermal absortion of lipidic compounds. As expressed
by the body, such may reside in a complex of bodily
secretions including perspiration and sebum, the oil
expressed by the skin. This biochemical agency evokes the
philosophical relationships between love and poison;
allure, and glamour.
Hormones and steroids, whether calibrated internally
through magical technique, or the result of medical
therapeutic, may function as a euphoric or dysphoric
poison, the former linked with arousal and desire brought
to consummation, and the latter from unrequited arousal.
At overdose, physicality begins to eclipse both morality and
propriety, though an otherworldly dissociative state may
also result. This is borne out by a reflective 1998 entry from
Hypnotikon, after an overdose of intramuscular prednisone,
given by a medical doctor for a back injury direct at the
inflammation site:

The intersection between love and war, so holy

among the ancient gods, is borne out in the
glands, where the flesh is animated by a 'wordless
language'. Here, coitus and violence co-mingle in
every fashion, mocking and overturning mortal
law. Flesh must conjoin unto itself, for its own
glory, and by the extreme routes of the senses, or
be torn upon the hooks of Erishkigal. In the
arena of the steroidal-gnostic, either event is
most pleasing: it is the battlefield aspect of
fornication, also allied with all forms of hunting.

The somatic complex of catacholamines is associated

physiologically with high levels of stress, as well as negative
external stimuli; they can well be considered 'bodily
poisons' in the sense of generating a level of venefic harm.
In plants, this group of compounds is a precursor for
benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids, many of which are
currently being investigated as anticancer therapies.
Catecholamines also play a role in fear and fight or flight
response, which, as a component of magical initiatory
process, incepts certain patterns of thought, reasoning, and
perception. At such points of crisis, certain matters become
possible that were previously closed to all but miracle
workers.
These delights and devils, residing in the flesh, are of
especial import to operations of sexual magic. Oxytocin is
linked with arousal, and prolactin with post-orgasmic
euphoria, both states with complex compasses of individual
experience and unlimited potentials for magical power.
There is also some sexological evidence to support the
magical assertion that the higher operations of this art are
achieved in dyad rather than alone. Autosexual praxes
versus with a partner. Recent research has shown that
prolactin release following coital orgasm is increased by a
factor of 4 over masturbatory orgasm. 1 ' 2 The endo-
cannabinoids known as C B i and C B 2 , magically
corresponding with the plant drug Cannabis sativa are of
note as well, Recent research has shown that C B i receptors
play a complex role in investigative behavior, curiosity, and
response to novel situations. 1 ' 3 The endogenous can-
nabinoid anandamide, named for ananda, Sanskrit for
'bliss' and 'delight', also plays a role in this complex, as well
as pain and analgesia.
The pervasive nature of Astral Venoms, particular those
which generated deformity of the body, was also well
mapped in some ancient cultures; the attribution of
teratogenesis to good or evil gods was common, as
wereaccounts of star and planet auguries betokening the

152. Brody S, and KriigerTH. "The post-orgasmic prolactin increase following

intercourse is greater than following masturbation and suggests greater satiety."
153. Haring, et al. (2011). "Circuit Specific Functions of Cannabinoid C B i Receptor
in the Balance of Investigatory Drive and Exploration".
emergence of the monstrous. Indeed the birth of the
limbless, the two-headed and one-eyed, no doubt was
attended with a disturbing numen, and may have affirmed
the power of deities with monstrous attributes. Modern
science attributes many such deformities to environmental
exposure to environmental poison. Where deformities are
hereditary, such may have been explained in ancient times
as a curse upon a particular bloodline, its first emanation
from an evil god or witch. Yet, poison's aspect of the Other,
or the estate beyond the self, also is implied by the
monstrous, as noted by Martin Ruland in his Lexicon of
Alchemy.

Monsters are certain animals which have been

originated outside the order of nature, and which
heaven hatches in the egg of their putrefaction.
The fruit of an unlawful and accursed copulation.
They generate nothing in their turn, because they
were born from the copulation of diverse seeds,
as of a man and brute, or from empoisoned
parents. Thus the giants of old originated, and
other monstrous men, contrary to nature, whose
sight provokes horror and cursing.

Like the concept of poison itself, mutation may be

debilitating or empowering. In essence, it is an indication
of the living organism struggling to adapt and persist, even
if under duress of vestigial mutation, rather than perish.
Implicit, then, is an endemic order of self-perpetuation and
diversification. Mutation, foundational to both the theory
of evolution and the science of genetics, may thus be
regarded as a sacred precept of life, a strategy and
armament by which the procession of living bodies radiate
over aeons. Poison, as an agent for subtle or gross change,
must then adhere to the Paracelsian dicta of relative
toxicity. Paracelsus, both a physician and an alchemist,
defined the ens veneni or influence of poison as one of five
such natural emanations acting upon man, with particular
reference to its effects upon the gross body. 154 Here it exists
within nutriment as a both as an active force and as a
potential venom, a kind of malefic sperma with toxic
potentials.
Such horrors notwithstanding, I have often found that
the counterpoison to the sorcerer's 'dwelling in fierce
places' is a life of sustained emotional balance, driven by a
passion, or love, of the Art Magical itself as one's spiritual
consort. Aleister Crowley, himself no stranger to the use of
magical poisons, was precise about this:

The danger of ceremonial magick — the subtlest

and deepest danger — is this: that the magician
will naturally tend to invoke that partial being
which most strongly appeals to him, so that his
natural excess in that direction will be still
further exaggerated. Let him, before beginning
his Work, endeavour to map out his own being,
and arrange his invocations in such a way as to
redress the balance.155

The Master Therion's admonition of a personal

cartography as a necessary prerequisite to the Art Magical
locates the dictum firmly within the dominion of the
Magical Body, emphasizing a core Thelemic principle of
self-responsibility. The practice of taking stock of one's
aetheric body also resonates with the witchcraft Formula of
Opposition, one function of which is self-balance and astral
homeostasis as the proper vessel for the ingress of power.
This principle underlies is exemplified in a number of ritual
formulae, both published and secret, one of which is

154. Volumen Medicinae Paramirum, c. 1520.

155. Magick, 'I: The Principles of Ritual'. Note the numerological importance of
this section with specific regard to our concern.
156. Chumbley, Qutub.
called "The Rite of the Opposer'. 156 Such work is essential
for the study of magical poisons, and indeed, any magical
tradition which admits a complex cosmos inclusive of
destructive and mutating powers.
In the years of my work with these pathways I have often
encountered the pretender to the Art Magical, who, in
misunderstanding this principle, adopts the most obvious
and cliche exterior to announce his 'sinister nature' to the
world. When such would-be demonolaters approach me
and boast of tenebrous fantasies of satanic antinomianism,
I do not hesitate to recommend church attendance and
sincere acceptance of Christ as one's saviour. Such
statements may seem on their surface extreme, but they are
well grounded in history. The deeds of occult orders, even
the most sinister among them, simply cannot compete with
the morass of two millennia of murder, torture, moles-
tation and repression of the human spirit evident in the
Cultus Christi. Though Christianity contains a vast abyss of
these rank poisons, it also contains, in its higher Gnostic
forms, mystical antidotes for its own malediction, such as
Christ the Paracelete. 157 It is the Great Work of the Adept of
veneficium to perfectly reconcile the poison and antidote of
the path, whether that thorn-strewn road intersect with
religion or not.
It must also be understood that a misperception of the
nature of 'Other' frequently arises from the comfortable
confines of the Self, be it fantasy or delusion. Though the
sorcerer may, by Will and devotion, make himself
penetrable to 'otherness', he cannot control the nature of
that ravishment, for its power is indeed beyond him.
Rather, he can make of himself a Vessel of Transmutation,
bearing the powers of flexibility, discretion, cunning, and

156.Chumbley, Qutub.
157. Christos pardkletos, the Helper, the Soother, the Healer and Comforter. This
aspect of Jesus is known in some forms of Traditional Witchcraft and folk-magic
extant in the Cultus Sabbati.
adaptation, that the illusion of magical bipolarity be
broken. Should the basic premise of this be in question, I
invite the seeker to keep good company with soldiers,
doctors, nurses, and relief workers. Regular encounters
with death, disease, and warfare have a means of tempering
the soul, and a new relationship with the shadow is born,
one which ill tolerates pretension and fantasies. This is
dancing upon the point of the magical blade: the conscious
embodiment not only of poison, but also of antidote, the
venom and nectar of existence.
 The Devil's Chrism

From 1 9 9 4 to 1998, I participated in a closed group of

magical adepts whose sole aim was the magical exploration
and development of the so-called 'Witches' Flying
Ointment' for the incubation of ritual ecstasis. This salve,
sometimes referred to as 'Lifting Balm' or the Unguentum
Sabbati, occupies a fecund mythic stratum of the occult lore
of Old Europe; it has provided a speculative basis, based
largely in theories of ceremonial intoxication, attempting
to explain the flight of the witches. Fragmentary and
speculative formulae from historical sources include the
most potent plant poisons in the European pharmacopeia.
The ointment, by custom prepared or provided by the
Devil himself, assists the witch in her nocturnal flight to the
Sabbath. According to varied reports, the flight is
accompanied by otherworldly apparitions, and often
includes a series of ritual events corresponding to the
features of the Witches Sabbath. Visions encountered by
those under influence of the ointment include Ravens,
Owls, Bats and other nocturnal creatures; demons, desert
wastes, prisons and torments; as well as pleasure-gardens,
banquets, jewels, finery, and handsome young men and
women. 158
Interpreting traditional or alleged formulae from early
modern European sources, as well as extrapolating
historical fragmenta, a considerable number of recipes were
developed and tested during our investigation. The
approach was multi-tiered and applied vectors of the
magical, folkloric, and pharmacological, together with

158. There are also records indicating a belief that the Ointment could destroy crops
and interfere with harvests.
considerations of active folk-magical or traditional ecstatic
practices (sustained prayer, chanting, dance, scourging
etc.). In addition, we examined lesser-known medical
usages of ointments and plasters, to establish parallels and
precedents of salve traditions using therapeutic dosages of
poisonous plants. 159
The principal ingredients under investigation using
various ratios of formulation were Belladonna, Opium,
Aconite 160 , Poison Hemlock, Henbane, Poplar, Smallage
(cultivated and semi-wild celery), and Parsley. Additional
ingredients based on phylogenetic extrapolation were
Mandrake, Thornapple, Angel's Trumpet, Mugwort, and
Tobacco. Some of these latter plants were endemic to the
Americas, and consideration was also given to historical
usage of magical ointments by the Aztecs, as documented
by the Spanish. 161 Noting the dermal effects of ambergris,
castoreum, ginger, lavender, chamomile, and rose oil, these
too were occasionally included in some measure. Lipidic
bases used were beeswax, almond oil, and cocoa butter in
varying proportions, although certain animal fats such as
lanolin were also used when available. 162
Adoption of strict protocols of usage early on was critical
to our endeavour. Though detrimental effects due to
overdose of ointment usage did occur, the more harrowing

159. Such as Unguentum Belladonna, historically an official preparation of

pharmacy, made under strict laboratory conditions and used for topical pain relief.
It is still official in some parts of the world.
160. Two major sources of Monkshood were used: fresh and dried portions of the
Eurpoean Aconitum napellus, taken from my own garden, and Oil of Aconite made
from A columbianum, a species native to the Rocky Mountains. Some of the work
also incorporated prepared A carmichaeli known as Fu-Zhi in Traditional Chinese
medicine.
161. Fra. Diego Duran, Book of the Gods and Rites, 1576 et al. Formulations for these
unguents principally consist of venomous animals and the convulvulaceous plant
Turbina corymbosa.
162. The increasing availability of African Shea Butter (Vitellaria paradoxa) in the
United States during the 1990s led me to adopt it as a base parallel to these
operations, due to its superior properties.
cases of accidental poisoning took place early on,
duringpreparation of the ointment itself. In the most severe
instance, despite extreme precautions taken in handling, I
experienced Poison Hemlock intoxication which was both
dissociative and incapacitating. From my magical record of
the time:

From Hemlock we receive an Education that

strangulation, as a phenomenon, is not limited
to the region of the neck. The lungs, stomach,
muscles, and veins, all experience it and succumb
under the foetid influences of this plant. Indeed,
movement, thought, and even self-awareness
may also be strangulated... the common element
in all cases is slow physical constriction and
diminishment of function. Having been so
taught, it is unsurprising that our adepts
consistently dream of this plant's Genius as
ophidian.163

As a student of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda,

and allopathic herbalism, as well as horticultural botany,
my training had well emphasized responsible use of so-
called 'folk remedies' as well as given me training in
antidote. Beyond my own knowledge and abilities, I was
also privileged to work with a number of medical
professionals whose advice and talents assisted the
operations. Despite the dangers of researching plants of a
moribund and inhospitable nature, the work undertaken in
this arena served as a great mentor to my magical
disciplines, and a worthy grindstone to my herbalist's blade.
Oils, salves, and magical greases played a considerable
role in the earliest documented rites of sorcery as well as
religion. The ancient Hebrew predecessor to the apothecary
was the rokeach, or perfumer, literally "the one who mixes

163. Hypnotikon.
oil with herbs," such were known unto the Romans as
unguentarii. The association between maleficia and magical
ointments is also ancient, appearing in the first writings of
Sumerian cuneiform texts. Maqlu 1 , 1 0 5 - 1 6 includes the
exhortation '[the witches] washed me with dirty water, they
anointed me with a salve made of evil herbs.' 164
Magic balms and ointments have enjoyed use for a wide
range of magical purposes. The Leyden Papyrus contains
formulae for a considerable number of magical salves, many
for the purpose of seeing a god or goddess during
invocation; and others used for divination. Still others are
intended to provoke the lust of man or woman. A magical
ointment for seeing the Bark of Phre appears in the Leyden
Papyrus, containing such ingredients as ground lapis lazuli,
myrrh, "Great of Amen plant", blood of hoopoe, blood of
nightjar, goat's tear, "Footprint of Isis plant", and Ebony
wood. 165 Oleaginous preparations were also frequently
prescribed for anointing mirrors and other reflective
surfaces for scrying operations in which discarnate images
were captured in their surfaces. One such mirror, the
Mirror of Floron, is found in the 15th century Bavarian
Munich Handbook. It is constructed of gleaming steel and
smeared with "pure and bright balsam" prior to use. 166 A
similar usage seems to have been associated with with
Sadyngstone, abbot of Leicester, in 1440. 1 6 7 In the British
Isles, there are records of magical ointments for the eyes
compounded of four-leaved clovers. This balm enabled the
sorcerer to see into the land of the fairies, whilst watching

164. Bengt and Ankarloo, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Biblical and Pagan Societies,
p. 36.
165. Griffith and Thompson, The Leyden Papyrus, p. 81.
166. Kiekhefer, Richard. Forbidden Rites, pp. 104-105. Other references abound
through the work, such as olive oil used to anoint a mirror, p. 106. Balsam is also
used in old magical and herbal manuscripts to indicate oleoresins such as
Frankincense, the plant Lemon Balm {Melissa officinalis) or healing substances in
general.
167. Kiekhefer, Richard. Forbidden Rites, p. 100. Through such actions the abbot
allegedly sought, and discovered, a thief guilty of robbing the treasury.
148
the lands of humans disappear, a significant occurrence of
magical salve because of its reality transmutation despite
lack of'classical' Sabbath references. The famous medieval
manuscript Secrets of Albert us Magnus, includes the following
formula:

If thou wilt see that other men cannot, take of the

gall of a male Cat, and the fat of a Hen, and mix
them together, and anoint thy eyes, and thou
shalt see that others cannot see.168

Mallow (Malva spp.) ointments were traditionally used

to remove hexes from bewitched persons, as well as to
protect a person from the ravages of hot metal 169 , uses
which, given Mallow's demulcent medicinal properties,
have a sound pharmacological basis. In certain regions of
India, ointments containing lampblack are smeared on the
eyelids to protect against the Evil Eye, or to frighten away
noxious spirits. The diffusion of Eurpoean ointment-based
sorcery into the Americas often found a willing consort in
endemic magical practices and a poison-rich flora. In the
folk magic of Virginia, an ointment made from Foxglove
and Rattlesnake oil was prepared to rid the effects of being
blasted. 170
Considering the ointment from a pharmacological
perspective, the existence of an hallucinogenic or ecstasy-
generating salve is both possible and probable. As
practicing medical herbalists know, highly-concentrated
plant virtues in lipidic bases have a venerable history. In
Roman medicine, Pliny the Elder reports that Oil of
Henbane was made by steeping the plant in olive oil and
pressing. M'shihat popilion is an ointment mentioned in

168. From the chapter 'Marvels of the World'.

169. Skinner, Charles M. Myths and Legends ofFlowers, Trees Fruits and Plants, p. 168.
170. Davis, Hubert J. The Silver Bullet and Other American Witch Stories, p. 161.
Jewish alchemical texts, to which Raphael Patai appends
this footnote:

In modern Spanish, populeon is a popular

ointment prepared with pigs' butter, poppy
leaves, belladonna, and other things, and used as
a sedative. Its principal bases consist of the first
shoots of black poplar leaves. 171

Pharmacopeias of the 1 7 0 0 s and 1 8 0 0 s provide clear

instructions for making anodyne ointments from Atropa
belladonna. At the time of my early research into these
matters, use of a concentrated Oil of Aconite for a foot
injury led me to investigate greater levels of application
beyond analgesia; with edifying results. Where established
'safe' levels of medicines are calibrated for most human
physia, it is usually a short step from 'therapeutic' dose to
'overdose', though the latter can be quite variable, having
minor or severe symptoms.
The late medieval physician Johannes Hartlieb is credited
as providing the first written description of the witches'
flying ointment. 172 He speaks of the unguentum pharelis,
an ointment compounded of seven plants, blood of a bird
and animal fat. This was used to anoint chairs and other
objects upon which sorcerers would ride. 173
Six years before Hartlieb's description, another ointment
recipe associated with the Witches' Sabbath appeared in the
tractate Errores Gazariorum seu Illorum qui Scobam vel
Baculum Equitare Probantur, penned by an anonymous
inquisitor. Though it is not associated with night flight, the
salve contained toads, snakes, lizards, and spiders, mixed

171. Patai, Raphael, The Jewish Alchemists, p. 566.

172. This attribution is largely confined to the historical theatre of the European
witchcraft heresy. A better ancient prototype resides in Apuelius's The Golden Ass,
where Pamphile is transformed into a screech owl by aid of an ointment and
muttering charms.
173. The Book of All Forbidden Arts, c. 1455.
ISO
with "a diabolical mystery, a touch of which kills, either with
a sudden or lingering death". This ointment is situated
amidst one of the most noxious and scandalous
descriptions of the Sabbath, including repeated diabolic
uses of the intestines of children. 174 Describing the
ointment in a form which is closer to the modern
understanding of it, the Franciscan jurist Alonso de Castro
wrote:

There are certain oyles and oyntments with

which they anoynt themselves, which deprive
them of their right sense, making them
imagine they are transformed into birds or
beasts, deceiving not only themselves with this
error, but oftentimes the eyes of other, for the
devil and other enchanters so deceive our sight,
turning and transforming men into beasts to
the seeming of those which behold them,
though in truth it was nothing so, but the
sorcerers think themselves in their
imagination to be transposed. Sometimes they
anoynt themselves with other oyntments
whose operation maketh them think they are
like fowls and can fly into the air.175

This reference takes a skeptical approach to the witch's

power, portraying the ointment as an agent of delusion, a
stance functionally resembling that of the Natural
Magician. The passage is important as it documents the
Ointment as a known phenomenon, even as it is repudiated
as a mundane influence. The simultaneous admission of the
salve's existence, but dismissal of it as a delusory trick, is

174. Lea, Henry Charles. Materials Toward a History ofWitchcraft, 1:274.

175. Thompson, C.J.S Mysteries and Secrets ofMagic, p. 121.
reminiscent of the testimony of Chonradt Stoecklin, a
Bavarian horse-wrangler tried for witchcraft in the late
sixteenth century. During his trial, he denied use of the
ointment for nocturnal flight and "claimed that he needed
no artifice for his journey." 176
In his De la demonomanie des sorciers of 1580, the French
jurist Jean Bodin presented the following anecdote:

Paul Grillandi, who lived in 1537 relates that a

certain Sabine, living near Rome, was persuaded
by his wife to rub himself with a certain ointment
while she recited certain words, so that he might
attend a witches' Sabbat. He suddenly found
himself under a huge nut tree in Beneventum
with a large assemblage of witches carousing. He
did as they did until he called for some salt, which
is very repugnant to the devil... at the mention of
the sacred name, the whole assemblage vanished,
and he found himself lying naked 100 miles from
home. He had to beg his way back; and,
recognizing the impious character of the
proceedings, which his wife had concealed from
him, he accused her and she confessed and was
burnt, along with a number of her accomplices,
whom she pointed out.

Actual use of a mind-altering ointment in the context of

European witchcraft is controversial among historians.
Certain scholars of the history of European witch-
persecution have taken a skeptical or dismissive position
with regard to the existence or use of the Ointment 177 , whilst
other writers, mainly in the sphere of'entheogenic research'
treat it as a historical certainty 178 . Both positions, as well as

176. Behringer, Shaman of Oberstdorf, pp. 93-4.

177. See, for example, Briggs, Witches and Neighbours, p. 56; Henningsen, The Witches'
Advocate, p. 391.
178. Ratsch, Christian, Hexenmedizin.
others, tend to ignore evidence that suggests the
phenomenon was wider than both magic and
pharmacology, and more widely distributed through time
than the period of witch-persecutions.
What is certain is that, as has been shown, a large body of
lore exists concerning this ointment, in both the written
historical record and in the popular imagination. The
fascination it has exerted over practitioners of folk magic,
themselves the keepers of occult records and oral teachings,
has persisted for centuries. Rural magical practice
participates in its own body of lore and custom with an
investment of legitimacy equal to or greater than what
exists in the written record, a verbally transmitted 'cult of
ancestors' which, despite their status as 'ideas', act and
behave in the context of magical practice as informing
spirits. As such, custom and lore represent a complex
magical cipher which, when rooted in the flesh of the
initiate, offers private revelatory dimensions specific to the
individual path.
The relevant question may not concern actual historical
existence of a psychoactive ointment, but whether or not it
was used in the context of that popular magic coming under
the lens of the authorities as 'witchcraft'. Though most
modern research into the Sabbatic Ointment plumbs legal
and inquisitorial literature of the witchcraft persecutions,
its presence outside this context, such as abides in
collections of folklore or contemporary histories, indicates
that it was clearly an important topos present in European
magic. Folklore of Belorussia and the Ukraine relays that
naked witches flew up chimneys, naked and covered with
ointment, on broomsticks or pokers, and onward to a
Shabash on Bald Mountain near Kiev. The flight was aided
by an asperge of water boiled with ashes from the
midsummer fires, or an ointment made from Gentian. 179
In at least one case, an accused witch mentioned a magical
ointment provided by the Devil at the Sabbat, not for flying,
nor as an inversion of Christian ritual, but to heal the
wounds on the back of a celebrant recently whipped with
branches of thorn-bearing Crataegus.190

In the course of our experiments, formulations of the

salve differed, but method of application and ritual
procedures were similar, even as they evolved over time.
There was also present, in each case, the so-called 'Watchful
Companion', a participant not anointed or in an otherwise
compromised physical state. This feature of our work was
at my insistence, knowing the treacherous nature of
solanaceous alkaloids, but also for the benefit of dual
perspective on Anointing events. The resulting data collated
over many operations afforded a rich diversity of
perspectives from practitioners with widely varying
sensitivities and constitutions.
In addition to more 'traditional' formulations, salves
were also compounded of plants presenting lesser toxic
hazard. When tested, many provided edifying results. For
example, the role of aromatic features, not suspected before
the work began, was essential in forming 'Ground State
Calibration'. When a certain olfactory key, such as Atttar of
Rose or Oil of Rosemary, was provided before the anointing
proper, it could be used for a 'sensorial return' or
'grounding' at the appropriate time, much like a hypntoic
cue, and became a vaulable part of the procedures.

179. Ryan, W.F. The Bathhouse at Midnight: Magic in Russia, p. 80.

180. Henningsen, The Witches' Advocate, p. 155.
 In another instance, a lipidic sexual ointment consisting
of extracts of Mugwort and Wormwood was found
efficacious in assisting the trance state as well as vastly
expanded pansomatic tactile sensitivity. However, due to
its tendencies to stimulate uterine contraction, its use was
not engaged by pregnant women. A relevant entry from the
Hypnotikon:

Anointing Rite: 15 April, 1995 - as transcribed from

operants DH in the station of Master, and D in the
station of Mistress. Procedure: Sustained ablutions,
exorcism of three creatures 181 , LBRP 1 8 2 , Lunar
propitiations as usual to Diana and the nocturnal
company en masse, in their prayerful and sigil-based
forms. As discussed last meeting the Blessing of the
Oil was performed in the more fully developed form
— and called as the presiding angel of the rite.

Pattern of Anointing:

1. Soles of feet & between toes

2. Behind knees
3. Perineum & base of spine
4. Phallus / Kteis -external only
5. Belly
6. Elbow & juncture of forearm and upper arm
7. Neck
8. Behind ears & Temples
9. Forehead
10. Crown

181. The exorcism-triplicity of Fire, Water and Salt, as per Solomonic grimoire
formulae.
182. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, Crowley, Magick.
 Oil formulation: 'Deviant-i' so named because it is the
first to include non-traditional constituents, in this
case oleum essentia Artemisia183 and oil of hashish as
distilled and kindly provided for our purpose by G.
Application at each point on the body was a sustained
massage with slight pressure. Feelings of exhilaration
ensued within the first hour accompanied by slightly
blurred vision and increased tactile sensitivity. A
second anointing followed via Agapje184, during which
sensations of floating were reported with an onset of
intrusive coloured shapes and 'sparkles' in the vision.
Both floating sensation and visual effect persisted
(and increased) through orgasm and into refractory
phase, and into subsequent dream during sleep.
Despite the fact that both participants focused on the
tactile and visual sensations, the report of floating and
'being outside oneself remains crucial to our inquiry.
Sexual activity proceeded despite risk of overdose or
irritation via transvaginal / transpenile absorption; on
the contrary, these two participants reported only
pleasurable sensations.

Modern occultists and drug enthusiasts persist in the

assumption that the medieval and early modern European
witch applied the Unguent to the broomstick and anointed
the genitals by either prolonged ritual masturbation or
actual insertion, and thus 'rode the broom'. Beside the fact
that such assumptions are historically speculative and
oversimplify the situation with regard to actual magical
practice, this ignores the witches' broom as part of a much

183. Essential oil of Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris).

184. The sexual offering.
larger historical corpus of flying mounts of the night-
wandering Host, many of which are non-phallic. 185
Nonetheless, in the operations of which I speak, specific
routes of administration included the 'Secret Place',
precisely because of the perpetuation of the genital-
anointing myth. In the experiments, ritual anointing
included massage or rubefaction, with especial attention to
the feet, genitals, palms, neck, and scalp. The more intrepid
participants in the cabal used the highly toxic and
concentrated salves as sexual lubricants, an action which
violated ritual protocol and put their physical well-being at
risk. Results of these formulations via this route ranged
from mild stimulation to a partially dissociative somatic
ecstasy which mirrored in some respects the alleged
features of the witches' nocturnal flight. Though this route
of administration makes certain alkaloids more
physiologically bioavailable, it is also highly dangerous.
This evokes the related practice of 'keistering', whereby a
psychoactive drug is inserted anally or in some cases
vaginally, which has ancient antecedents. 186
It is also of interest to note that usage of our prepared
ointments in sexual or magico-sexual contexts gave rise to
unique instances of enhanced tactility. Whilst these
experiences in no way resembled flight, it would be fair to
report an expansion and elevation of the sensorium falling
under the general categories of a stimulant and exhilarant.
Given that this strata of salves employed Mugwort, their
energetic dispensation was reminiscent of reports of an
Aztec ointment made from a Mexican Wormwood species,
Artemisia mexicana, and listed as a "Remedy for Lassitude"

185. Ginzburg, Carlo. Ecstasies pp. 163-164. Included in this retinue of airborne
objects are scythes, benches, and bowls. The Abkhaz sorcerers flew through the sky
on uprooted trees, cart-wheels, oven shovels, and other objects. Similarly the
Circassian sorcerers were borne aloft upon fishing boats and animal carcasses,
pieces of which occasionally rained down as they flew.
186. DeSmet, Peter. Ritual Enemas and Snuffs in the Americas.
and rubbed into the soles of the feet. More intimately and
to the point, the Kama Sutra contains a number of magical
ointments, some of which feature the same poisonous
plants of the nightshade family associated with the
European witch-salve. One such preparation, employed to
bewitch a woman, anoints the linga with a mixture of
ground Thorn Apple seeds and honey. When the man goes
to her, she will be "caught in his power".
One obstacle in approaching the matter of the
Unguentum Sabbaticum arises in the common assumption
that psychoactivity is the function of a singular cause and
effect. To those who research the Ointment, especially from
the historical perspective of examining extant written
records, it quickly becomes apparent that we are accessing
the corpse of a magical tradition, and an incomplete one at
that. Names of plants differ, or are sometimes imprecise,
proportions vary (if given at all), and a number of
ingredients appear which the pharmacologically-inclined
tend to dismiss as "sympathetic magic".
In a presentation given on the subject in 2 0 0 7 , 1 asserted
that one of the greatest barriers to understanding the
witches' ointment is the occlusion generated by a purely
ethnopharmacological perspective. 187 The same is true in
consideration of anthropological or micro-historical
inquiry. These limited approaches become even more
unreliable considering the challenges presented by the
secret nature of magical practice and the toxicity of the
plants involved. Until the needful perspective of the magical
practitioner is considered and applied as a lens to the
matter, and from multiple angles, holistic comprehension
of the subject will be elusive. This added perspective
necessarily includes an adjunctive field of supportive
magical praxes, nuances of intent, lore and conceptions of

187. Ludlow Esoteric Conference, Shropshire, June 2007.

the supernatural, cultic symbolism, magical fetish objects,
and alternate, non-pharmacological routes of attaining
deep ritual trance. The importance of this latter
consideration is underscored in a statement by Eva Pocs,
whose career has focused on supernatural belief in early
modern Europe, including witchcraft:

The subject of flying ointment occasionally came

up in Hungarian interrogations; nonetheless, it
played no real role in precipitating trance. In our
trials, no evidence underpins the assumption of
some European research that witches, including
Hungarian witches, made journeys with the help
of drugs. Documents referring to altered states
of consciousness clearly talk about spontaneous
trance. References to flying ointment are
generally traceable only in responses given to
questions of the court, and even then principally
in confessions following torture. Flying
ointment appears in the narratives as a metaphor
for creating trance, in the context of flying with
wings - that is, "really" flying - or in the legendary
motif of turning into an animal.188

'Non-pharmacological' routes of spirit flight, many

involving ritual induction of trance, are also documented
contemporary with reports of ointment usage. A
particularly interesting example is reported from the
Charovnik, an old Russian book of spells no longer extant.
The text gave instructions on 'how to leave your body as if
as if dead and fly like an eagle or a hawk or a crow or a
magpie or an owl, or run like a panther, a savage beast, a
wild beast, a wolf or a bear, or fly like a serpent.' W.F. Ryan

187. Pocs, Eva. Between the Living and the Dead, p. 77.
notes that while most of the banned Russian magic-books
were of Byzantine origin, but the Charovnik has clear
Russian shamanistic features. 189
Co-factors present in consideration of ritual ointment
usage include the notoriously variable arenas o f ' s e t ' (the
estate of the individual) and 'setting' (the estate of the
immediate environment) first described and categorized by
Timothy Leary. However, because of the status of the
psychoactive unguent as imbedded within a magical
context, 'set' of necessity encompasses magical intent,
protocol and tabu, and attachment to outcome. Elements
of 'setting' include such adjunctive ritual techniques as
bathing the body to open pores of the skin, the better to
facilitate absorption; massage or rubefaction, for
increasing circulation; movement or sexual activity,
breathing exercises, withdrawal and isolation. Finally,
perhaps the greatest consideration of setting is the virtues
and character of the plants themselves, either singly, or as
a magically-bound troop fixed within an oily base.
This leads us to consider the nature of the so-called
'Hexing Herbs', and particuarly solanaceous intoxication.
One characteristic of tropane inebriation is a distortion of
time, not only in its perception by the user, but also shifts
in temporality itself as an embodied feature of the narcotic
Sabbat. The procession of Time, its acceleration,
deceleration, fragmentation, and defining effect upon the
visionary arena, is often as important as the interplay with
the spirits themselves. This bears obvious corollaries with
'Fairy Time' in Brythonic lore, wherein humans abducted
into the realm of Faerie attend a great feast in the
subterranean halls of Elphame, only to discover upon their
return to the world of men that many years have passed, as
with the legend of King Herla. In addition to the strong

189. Ryan,W.F. The Bathhouse at Midnight, p. 55

dissociative tendencies, this quality of nightshade
poisoning marks it as especially dangerous; for this reason
I have referred to the visionary tropanes in previous
writings as chronophagoi or 'time-eaters'. 190
Additionally, the perpetuity of effect, or an oscillating
tendency of emergence from, and sudden return to the
delirium, reveals in these plants the presence of an insidious
sentience transcending the parameters of chemistry. This
is dramatically illustrated by a tale recounted to me by a
fellow practitioner some years ago, who at the age of 1 2
consumed an excess of Datura stramonium seeds. After a
harrowing three days of navigating a wasteland filled with
walking corpses, he seemed at last to gain waking respite
near a sunny meadow, becoming aware of the sober
individuals who had been his caretakers during his break
with reality. His gaze shifted to a grassy swale, wherein he
glimpsed a flittering. Amid the reeds a watchful satyr stood,
observing him intently. Maintaining his gaze, the silen
slowly raised what appeared to be a police radio to his lips
and whispered into it:
"Affirmative. We have one who sees."191
During the years in which the ointment research took
place, I collected several first-hand reports of western
travellers in Indonesia who were drugged by thieves. This
occurred to such an extent, with such consistency of
symptoms, that it in a short time it became a known
phenomenon to be vigilant for among wayfarers. In all
cases I collected, of greater personal horror to the victim
than the crime itself was the state of waking catatonia
brought on by the drug, combined with fear, motor
paralysis, and monstrous hallucination, followed by
blackout. These adumbrations of the grotesque easily

190. Viridarium Umbris, 2005.

191. Many thanks to Robert Fitzgerald for permission of reference.
match tropane intoxication, and indeed in one case the
victim was told by a local that it was a known thieves' grift,
of which Datura was an ingredient. Tropane narcosis easily
conforms to the 1507 description of the witches ointment
by Alfonso Tostado, in his Super Genesis Commentaria:

there are women who we call maleficae in Spain

who say that with an ointment and certain
conjurations they are carried to distant places
where there are assemblies and enjoy all kinds of
pleasure. But this is an error, and has been found
by their falling into a stupor, insensible to blows
and fire, and on awaking in a few hours relating
where they have been and what they have seen
and done.

Tropane alkaloids have strong dissociative effects, as well

as a platform of other strong narcotic phenomena, which
can also lead to death. Whilst dosage is clearly a factor,
individual body chemistry and psychology are strongly
suspected as contributing to the degree of intoxication.
Tales such as I have relayed represent the testimonies of the
lucky, who were not only able to survive physically, but also
recover memories of it. Such accounts, their grotesquerie
notwithstanding, present an amalgam of the daimonic and
the projections of the mind. One the one hand, the settings
and language expressed are modern, but on the other, the
presence of satyri and kindred demonic forms participates
in the well-known solanaceous generation of
phantasmagoria, an essential component of the iconology
of European witchcraft. Yet such tales must also be
responsibly viewed against the greater backdrop of misuse
of the visionary tropanes, wherein loss of sanity, limbs, or
life has occurred. From my final 1998 entry on this subject
in the Hypnotikon:
I am present at the Assembly. All gathered there are
beautiful — each possesses a noble countenance. There is a
warmth present which seems not only related to
temperature but also to our mutual felicity. The room was
prepared simply, but increasingly acquires a rich and
densely-layered ambience, as a grand feasting-table laden
with every kind of food and drink. Macropsia is random
and extreme: candles burn in their assigned stations; at
times they suddenly flare much larger, like small bonfires,
then just as suddenly return to a small flickering. Each
visual part of the present experience is divided an infinite
number of times, recursive and returning upon itself. I am
disturbed to discover that each thing demands to be
experienced singly, to the exclusion of all others: a face, a
flame, an object lying in shadow. Singularfocus gives each
object sense of the extruded and apparitional. Attempts to
experience the integrated whole as a unity increasingly
cause violent discomfort and a disembodied floating
sensation. At such times, the beauty of each 'scattered
portion' becomes visually horrid. The idyll is punctured by
the apparition of large curved hooks, like great scythes or
claws, descending downward, tearing the scene before me
like stretched and painted hide. Behind it lies skeletal
rottenness and desolation, the death of color, bleak wastes
extending to a distant horizon, and an endless sensation of
falling. Loud winds rush violently into the chasm,
attempting to extract all remnants of theformerly pleasant
tableau into its distant extremities. A certainty dawns on
me that a terminus has been reached: there will be no
return, only an ever-increasing velocity Beyond.
 Glossary
aeromancy: divination by clouds.

alchemism: magical process which, although not classical

alchemy, nonetheless retains its central feature of
transmutation of one essence to another.

alraun: magical fetish made from the root of Mandragora.

Arena of Power: a concept arising from Sabbatic Witchcraft,

but applicable to all schools of magic and mysticism, de-
scribing the universe of the sorcerer as an infinitely dynamic
source of initiatic consciousness and numen.

Astral Poison: a poison which afflicts, corrupts or destroys

the .spirit.

atavism: shade of pre-incarnate existences, summoned

using magical formulae or appearing unbidden as an in-
trusion.

azotic: of or pertaining to Nitrogen, its chymical sentience,

and its compounds. Nitrogenous compounds are often
concurrent with psychoactivity, as with the alkaloids, though
there are a few rare non-nitrogenous exemplars.

corporeal laboratory: a magical model of the human body

used for magical transmutation.

Crooked Path: division of magic describing a unified ethos

of blessing and cursing, or right and left-hand paths of
164
magic, present in a number of systems of sorcery
throughout history, but most notably in the magic and lore
of the witch-mythos. Masked in the glyph of the Serpent,
its wending nature betwixt all points of universal power
precipitates initiatic consciousness. The classic texts of
Crooked Path Gnosis are Qutub, or the Point (Xoanon-
Fulgur 1995, and Tbe Dragon Book of Essex 1997-8, privately
published), both by Andrew D. Chumbley.

crow's bread: ritual plant poisons used to secure mystical

or visionary experience. The name originates in Essex
Traditional Witchcraft and can also apply to the mushroom
Psilocybe semilanceata, and, less frequently, other plants such
asAtropa belladonna.

distillation: the work of separating and potentiating the

virtues of a substance by way of controlled heat and
condensation.

Edenic Body: the 'Corporeal Garden' of endogenous

poisons and psychoactives, and their magical potentials.

emetic: an agent which causes vomiting.

graal: grail, magical cup, or its contents. ^

hexenrauch (witches' smoke): in German witch-lore, a

witchcraft suffumigant.

hypercapnia: condition of C O 2 intoxication whereby

there is too great a quantity of carbon dioxide in the blood.

L D - 5 0 : in older schools of toxicology, 'lethal dose 50%' or

median lethal dose; the amount of a substance to kill 50%
of the test population (now obsolete).

maleficia: magic operations for the purpose of harm.

Contrasted to beneficia.
mithridate: a universal specifick against poisons.

mumia: in Paracelsian alchemy, the liquor derived from

distillation of the human body, in particular one which has
died a sudden death, and thus 'harvested' whilst still alive
and healthy. In Sabbatic Witchcraft, mumia refers to
human bones, blood, flesh, as well as sexual fluids, as used
in the Magical Art, and also the power or essence residing
therein, cognate in some sense with the Yoruban ashe, or
Pacific Islander mana.

narco-aesthesis: induction of a mystico-ecstatic state via

the ritual use of drugs.

Narcotic Sabbat: the medieval witches Sabbat as specula-

tively arising from the usage of psychoactive plant, animal,
and mineral substances.

New Flesh: mystical concept present in Sabbatic

Witchcraft relating to magical augmentation of the Self,
drawing upon ecstatic ritual, atavistic power, and the
sorcerous formulation of Will, Desire, and Belief. Its
magical attainment shares certain characteristics of the
general magical purview of'shape changing'.

Opposer: spiritual agency of inversion and opposition,

agency which in some forms of English folk magic, cognate
with devil.

'other': powers, knowledge and experience alien to Self;

the shadow consciousness or Abyssal Self.

philtron: in the love-magic of ancient Greece, a love-

potion. Depending on context, pbiltra may also denote
love-spells.

phytognosis: magical knowledge gained via the agency of

plant powers.
rubefaction: ("reddening") rubbing or scourging of the
skin to increase blood circulation. In certain schools of
Alchemy, the name given to the final phase of the work.

Sabbath: From the Sumerian sabat-tu, 'Day of the Heart's

Rest', it is the primal ritual patterning of the Gnosis of the
Witch is the Rite of the Sabbath, known also by the names
of Covenant, Convocation, and the Great Congress. Often
regarded as a degraded relic of archaic Babylonian high
magic, or as a fantasist construct of the Christian pogroms
against heresy, it has passed through both these aeonic
phases intact, and subsumed what is necessary for its
continuance. Its magical recension in the present era is
Sabbatic Witchcraft.

Sabbatic Witchcraft: a modern corpus of orally-

transmitted ritual magic techniques, spells, lore, and
concepts ultimately deriving from the medieval witches'
sabbath. The name was coined by Andrew Chumbley to
describe the tradition of Buckinghamshire-Essex Craft into
which he had been inducted, previously nameless, but
which now refers to itself as Cultus Sabbati.

saturika: in the ancient Greek pharmacopeia, a

designation used to indicate erection-producing drugs.

Sexual Poison: a sexual emanant, whether astral or fluidic,

which has been subjected to the Formulae of Opposition
such that its life-giving virtue has become apostate unto
itself.

solanaceae: plant family of toxicological interest including

tropane-bearing species such as Belladonna and Mandrake.

strewing: the ritual act of casting fragrant botanical

materials in the ritual area, often as a sacramental offering
or serving the function of consecration. The area thus
strewn may be a ritual boundary, as in the magician's magic
circle, a votive area or shrine, or a pathway to be trodden,
often barefoot. Traditional strewing plants thus used are
lavender, chamomile, and rose, but any fragrant plant, or
combination thereof, may be employed.

suffumigation: magical incense, especially in the literary

context of the European grimoire; also perfumes.

theriac: an agent which prevents poisoning, often taken as

a tonic or cumulative.

thrombolytic: an agent for dissolving blood clots.

titration: in medicine, the modification of dosage by

gradual increase or decrease for optimum pharmacological
effect.

tonick: an agent which gradually strengthens over time

with regular use.

transmigration of poison: concept of the movement of

poison from one body to another, and its accompanying
evolution.

Transmutation of Poison: Operations of magic whereby

poison becomes nectar within the Vessel of the Practitioner.
In Crooked Path Sorcery, this operation is a form of'Self-
Overcoming' or destruction and reformation of self as a
dual manifestation of the Path and the Secret Initiator.

Tubal-Cain: According to some, the first alchemist; ac-

cording to the Bible, the 'instructor of every artifice of brass
and iron' and a decendant of Cain. Historically, he has
come to a role of prominence in a number of concealed
lodges of Traditional Witchcraft.

Verdelet: 'Green Master' of a witches' covine, responsible

for teaching and stewardship of herb-lore.
Vinum Sabbati: the mythic wine of the Witches' Sabbath,
according some legends posessing magical or intoxicating
properties.

Witches Supper: feature of the medieval Witches' Sabbath

portrayed as ritual cannibalism, but interpreted by some
as ritual use of psychoactive sacraments.

Witching Cup: a magical component of some forms of

Traditional Witchcraft wherein a ritual draught is admin-
istered. The formula of the draught may be psychoactive,
either of plant, mineral, or animal origin, including human.
In some traditions this may take the form of a 'Mock Com-
munion' or blasphemed Christian Sacrament; such may
also include the "Wine of the Sabbath' (Vinum Sabbati) of
the Sabbatic Current.

Vinum Sabbati: The Lapis Lamiis or [Philosopher's] Stone

of the Witch. It is emblematized as "The Wine of the
Sabbath', but it may take the form not only of a vintage but
also as transmissions of power and a spirit-emanant of the
flesh.

wort: a plant, particularly a medicinal herb that is not a

tree. Alternatively, wort may refer to the cooking brew of
malt, water, hops, and other herbs that, after being cooled
and fermented, becomes beer.
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This first edition of
VENEFICIUM was
printed on St John's
Eve, 2 0 1 2 . It is
strictly limited to
1250 copies in black
cloth and 81 signed
copies in quarter
emerald snakeskin
and black shantung.

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