Traditionally,
flying ointment was a hallucinogenic preparation of herbs
mixed with fat and applied to the skin in preparation for the witches'
sabbat. In the testimony of numerous witches, this ointment was prepared
in order to enable witches to "fly" to the sabbats; in reality, the sabbats
were products of the hallucinatory properties of ingredients such as henbane,
belladonna, and mandrake. (In many cases, users of flying ointments were
aware they were not truly flying, describing their attendance at sabbats
in 'spirit.')
In
most accounts, these preperations were applied to the skin; sometimes they
are described as being applied directly to the broomstick, which has led
to much speculation about the nature of the application of the product.
Today, there
are still many recipes for flying ointment used by modern witches. Some of these
contain inadvisable traditional ingredients; others are herbal substitues
created to enhance psychic abilities. Interestingly, many modern experimenters
describe experiences similar to those of the medieval witches.
In an account
given in the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, an ? century book of ceremonial
magic, the author describes his experiences with a flying unguent:
"At
Lintz I worked with a young woman, who one evening invited me to go with her,
assuring me that without any risk she would conduct me to a place where I greatly
desired to find myself. I allowed myself to be persuaded by her promises. She
then gave unto me an unguent, with which I rubbed the principal pulses of my
feet and hands; the which she did also; and at first it appeared to me that
I was flying in the air in the place which I wished, and which I had in no
way mentioned to her.
I pass over in silence and out of respect, that which I saw, which was admirable,
and appearing to myself to have remained there a long while, I felt as if I
were just awakening from a profound sleep, and I had great pain in my head
and deep melancholy. I turned round and saw that she was seated at my side.
She began to recount to me what she had seen, but that which I had seen was
entirely different. I was, however, much astonished, because it appeared to
me as if I had been really and corporeally in the place, and there in reality
to have seen that which had happened. However, I asked her one day to go alone
to that same place, and to bring me back news of a friend whom I knew for certain
was distant 200 leagues. She promised to do so in the space of an hour. She
rubbed herself with the same unguent, and I was very expectant to see her fly
away; but she fell to the ground and remained there about three hours as if
she were dead, so that I began to think that she really was dead. At last she
began to stir like a person who is waking, then she rose to an upright position,
and with much pleasure began to give me the account of her expedition, saying
that she had been in the place where my friend was, and all that he was doing;
the which was entirely contrary to his profession. Whence I concluded that
what she had just told me was a simple dream, and that this unguent was a causer
of a phantastic sleep; whereon she confessed to me that this unguent had been
given to her by the Devil. "
A fanciful depiction of witches preparing flying ointment
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