Witchy ways
In the Dark Ages, when witches were thought to ride across the sky on broomsticks, someone who was broke or sad or lovesick often sought help from these mystic sisters. What did the conjurers prescribe? Plants. Basil for riches. Nettles for jealousy. Artemisia for strength. A bundle of elecampane hung in the kitchen defused anger. Thyme boosted one’s courage. Garlic offered protection.
Herbs and flowers, fruits and trees--in knowing hands they could change your life forever. Of course, this wasn’t always good. As English gardener Dorothy Jacob wrote in her 1965 book, “A Witch’s Guide to Gardening,” “Pick but a flower, you flush a hobgoblin.” For her countrymen living in the 8th and 9th centuries, spirits were as real as haystacks. People believed, Jacob wrote, that if they pulled up bryony, it would scream, and if they sniffed marjoram, it might yank off their noses. Enchanter’s nightshade spread its roots among “moldering bones and decayed coffins.” Bad-smelling plants belonged to the devil. A child swatted with a willow branch would stop growing. One who picked a mandrake root quickly died.
The earth teemed with plants that caused blindness, barrenness or insanity, and a smart witch (usually female) knew them all. She also knew what would counteract them: gentle plants such as angelica, betony and dill. These and more, good and bad, she would grow herself.
With hope and fear, people patronized witches, who were as savvy as early medical practitioners about plants, and maybe more about human nature. They cast spells for fertility, concocted love potions and conceived charms that would vanquish someone’s rival or steal his wife. So pervasive was their influence that doctors added anti-witching herbs to their prescriptions, in case a patient fell afoul of the darker arts.
But as time passed, the tide turned against witches. Plants such as clover (a symbol of the Holy Trinity) were used to find and unmask them. Laws were passed forbidding witchcraft, and in 1484 Pope Innocent VII decreed that sorcerers must be executed. Thousands were burned at the stake or otherwise dispatched, and Christian holidays replaced days of pagan rites.
In some cases, attempts to bury the magic didn’t work. Halloween, which in the old Celtic calendar was “Old Year’s Night,” the night of witches, was recast by Christians as the eve of All Saints’ Day. On this occasion, the dark ladies and their familiars ride again, and we get to watch.
In preparation for the experience, sniff hyssop (to protect against the Evil Eye), chew endive (for invisibility) and sip rosemary tea (in remembrance of bygone times). If you leave your house, put yellow flowers in the windows and rub your kitchen floor with rue. These will send any wandering witches packing.
