The Witch's Garden

By Harold A. Hansen

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0913300470
• ISBN13: 9780913300473
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: Unity Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Danish Scholar's Take on Witchcraft

I found this book referenced in the article "If Witches No Longer Fly: Todays Pagans and the Solanaceous Plants" by Chas Clifton. Hansen documents the history from Roman times to the 20th century of a select number of herbs associated with the flying ointment used topically in traditional witchcraft to (as I see it) initiate out-of-body experiences. He concludes with a discussion and list of ingredients commonly found in surviving records of the recipe for the ointment. He does not touch on the preparation or the quantities of the ingredients. There is an appendix entitled "The Witches' Brew in Macbeth" which talks about Shakespeare's knowledge of these plants and others. Awesome. The book is peppered with interesting illustrations from the early modern period, along with tangential literary and linguistic information (did you know that the Italian word for witch strega comes from the latin word for owl strix, apparenly because of the historical association of witches and shapeshifting?) This is not another fairy tale spell book; this is the work of a scholar and botanist. His illustrations are all documented, and his bibliography is so unusual (and mostly in other languages) you feel like you've been transported into a medieval alchemists workshop. This is a short book at 120 pages. He himself laments that he couldn't tackle other plants and related concoctions. I wish he had. It is dripping with information and intrigue.

This book was an intriguing account, however.....

This book outlines the plants which witches in Europe during the Middle Ages used in their flying ointments. The assumption is, that the main interest of witches in plants was their use in the flying ointment. There are six plants discussed, four from the nightshade (potato) family, and two others, which were known as deadly poisons. One of the author's intriguing ideas is that the Witch's Garden would not be an orderly arrangement of plants in one location, but instead would be disguised as a number of ostensibly wild plants growing in a number of areas. Compare this book with the essay by Michael Harner "Hallucinogens in European Witchcraft", in his book "Hallucinogens and Shamanism". There, Harner discounts the use of any other plants in the ointment besides the four from the nightshade family.