Plant of Sorceresses and Witches
Henbane (Hyoscyamus spp.) has a history more than 9,000 years old as a magical plant and intoxicating aphrodisiac. In the late Middle Ages, henbane seeds were strewn over glowing coals in the "immoral" bath houses, in order to heat up the erotic atmosphere.
The legendary henbane was well-known to ancient authors. It was one of the most famous medicines and among the most important magical plants of ancient times. The discovery of this nightshade herb (cf. hogweed) was attributed to the hero Hercules (Pliny 25.4). It has been suggested that it was the Homeric magical herb nepenthes. Henbane was a holy plant of the luminous sun god, Apollo. His soothsaying priests inhaled the fragrance of henbane (cf. incense) in order to give ecstatic counsel. The famous Thessalian witches prepared love potions from the herb.
Christians demonized the plant and called it devil's eye. In early modern Europe, henbane was used mainly in witchcraft and magic, especially with oracle prophets and love magic. This is how Lonicerus described it: "Old hags (witches) need this herb for magic, they say, because it makes them invulnerable." During times of witch persecution, henbane was often used as evidence that the indicted wise women were telling fortunes and dispensing aphrodisiacs: "The witches drank a henbane decoction and had dreams for which they were tortured and executed . It was also used for witches' ointments, while others used it to conjure spirits or influence the weather: During severe drought, a henbane stalk was immersed in a well and then sprinkled over the sizzling sand". In a Pomeranian witchcraft trial in 1538, "a witch confessed" that she had given a man henbane in order to make him "crazy" (= sexually aroused). In a case file of the Inquisition, "a witch admits" having sprinkled henbane between two lovers and uttering the following magic spell: "Here I sow wild seed, and the devil advised that for a long time they would hate and avoid each other, until these seeds do part". It was also believed that henbane smoke can make one invisible, and therefore the leaves are smoked through a pipe.
In the Celtic regions, the name belinuntia, "plant of the sun god Bel," was passed down. The name goes back to the Indo-European *bhelena* and supposedly originally meant "scopolia." In proto Germanic, bil seems to have meant "vision," "hallucination," or "magical power". There was a goddess (Asin) known as Bil; her name meant "moment" or "exhaustion". She is interpreted as an image in the moon or one of the moon phases. She was the "henbane fairy" or a "goddess of henbane" and also the goddess of rainbows: bilröst is the rainbow bridge that leads to Asgard. Bil was also the ancient word for "heaven's bridge". The Gauls poisoned spears with henbane. But the healing properties of the herb were cited in the earliest Anglo-Saxon medical books. Henbane was celebrated as a powerful beer seasoning. The Old Germans brewed their beer with added henbane (pilsener krut for pilsener beer), but this use was forbidden by the "Bavarian Beer Purity Law" of 1516, the first German drug law (Klotschenreuther 1978). Henbane was apparently one of the most important ritual plants of the Vikings. Hundreds of henbane seeds were found in Iron Age Viking graves. The grave of one woman from Fyrkat in Denmark became famous for an important burial object - a leather pouch filled with countless henbane seeds.
Ethnohistoric and Medicinal Use
The ancient use of henbane has been preserved in Cyprus and in North Africa, especially in Morocco and Egypt. There, henbane, often mixed with Spanish fly (Cantharides; Lytta versicatoria), is used to treat diseases of female sexual organs, but also as an analgesic, aphrodisiac, and intoxicant (mixed with hashish; cf. hemp). The Arabs liked flavoring their coffee with crushed henbane seeds .
An interesting recipe from the Egyptian Arsinoites (third century BCE) appeared on Greek papyrus, but it unfortunately did not have application instructions: "For the plaster, mix three parts white rubber, one part (copper-) oxide, half-part burned copper, the same amount of henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) as copper. These should be mixed smooth and dissolved in water, then applied" (cited by Hengstl et al. 1978, 2728).
The oldest ethnohistorical evidence for the Germanic use of henbane as a magical plant with erotic components can be found in the nine teenth book of the collection of Christian decrees (German Book of Atonement) of Bishop Buchard of Worms (died 1025.). In a confession question, the following ritual was described (with surprising detail): "Did you do what the wise women maintain? When they want rain and it doesn't come, they bring together many girls and choose one small virgin as an offering. They strip her and take her outside their settlement to a place where they can find Hyoscyamus, which is henbane. She pulls out the herb with the little finger of her right hand and ties the uprooted herb to the little toe of her right foot with any type of band. She then drags the plant behind her to the river, followed by the other girls, each of whom holds a wand in her hands. They dip the wands in the river and sprinkle the virgin with river water, in hopes of bringing rain through their magic. Then they drive the girl, naked and moving crab-like on her hands, back from the river to the settlement. If you do this or agree to do this... " ( recited by Hasenfratz 1992 , 87 ).
Henbane was associated with the Germanic weather and storm god, Donar. Romans associated it with their god Jupiter, whom they equated to the Germanic thunder god (cf. belemnites), and in Switzerland, one can still find the folkloric common name jupitersbon, "bean of Jupiter." The Germanic god of thunder was not averse to hard drinking among the gods. Therefore, strongly intoxicating bock beers were dedicated to him, and beer for the storm god was brewed with henbane. Because of the large demand for the rare henbane in Germany and northern Europe the Teutons had specially designed henbane gar dens that were considered holy acres; these were placed under the protection of Wodan/Odin, the father of the thunder god.
If any plant was an essential ingredient in witches' ointments, it was henbane (cf. Mar zell 1922, 168): "Henbane poison works rapidly, because it is absorbed through the skin. And there is something else. It works extraordinarily quickly and intensely through the mucus glands. Since the broomstick is rubbed with henbane, women and men are exposed to it while riding, and its effects are enormous. The effects are stronger and faster with women, because the mucous membranes of the anus and vagina come into contact with the broomstick during wild movements" (Hug 1993 140). For an aphrodisiacal smoking blend, there is a recipe made from henbane leaves, fly agaric skin, and hemp blossoms. The henbane (green henbane oil) found in pharmacies can be rubbed on the appropriate affected areas of skin or rheumatoid pain; it is also applied during an aphrodisiacal massage and as a lubricant. Hyoscyamus was also used in homeopathy for hysteria, nymphomania, broken heart, delirium tremens, persecution complex, neurosis, psychosis , and cramps. The homeopathic tincture contains at least 0.007 up to 0.01 percent of alkaloids, calculated as hyoscyamine.
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