david hobbs
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FlyingCan I ask where the idea of Witches flying came from.
You always see a witch depicted atop a broomstick. Where did this idea come from?
Also I seem to have heard of something called flying ointment. What is that and is it to do with the concept of witches flying?
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Raymond
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Re: Flying | david hobbs wrote: | | Can I ask where the idea of Witches flying came from. |
As if you didn't know Mr. Hobbs. 
One story tells us that our pagan ancestors had a delightful ceremony where people of the village would take to the fields in summer and spend the day jumping up and down with pitchforks, broomsticks and other 'pole' shaped objects between their legs.
It was all good fun and no doubt ended up in a jolly nice picnic and too much ale being consumed.
It's not so hard to work out why this went on when you remember the people of that time were quite into, what we now call 'sympathetic magick', that means, if you want something to happen you have to show it how to happen. It's believed that the people doing the leaping and jumping were showing the crops how high to grow, it makes sense really - if you believe in sympathetic magick.
The early church, seeing all this leaping about and good times being had by all, frowned heavily on all this merry-making, especially as it wasn't going on in the name of Christ.
Back then the church would have said or done almost anything to debunk the Old Religion in the minds of the simple folk.
They claimed many of their clergy had witnessed these people actually leaping to great heights and some were even said to be 'flying'. This surely is the work of the devil. Men and Women actually flying cannot be a godly thing. So it was deemed 'evil' and became yet another innocent pagan bit of merry-making outlawed by the church.
The idea of Witches actually flying about on broomsticks comes to us from the Burning Times.
People accussed of witchery were subjected to the most incredible forms of torture to confess their crimes.
It's hardly surprising to know that people would have confessed to practically anything just to make the torure stop. I'm sure to many of them the death that they knew was coming would have been quite welcome.
During this time many 'confessions' came out of the Witches actually 'flying' to meet with other Witches at their Sabbats. Again, surely this is proof that the devil's hand is at work.
In reality the truth is probably more mundane. The Witches of old did actually make a 'flying ointment' out of various herbs, resins and fat, and recipies for this ointment have actually survived to this day (below) and we can see from the list of ingredients why the old girls believed they might be flying - they probably were, but not in the literal sense.
Baby fat or Goose fat was the base fat of choice and added to it varying amounts were:
Hemlock
Mandrake
Parsley
Monkshood
Cinquefoil
Datura
Foxglove
Henbane
Water Lilies
Poplar Leaves
Wild Celery
Deadly Nightshade
Soot
Bat's blood
Sweet Flag
Poppy
Toad excrement
Smallage
It really is no wonder they thought they flew!
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david hobbs
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I think they must have sold the stuff on street corners.
Forget ecstasy, this stuff would certainly make any party go with a bang.
Thinking of that I suppose that when people were really poor they would get drugs from nature.
Magic mushrooms etc
Is there nothing new under the sun.
I wonder what other long forgotten hallucinogenics the shamans of old made and used in this country?
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Raymond
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It's also been noticed that the flying ointment, whe rubbed in the skin, warms up and makes the skin feel warm. Maybe they used it also to keep warm while out in the cold? Who knows?
There are many herbs and plants native to Britain that can be used to, shall we say, 'promote a journey into the otherworld'. The old shamans and cunning men, I'm sure, knew just how much to use without killing themselves.
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Hunter
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Yeah, but they could also use their knowledge to kill too !
It hadn't occured to me Raymond that the jumping the broomstick ceremony (a fertility rite) could have been perverted to flying witches !
By the way a french term for being under the use of drugs is "planer".
This also means to glide !!
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Raymond
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| Hunter wrote: | | Yeah, but they could also use their knowledge to kill too ! |
Of course, and I'm sure they did. You won't get any 'dressing up' with me. The preferred fat used in the making of the flying ointment was that of an un-baptised chilld. Now, whether that was fact or just more church propaganda we will never know, but let's make no bones here, the Witches of the past weren't the airy-fairy, new age breed we see today.
There's a ceremony that's part of the handfasting (marriage) ritual called 'jumping the besom' where the newly-weds hold hands and literally jump over a broom.
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beantighe
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Remember the Brenda Lee song 'Let's Jump the Broomstick'? In the old days, country people often didn't bother with a priest. They would conduct their own 'handfasting' and would jump the broomstick as part of their wedding ritual, to symbolise passing from one state to another (as in from single to married.) True, the broomstick was an obvious fertility symbol, and witches of old used to carve a phallus on the end of the stick, which was then hidden inside the brush. It became the origin of the saying 'living over the brush', to denote people who considered themselves married, but who had dispensed with the services of a priest. The handfasting itself, in which the couple's hands were tied together with coloured cord or ribbon, originated the phrase 'to tie the knot'. Tying hands together was to remind the couple of the importance of co-operation, and to show the fact that they were now united as one, two halves of the same whole.
My hubby and I had a handfasting after our legal wedding just over 4 years ago.
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Raymond
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oooooooh! Are there pictures???
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beantighe
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Unfortunately not the sort you can put on the computer. This here idiot (me) went all through my hen night with my best mate, happily snapping away, and then on the wedding day too, and it was only when I asked another old mucker to take a pic, he said, Here, there's no film in this camera! I said, You're joking! So he opened it up and showed me!  So everyone had a whip round afterwards and sent us copies of pics they'd taken, and my eldest daughter made us up an album for our wedding present.
I've got a couple that John scanned and uploaded (is that the right term?) but I don't know how to post them. I know, I know, I'm absolutely useless when it comes to computers!
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Raymond
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Do you know how to email pictures? If so, email them to me and I'll upload them for you.
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beantighe
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No, sorry, I don't even know how to do that!
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Raymond
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Ok, let's do this step by step.
Are your photos in the 'My Pictures' file of your computer?
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beantighe
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Yes, but there's only a couple so far. I'll have to get John to try and upload some more when he gets time.
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Raymond
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Ok, when you click on 'post reply' to respond to a thread, at the bottom left hand corner of the black box where you type your post you'll see the words 'Attach File' in blue.
When you click on 'Attach File' it will bring up a box in the top left corner of your screen.
Click on 'Browse' and then you will see all the pictures you have stored on your computer.
Select the picture you want by clicking on it. Then click 'Open', then click 'Upload File'.
Then continue typing your post as normal.
Write these instructions down while you're doing it so you can remember as you go along.
I'm not being patronsing Beany but I'm also a bit wobbly with computers but honestly, once you do it once it's as easy as anything.
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beantighe
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Thanks Raymond, that's very helpful! And you're not being patronising at all - I wouldn't have taken it as such. Off to try it now!
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beantighe
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Hooray!!! It worked! Here's another one: (sorry I haven't any more - yet!)
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Raymond
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There you go! And by the way, you look lovely.
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evergreen
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oh my gosh you look so happy... I LOVE it :)
and Raymond I think I now can put photos on too THANKS !!!!
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beantighe
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Thank you!  I made my outfit myself, including the cloak.
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evergreen
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you are very talented my dear.... the colour is just totally stunning.. you look so at home in it
when I married gawd many years ago now I wore a blood red lace dress... I gave it away a few years back sick of carrying around old memories :)
white is SO overrated
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beantighe
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I hate wearing white anyway - it always makes me feel as if I'm wearing a shroud!
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Raymond
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| evergreen wrote: | | Raymond I think I now can put photos on too THANKS !!!! |
All this helping people business,.. I think I'm going to have to have a lie down in a darkend room.
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david hobbs
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| Raymond wrote: | | evergreen wrote: | | Raymond I think I now can put photos on too THANKS !!!! |
All this helping people business,.. I think I'm going to have to have a lie down in a darkened room. |
Yes you are a bit negative and in need of further development.
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Raymond
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BOOM BOOM!!!
Leave the jokes to me Hobbs.
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david hobbs
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| Raymond wrote: | BOOM BOOM!!!
Leave the jokes to me Hobbs. |
Oh come on that WAS a good one , and no doubt written in your note book by now to be produced at the appropriate time.
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