Flying Ointment

Flying ointments are topical preparations, typically blended into a fat or beeswax base, used by practitioners of traditional witchcraft to induce trance, facilitate spirit flight, and enable access to the sabbath, the inner planes, or the spirit world. The practice has roots that are among the best-documented in the historical record of European witchcraft, and it continues in contemporary practice in both traditional and adapted forms.

The core concept is straightforward: certain plants, when absorbed through the skin, alter consciousness in ways that facilitate the experience of leaving the body, traveling through non-ordinary realms, and returning with information or experience. The historical versions of these ointments used highly toxic plants from the nightshade family, while contemporary practitioners increasingly work with safer formulas that rely on different but genuine visionary herbs.

The tradition of spirit flight itself is older and broader than the specific Western flying ointment formula. Related practices appear in Siberian shamanism, Nordic seidr, and various Indigenous traditions around the world. The European witch’s sabbath ointment represents one cultural expression of the universal human practice of intentional consciousness alteration for spiritual purposes.

History and origins

Written references to flying ointments appear in early modern European sources, particularly in demonological texts and trial records from the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries. The physician Johann Weyer, writing in 1563, described the ointments in skeptical but pharmacologically acute terms, noting that the plants involved were well known to produce hallucinations and the sensation of flight. The Italian physician Giambattista della Porta in his 1558 Magia Naturalis described ointments containing henbane, belladonna, and mandrake applied to the skin, with resulting visions of flight and fantastic journeys.

Anthropologist Michael Harner and later scholars including Éva Pócs and Emma Wilby analyzed the trial record and concluded that the sabbath experiences described by accused witches were consistent with genuine trance states, whether induced pharmacologically or through other techniques such as rhythmic movement, sleep deprivation, or intense meditation. The plants named, primarily members of the Solanaceae family, contain tropane alkaloids, scopolamine, atropine, and hyoscyamine, that are absorbed transdermally and produce vivid hallucinations, the sensation of weightlessness and flight, and encounters with spirit beings.

The fat base used in traditional ointments, typically described as rendered animal fat or lard, serves as an absorption vehicle. Lipid-soluble compounds in the nightshade alkaloids cross the skin barrier more readily when dissolved in fats.

In practice

Contemporary flying ointment practice divides along the lines of those who work with baneful plants and those who formulate safer alternatives.

Baneful ointments in the traditional manner are the province of experienced practitioners with serious botanical study behind them. Even non-ingested use of henbane, belladonna, or aconite carries real toxicity risk through transdermal absorption. This is not a beginner practice, and it is not covered in instruction form here. Practitioners who pursue this path do so through sustained study and usually through connection with teachers or communities that hold this work carefully.

Non-toxic formulas are accessible to any practitioner and can be genuinely effective. Mugwort is the central herb in most contemporary safe flying ointments, carrying strong associations with dreaming, psychic sight, and moon magic. Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) adds depth and bitter aromatic character. Poplar buds (Populus nigra) appear in historical records as a flying ointment ingredient and are not toxic; they carry a resinous, balsamic quality associated with the underworld in European tradition. Blue lotus (Nymphaea caerulea) adds a gentle visionary and relaxing note. Calamus root (Acorus calamus) has traditional associations with trance and altered states. These are combined in a beeswax and carrier oil base.

A method you can use

This method uses a non-toxic formula suitable for contemporary practitioners.

Ingredients: 30ml beeswax, 60ml jojoba or sweet almond oil, one tablespoon dried mugwort, one tablespoon dried wormwood, one teaspoon poplar bud resin or dried poplar buds, optional: a few drops of essential oil such as cypress, vetiver, or labdanum for additional depth.

1. Combine oil and dried herbs in a heat-safe jar or double boiler. Warm over very low heat (not boiling) for two to four hours, keeping the temperature below 70°C to preserve volatile compounds. Alternatively, place in a slow cooker on the lowest setting.
2. Strain the herbs through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer, pressing to extract all oil.
3. Return the infused oil to the double boiler. Add beeswax and warm gently until melted. Stir to combine.
4. Pour into a clean tin or dark glass jar. Allow to cool and solidify.
5. Store in a cool dark place. Use within six to twelve months.

To use: Apply a small amount to pulse points, the inner wrists, temples, and the back of the neck before lying down in a quiet, darkened space. Set a clear intention for your journey. Use drumming, drone music, or silence to deepen the trance. Keep a journal or recording device nearby to capture what you experience.

The practice is most effective when paired with developed meditation and trance skills. The ointment supports and deepens a capacity for non-ordinary consciousness that benefits from regular cultivation.

In myth and popular culture

The image of the witch flying through the night on a broomstick is one of the most recognizable in Western culture, and its origins lie directly in the early modern accounts of flying ointments. Demonological writers from the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries described accused witches rubbing themselves with ointments and being carried to the sabbath, either bodily or in spirit. These accounts generated the iconic image that persists in popular culture from Shakespeare’s witches in Macbeth to the Halloween costume staple. The broomstick itself may have entered the image as a tool for applying ointment to delicate skin areas; several early modern sources mention applying preparations to the body with implements including sticks.

The actual pharmacological basis of the phenomenon has been explored in literary and historical works, including Michael Crichton’s historical novel Timeline (1999) and in more rigorous form in Erika Bourguignon’s anthropological studies of trance and altered states. Journalist and author Michael Pollan addressed related questions about plant-altered consciousness in How to Change Your Mind (2018), though his focus was on psilocybin rather than tropane alkaloids.

In fantasy literature and role-playing games, the witch’s ointment appears as a recurring element. The flying ointment features in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, particularly through the character of Granny Weatherwax, in a form that is deliberately comic but draws on genuine folk magical categories. In historical fiction, authors including Deborah Harkness have incorporated the flying ointment tradition with varying degrees of historical accuracy.

Contemporary artists and writers in the traditional witchcraft community, including Daniel Schulke of the Cultus Sabbati, have written about flying ointments with serious attention to the traditional sources and the plants involved, reclaiming the practice from its sensationalized demonological framing.

Myths and facts

Flying ointments are one of the more mythologized topics in the history of witchcraft, and the gap between popular belief and documented practice is considerable.

• The popular assumption is that flying ointments caused hallucinations of physical flight through the air. The pharmacological reality is that tropane alkaloids from nightshade-family plants cause vivid alterations of consciousness including the sensation of floating or weightlessness, which were interpreted within a cultural framework that expected sabbath journeys. The body did not leave the room.
• Many people believe that all traditional flying ointment formulas were the same and always contained belladonna and henbane. Historical formulas vary considerably between sources and include a range of ingredients, some of which have no clear psychoactive properties. Standardization of the formula is a modern retrospective construct.
• Some contemporary practitioners assume that making and using a non-toxic flying ointment is a casual activity requiring no preparation. Trance induction is a significant altered state; appropriate preparation, a safe environment, and the ability to ground oneself after the experience are genuine requirements regardless of the formula’s toxicity.
• A persistent belief, repeated in some popular books, holds that the witches’ sabbath described in trial records was a physical gathering that actually took place. Scholarly consensus, based on extensive analysis of the trial record, supports the interpretation that the sabbath was an experience of altered consciousness, whether pharmacologically induced or otherwise, rather than a physical event.
• Not all historical flying ointment accounts involved toxic plants. Some sources describe ointments made from nightshade-family plants; others mention animal fat, soot, and plant materials with no pharmacological activity. The toxic formulas were emphasized by demonologists who had an interest in framing the practice as diabolical.