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Crazy bread—it was in the month of July that famine was at its worst

[In England around the year 1000 it was in the month of July – just before the harvest – that famine was at its worst. The previous year’s storage was gone and the coming year’s had yet to ripen. Weakened from hunger and already half stoned from eating fungus-infected rotting grain, people scavenged for anything to eat to bulk up what remained. This is when they ran the risk of picking psychoactive plants.]

“This hallucinogenic lift was accentuated by the hedgerow herbs and grains with which the dwindling stocks of conventional flour were amplified as the summer wore on. Poppies, hemp and darnel were scavenged, dried, and ground up to produce a medieval hash brownie known as “crazy bread.”

Lacey, Robert, and Danny Danziger. The Year 1000: What Life Was like at the Turn of the First Millennium: An Englishman’s World. 1999. Print.

We know about poppies and hemp. Wikipedia says about darnel:

‘Darnel can be infected by an endophytic fungus of the genus Neotyphodium, and the endophyte-produced, insecticidal loline alkaloids were first isolated from this plant. The French word for darnel is ivraie (from Latin ebriacus, intoxicated), which expresses the drunken nausea from eating the infected plant, which can be fatal. The French name echoes the scientific name, Latin temulentus “drunk.”‘

Pasted from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolium_temulentum>

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God cursed women, so suffer dammit

[God cursed women, so he objects to efforts to relieve their suffering. That’s the position of the author(s) below, and we don’t doubt that was the position of the patriarchy of the time, whatever God’s opinion might be. We thought compassion was godly. But the position of the patriarchy was more general – if God has gone to the trouble of inflicting suffering on His people, man or woman, then it is wrong to do anything to alleviate it.]

“When James Simpson proposed to relieve women’s labor pains with the newly discovered anesthetics, chloroform and ether, there was a great outcry from the clergy, who called it a sinful denial of God’s wishes. According to Scottish clergymen, to relieve labor pains would be “vitiating the primal curse against woman.” A New England minister wrote: “Chloroform is a decoy of Satan, apparently offering itself to bless women; but in the end it will harden society and rob God of the deep earnest cries which arise in time of trouble, for help.” With the usual half-concealed sadism of patriarchal morality, he was really saying that female screams of pain gave God pleasure, and men must see to it that God was not deprived of this. The matter was resolved when Queen Victoria allowed her doctor to give her chloroform during delivery of her eighth child, and publicly hailed the new pain-reliever as a great blessing. All at once the clergymen were silenced, in effect conceding to the Queen the right to overrule God.”
p. 665.

Pasted from <http://archive.org/stream/womansencycloped00walkrich/womansencycloped00walkrich_djvu.txt>

The woman’s encyclopedia of myths and secrets
by Walker, Barbara G. Published c1983

Pasted from <https://archive.org/details/womansencycloped00walkrich>

[We don’t have the original source for these quotes, so take them with a grain of salt. We found them quoted on the Internet, referencing Helen Ellerbe (whose book lacks original sources – a main criticism). Ellerbe quoted Walker who quoted Pearsall (Pearsall, Ronald. Night’s Black Angels) at which point we lost interest. The above is from Walker’s “The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.”

As anyone who tries to verify information on the Internet must soon find, a lot of stuff is lifted out of its context and quoted to suit the writer’s prejudice. Other quotes when traced just vanish into thin air, or are misattributed. We’re not disputing the information quoted here; we just get disturbed by the fact that we looked at a web page and three texts and still didn’t get to the original source.

Spoiled as we are in this day of easily-available online content, we wonder that people write books on subjects limiting themselves to other books on the same subject, never looking at the source materials. Of course they were writing pre-Internet, sitting at tables at their local libraries while the necessary source material was in collections overseas and it was their original perspective which justified the re-hash, but how could they or any subsequent reader know that they weren’t simply repeating errors?

Oh well, we don’t read Greek or Latin either, and it’s not like we have editors, so take what we say with a grain of salt too. Do your own research, and don’t get riled up because bigoted old men ganged up on women, supported by the same religious hatred that justified their hatred of Jews (their justifications were that Jews rejected and killed Jesus and women brought on the curse of God and ejection from the Garden of Eden). With clear reason, they hated each other too, united though they were in their comfortable, smug paternalism against everyone else. Okay, do get riled up. Europe “was” a war-like paternalistic society full of ignorance and fear and old men crawling over each other for power over others. It was no place for Christianity without compassion, and even if God and Satan approved, we don’t think Jesus would have. Can we blame Faust for trying another way?]

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John Dee was the original 007?

(We doubt it.)

[There is a story out there, from author Richard Deacon (Donald McCormick) who apparently was in the war with Ian Fleming, that James Bond’s “007” came from John Dee’s signature. We imagine we’ve seen such a letter with the notation, but now can’t find it. If we can’t find it, it’s not true. We haven’t seen Richard Deacon’s book either.

Since there’s so much misinformation out there, we’re not taking this stuff as credible. For now, John Dee wasn’t the original Bond. For that matter, his formal occupation as a “spy” is unsubstantiated and disputed.

From a book on James Bond by Philip Gardiner that draws from the Deacon book, and is repeated throughout the Internet:]

The Bond Code

The code 007 (a sacred numerological code) was that of the magician and occultist Dr. John Dee from the 16th century—the infamous mystic and spy of the realm for Queen Elizabeth.

The queen herself signed her letters to Dee as “M.”

Dee was thrown out of university for creating a flying machine—and Fleming wrote the alchemical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. We also know that he was reading a biography of Dee at the time of writing Casino Royale, the first Bond novel!

[And, from a footnote on the same page:]

According to the writer Donald McCormick (alias Richard Deacon), John Dee signed his memos “007,” or two eyes followed by the occult number 7, meaning he offered his physical sight and his occult sight—thus making Bond an occult agent. Ian Fleming worked with Donald McCormick in the secret service during the Second World War!

Pasted from: The Bond Code: The Dark World of Ian Fleming and James Bond:…. By Philip Gardiner.

[John Dee was tutor to Robert Dudley in his youth. Dudley was Elizabeth’s favourite and signed letters to her with two “eyes.” In Dee’s letters he (according to McCormick) signed with two “eyes” sheltered by a “7” – but we haven’t seen it (we think). While Dee may not have signed his letters so, the Queen’s boyfriend-in-waiting, Robert Dudley did sign his letters to her with two eyes:]

‘After the Armada the Earl was seen riding in splendour through London “as if he were a king”, and for the past few weeks he had usually dined with the Queen, a unique favour. On his way to Buxton in Derbyshire to take the baths, he died at Cornbury Park near Oxford on 4 September 1588. Leicester’s health had not been good for some time and historians have considered both malaria and stomach cancer as death causes. His death came unexpectedly, and only a week earlier he had said farewell to his Queen. Elizabeth was deeply affected and locked herself in her apartment for a few days until Lord Burghley had the door broken. Her nickname for Dudley had been “Eyes”, which was symbolised by the sign of ôô in their letters to each other. Elizabeth kept the letter he had sent her six days before his death in her bedside treasure box, endorsing it with “his last letter” on the outside. It was still there when she died 15 years later.’

Pasted from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dudley,_1st_Earl_of_Leicester#Armada_and_death>

[Dee was only 5 or 6 years older than Dudley. Apparently Elizabeth had her own pet names for her crew (Memoirs of the Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton). It’s fun to imagine them all having their own codes and having sleepovers and stuff, but we doubt it’s true about Dee, though it’s possible. But the Internet is notorious for taking one piece of misinformation from a single source and blithely copying it without anyone checking the facts. When the references all trace back to a single un-referenced source, it’s a good indication it’s false. Such is the Internet’s lust for easy “content.”]

[Hatton:]

‘These appointments, together with the valuable grants with which the Queen showered him during these early years, prompted rumours that he was her lover, a charge specifically made in 1584 by Mary, Queen of Scots. There was undoubtedly a close personal relationship, In correspondence, the Queen called him her “Lyddes”, and he is said to have referred to himself in at least one letter as her “sheep.”‘

Pasted from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hatton>

[And we attempt to conclude our assessment of the claim that Dee signed his letters to Elizabeth with “007” and that Fleming got 007 from Dee, with quotes from Wikipedia:]

….Wikipedia says:

Bond’s number—007—was assigned by Fleming in reference to one of British naval intelligence’s key achievements of World War I: the breaking of the German diplomatic code. One of the German documents cracked and read by the British was the Zimmermann Telegram, which was coded 0075, and which was one of the factors that led to the US entering the war.

Pasted from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond_(literary_character)>

…But Wikipedia also says:

Ian Fleming took James Bond’s code number, 007, from John Dee. Fleming was reading a memoir on the life of Dee during at the time he set off to write Casino Royale (1953).

Pasted from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dee>

So there. There doesn’t seem to be any actual evidence that Dee signed his letter as 007. Richard Deacon (Donald McCormick) may be relating the story correctly, and Fleming may be mistaken, or Deacon/McCormick got it wrong. We’ll leave it for the reader to determine. Let us know what you find out.

For more on the matter, also check out A Golden Storm: Attempting to Recreate the Context of John Dee and Edward Kelley’s Angelic Material (Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition No. 19, Vol. 2. Autumnal Equinox 2010) by Teresa Burns:

“Deacon’s biography seems the source of the persistent printed and Internet legend that John Dee signed his name “007.” Did Dee really sign his name this way? A painstaking search through many, many Dee signatures has convinced this writer that he did not. His real signature took many forms, but looks more like a whirlwind than a 007.”

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John Dee had an unwanted and unwarranted reputation as a wizard

[John Dee had an unwanted and unwarranted reputation as a wizard.]

“While scholars would systematically soil Dee’s memory over the coming centuries, he became an underground legend—the archetypal cartoon image we inherit of the “wizard,” wearing a pointy hat and robe and wielding a crystal ball, is a survival of folk images of Dee. The eminent historian Francis Yates suggests that Dee’s actions on the Continent and writings are responsible for the Rosicrucian occult revolution in Europe that formed the cradle of the Enlightenment and modern science—and that, in a sense, Dee tricked Europe into having a scientific revolution. The Enochian scholar Stephen Skinner suggests a secret tradition in British high society kept the angelic magic alive—and Dee’s papers in the British Library are well documented as the catalyzing information behind the 19th and 20th century occult revival.”

/ Jason Louv / 2 am Thu, Feb 19 2015

http://boingboing.net/2015/02/19/john-dee-was-the-real-life-mer.html

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In some minds John Dee is less of an historical

[In some minds John Dee is less of an historical figure than he should be. His “esoteric practices” affected his reputation and legacy. In our own times, we try to re-assesss and rehabilitate him by understanding his influence and his times.]

“Historiographically, Dee’s Protean interests have proved no easier to classify than his spectra of the mathematical arts. Dee’s esoteric pursuits were well known to his contemporary detractors, and continue to occupy the popular imagination today, yet the academy has struggled to reconcile his natural philosophical interests with those apparently antithetical to modern conceptions of science. In the absence of any single, outstanding contribution to support his inclusion in canonical histories of the Scientific Revolution, for much of the twentieth century Dee remained a marginal figure in broader histories of science.

His re-engineering as a hermetic magus in the 1960s and 70s offered a new narrative, in which Dee became the case study par excellence for the influence of Neoplatonic currents on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century developments in astronomy and natural philosophy.”

Jennifer M. Rampling, John Dee and the sciences: early modern networks of knowledge, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, Volume 43, Issue 3, September 2012, Pages 432-436, ISSN 0039-3681, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2011.12.001.

(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0039368111001129)

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John Dee and his similarity with (and difference from) Faust

[John Dee and his similarity with (and difference from) Faust]


John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought (2006).
Volume 193 of the series International Archives of the History of Ideas/Archives internationales d’histoire des idées pp 207-229
PARACELSUS, SCRYING, AND THE LINGUA ADAMICA
Contexts for John Dee’s Angel Magic
GYÖRGY E. SZÖNYI

Pasted from <http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F1-4020-4246-9_11>

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Nitric acid was known in alchemical days as aqua fortis….

[Nitric acid was known in alchemical days as aqua fortis. It could dissolve almost anything but gold, which in the last quote is referred to as “Sun” or (elsewhere) “Sol,” reflecting its astrological counterpart. First are some Wikipedia entries on aqua fortis:]

“In alchemy, aqua fortis (Latin for “strong water”) is nitric acid (HNO3). Being highly corrosive, the solution was used in alchemy for dissolving silver and most other metals with the notable exception of gold, which can be dissolved using aqua regia or “regal water”. Aqua fortis was prepared by mixing either sand, alum, or vitriol, or the last two together, with saltpeter, then distilling it by a hot fire. The gas collected from this condenses into aqua fortis. It was first described by alchemist Pseudo-Geber.

Aqua fortis was useful to refiners for parting or separating silver from gold and copper; to the workers in mosaic for staining and coloring their woods; to other artists for coloring of bone and ivory, which is done by tinging the items with copper or verdigris, then soaking in aqua fortis. Some also turn it into aqua regia, by dissolving in a quarter of its weight of sal ammoniac, and then use this to stain ivory and bone, of a fine purple color. Bookbinders also put it on leather, making fine marble covers for books. Diamond cutters used it to separate diamonds from metalline powders. It was also used in etching copper or brass plates. It was mixed with oil of vitriol and used to stain canes to appear like a tortoise shell by applying several coats while the cane is over hot coals. The canes were then given a gloss with a little soft wax and a dry cloth.”
Pasted from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_fortis>

[And…]

“The first mention of nitric acid is in Pseudo-Geber’s De Inventione Veritatis, wherein it is obtained by calcining a mixture of niter, alum and blue vitriol. It was again described by Albert the Great in the 13th century and by Ramon Lull, who prepared it by heating niter and clay and called it “eau forte” (aqua fortis).

Glauber devised a process to obtain it by distillate potassium nitrate with sulfuric acid. In 1776 Lavoisier showed that it contained oxygen, and in 1785 Henry Cavendish determined its precise composition and showed that it could be synthesized by passing a stream of electric sparks through moist air.”
Pasted from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitric_acid>

[Instructions for working with Nitric acid (aqua fortis):]

Treatise on Metallic Medicine by Joseph Du Chesne

Paris, 1641

“Reduce the Sun in Mercury and calcine it with common aqua fortis, extracting the water and pouring it back three times on the feces. To finish this work properly, put the feces in a crucible on live coal till they turn all red and do not smoke any longer. Then your gold is perfectly calcined or precipitated, and all you have to do is wash it several times with dew water. When this gold lime has been thus prepared, put it in a vessel and pour over it 4 times as much good brandy. Cohobate 7 times in B. M., the last time with a small ash-fire, after which your Sun, at the bottom, will be turned into as fine a liquid as the others, and even more subtle.”
Pasted from <http://rexresearch.com/duchesn/duchesne.htm#1>

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Constellations and zodiac signs, by Francesco Botticini

Northern constellations and zodiac signs, by Francesco Botticini in Matteo Palmieri's Città di Vita. 15th century.
Northern constellations and zodiac signs, by Francesco Botticini in Matteo Palmieri’s Città di Vita. 15th century.
From Wikipedia:

“Francesco di Giovanni Botticini (1446 – July 22, 1497) was an Italian Early Renaissance painter who studied under Cosimo Rosselli and Andrea del Verrocchio. He was born in Florence in 1446 and is mostly known for his painting “Assumption of the Virgin” in the National Gallery, London showing the angelic hierarchy.

He established a workshop after a brief period as Neri di Bicci’s assistant which became renowned for its decorative works, a few of which can be seen in the cloistered church of Empoli. His son Raffaello Botticini became his first assistant, and later successor at the helm of his father’s workshop. Some of Botticini’s works are said to be overshadowed by his Florentine contemporaries, such as Filippino Lippi and Botticelli, who often influenced Botticini’s works. He died in Florence.”

[The image is of a miniature by Francesco Botticini in Florentine humanist Matteo Palmieri’s heretical three-book poem, Città di Vita, written in the mid 15th century, but printed posthumously, in 1528 (after which his remains were dug up and removed from the church they were interred in).]

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Moses and the Burning Bush

[Thousands of years ago, watching the sheep, somewhere in or near the Sinai peninsula, Moses hears God calling out to Moses from a burning bush. God tells Moses to go and get the people of Israel out of Egypt and take them to the promised land. In trying to find a mundane explanation for this, and riveted by the mention of Acacia, which potentially possesses vividly psychoactive DMT, some have speculated that Moses got stoned and consequently saw God (or did God get stoned and see Moses?). Following is the actual passage from the Bible (Exodus 3:1….)]

Exodus 3:1-4:17. Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)

3 Now Moses fed the sheep of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Madian: and he drove the flock to the inner parts of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, Horeb.

2 And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire and was not burnt.

3 And Moses said: I will go and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

4 And when the Lord saw that he went forward to see, he called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said: Moses, Moses. And he answered: Here I am.

5 And he said: Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

6 And he said: I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face: for he durst not look at God.

7 And the Lord said to him: I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of the rigour of them that are over the works:

8 And knowing their sorrow, I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land into a good and spacious land, into a land that floweth with milk and honey, to the places of the Chanaanite, and Hethite, and Amorrhite, and Pherezite, and Hevite, and Jebusite.

9 For the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have seen their affliction, wherewith they are oppressed by the Egyptians.

10 But come, and I will send thee to Pharao, that thou mayst bring forth my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt.

11 And Moses said to God: Who am I that I should go to Pharao, and should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?

12 And he said to him: I will be with thee: and this thou shalt have for a sign, that I have sent thee: When thou shalt have brought my people out of Egypt, thou shalt offer sacrifice to God upon this mountain.

13 Moses said to God: Lo, I shall go to the children of Israel, and say to them: The God of your fathers hath sent me to you. If they should say to me: What is his name? what shall I say to them?

14 God said to Moses: I AM WHO AM. He said: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: HE WHO IS, hath sent me to you.

15 And God said again to Moses: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me to you: This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

16 Go, gather together the ancients of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared to me, saying: Visiting I have visited you: and I have seen all that hath befallen you in Egypt.

17 And I have said the word to bring you forth out of the affliction of Egypt, into the land of the Chanaanite, the Hethite, and the Amorrhite, and Pherezite, and Hevite, and Jebusite, to a land that floweth with milk and honey.

18 And they shall hear thy voice: and thou shalt go in, thou and the ancients of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and thou shalt say to him: The Lord God of the Hebrews hath called us: we will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, to sacrifice unto the Lord our God.

19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go, but by a mighty hand.

20 For I will stretch forth my hand and will strike Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst of them: after these he will let you go.

21 And I will give favour to this people, in the sight of the Egyptians: and when you go forth, you shall not depart empty:

22 But every woman shall ask of her neighbour, and of her that is in her house, vessels of silver and of gold, and raiment: and you shall put them on your sons and daughters, and shall spoil Egypt.

4 Moses answered and said: They will not believe me, nor hear my voice, but they will say: The Lord hath not appeared to thee.

2 Then he said to him: What is that thou holdest in thy hand? He answered: A rod.

3 And the Lord said: Cast it down upon the ground. He cast it down, and it was turned into a serpent: so that Moses fled from it.

4 And the Lord said: Put out thy hand and take it by the tail. He put forth his hand, and took hold of it, and it was turned into a rod.

5 That they may believe, saith he, that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared to thee.

6 And the Lord said again: Put thy hand into thy bosom. And when he had put it into his bosom, he brought it forth leprous as snow.

7 And he said: Put back thy hand into thy bosom. He put it back, and brought it out again, and it was like the other flesh.

8 If they will not believe thee, saith he, nor hear the voice of the former sign, they will believe the word of the latter sign.

9 But if they will not even believe these two signs, nor hear thy voice: take of the river water, and pour it out upon the dry land, and whatsoever thou drawest out of the river shall be turned into blood.

10 Moses said: I beseech thee, Lord. I am not eloquent from yesterday and the day before: and since thou hast spoken to thy servant, I have more impediment and slowness of tongue.

11 The Lord said to him: Who made man’s mouth? or who made the dumb and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? did not I?

12 Go therefore and I will be in thy mouth: and I will teach thee what thou shalt speak.

13 But he said: I beseech thee, Lord send whom thou wilt send.

14 The Lord being angry at Moses, said Aaron the Levite is thy brother, I know that he is eloquent: behold he cometh forth to meet thee, and seeing thee shall be glad at heart.

15 Speak to him, and put my words in his mouth: and I will be in thy mouth, and in his mouth, and will shew you what you must do.

16 He shall speak in thy stead to the people, and shall be thy mouth: but thou shalt be to him in those things that pertain to God.

17 And take this rod in thy hand, wherewith thou shalt do the signs.
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)

[Seeking “rational” and alternative explanations for events in the Bible can either support or discredit literal understandings of the Bible. It’s all part of trying to make sense of it – to challenge existing beliefs, and to reach new perspectives. Examining one’s faith is a consequence of seeking knowledge, with the ever-present danger that one will consequently lose that faith. Presumably that happened to Faust. Looking for evidence of drug use in the Bible is a phenomenon of our modern-day drug culture which – evolving out of a culture of prohibition and denial – realizes the potency of drug experiences, and imagines how it might have shaped a religion.]

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Flying ointment, also known as witches’ flying ointment, green ointment, magic salve and lycanthropic ointment

“Flying ointment, also known as witches’ flying ointment, green ointment, magic salve and lycanthropic ointment, is a hallucinogenic ointment said to be used by witches in the Early Modern period (first described by Alice Kyteler in 1324).”

Pasted from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_ointment>

[But did anybody really use this stuff? Or was is just fable? The ingredients sound plausible. We don’t suppose anybody thought they bodily flew to a witch’s sabbath (ie. returning with souvenirs) but entered into an intoxicated mental state, in which they communed, transformed, and visited. Perhaps we err in stressing the “flying” aspect?]

‘Decoctions of hallucinogenic plants such as henbane, belladonna, mandrake, datura, and other plants of the Solanaceae family were central to European witchcraft. All of these plants contain hallucinogenic alkaloids of the tropane family, including hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and atropine—the last of which is unusual in that it can be absorbed through the skin. These concoctions are described in the literature variously as brews, salves, ointments, philtres, oils, and unguents. Ointments were mainly applied by rubbing on the skin, especially in sensitive areas—underarms, the pubic region, the forehead, the mucous membranes of the vagina and anus, or on areas rubbed raw ahead of time. They were often first applied to a “vehicle” to be “ridden” (an object such as a broom, pitchfork, basket, or animal skin that was rubbed against sensitive skin). All of these concoctions were made and used for the purpose of giving the witch special abilities to commune with spirits, transform into animals (lycanthropy), gain love, harm enemies, experience euphoria and sexual pleasure, and—importantly—to “fly to the witches’ Sabbath”.’

Pasted from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_witchcraft#Hallucinogens_and_witchcraft>


Figure: Witches flying to the Sabbath


Also from Wikipedia:

‘The ointment contains a fatty base and various herbal extracts, usually including solanaceous herbs that contain the alkaloids atropine, hyoscyamine and scopolamine. The herbs’ essential oils are extracted when heated in the base. These oils are poisonous when ingested; when applied to the skin, the alkaloids are absorbed more slowly into the body. Typical ingredients in alleged recipes include hemlock (Conium spp.), deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), wolfsbane (Aconitum spp.), and henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), usually in a base of animal fat.

It was said that witches were able to fly to the Sabbath on their brooms with help of the ointment.”

[…]

“The interaction between belladonna and poppy was made use of in the so-called “twilight sleep” that was provided for women during childbirth beginning in the Edwardian era. Twilight sleep was a mixture of scopolamine, a belladonna alkaloid, and morphine, a Papaver alkaloid, that was injected and which furnished a combination of painkilling and amnesia for a woman in labor.

There is no definite indication of the proportions of solanaceous herbs vs. poppy used in flying ointments, and most historical recipes for flying ointment do not include poppy.’

Pasted from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_ointment>

Also….

“In the past, witches were believed to use a mixture of belladonna, opium poppy and other plants, typically poisonous (such as monkshood and poison hemlock), in flying ointment, which they applied to help them fly to gatherings with other witches. Carlo Ginzburg and others have argued that flying ointments were preparations meant to encourage hallucinatory dreaming; a possible explanation for the inclusion of belladonna and opium poppy in flying ointments concerns the known antagonism between tropane alkaloids of belladonna (to be specific, scopolamine) and opiate alkaloids in the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum (to be specific, morphine), which produces a dream-like waking state. This antagonism was known in folk medicine, discussed in eclectic (botanical) medicine formularies, and posited as the explanation of how flying ointments might have actually worked in contemporary writing on witchcraft. The antagonism between opiates and tropanes is the original basis of the twilight sleep that was provided to Queen Victoria to deaden pain as well as consciousness during childbirth, and that was later modified, and so isolated alkaloids were used instead of plant materials. The belladonna herb was also notable for its unpredictable effects from toxicity.”

Pasted from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna>