An in-depth investigation of traditional European folk medicine and the healing arts of witches• Explores the outlawed "alternative" medicine of witches suppressed by the state and the Church and how these plants can be used today• Reveals that female shamanic medicine can be found in cultures all over the world• Illustrated with color and black-and-white art reproductions dating back to the 16th centuryWitch medicine is wild medicine. It does more than make one healthy, it creates lust and knowledge, ecstasy and mythological insight. In Witchcraft Medicine the authors take the reader on a journey that examines the women who mix the potions and become the healers; the legacy of Hecate; the demonization of nature's healing powers and sensuousness; the sorceress as shaman; and the plants associated with witches and devils. They explore important seasonal festivals and the plants associated with them, such as wolf's claw and calendula as herbs of the solstice and alder as an herb of the time of the dead--Samhain or Halloween. They also look at the history of forbidden medicine from the Inquisition to current drug laws, with an eye toward how the sacred plants of our forebears can be used once again.

Introduction: Is Witchcraft Medicine Good Medicine?WOLF-DIETER STORL1. The Wild Earth and Its Children The Power of the WildernessDivine Visitors to the Small Cultural IslandMidsummer's DreamThe August FestivalThe EquinoxThe Time of the Dead: Samhain, HalloweenRites of Initiation2. The Old Woman in the HedgerowThe ChimneyThe Wrath of VenusThe New Science3. The Witch As ShamanDevil Worship The Buck: The Divine DispenserThe World TreeThe Flight to the Holy MountainFlying OintmentSex and Fertility MagicWeather Magic4. Midwives: Fertility and BirthThe Way into ExistenceThe Children's Springs at Lolarka KundThe Time of BegettingPregnancyBirthThe Hebe-Ahnin and the Men's ChildbedAfter the Birth5. The Mother of DeathFlowers for the DeadThe Festival of the DeadThe Dead and the VegetationThe Dead As Dispensers of FertilityCHRISTIAN RÄTSCH6. Witchcraft Medicine: the Legacy of HecateGardens of the Gods and Herbs of the Witches The Garden of the Great GoddessThe Garden of HecateThe Garden of MedeaThe Garden of CirceThe Garden of ArtemisFlying Ointments and Lovers' Salves As MedicinePharmakon WineCLAUDIA MÜLLER-EBELING7. Images of Witches: The Demonization of Nature's Healing Powers The Image of the WitchMary: The Chaste Cultural HeroineThe Witch: The Sensuous Natural Woman The Demonization of Nature and SensualitySinister Companions of the WitchPoison Mixers and HealersThe Demonization of Medicinal and Poisonous PlantsThe Healing of the Microcosm and MacrocosmRübezahl: Herbalist and Weather GodSeeress and Goddess of FateFrom the Goddess to the WitchThe Witch As the Temptation of Saint AnthonySaturn: Master of the WitchesThe Painters of WitchesCHRISTIAN RÄTSCH8. Witchcraft Medicine: Forbidden Medicine-From the Inquisition to the Drug LawsCoca and CocainePoppy and OpiumMescaline and Psilocybin: The Forbidden Souls of the GodsAyahuasca: The Conquest Is Not OverThe "Drug" BusinessNews Update: Hemp Seeds Outlawed!Appendix: Plants Associated with Witches and DevilsBibliographyIndex