A Witch's Garden: Hemlock

Disclaimer

This is NOT a page about Wiccans or neo-pagans, and I do not advocate the belief that Wiccans are Satan-worshippers and/or baby-killers. I am well aware that they are not. This is a starting point for historical research into the great witch craze of 1100-1700 AD. And please, don't ask me for spells.

Hemlock

Part of the witches' brew in Macbeth, hemlock is an extremely poisonous cousin of parsley. The juice from hemlock's tiny white flowers was believed to be used to make men impotent (Lehane 111).

"The plant was an ingredient in many Witches' Ointments.... According to German folk tradition, the hemlock was home to a toad, which lived beneath it and sucked up its poisons. The hemlock was probably one of the magical plants used by the Old Germanic female soothsayers (seid). Unfortunately, however, little is known of this" (Rätsch 90).

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A Witch's Garden is copyright 1997-1998 to Shantell Powell.