A Witch's Garden: Ragwort

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.

Ragwort

Also known as "fairies' horse," ragwort, was sought after by Irish witches when taking their flights to the Sabbat. In Cornwall, witches were thought to often fly to the Castle Peak, a high rock south of the Logan stone. There, "many a man, and woman too, now quietly sleeping in the churchyard of St. Levan, would, had they the power, attest to have seen the witches flying into the Castle Peak on moonlight nights, mounted on the stems of the ragwort" (Thiselton-Dyer 60).

Ragwort was a plant considered so dear to faeries that abuse of it can bring retribution (Britannica Online - "Fairy"). In Ireland, faeries were thought to have galloped about on the blossoms at midnight (Miller - Ragwort).

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