On 16 Oct 2003 02:20:40 -0700, Bill Sloman, said...
All of which makes sense, but has little connection with with
fantasies about what witches might have smeared on their broomsticks,
and why.
i brought up witches and belladonna in response to "magic cap".
i brought up the above to clarify where i got the info. ever do a
search? lots of interesting synopses/descriptions turn up, some of which
i just can't help but read, especially when it comes down to the kind of
stuff you don't learn in history class.
Medical practitioners of the early enlightenment - 17th century,
roughly - from time to time wrote down what they put into their pills,
potions and salves and sometimes also wrote down what they thought
each ingredient did, so we have some idea of what they used, and why
they thought each one was useful.
Witch persecution fell out of favour at around that time, largely
because it was realised that persecuting witches was effectively
nothing more than a profitable business for the persecutors, who had
worked out a technique for framing elderly women as witches which
produced an adequately convincing public spectacle.
not much different from the man created concept of pergatory, which was
used to sell indulgences.
The documents about the practice of witchcraft, which were tortured
out of the victims of this perculiarly unpleasant confidence trick,
give some insight into the prejudices of the persecutors, but are not
otherwise to be relied on.
there are other things in recorded history that may be unreliable, also.
some of it's believable enough. if i were a witch... it's like johnny
dare from the eagle (?) radio station in KCMO said in response to
someone talking about a man's feminine side. he said, "If I had a
feminine side, I'd be sticking my fingers in it."
i can bvelieve this belladonna thing, though. read Carlos Casteneda's
series on Don Juan, the Yaqui Indian sorcerer. psychotropic plants
*were* part of the picture. as for Wiccans, damned if i know what all
they do.
anyway... IMHO, those who persecute others rarely know jack about those
they persecute, are sometimes not much better humans, and therefore are
the more vile of the two.
brs,
mike