The Sabbath: The Visionary Midnight Feast
The Dark Carnival of the Inquisitors
Much of our modern image of the Sabbath was constructed by the inquisitors of the 15th century. To justify their prosecutions, they created a “Black Template”: accounts of witches worshipping goat-headed deities (such as Baphomet), sacrificing infants, and engaging in chaotic orgies. These were “Social Mirror Images”—the exact inverse of Christian morality designed to prove the absolute evil of the “heretic.”
The Flying Ointment: The Science of the Trance
Why was it said that “Witches fly”? Modern research into folklore and pharmacology offers a potent answer. The “Wise Women” of the villages were masters of herbalism. They crafted ‘Flying Ointments’ by mixing fats with powerful hallucinogenic plants— Belladonna, Henbane, and Mandrake .
These plants contain tropane alkaloids (atropine and scopolamine), which are lethal if swallowed but can be absorbed through the skin or mucous membranes. When applied to the body—sometimes via the handle of a tool like a broom—these ointments induce a profound trance state. A primary symptom of this drug trip is a sensation of floating or rapid flight . The witch never left her bed; she flew through the night in a “Spirit Journey,” crossing into the astral world while her body remained in the material.
The Distortion of the Fertility Gods
Beneath the layer of devil-worship, historians find the remnants of un-Christianized Paganism . The “Horned God” of the Sabbath was not originally Satan, but a survival of ancient deities like the Celtic Cernunnos or the Greek Pan —gods of fertility, the wild, and the vital force of nature. As the Church consolidated power, these symbols of life were re-branded as “The Devil,” and the ancient festivals of the earth were demonized into the “Sabbath.”
Memory of the Midnight
The Sabbath was perhaps not a literal gathering of devil-worshippers, but a “Spiritual Liberation” for oppressed people. Through the power of plants and the memory of old gods, they sought to transcend their harsh daily lives if only for a few hours of hallucinatory freedom. Their prayers, whispered into the smoke of the midnight fire, still echo in the deep silence of the forest.