Another selection of images of witches on broomsticks, including what it describes as a ‘1565 print by Breughel’.
There’s also a better image of the Le Franc illustration here.
That is a much better image than I have, thank you. I’ll be uploading it to my online gallery tonight.
While I don’t deny that this is the story, I do wonder about the truth of the events. How hard is it to smear ointment on your vulva, or even in your vagina, with your fingers? No mess, no fuss, and a lot easier to explain away to the inquisitor.
I’ve used flying ointment*, and yeah, it feels like you’re flying (among other things). But there was also no need to put it on a mucus membrane - our inner arm skin worked just fine. In fact, while making it, one of us was stupid enough not to wear gloves, and she started tripping just from the quantity her skin absorbed while making the stuff.
My theory (supported by nothing more than a study of herbs, female anatomy and human relationships) is that two things got conflated here: broomsticks and dildos. Masturbation while tripping is fun, and I could see some woman deciding to rub one out while under the effects of a flying ointment. Or, different scenario, that fabled wise woman herbalist who was also the midwife and chief educator on women’s sexuality in the village, providing sexual advice to other women, and using a wooden model of a penis for education or providing dildos for self-satisfaction.
But a broomstick?! Kind of unwieldy, no? I suspect it was a shorter rod of similar diameter, like our dildos, which was called a broomstick, “translated” as broomstick, or broomstick was spoken of metaphorically either to children, lawyers or sensitive types who couldn’t quite grok a dildo. And that literal image of a broomstick - the kind used for sweeping floors - was substituted in art and story.
*Made from legal plants and essential oils. I don’t recommend it for home study, some of these plants can stop your breathing!
What, no one has mentioned the Russian witch Babba Yaga who went about in a motar and pestle and NOT on a broom? Yeah, I think there’s a pharmaceutical connection there…
I think part of the problem is people looking for just ONE explanation when in reality you had a lot of different groups generating different folklore. Sure, there are some common themes here, but I see no reason why witches in Britian couldn’t fly about bristles first and those in France bristles behind. Etc.
I read somewhere that the broomstick was a phallic symbol,but then isn’t everything?
I think there has developed a confusion (or conflation) between riding a broom (i.e. turning it into a horse and riding to the Sabbat on it) and flying, which they were also alleged to do. Matthew Hopkins, in his Discoverie Of Witches was smart enough to say, “He denyeth that confession which admitteth of any impossibility, viz. flying through the air or riding upon a broom”. Witches were also supposed to steal horses from the stable to ride to the Sabbat and return them exhausted, hence “hag-ridden”.
Just as anything that resembles a womans naughty bits is obviously a Gallic symbol.
If it’s legal as you say… link for research purposes?
I quote WhyNot:
She’s not kidding. I’m not an authority on flying ointments, but from what little I know they’re not something to screw around with lightly. Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s safe.
I can’t give you the recipe (religious thing), but think essential oils, think high in thujones, think traditional shamanic plants. There are lots of recipes out there on the internet that don’t contravene my personal vows, if you’re really interested. Ours wasn’t terribly unique, to be honest.
And yes, again, DON’T TRY IT UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING OR STUDY WITH SOMEONE WHO DOES!!! Legal, yes; entirely safe, no.
Ah yes, this sounds familiar. “It’s so damned dangerous that I can’t tell you the recipe I used safely; instead, I will direct you to try random recipes off the internet.” Heard it before, sure I’ll hear it again.
I wish I could remember where, but I’ve seen something to the effect that the “broomstick” actually had a dildo on the end which was disguised by broom straw between uses, or perhaps only in pictures, I forget.
When I was a kid I saw an alleged flying potion in a book on witchcraft. The ingredients I remember are human fat and hashish, although I sort of recall having to look up the plant and deciding hashish would do. I don’t think it was an old book, but it might not have been published in the U.S. I must have checked it out of the library on Drake kaserne (3rd Armored division HQ in Frankfurt, Germany, around 1968).
I’ve also forgotten the name of the movie that started that investigation. They probably shouldn’t have let me in.
I’m sorry, maybe I wasn’t clear. It’s not that I won’t share *because *it’s dangerous. I won’t share it AND it’s dangerous. I won’t share because I took a vow not to share the “secrets” that our group shared as a religious order. However, our “secret recipe” (which I may not share) is very, very similar to a dozen or more which are readily available on the internet, and I don’t mind telling you that much. You can readily google them, however I still urge caution when it comes to actually *using *them, as we used caution in using ours (for example, we had a sober RN in the room who monitored our vitals during the process.)
Do I think our “secret” is all that worth protecting? No, not really. And, as I said, it’s out there already. But simply because someone else somewhere along the line divulged it does not, in my estimation, absolve me of my promise not to divulge it.
Pesky ethics. 
To confirm what WhyNot said - witchcraft is still as secret society type thing. And if you blather about everything it’s not secret anymore, either.
There’s the whole initiation thing - my initiation was perfectly safe, but I promised not to discuss it with anyone who wasn’t actually present at the time. There are plenty of accounts in the books and on the Internet that cover everything that happened, and I’d refer you to them, but no, can’t discuss what actually occurred to me.
Flying ointment recipes are a dime a dozen. I doubt WhyNot’s is even particularly unusual or remarkable. They tend to be variation on a theme, so go look for what’s out there, the odds are good you’ll find something very close to the exact recipe she used.
That’s also the article where Cecil admits to trolling. 