Yes, it’s the grounding that comes first. We walk barefoot, sink deep into our pelvis’s, breath in and sigh in relief. We eat after ritual and laugh and cackle, so that our soft bodies stay connected to the big body of Earth. We eat the roots from the plant we grew from seeds. Wonky carrots like little mandrake man. The pockets of our coats rattle with rocks, conkers and keys and other things we picked up from the ground. On quiet nights we take muddy walks to whisper words to standing rocks. We drink the tea and do all the bodywork and the drumming and the dancing. That’s what witches do.

 

But everybody knows that witches fly too.

 

 

Come come come to the sabbath

The idea of witches flying through the sky to gather for nocturnal outdoor gatherings is alluring in many ways. This concept was fed by many different factors through the ages. There are influences from old visionary practices that might have carved the first pathways in our brains and souls for being ‘high as a kite’ for ritual purposes. Later, the witch craze needed some true shocking and evil propaganda to support their cause. The witch hunt was in need of strong imagery and artists like Bruegel, Albrecht Durer and Hans Baldung Grien (student of the latter) contributed to the symbolism we still often use today when depicting witches. Suspected witches confessed under torture that these sabbaths happened, just as suggested by the prosecutor. Add to this some accidental intake of hallucinogenic materia by a whole village (Claviceps purpurea) and you have your proof. Contemporary elements like sexy but evil witches in horror movies and a revival in interest in entheogenic substances since the hippies complete the story.

 

 

‘Male and female witches met at night, generally in solitary places, in fields or on mountains. Sometimes, having anointed their bodies, they flew, arriving astride poles or broomsticks; sometimes they arrived on the back of animals, or transformed into animals themselves. Those who are for the first time had to renounce the Christian faith, desecrate the sacrament and offer homage to the devil, who was present in human or (most often) animal or semi-animal form. There would follow banquets, dancing, sexual orgies. Before returning home the female and male witches received evil ointments made from children’s fat and other ingredients.’ - Carlo Ginzburg

 

 

The imagery of the flying witch with nocturnal adventures and meetings with otherworldly creatures became a core narrative but holds more than one story. In our history, this became one big thing. Let’s separate this in two paths, two different ways of flying so to speak.

1: A folkloric belief in physical flight (inappropriately exaggerated during the witch hunt with all it’s consequences)

2: The visionary practice of spirit flight (practices around trance and altered states of being, with older roots and a modern revival).

 

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