#sabbatic flight

[lailoken]

“And 'tis an art well known to Wizards old

And wily Hags, who for fear and slave

Of the coarse halter, do themselves withhold

From bodily assisting their right game

Wherefore their carcasses do home retain

But with their souls at these bad feasts they are

And see their friends and call them by their name

And dance about the Goat and sing, har, har,

And kiss the Devil's breech, and taste his deadly cheer.”

—

Sabbatic Flight as described by philosopher and poet Henry More in 1647.

[dianasson]

Hey bud. I was wondering if you might be able to explain the concept of the Sabbatic Flight or Crossing the Hedge, why it's done, and how? Also, how do you feel about the use of flying ointments in these practices? I am taking a heavy interest in these practices, and have been wanting to try them. I'd like to be more informed first though.

Yes of course! I mean it’s a practice of passing from this world to another world, through a spiritual flight of sorts. This is done for a milieu of reasons; communicating with spirits of a place, attending the sabbath, performing various magics, certain battles in terms of the benandanti, traveling to the underworld, seeing things the body can’t etc etc. Every culture/tradition has their own way, but it’s often done through entering to a trance state either through dance, physical exertion, various substances such as alcohols or more commonly herbs or drugs. Flying ointments are the main way most European witches have done this “in history” hahah as much as we can even pretend to know. This allows them to fly out on various steads of ragwort, broom, distaff, stool, horse, human, and other steads. You just have to be careful with ointments, now that we know much more about many of the ingredients in the old ointments such as hemlock and aconite (both of which are more toxic than entheogenic.) Sarah Lawless wrote a wonderful article on the subject. Definitely get more educated on ointments before trying them, but Sarah Lawless’ are a good place to start, because they are more magically potent than chemically which is a good place to start getting yourself acquainted with the process and the spirit of the plants.  Hope this helped love!

[erinnightwalker]

Goat Fat- Sabbatic Candles? Ointment?

So, I have this idea. I have the fat. And I have some ideas for ingredients. But since I don't do sabbatic flights, I am in search of two things- guinea pigs and ingredient ideas for such shenanigans. Or, I can send the fat to someone else who wants to try this kind of project. (Though I honestly want to do the work myself if I can because I find doing this kind of stuff fascinating and very fulfilling.)

What I do have-

goat fat

small lidded jars (I'm going small because of the amount of fat and because it IS fat and if you get it warm it oozes)

candle wicking (though based on previous experience I may need to get some cored wicks so it doesn't slump)

beeswax (should it need more reinforcement)

Various herbs, with access to more should I need them (herb shop in town plus what I grow here- if you have a good idea for an additive tell me and I'll try to find it) (Including sulfur, oddly enough.)

Devil's Claw, or Unicorn Plant (really cool seed pod that looks goaty to me, honestly) (see picture from Wikipedia- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Proboscidea_parviflora_fruit1.jpg/800px-Proboscidea_parviflora_fruit1.jpg )

Hair from the (virgin boy) goat that was the fat donor, plus various females including mother, aunties, sister, cousins, and grand matriarch.

So, ideas would be helpful. Victims Volunteers also welcome. (Can you tell I enjoy making odd stuff?)