The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Complete A–Z for the Entire Magical World. Judika Illes
their secrets did not. Like the other plants in this section, administration required an experienced practitioner with a skillful hand. The wrong dosage, by a very slight margin, could cause disaster. The Brothers Grimm story The Juniper Tree recounts the tale of a woman who, unable to conceive, makes a paganinfluenced sacrifice under her juniper tree. She conceives, but late in pregnancy (too late; she dies) she develops a desperate craving for juniper berries. The story is mysterious and indecipherable unless one understands the implications of that tree and those berries, inferences the Grimms’ sources would have immediately understood.
Juniper’s role as a component in intoxicating beverages remains today. It was once used to flavor whiskey. Genevrette is a French beer-like drink brewed from equal parts barley and juniper berries. The Dutch alcoholic beverage known as jenever eventually evolved into the English potion, gin.
See also CALENDAR: Samhain.
Mandrake
(Mandragora officinarum, also classified as Atropa mandragora)
Mandrake’s claim to fame lies in the magical resemblance of its roots to the human figure. Individual specimens are identifiably female or male (and a few very special ones may be both). There is no plant more identified with magic and witchcraft.
Mandrake’s main magical uses have to do with love, sex, fertility, and wish fulfillment. Because it has narcotic properties, mandrake also has a long history as an early anesthetic.
In Arabic, mandrake is known as Father of Life (referring to its fertility-inducing powers) and Djinn’s Egg or Devil’s Apple (these aren’t demonic references but are instead intended to refer to mandrake’s power as an aphrodisiac to provide forbidden pleasures. Islam has no demonology comparable to that of witch-hunt era Europe.) In Hebrew, the word for mandrake is translated as “love-apples,” referring to its aphrodisiac properties.
The mandrake plant is indigenous to Mediterranean regions, especially Crete, Sicily, and the Levantine coast, as well as Iraq, North Africa, and Spain. It grows wild and is not uncommon in these areas. Nineteenth-century missionaries traveling to the Middle East wrote that women used this plant in the same manner and for the same purposes as described by the Bible. Mandrake’s natural range extends as far north as Mount Vicentia on the southern edge of the Venetian Alps.
Although it grows rampant in warm, dry climates, it may be cultivated with care in areas not naturally conducive to its growth. The master herbalist John Gerard (1545–1612), for instance, cultivated it in his greenhouse.
Magical references almost inevitably discuss just the roots; the whole plant is lovely and useful, although potentially poisonous if taken internally. Mandrake has apple-like fruit (all those apple names aren’t mere affectation) and lovely flowers possessing a strong aroma.
Mandrake is a member of the Nightshade family, many of whose members contain deadly poisons. Mandrake, too, is poisonous—the berries are particularly toxic. However, for magical purposes, mandrake is virtually always used as an amulet. It is carried, placed under the mattress, or shaped into a doll. It is safe to handle mandrake root (unlike wolfsbane, for instance, which is so toxic, even touching the plant may cause irritation) but not to take any part of the plant internally or to otherwise apply it to the body.
Many tales and legends describe mandrake’s magic powers but the most famous occurs in the Old Testament. This is significant because although biblical injunctions are frequently used as the rationale for persecuting witches, in this case, the Bible recounts a magical success story. The biblical patriarch Jacob is married to two sisters. He loves the younger one, Rachel, passionately but she’s infertile and desperately wants to conceive. He doesn’t love the older sister, Leah (who desperately loves him) although that hasn’t stopped him from fathering her many children. One day, Leah’s oldest son, Reuben, old enough to understand his mother’s situation, finds a mandrake root and brings it to her so that she can use it to magically gain Jacob’s love. Word gets around and Rachel shows up, demanding the mandrake so that she can use it to magically conceive. The two negotiate and, ultimately, Rachel gets the mandrake, conceiving soon afterwards.
The Bible carried mandrake’s reputation around the Eastern Hemisphere; the name “mandrake” developed an aura of allure and power but there was one problem: true mandrake doesn’t grow wild in cold climates. People in these colder areas wanted mandrake too but it wasn’t available. What were they to do? They began referring to local plants with similar uses and human-shaped roots as “mandrake” too. Thus the name “mandrake” may refer to a variety of different and unrelated plants. True mandrake belongs to the Mandragora species.
If you purchase mandrake in Greece or the Middle East or North Africa, it’s quite possible that you’re receiving the real thing. If you’re anywhere else, you’re most likely receiving some substitute. These substitutes can be very powerful—some even prefer them; however be aware that the prices charged should reflect what you’re actually getting. There is no need to spend huge sums on Devil’s Apple, black bryony, May Apple, white bryony or ginseng.
These all have human-shaped roots similar to mandrake. Many possess a similar magical nature and most are, like mandrake, intended for use as amulets not for internal use, because they are poisonous if consumed.
True mandrake has been an important medicinal plant for just as long as it’s been an important magical one. When discussing any sort of medicinal use, that information applies only to true mandrake, the Mandragora species.
Along with opium poppies, mandrake was among the very first anesthetics in existence. Mandrake was first administered either as a potion made by boiling the root in wine, or as an inhalant made by soaking cloth in mandrake infusions. Greek physicians offered their dental patients mandrake root to chew as a local anesthetic. Hippocrates, the author of the Hippocratic oath and considered the founder of modern medicine, wrote of mandrake in approximately 400 BCE, “a small dose in wine, less than would occasion delirium, will relieve the deepest depression and anxiety.”
Mandrake can induce deep sleep, however the incorrect dosage can cause the big sleep from which one never awakens. Fatal doses are very possible, demonstrating that, then as now, anesthesia can be among the most dangerous parts of the surgical process. The medicinal was usually prepared from the root, as is the magical amulet.
During antiquity mandrake root was used as an anesthetic, antiseptic, narcotic, and tonic. Until the early modern era, mandrake wine was used to treat insomnia.
Diluted mandrake root juice was used as an anesthetic during surgery in first-century Greece. Mandrake was used as an anesthetic by the Romans and by the renowned Arabic physicians. Its most dramatic use, however, was in Roman-occupied Judea. Crucifixion was not a unique punishment; the Romans crucified masses of people. Jewish women brewed draughts from mandrakes and soaked sponges in the liquid to offer men nailed to the crosses, causing an anesthetic effect. Depending upon the dose, this could be fatal—a mercy killing. Sometimes, however, the person only had the appearance of death, often fairly long-term. The body would be returned to their family. Eventually they would recover. When the Romans discovered what was going on (perhaps witnessing too many dead men walking) policies were changed: it was decreed that before any man was released from the cross, his legs would be broken and/or he was to be brutally pierced with a spear.
Magically, mandrake is always used as an amulet and never taken internally.
