WEBVTT - What's in a witches brew? 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.840 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to stuff to Blow your mind. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:16.320 My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Julie Douglas. J 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:18.000 What do you like to put in your witches brew? 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:24.360 A little A little frog play, yeah, rosemary, yeah, rusty garlic, yeah, 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:29.360 of course. Um hey, little crystallized ginger. Nice touch. I 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:34.320 highly recommend uh scaled dragon's a wolf which is mummy mind, 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:37.519 gulf off the raven c salt shark, root of himlock 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.800 digged in the dark course, liver of a blasheming jew 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.440 if you can get it, uh, and goll of goat 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:45.720 slips of you. And of course you want all the 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.159 silver in the moon's eclipse. That's just an old recipe 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:50.960 that I picked up. You're such as picked up from 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.160 old will there. But seeh I just get my stuff 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.000 from Trader Joe's and you're all of the earth the 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:58.880 witches all a Trader Joe's is really good, and I 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:02.040 mean everything for your scale of dragon to uh you know, 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.000 the eye of news and Baboon's blood. Yeah, they have 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:07.800 excellent pappoms blood. Uh. You know this, This is what 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:10.039 I love about How Stuff Works. Is that we can 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.039 discuss these things. We've got our own coven here, and 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:17.600 it really allows us to exchange ideas about witchcraft. There's 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.600 a coven at how stuff works? Yeah, like seriously or 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:22.680 like literally, there's a covenant how stuff works? Or are 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:25.640 you just talking about we throw ideas into a call drop? 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:29.800 Oh no, yeah, sure it was just metaphorical. Yeah, sure, 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:34.640 of course there's not a real covenant. That would be weird. No, no, no, 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:38.120 it's metaphorical. All right, Well really, well, I would I 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:40.039 would imagine your your you must be needing in a 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.839 separate space because, as we know from legends and myth 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:47.960 and folk tales, the classic version of the witch and 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:50.520 and by the classic version of which I'm not craning 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:54.960 this in on on on Wiccan stuff like a modern 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:56.960 witches of of whom I know some of. My friend 0:01:57.120 --> 0:01:59.520 Michelle is a practicing Wiccan and to my knowledge, she 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:02.160 just and have a cauldron. No, no, today we're talking 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:05.840 about the witches that are burned in our memories and 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:10.280 sometimes yes, um who yeah, who have cauldrons, who are 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:13.520 meeting in the dark, who are plotting against Macbeth, that 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.040 are casting spells, that are hanging out with cats that 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.880 hate Dorothy, that hate Dorothy, that are dying underneath the 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:23.480 weight of houses that fall from the sky. Uh. This 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:25.560 sort of thing, the idea of the Witch is pretty fascinating, 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:28.320 especially when you get past sort of the the typical 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:32.000 Halloween idea of just cackling old crones. I mean, you 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:34.519 could we could just talk for a long time about 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.680 the about about what the Witch represents, because as I've 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.360 discussed before, I mean, the Witch is basically a monster, 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:43.600 the Hag, the Hag, especially if you see the Hag 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.440 as a monster or the ogress uh, appearing throughout different 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:50.160 myth cycles where uh. And some of this is tied 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.320 to the idea that some sort of cannibalistic, grotesque old 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:55.239 woman will come and eat your children if they don't 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.040 behave or that if you're not careful, guys, you might 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:00.640 be seduced by what seems like a beautiful but turns 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.160 out to be a grotesque monster. Right then sort of 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:06.960 the sucky best thing too, exactly exactly. And then when you, 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:08.880 I mean you also in the Witch, you have a 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:12.440 situation where it's a woman with power, and of course 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:17.440 that is a very interesting idea throughout a predominantly male 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:20.920 dominated culture where suddenly here here are women and they 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:22.640 have power. And what does his power mean? Is it 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:25.560 a threat to male dominance? And uh, I mean, I 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.000 mean make me stop, because I well, I was gonna 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:31.720 say that Erica John has at interesting perspective on this 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:36.160 from historical context. And she has a book called Witchcraft 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.720 and some poetry and fiction and some historical data and 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:43.640 there a few spells in that I don't know, I hope, 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:45.920 So I think that she actually sort of approached this 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:48.400 book in that manner of like, Wow, could I become 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:52.440 a witch myself? Even though um, she's someone who who 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:54.640 I think is grounded in reality and knows that she 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:57.640 wasn't necessarily going to start flying around. But anyway, Um, 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.120 she is the author of Fear Flying that's she's us 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:03.000 known of as uh. In her forward of the book, 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.920 she says witchcraft in Europe and America is essentially this 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:10.840 hearkening back to female divinity within a patriarchal culture. If 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.120 you insist long enough that God is the father, a 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.000 nostalgia for the mother Goddess will be born. If you 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.200 exclude women from church rights, they will practice their magic 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.960 in the fields and forests, in their own kitchens. The 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.560 point is female power cannot be suppressed, it can only 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:28.720 be driven underground. So this is how she places which 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.520 is really in a historical sense of Okay, what's actually 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.280 happening here, and we talk about which is when we 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.960 get away from this idea of pointy hats and broomsticks, 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:42.760 even though broomsticks certainly play into it, as we will 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.200 find out. Yeah, and it's interesting that you mentioned the 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:49.120 the necessary re emergence of the feminine deity because I'm 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:51.159 reminded of a series of essays that I read, and 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:52.599 have I known that you were going to go in 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:54.320 this direction, I would have would have brought that book 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:56.119 with me. I'll have to put something on the blocks 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:58.640 about it. But there there's some interesting material in there 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.800 about depictions of Jesus Christ in medieval art, and in 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:06.080 some of these depictions, Christ becomes more and more feminine, 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.320 and you you actually have have varying in some cases 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:13.200 outright heretical. And I'm doing quotes um with air quotes, 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:16.800 and I figers the heretical ideas or are sometimes they're 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:21.320 just sort of quasi heretical, where individuals end up worshiping 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:24.040 a more female version of Christ. In the same way 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:27.360 that there are female depictions of the Buddha. Okay, so 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:29.960 this is sort of a UM in an effort to 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:34.240 unify right, to bring both sides to this right, and 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.680 to focus more on feminine aspects in this case of 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:40.680 of Jesus, and then to venerate those aspects as opposed 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.880 to just bleeding man God on a tree kind of 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.040 a thing. It's a really fascinating accept because you get 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:49.440 into this whole interesting area of the wound of Christ, 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:53.279 the spear wound, and how this spear wound is also 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:59.400 kind of like a vagina. I mean, it's it's sorry, 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:02.120 I'm gonna be wrong. That's not a big deal. Yeah, 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:05.720 the wound is like, yeah, next time you see an 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:08.919 image of doubting Thomas, think about that. Um. But moving 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:12.240 on side tangent there, But back to which is um 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.279 you were saying, Yeah, Erica dong that she does. She 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.760 does explore the reasons why we have vilified, which is 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.039 throughout the ages, and one of the things that she 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:25.360 says really interesting is that women have always been the 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:28.919 bearers of life, right, and we know historically women have 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:32.599 been repressed on all sorts of different fronts. She also 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:36.160 says that as women gain power, they began to um 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:40.440 to sort of be tamped down. And if you ascribe 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.800 witchness to someone or you put power in the light 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:47.760 of negativity, then what you're doing essentially is saying that 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:52.120 not only is this person a life bringer, a life 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.760 bearer which is really powerful, but this person has the 0:06:54.800 --> 0:07:00.279 ability to bring death right through potions magic, uh, generall 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.359 dark shenanigans. Right, yeah, and if they're engaged in food 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:06.599 preparation too, I mean that's food can be the big 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:09.000 life giver. But if it's if something's wrong with it, 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.560 that if it becomes toxic in some way, shape or form, 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:16.840 if something goes off, there's some sort of bacterial infection, 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.800 then it's a killer as well. That's right. That's why 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:22.600 you should always be kind to your server. Right. You 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:24.280 never know what's going on in the kitchen. She might 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:26.280 be a witch. Yep, she might be a witch, or 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.560 he might be right, yeah, a warlock. So it's gonna 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:31.640 sound flipped to say this, but but all of a sudden, 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:35.280 you've you've got something like a broom which is becomes 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:38.440 really important, almost like a very high tech object in 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:40.840 the thirteenth century, right, which is interesting because I think 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.120 the broom is something we often discount as that very 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:47.440 Halloween idea of a witch, Like you've got a you know, 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.960 there's like a kindergartener. Let's put a funny nose on her, 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:53.360 paying her face green, give her a broom, and she 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:56.760 can start collecting candy, right, striped tights. Right there we go. 0:07:57.120 --> 0:07:59.800 But I mean it is important to understand that this 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:03.000 really was a prized object at the home. And we 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:05.200 talk about the kitchen and who's preparing your food, we're 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:07.679 also talking about the person who has you know, usually 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:12.160 elaborately braided broom, a cauldron, right that may have been 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:16.080 passed down from generation to generation, and these objects start 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:22.400 to really gain importance that they are key feminine cultural artifacts. Yeah. Absolutely, 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:24.640 And so when you start to think about a which 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.400 you start to think about brooms, it would make sense 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:31.680 that somehow they would factor into the image of a witch. 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:35.400 But now you'll look at early typographs of which is 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:39.040 and you'll often see uh, some depictions of which is 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:44.320 uh quite naked on top of a stride, exceedingly naked. 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:47.480 And that's another thing that little Will Shakespeare. Um, well, no, 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:48.880 I don't know if they were naked in the if 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:50.440 there's any reference to the naked in the text, I'm 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:55.280 thinking of Roman Polanski's version of Macbeth, which is certainly naked, 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:58.120 which is awesome and uh and has some really naked 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.600 old witches in it, which I thought worked perfectly. But 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.520 he calls back to these old engravings and woodcuts where 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:06.920 you see naked women flying around in the middle of 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:11.679 the night talking with goats, riding goats. Um, you know, 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.400 in engaging with the devil and in various way shapes 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:16.840 and form. Right in terms of there's something to this, right, 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:18.920 if you scratch the surface a little bit, you'll find 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:22.600 out that the broom actually figures pretty prominently and in 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.880 which is work. And let's just back up real quick. Um, yes, 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:29.920 the broom is the ultimate symbol of domesticity, but in 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:32.319 the hands of which it can become this really potent 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:37.840 symbol of liberation. Right, And the more disenfranchised a person is, 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.360 the more that they might turn to magical thinking to 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:43.120 gain some sort of mastery over their situations. So let's 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:45.720 look at it this way. Um, you know, maybe someone 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:50.640 wasn't necessarily a self proclaimed which, but perhaps they did, 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.800 uh dabble back of the day, you know, when we're 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.560 talking about this historical which in the thirteenth century in 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:01.400 ointments because it was important for healing, in ritual and 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.280 magical spells, because this was a way to gain some 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:06.920 sort of control over their lives. Right, But back to 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:09.760 this broom the broom. Yeah, they're kind of like two 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:12.400 interesting ways of looking at the power of the broom, 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:14.600 one which will discuss even more as the of course 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:16.640 the magical thinking side of it. And then there's this 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:21.360 whole ointment situation ointment, which you think is a gross word, 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.199 but I do. And and now we're about to really 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:27.800 sort of dive into the flying the ointment here and 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:31.360 talk about something that's very interesting about the broom in 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.559 the ointment. You want to you want to run with that, Okay, 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:36.720 So there's this idea that which is they're flying around 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.600 in broomsticks or they're flying around in chair. But in 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:43.920 many of these tails and accusations, they are rubbing an 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:49.600 ointment on the broom or chair first, which it's often 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:51.840 glossed over generally when you it's not a part of 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:56.120 the Halloween costume. So they're usually on a jar of 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.840 ointment everything the costume. So they're taking this broom they're 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.120 coding it with with some sort of mysterious ointment that 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.760 they've brewed up, and then they're riding this this broomstick 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:10.800 naked and just having a wonderful time doing it. So, 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:13.920 I mean, obviously that brings to mind some some various 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:16.360 scenarios that could be taking place, and there's actually some 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:18.480 real um some people put some real thought into this 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:21.520 and the idea that the ointment is in fact a 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:25.920 drug or has has a pharmaceutical or or or psychedelic 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:31.040 properties and they are interacting with the ointment on the 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:33.840 broom Yeah, there are some pharmacologists who say, you know what, 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:36.000 we think that this is actually what was happening, is 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:40.079 that these ointments were being made and applied um through 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:44.840 the skin, basically applying a crazy pharmaceutical ointment to the 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:49.559 genitals with a broomstick. Yes, yes, in fact they probably 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.680 said that on the side, applied gently to broomstick, then 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:57.160 ride broomstick. Genitals first and Gothic font And this is 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:01.440 from the investigation of Lady Alice Kitler in she was 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:03.640 one of the first women to be accused of witchcraft 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:07.320 in Ireland. We have this account quote in rifling the 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:09.880 closet of the lady they found a pipe of ointment, 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:13.520 wherewith she greased a staff upon which she ambled and 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:17.400 galloped through thick and thin. Okay, these are the actual 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.200 documents that they're pulling some some of this stuff from, 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:22.240 and not that we put tremendous amount of stock in 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:26.480 the prosecutions materials in witchcraft trials. I mean they're no true. 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:28.760 Take that with a whole lot of salt. But who 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:30.400 knows that like the idea that there could be some 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:33.800 shredded truth to this is fascinating. Okay, dig a little deeper. 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:35.880 And this is from the Journal of the American Society 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:38.680 of Anesthesiologists, in a paper they called the Legacy of 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.400 a Tropos the fate who cut the thread of Life, 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:45.080 which I think is really poetic for for a journal um. 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:46.959 In the paper they describe a tone written by a 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:51.160 sixteenth century Dutch physician, Johann we Are, who concluded that 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:54.000 a plant called henbane was a principal ingredient in which 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:57.640 is brew, along with deadly nightshade and man drake, and 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:00.160 according to where if there were other ointments, but the 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:02.360 essential ingredients remained the same in all of them, in 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:05.080 all the preparations when they applied to the upper thighs 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:07.679 or general thals. It was said to induce the sensation 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:11.520 of rising into the air and flying. And by the way, 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:15.960 by applying this to their skin and rather than taking 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:19.280 it orallyy, it was much more effective because then they 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:21.920 didn't have to digest this and have obviously the sort 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.920 of stomach ailments that would accompany that. Right, So at 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:28.160 some point they figured out that hey, this is this 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.240 is a pretty good way to get high. Well, it 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.920 kind of it's similar in a way to the way 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:40.240 some medications are applied via suppository rather than taken orally. Yeah. 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:42.679 And one of the dangerous with suppositories if you're taking 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:45.720 some sort of illicit substances, of course, that you can't 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:47.600 if you take to take it orally you can get 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:52.040 you can become ill and vomited back up, but suppository 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:54.640 not so much. Yeah, And the people that were studying 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.480 in these appointments, they weren't necessarily thinking that that which 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.439 is at that time we're applying them and then actually 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:04.960 you know, taking flight. They understood this to have hallucinatory properties. 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:08.160 Back in the sixteenth century, Francis Bacon even said the 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.600 witches themselves are imaginative and believe oftentimes they do that 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.840 which they do, not transforming themselves into other bodies, not 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:18.840 by incantations or ceremonies, but by ointments and anointing themselves 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:22.640 all over. So they had sort of an inkling there 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:27.840 that yes, they were transcending the experience, but not in 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.400 physical body, not actually where they get together and have 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:36.720 transcendental experiences and not invite them in folk I know. Um, 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:39.240 and this is interesting too. The use of soot, which 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.520 is sort of alkaline, would have enhanced the passage of 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:46.080 organic basis because a weak alkaline environment would be sufficient 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:48.720 to neutralize the positive ironic charge. This is skin from 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:52.080 that um and it's thesiolist journal. Uh. This is an 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:56.760 effective ethnobotanical technique that may be seen with Peruvian cocoa 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.800 tours who mix in their mouth the cocaine containing leaves 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:03.240 with alkhaline centers to enhance uptake. And this is and 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:05.640 this is interesting and a topic will probably go into 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:08.760 in Greater Daytona in a future podcast. But this is 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:11.320 by far not the only would not be the only 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:16.400 situation of individuals taking uh some sort of psychedelic substance 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:20.720 as part of a ritual or or magical practice, right, 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:22.720 and you actually don't you have an article on licking 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:25.560 frogs or am I thinking of something else? I have 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:27.400 a pamphlet. It was handed to me by a guy 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:31.360 in the train. I've been I've been very trepidicious about 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.320 trying it out. There's some hallucinatory frogs that if you've looked, 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.960 actually I think it's maybe the the the vn um 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:40.720 or something. Yeah, yeah, that they have that people can 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:43.720 actually get high. So obviously, through trial and error, over 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:46.640 thousands of thousands of years, people have figured out different 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:51.280 properties and plants and animals and manipulate them. So it's 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:53.600 not weird that someone will come up with an ointment, 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.920 and it's not weird that this person, this female in 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:00.320 the family, would um be the person to come up 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:04.040 with these ointments that are are mostly healing right and 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.400 have a sort of power in their household, maybe even 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.800 in their village, as the go to person that has 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:12.240 all these great little recipes that can make you feel 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.400 a lot better, possibly make you feel as though you 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:19.920 are writing a broom. And let's also talk about that broom. 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:22.520 I hate to sort of bring it up, but again, 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:25.320 you know, why not just the ointment? Why have the broom. 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:27.800 And I'm just gonna point out that this perhaps was 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:33.080 a a proto sexual aid. So I'm gonna say a 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:37.880 old timey sex toy basically, yeah, now and uh, and 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.640 I wonder if too, have like a going back vote 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.080 from the from the side of of women liberated women 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:48.760 engaging in a certain activity and looking instead at um, 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.320 really grumpy men deciding to crack down on this and 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:54.520 persecute women. Um, I wonder how much with the broom too. 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:57.760 There's this idea of you have defiled and not only 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.960 have you defiled yourself and you're and you're eight and all, 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:05.680 but you've also defiled this object which has um sympathetic 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:09.320 and not sympathetic, oh yes, sympathetic importance in the household 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.080 and in the family. And uh and also is a 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:14.960 symbol of of of the status and you've somehow perverted 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:20.720 this artifact. Well. Also, as we know, um, the understanding 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:25.080 of female sexuality certainly wasn't that complex or nuanced back 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:27.080 in the day, and some would argue that today it's 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.080 still Yeah, we just did the podcast that they dealt 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.399 with the female orgasm. Obviously, we still as scientists are 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:37.280 still figuring out exactly what sexual human sexuality and female 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:39.440 sexuality is all about. Yeah. And so for a woman 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:44.240 to express sexuality, certainly during uh one period over another, 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:46.960 depending on what was happening in the thirteenth century, is 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.440 opposed to the sixteenth century. Uh. They were certainly um 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:54.520 iconic images and ideals to live up to. Yeah, I'll 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:57.280 put it that way. Right, So we discussed the ointment 0:17:57.280 --> 0:18:00.680 based importance of flying around on broomsticks and so forth. Uh. 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:02.919 But after this break, we're gonna really get into the 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:06.720 idea of magical thinking and how that enforces all these 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:11.439 things we're talking about. This podcast is brought to you 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:15.639 by Intel, the sponsors of Tomorrow and the Discovery Channel. 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:20.280 At Intel, we believe curiosity is the spark which drives innovation. 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:24.400 Join us at curiosity dot com and explore the answers 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:29.960 to life's questions. All right, so we're back. Yeah, we've 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.040 solved the broomstick problem here. Yeah, and I want to 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:35.520 add one more thing about the broomstick. I couldn't help 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:37.919 but be reminded of the bobby the babba yaga, you know, 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:43.000 the old Russian hag or which or cannibalistic ogress. Uh, 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.760 you know with the tusks for for teeth. Yeah, and 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:49.120 she also shows up in uh. There's a movie called 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:53.040 Jack Frost which Mr Sents theater three thousand dead years 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:55.040 ago and it has the Bobbyaga in it. So she's 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:58.640 a really iconic character in Russian myth um. And she's 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.800 a witch. And she addition to living in a hut 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:05.719 that walks around on hin legs, she also flies through 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.879 the air, sometimes in an iron kettle and sometimes in 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:12.600 a mortar and pestle, which of course is the you know, 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:16.639 the device for crushing up various herbs and what have 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:19.760 you and making them into powders for use in ointments, 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.040 for use in uh you know, and you go to 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.600 the pharmacist today, and I mean that's the symbol of 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:28.960 the craft. Yeah. Again, here are these these symbols of domesticity, 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:33.400 right that that are being harnessed for for powerful uh 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:36.440 goings on with witches, which I think is really interesting 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:40.560 and really plays into this idea of the law of contagion, 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.680 which is one of the two laws of sympathetic magic. Yeah. 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:47.679 Sympathetic magic is this very old idea, the idea that 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:50.080 if something I think we've discussed this before, Okay, So 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:52.359 I have a rubber dinosaur in my hand. All right, 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:54.760 It's true, And I have touched this rubber dinosaur, right, 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:58.080 and in touching it, I'm probably doing nothing more than 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:00.119 getting some of my my skin oil on it, or 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:04.280 my fingerprints, what have you ink? From my hands? My 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:07.919 hands are really disgusting. But but then then when I 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:09.840 when I set it down, the taint of my touch, 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:11.800 that that will be the extent of it. The idea 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:13.679 of sympathetic magic is so that there's a there's an 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:17.200 even greater taint that is applied to this rubber dinosaur, 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:19.679 and that that I have somehow imbued it with a 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:23.399 sense of myself. You've transferred yourself to this object. And 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:25.520 we continue to do this sort of thing today. I mean, 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:27.399 I just dealing with my own stuff. I'm wearing my 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.440 dad's watch, um that he died in. I'm not a 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:34.160 logical believer in sympathetic magic, but I am sympathetic towards 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.800 this object, and I have to a certain extent imbued 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:38.760 it with a sense of him on some level, you know. So, 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:41.400 I mean we all do this kind of thing every day. Yeah, 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:42.960 And we talked about this a little bit in the 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:45.400 Science of Lucky Pants and you know how we ascribe 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.280 meaning to two things, and we think if if I 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:50.639 do this or if I take this, then you know 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:54.120 something will happen. Or in the case of your father's watch, 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:57.600 I mean that's that is for you, a part of him. 0:20:57.800 --> 0:20:59.920 So it's interesting that we're all sort of hard water 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:04.840 aired too to have this sort of symbolism in our lives, right, 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:06.880 And I should mention I explained the watch. I didn't 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:08.520 explain why I have a rubber dinosaur in my hand 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:11.600 and it's a like a squeeze toy that I used 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:14.680 to keep from fidgeting too much while recording a podcast, 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:16.960 Just to explain that, why why I have a rubber 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:20.120 dinosaur on my person? It's true, he squeezes the heck 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:22.440 out of it, and that's fine, right. Another idea that 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:25.359 arises from from sympathetic magic is like the idea that 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:28.879 you can treat a weapon to treat the wound or 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:31.200 somehow like if you were to say, cut somebody with 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:33.080 a knife, and then you were to heat up that knife, 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:35.359 then the person would feel the burning of the wound. 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:38.680 Things of that nature. Things that almost what we would 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:41.959 have what a modern um mind would think of as 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:47.600