I have been meaning to page through Viridarium Umbris : The Pleasure Garden of Shadow to see if Daniel Schulke had anything to say about black nightshade, but I kept getting distracted. Today I took the time to look through the book for black nightshade entires and found two. The shorter one is on p. 404, in a section called “Of the Manifold Herbs of the Grove of the Winds,” which lists herbs for raising storms. The first one mentioned is our little friend:
“Black Nightshade, whose leaves and stems are boiled in decoction and employed to bathe rain-bringing effigies. The same may be said for its fair sister Blue Witch, known unto botanists as Solanum douglasii. It maybe also be compounded as a Witches’ Smoke or a concentrated wash.”
I am not sure what is meant by “Witches’ Smoke” here. Some kind of ritual incense, I guess. I’ll have to poke around a bit more to find out for sure. There is nothing about the plant itself that is connected to rain. It doesn’t signal the coming of a storm, as a few plants do, it doesn’t especially need rain, and is likewise not hindered by it. So that can’t be the connection. The only thing I could think of is that the berries are black, like a heavy storm cloud.
But more interesting is the other mention of black nightshade, as the primary ingredient in a poisonous ink for communicating with the dead:
A Venomous Ink, for Writing Messages to the Dead, Or Raising their Shades
The Ink is made from plants which are strong in the Medicine of the Grave, and is poisonous to the touch. Take two hundred ripe berries of Black Nightshade and gather them up in a cloth of black silk, after making blood offerings to the Herb. You may also use the berries of Blue Witch, another Solnum whose virtue is like unto our Nightshade. These shall be covered with one and one half litres of water and set on the boil. When the decoction has turned purple, add a pinch of powdered Alum, or, if you have none, some dregs of Red Wine. Add the leaves of dark and well-cured Tobacco, in several pinches, along with the same amount of the outer bark of the Yew tree, one oak gall, Bixa [or dried Madder if you cannot find it], and human ashes. Let this be stirred over a low fire until the entirety of the wort is reduced to one-half litre. The mixture is removed from the fire and strained, reserving the liquid. The darkness of the ink should be tested on paper. If it is insufficient, add more Tobacco. This shall be returned to the fire and cook’d until only fifty millilitres of dark liquid remain. Remove it from the fire, let it cool, and then add ten mililitres Tincture of Myrrh and fifteen mililitres of wood alcohol, mixing slowly. Filter again into a dark bottle. It is used to ask questions of the Mighty Dead, scribed upon paper and burned in the crypt, before their grave, or in the columbarium*. Then one waits in silent meditation until an answer is received. (p. 303)
This is indeed a pretty poisonous ink, especially with the addition of the yew bark, although liquid tobacco is no picnic either. Given this info, since the black nightshade is used as a wash for an effigy that is involved in raising storms, I wonder if the effigy represents or is connected to the dead or if the rite it is involved in calls upon the dead to cause the rain. We’re not told.
The thing that strikes me most is the blood offering given to the black nightshade plant. I don’t recall him recommending this with many plants.
I have been mulling over the experiences I and others have had now with this plant. I think that it is necessary for me to further explore it. This is kind of an extension of my experience with Datura Spirit. About that, I have read in various places that it is an angry or dangerous spirit because it has been jilted by more than one people. For instance, the Tarahumara used to consider it an important figure but turned it into a demon, basically, when they discovered peyote. ‘Course, maybe datura was just naturally always a bit of a jerk. But that made me think that given the absence of writing or folklore about black nightshade, perhaps it too had been thrown over in some way. It had been turned into a “mere” food plant and so it had become completely inept in its dealings with humans who could “hear” its spirit, people who were attuned to plants. Just feeling my way here, but I don’t want to make the same mistake I made with Datura–to just leave it by the side of the road because it was so intimidating, only to come back to it later.
Btw, I am often asked to recommend a book on plant magic. Viridarium Umbris is so far above anything else out there that I can’t really put it into words. However, it is also a very tough book, not least of all because of its cost. And although a lot of information is freely given, a lot more is hidden, and there is no way to ferret it out. For instance, recipes for various items are given but not how they are used. The most important thing I learned from it, though, was that I have to work out my own practice through my own direct communication with plant spirits and not rely on anyone else’s practice to tell me how to do magic. This book certainly gives a person many, many pointers and ideas, but I think the individual magic worker still has to write his/her own book.
Some people complain about the language of VU, but I love that.
*place for the storage of funerary urns of human ashes
Blue Witch is also Solanum umbelliferum, there are a couple species that go by that name. I’ve been trying to get a plant from a nursery down in Encinitas or San Diego, for a couple months now.
VU is the bees’ meow and the cat’s knees, for sure. And I agree that it necessitates writing out one’s own laboratory procedure. That’s actually what one does in a lab course for chemistry or another physical science where specific instructions are required to make sense of the experiment proper. Otherwise, one is doing what is called ‘cookbooking it’. When you have results that can be repeated, you’re on the right path, with most things. Goes for alchemy, too.
I was wondering what Schulke had on nightshade, and everything has conspired against me looking it up the past couple weeks, so maybe you’ve gotta go first, or this is about separate lessons being learnt simultaneously. Hmm.
Interesting about the Mighty Dead and ashes. I wonder if this is about ancestors. Which means one could possibly use one’s own nail clippings or hair, or even dried blood, and burning that to ash. Genetic material shared with ancestors = ancestral legacy = ancestral remains.
I think this is the real Book of Shadows–keeping track of one’s experiences in magic (Crowley’s magical diary) and also of formulae and whatnot.
It would be interesting if it’s about ancestors, since I have not got any relationship with mine, outside of my fictitious ancestor, Ludwig II. I am going to try the blood offering, just mulling when would be a good time. New Moon?
Of the two Magisters of the Cultus Sabbati, Shulke is far easier to read. Chumbley mixed metaphours too much, to the point that it gets very hard to understand. However, I have great respect for the works of both men, as they’re some of the first (and certainly the most sought-after) of the Sabbatic, free-flowing, non-Wicca crowd.
I’ve had the pleasure of reading most of the works by Shulke and Chumbley, but not owning them. Oh, the atrocities I would commit to get a “green” copy of the VU.
In terms of it’s relation to rain: I’ve found mention over the years of Nightshade “cast into water” as a method for rain-bringing. Probably a type of sympathetic magick, or even threat-based magick. Threatening to poison the water unless it rains for you, and/or using the dropping of the berries to simulate the sound of rain.
I was very lucky to be sent a copy of Viridarium Umbris as a gift from the author. I was so bowled over–still am–by that. That was maybe 4-5 years ago, but it remains very inspiring to me. The knowledge in that book is really incredible. I have not read any other author on plant magic who has struck me as having as much experience working with plants as Daniel Schulke.
Re the black nightshade and rain, something occurred to me. When I ate the berries, they had the effect of making me grouchy and angry. Anger = storm? Make the water angry/storm? That’s what I thought of with the idea of throwing it in a bucket of water to make it rain.
Well that brings new meaning to a little black raincloud.
A storm is definitely a state of heightened energy. All those charged ions running amok.
P.S. if you sign up for their booklist you may just find that they issue a re-print of some of the more scarce volumes. Though I expect books like “ONE” will never see a mass reprint, I’d certainly prefer paying Xoanon $200 rather than Internet Shark #79 $4,000 for it.
sara..blue witch is available at baynatives, san francisco. baynatives website is my plant porn online…that and annie’s annuals…:)
hurry! they only have two left. 9 inch tree band..$7.00 plus tax.
“Witches’ Smoke” sounds to me like a mixture meant to be smoked as in a pipe, but I don’t know if that’s at all a safe idea in this instance.
I still haven’t found out what he means by that yet.
i have to say that this is my favourite post…there is a fantastic short story lurking somewhere here. i’ll mail it to you as soon as its done!
Yay!
I’m more or less newborn in terms of experience… I’ve evolved into a completely different person over the last couple of years and now plants have become the touchstone of my life more or less – they’re what keeps me sane! Could you recommend any reading on plant spirits for a beginner please? I’ve been trying to find some info on tree spirits too as I’m slowly and halteringly forming a relationship with a tree, but most of the information I find seems to be very vague and more than a little ‘fluffy’ if you understand what i mean? I would really appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction!
Hi, Nellie,
Sara’s got a lot of good suggestions. I’d just add a couple–The Weiser Concise Guide to Herbal Magick, because it has a good intro to herbs in ceremonial magic, and A Druid’s Herbal for the Sacred Earth Year because it’s a kind of summary of a lot of the info that’s out there on the web.
Re connecting with spirits, I can’t think of anything I would recommend. I think it is best to just go slow and feel certain you trust the spirit before jumping in.
faustian, you just saved the day
I am going to check out baynatives… Watershed in Richmond didn’t have it. Spiral in Berkeley didn’t have it.
Nellie, I’ve been thinking about your question for awhile. I did not start with plant magic books specifically, but rather with plant books, and the magic stuff came later when I knew the plants better, for lack of a better description.
I am really fond of Mrs. Grieve’s “A Modern Herbal”, because it has tons of compiled ethnographic data on folk useages, medicinals, and even has a recipe for nettle beer in volume II (it’s all on botanical.com). Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs is a good resource. catherine yronwode’s book on plant magic and hoodoo is great. It is really hard to source witchy or magic books that deal exclusively with plants, that actually have some oomph to them. Daniel Schulke is great for that if you’re up for a challenge. Hit the library, and definitely get yourself on the mailing list like Scylla is suggesting, for Xoanon and for Three Hands Press.
Dale Pendell’s Pharmako series is great because it is a bunch of things at once. It is an adventure into using various alterative plants, and learning from them as teachers (remember, plants know more than us because they’ve been around longer…) as well as a well-researched voyage through ethnobotany which pores over ethnographic material for plant useages, and it is highly poetic as well. I came to those books this year and am glad I had not heard much about them previously, because it was sort of the right time.
Susun Weed is a good source of herbal knowledge. I only have one of her books, but visit her website periodically.
This is a stream in magic and crafting where one has to cut one’s own path through the brush with a machete, in a lot of ways. I find it is that way with kitchen witchery as well.
One obvious thing that I missed about the poison ink formula is that he does not treat this plant like it is edible. He treats it like it’s poisonous. This makes me wonder: did he simply not ever hear that it was edible? Or did he simply consider it poisonous because of working with it?
Also, I looked it up on the Native American Ethnobotanical Database, and the same tribe will list it as both poisonous and edible. I think the Cherokee have it both ways.
I wonder if the time of year influences whether it’s treated poisonous or therapeutic.
I am still bowled over that he has a California native plant as an alternative for this plant, in VU.
Things are conspiring against my purchasing a specimen, too. I think faustian got it right, I need to let the plant come to me when it is ready to. Foraging might be necessary. It grows wild around Mt. Diablo and the trails over the east bay hills.
He uses the native California mugwort (Artemisia californica) too and even says that he thinks it is better for magic than the European. That would make sense for here. I haven’t found seeds for that yet. One of the things that very much impressed me about his work was precisely the fact that he went directly to the plants he had around him and used them instead of just relying on tradition. He expanded the tradition and made it alive for his place.
I have searched for blue witch in the past and have never been able to obtain any. If you do manage to get some and grow it, I would sure like a few seeds.
Well, working with what is local is certainly going to make for more potent magic, if only because those plants are vigorous and happy, compared to growing something which is definitely out of place and not thriving for that reason.
I am attempting to grow Prunus spinosa, for example. It has definitely germinated, and I can see that as evidenced by a taproot developing, but there’s sure no foliage up top. Too warm in this climate. In my defense, I am growing it mostly because I’d like to make sloe berry wine and melomel. If the tree should gift me with branches that is great of course, but it’s mostly edible landscaping for me.
Holy cats, you got those blackthorn seeds to germinate? You have to tell me how. I am going to be ordering more of them as well as a bunch of others to start for next year. I have tried germinating them before with no luck at all.
Thankyou for all the suggestions – I’ll be off trying to get hold of what I can! (my library is bare when it comes to pagan resources, even when you do a county wide search it’s bleak. As for anything pagan and less main stream, there’s not a hope via the library! How I miss the library service from my old home!!) I’m almost certain I’ve heard somebody talking briefly about the Pharmako series somewhere recently so maybe it’s fate that I start there.
Thanks for the help!
You are very welcome!
harry, you came to mind: http://www.yougrowgirl.com/thedirt/2010/06/30/a-truly-black-viola/
That’s a pretty one! I have Bowles’ Black viola seeds, an old variety, and have grown them out, and they are pretty darn black:
http://www.alchemy-works.com/viola_cornuta_black.html
They are much shinier than the Black Magic flowers (great name!), and they are quite small. They look like little drops of ink.
If you have the same first standard edition then you may find p498 useful which is around the powers and virtues of Belladonna ‘Lady of the Death-Gate’. Also if you have a copy maybe cross-referencing with Ars Philtron, the recipes in there have some additional information as to their uses.
I have to admit I spent a fair bit of time going though the book writing my own index for the plants with page numbers. I enjoy using VU but the lack of index can make it awkward sometimes.
Thanks! I hear ya about the index. Making your own is a good idea. I had to sit and go through every page to see if I could find anything on black nightshade. Actually, that wasn’t so bad because it reminded me of what a good book it is and how much of the stuff I would like to try. I do have a copy of Ars Philtron, and you are right–I will have to go look through there as well.
I’ve been thinking of creating an incense to chthonic deities with the black nightshade berries, combining them with ingredients like cypress and myrrh.
VU has some amazing recipes and ideas within it – but I did notice that many of Schulke’s correspondences are off and he doesn’t explain why he used certain plants for an unusual purpose. Maybe he did it on purpose to throw the reader, or maybe his personal correspondences are quite unique. Either way it’s something to keep in mind when reading VU.
The Ink chapter is one of my favourites. I love the rust from a cemetery gate in the cursing ink…
Hi, Sarah,
Are there particular plants you are thinking of in terms of the correspondences and uses?
hi there
i’ve recently found your blog and i find it incredibly entertaining and informational. regarding your experience with nightshade, i thought that you might find this site of interest:
http://www.erowid.org/herbs/nightshade/nightshade.shtml
as well as this:
http://www.erowid.org/plants/belladonna/belladonna.shtml
the information regarding nightshade in Thayer’s book is most dangerous. dont eat the berries.
I often consult erowid–a good site. What’s interesting is that there are no experience reports for black nightshade, even though they exist for possibly lethal stuff like deadly nightshade.