Books of Shadows - NIGHTSHADE

NIGHTSHADE

Latin name: There are three plants which
go by the common name of Nightshade:
Deadly Nightshade - atropa belladonna,
Woody Nightshade - solanum dulcamara,
and Black Nightshade - solanum nigrum.

COMMON NAMES
Deadly Nightshade
- Belladonna, Devil's Cherries,
Naughty Man's Cherries,
Divale, Black Cherry,
Devil's Herb, Great Morel, Dwayberry.

Woody Nightshade
- Bittersweet Nightshade, Dulcamara,
Felonwood, and Felonwort.

PARTS USED
Deadly Nightshade - Root, leaves, tops.
Woody Nightshade - Twigs.

HERBAL USES

CAUTION
- Deadly and Black Nightshades are poisonous
(everyone remember what happened to the bad guy
in the movie 'Practical Magic'?).
The berries of Woody Nightshade have proved
poisonous to a certain degree in children!
Deadly Nightshade is a poison, narcotic,
diuretic, sedative, antispasmodic, and mydriatic.

Atropine is obtained from Deadly Nightshade
during extraction and is its most important constituent.
Atropine is used for dilating the pupil and so is
valuable in the treatment of eye diseases.

It is used as an antidote to opium.
Woody Nightshade is used widely for a number of ailments
including rheumatism, fever, inflammation and jaundice.

It is used as a treatment
in skin diseases and in the treatments
of chronic bronchial catarrh,
asthma and whooping cough.

Associations & Magickal history
Nightshade is an herb of the planets
Saturn and Mars, and is associated with the element of water.

The herb Deadly Nightshade has a strong
association with the Xtian demon Lucifer (Satan).
According to Xtain mythology Lucifer goes
about trimming and tending the plant
in his leisure, and can only be diverted
from its care on one night in the year,
that is on Walpurgis, when he is
preparing for the "witches' Sabbath".
In Xtain myths, the apples of Sodom are held
to be related to Deadly Nightshade.

It is said that the name Belladonna'
('beautiful lady') was bestowed
on Deadly Nightshade because its juice
was used by the Italian ladies to give
their eyes greater brilliancy,
the smallest quantity having the effect
of dilating the pupils of the eye.
However, it could also refer to a superstition
which says that the plant can take on the form
of an enchantress of great beauty.
It is thought that the priests of the goddess Bellona
drank an infusion of the herb before invoking
the aid of this goddess of war.

Deadly Nightshade is associated with Atropa,
one of the three fates that held the shears
to cut the thread of human life.

Magickal uses
Woody Nightshade is believed
to guard against the evil eye and has been
revered for thousands of years
- a necklace of the berries was found in Tutenkahmun's tomb.

Farmers used it as a charm around the necks
of animals they thought to be under an evil eye.
Placed on the body Woody Nightshade will dispel
the memories of old loves and old lovers.
Nightshade is useful in magicks
done for Astral projection.
In fact this plant turns up as an ingredient
in many of the olde recipes
for Flying Ointments and Witches Sabbath ointments.
Some of these old recipes are
in 'The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abremelin The Mage',
(1458),
by Abraham the Jew, and 'De Miraculis Rerum Naturalium',
(1560) by Giovanni Battista Porta,
(both these texts are in the British Library
however access to them is restricted).
In the account of Abraham the Jew,
he is provided an unguent by a young Witch
that after rubbing on the principal pulses
of the feet and hands, created a sensation of flying.
Porta's account has a section which is entitled
'Laiarum Unguenta', "Witches Unguents",
in this he describes the recipe of flying ointments.
Nightshades of all three varieties were
often grown in the 'Witches Gardens' of folklore.
These gardens would have three or four rows
of red flowers (geraniums, nasturtiums, red-hot pokers)
surrounding them as a defense against witch hunters.
These flowers were known as "witch soldiers".
Herbs, like Nightshade, gathered
for 'black magic' had to be gathered
during certain phases of the moon, and they had
to be gathered from a spot that the sun had not touched,
since witches' work cannot stand the light of day.
It was said to be best to collect
an odd number of sprigs, and best was 7 or 9.
To make potions, three kinds of wood
had to be used to boil the water.
Witches would keep a variety
of different flowers growing in the garden,
so that she had flowers
from every group in her flora chart.
This would allow her to have power
over people with every birthsign.

SOURCE(S)

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