For centuries, three plants have stood at the crossroads of medicine, magic, and myth… the dark flora of the witch’s garden.

Henbane, Mandrake, and Deadly Nightshade form the unholy trinity of Old World witchcraft.

They belong to the Solanaceae family, rich in tropane alkaloids (scopolamine, atropine, and hyoscyamine); chemicals that distort perception, dissolve bodily boundaries, and induce vivid hallucinatory states.

In folklore, they are the plants of flight and transformation, used by witches in flying ointments, love philters, hexes, and necromantic rites.

Pharmacologically, they are anticholinergic deliriants, producing true hallucinations indistinguishable from reality.

Poisons that can kill as easily as they enchant.

Let’s break them down one by one.

The Hexing Herbs: Witches, Prophets, and the Poison Path

1) Mandrake

(Mandragora officinarum)

You'll likely recognize Mandrake from Harry Potter.

Its bifurcated root, eerily resembling the human form, led early Christians to believe it was God’s first experiment — a prototype before Adam in the Garden of Eden.

That same human likeness gave rise to the legend of the “Screaming Mandrake,” said to shriek lethally when torn from the earth.

To harvest it safely, witches and alchemists tied a black dog (a color associated with death and evil) to its stem; the dog would pull the root free and perish in the harvester’s place.

Mandrake was used in love spells, fertility charms, and necromancy; it was often carved into humanoid dolls, which were kept as familiars or talismans.

It was also a key ingredient in soporific sponges, primitive anesthetics used to induce deep sleep before surgery.

2) Henbane

(Hyocyamus niger, H. albus)

Used in ancient Greece and Rome, Henbane was brewed as a poison to mimic madness or by oracles, such as the priestesses at the Oracle of Delphi, to induce prophetic trances.

It was also valued for its painkilling properties, administered to ease the suffering of those facing torture or execution, numbing pain while ushering the mind into complete oblivion.

However, Henbane is best known as a key ingredient in the witch’s salve, used to initiate or anoint those entering the path of witchcraft.

The Henbane intoxication begins with a pressure in the head, as though the eyelids are pressed closed by unseen hands.

Sight warps, objects distort, and bizarre hallucinations unfold until one slips into uneasy dreams — with sleep as the only antidote to the lingering spell.

3) Deadly Nightshade

(Atropa belladona)

Deadly Nightshade, or Belladonna, is perhaps the most infamous of the witch’s herbs.

Its name means “beautiful woman” — a nod to the Renaissance practice of using its sap as an eye drop to dilate the pupils, lending a dark, seductive gaze.

It was used to relieve pain, induce sleep, and, in higher doses, to summon hallucinations or death itself.

In witchcraft, Belladonna was an essential ingredient in witches' brews and flying ointments, believed to lift the spirit from the body and send it soaring through the night.

The Witches’ Flying Ointment

All three herbs appear in recipes for the Witches’ Flying Ointment, a transdermal potion that enabled witches to “fly to the Sabbath.”

Mixed with the fat of a stillborn child and applied to the skin or mucosa (even vaginal application), it bypassed the gut’s lethal dose threshold and delivered a hallucinatory state described as:

• Rising through the air
• Dancing with spirits
• Erotic communion with shadowed figures
• Returning with no memory, as though awakening from another realm

The “broomstick” legend likely originated from this mode of application. The ointment was rubbed on with a staff or wand to induce the visionary state.

Three violently mind-bending herbs

From ancient Egypt to Greece, from medieval covens to modern occultists, these mind-warping herbs have long been the backbone of witchcraft, folklore, prophecy, and even medicine.

The psychedelic experience they induce is not luminous or transcendent. It’s shadowed, disorienting, and sinister.

Unlike classical psychedelics, these plants are deliriants that conjure hallucinations completely detached from waking reality — visions that feel real, but bear no truth. The beings one meets are not benevolent.

Side effects include:

• Hallucinations
• Muscle spasms or convulsions
• Confusion and delirium
• Amnesia or psychosis
• Blurred vision and dilated pupils
• Fever, tachycardia, dry mouth
• Coma and even death

Giambattista della Porta — the Italian scholar, polymath, and playwright — once wrote of their intoxication:

All three of these hexing herbs are deeply toxic; potent enough to warp the mind or stop the heart.

For no reason should they ever be consumed.

Wishing you an enchanted Halloween,

Onjae