VMs: Magic and Herbalism

["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@xxxxxxxx>]

Dennis notes, anent Baphomet,

>>I know the Baphomet picture in your link comes from the modern
Wicca/magic tradition; I saw it in A.E.Waite's *Handbook of Ceremonial
Magic*; his stuff in
turn came from the late medieval / early Renaissance grimoire tradition. 
Glen Caston posted extensively on the grimoire tradition at one time. 
Various books are available; Waite's book is an overview, although it's
very poorly written.  <<

Waite's book is written, IMHO, rather condescendingly.  He was a member
of the occult society, The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the
content of his Ceremonial Magic book is basically the same as *The Secret
Lore of Magic* by Sayeed Idries Shah, though the latter book is much
better written.  

Baphomet appears to be an idol of the Templars, and is discussed in Lewis
Spence's *An Encyclopedia of Occultism*.

On a folk-magical connection to herbalism, there's a strong link.  Much
of the herbal medicine of the period appears to have been based on the
"Theory of Signatures," that supposes that an herb to cure an ailment
will be more or less in the shape of what it would affect.  The herb,
scullcap, for instance, is supposed to affect the head.  It's interesting
to consider that many herbs had (and many still have) secondary "folk"
names.  For instance, St. John's Wort is sometimes known as Goat Weed,
Periwinkle is also called Devil's Eye, Mugwort is sometimes called Old
Man, Horehound is sometimes referred to as Bull's Blood, Elder is
sometimes called Old Lady, and Celandine is called Devil's Milk.  There
are also plants with "folksy" names -- Hound's Tooth, Adder's Tongue,
Lamb's Toes (actually Kidney Vetch) and the like.

I'm reminded of the Three Witches in *Macbeth* throwing Eye of Newt and
Toe of Frog into their potion, and have wondered whether these were folk
names for various herbs.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!
______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxx with a body saying:
unsubscribe vms-list