The Mandrake – A Plant For All Seasons
In the annals of folklore and superstition, few plants could have been studied more than the Mandrake. Also known under its ancient name of Mandragora, it is mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible in Genesis 30:14-19. Tales of this remarkable plant and its properties however, predate even the Bible.
According to folklore, the Mandrake was fashioned from the same clay that God created Adam from and interestingly enough, some mandrake plants do have an odd resemblance to the human form, both male and female. It was also said that the Devil took a great liking to the plant, which is the reason why the Mandrake has such a nefarious reputation and is associated with underground demons and other supernatural entities. Because of this, it was greatly prized by sorcerers and witches alike but the obtaining of the plant was supposed to be extremely perilous to say the least.
Extracting The Mandrake
It was said that the best place to find mandrakes was at the sight of executions or where dead men hung in gibbets. This was because the souls of those executed, believed to be the very essence of human evil, sank into the ground, directly beneath their mortal remains and created the roots on the way to hell. Evil is as evil does as they say, and any amount of evil was enough to attract a demon or two. Hence the belief that the Mandrake was attached to demons and evil spirits.
In order to procure a Mandrake from the ground, certain magical rites had to be addressed before hand. First of all, having found the plant, the sorcerer would wait until sunset or sometimes, the witching hour, 12.00am, before beginning the extraction. The soil around the plant was then loosened in order to further facilitate its removal. At this point, the sorcerer would draw three concentric circles around the plant with the point of a two edged sword that had never before drawn blood. These circles ensured that any demons drawn up with the plant would be trapped within them.
Reaching into the hole, a rope or chain was tied around the root at the first available place and the other end was fastened to a dog, preferably an all black one. Standing a good way back, the sorcerer would then place a musical horn to his lips while enticing the dog forward with some titbit or other. It was widely believed that, on being pulled from the soil, the Mandrake would utter a blood curdling shriek that would bring instantaneous death to all who heard it. Hence the need for the trumpet, for its shrill sound would drown out the scream of the plant. But something so potent and attached to demons, cannot be taken without a sacrifice. This is where the poor dog came into the equation. Hearing the scream, as it struggled forward to get at its treat, it would fall down dead, as if felled with an axe. Once above ground, the plant would cease its screeching and the forces of evil would be satisfied with the sacrifice of the canine.
Over the following centuries, it was said that the dog developed an immunity to the cry of the Mandrake and, by the onset of the 16th Century, the poor beasts were dispatched with sword at dawn the following day and buried in the place where the Mandrake had been drawn from. The powers of evil demanded a life for a life and the taking of the Mandrake plant was classed as murder by the powers of darkness. The burial of the poor animal was done under a complicated and blasphemous ceremony, the dog being raised to a position of saviour to the community. The Mandrake was used for numerous magical rites but it was also a great medicinal plant.
The Mandrake In Medicine
Pedanios Discorides, (AD 60) known world wide as “The Father Of Pharmacy” was a Greek physician who served in Nero’s army. He travelled extensively with the legions throughout Europe and the Near East and wrote a treatise on over six hundred plants in his Materia Medica, Materials of Medicine. It was a series of short accounts about plants and their properties in accordance with medicine. So good is Pedanios’ write up on the plants that they have formed the central core of all research done since. In fact, his original composition was so finely written that it took pride of place in the Imperial Library of Vienna, a great seat of learning in days gone by. So good was this manuscript that in 512 AD, it was presented as a wedding present to the lady Juliana Anicia, daughter of Anicius Olybrius, the Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
Many of the Mandrake’s medicinal properties have been supported and confirmed by modern, medical research. The roots of the plant produce an alkaloid which can be used as a narcotic and a local anaesthetic and which is related to the antropine group. The Mandrake belongs to the order of Solanaceae, from which we get the plant of Deadly Nightshade. Mandrakes are also known as “Love Apples” because of their sometimes resemblance to the fruit and the fact that they are supposed to be a potent aphrodisiac. Because of this, the Romans associated it with the Goddess of Love, Venus, also known as Mandrogoritis.
The Mandrake In History
According to Homer, author of the Illiad and the Odyssey, Mandrake was the drug that the sorceress Circe gave to the sailors accompanying Odysseus on his homeward journey from Troy, by which she was able to facilitate their transformation into pigs. In 230 BC, Theophrastus of Eresus, a pupil of the eminent Aristotle and classed as the “The Father Of Botany”, declared that men, digging for Mandrake, “needed to protect themselves with garlic, which is accredited with the power to preserve the bearer from sorcery, witchcraft, and particularly, from vampires.” This is one the earliest records we have of garlic being used in conjunction with garlic.
The 1st Century Jewish writer, Josephus mentions a herb called “barras” from the Hebrew ba’ar, (to burn). Modern research leaves us in no doubt whatsoever that he refers to the Mandrake and he accredits it with the power to draw demons out of the possessed. Josephus was the first to mention the plants extrication from the ground using a dog. It was also, rather horribly, used under the name of morion, or death wine, given to those about to suffer grievous torture, to make them insensible and tolerable to the great pain that was about to be inflicted upon them. I mean, God Forbid they should pass out too soon or worse, die from shock. Personally, this makes my blood run cold. However, this use of the plant gets worse. Under Roman rule, the womenfolk of those about to be crucified, were allowed to administer this drug to their men folk, which was exactly the same as the drug they tried to administer to Christ as He hung dying on the tree. Because it is such a powerful anaesthetic, it can produce death like symptoms in the taker, a fact that the Romans were acutely aware of, and so, after a body was taken from the cross as dead, and occasionally claimed by family members, the Roman soldiers were ordered to first mutilate it to ensure that it was, in fact, bereft of life, before handing the remains over to the relatives.
Pythagoras called the plant “Human Bodied” because of its human like form while the mediaeval magician, Roger Bacon, said of it, “a root whereof witches made an ugly image, giving it the form of a face on the top of the root”. The Arab herbalist, Ibn Beithor, referred to the plant as the “the Devil’s Candle”, a title drawn probably, from the glistening, glowing appearance of the Mandrake at night, a luminosity that can be accounted for by the nesting of numerous glow worms in its ample foliage. It was probably by this same fact that the Moors referred to it as “The Lamp Of The Elves” Beithor goes on to state that King Solomon himself kept a sliver of Mandrake in his famous ring and by it, he was able to hold sway over the Djinn and demon hordes. He goes on to further state that Alexander the Great’s conquest was due, in no small account, of him having the power of the Mandrake with him, with its abilities to cure all kinds of maladies and a wide range of elephantiasis, including loss of memory. The Arabs named the plant Abdul Selam, “servant of health”.
As mentioned above, the Mandrake is mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible. Reuben, son of Leah, finds some sweet, yellow berries, around the size of an apricot and takes them back to his mother. On seeing the fruit, Leah’s sister, Rachel asks; “Give me, I pray thee, of thy son’s mandrakes…” This is an obvious referral to the plants potent aphrodisiac properties for it helps the once barren Rachel conceive of one of the greatest prophets in history, Joseph. Although the ancient Egyptians were highly knowledgeable of the Mandrake, it is from the ancient Greeks that most of the folklore regarding the plant originates. Pliny the Elder, the 1st Century Roman writer, drawing his information from the Greek tales and following in the footsteps of his mentor, Theophrastus states, that in order to pluck the most dangerous of all plants, the harvester must first anoint himself with oil, hands and face. He must then avoid facing into the wind as he traces the three circles with his sword and then commence digging while facing towards the west.
There are two varieties of Mandrake, both of which, because of their appearances, added to the folklore and superstition surrounding the plant. Mandragora vernalis, is generally believed to be the male variety while Mandragora autumnalis is considered to be the female. The latter is also the more robust of the two so, no change there then lads. This dual classification of the plant had a strong appeal in the popular minds of the mediaeval Europeans, aiding the spread of folklore and superstition surrounding it and which has survived to the present day. In England we have both these varieties, the Spring Mandrake and the Autumn Womandrake. Both are identical. St Hildegard in her Physica, liber 1 “De Plantis” says of the Mandrake, “It is hot, something watery, and formed of the moistened earth wherewith Adam was created; hence it is that this herb, being made in man’s likeness, ministers much more than other plants to the suggestion of the Devil; according to man’s desire good or evil may be aroused at will, as was done aforetime with idols”. In this discourse she mentions the fact that the plant can and does, resemble the forms of both male and female, masculi hujus herbae, the male, and species feminae hujus herbae, the female. The writers of the Middle Ages drew on this distinction regularly.
It was around the 11th Century AD when the Mandrake was introduced to English soil but its fearsome reputation had gone before it. In the 5th Century AD, Apuleius Platonicus composed a treatise entitled Herborium of which the final chapter is given over to very detailed account of the Mandrake. Of it, Apuleius states, “When thou seest its hands and its feet, then tie thou it up. Then take the other end and tie it to a dog’s neck so that the hound be hungry…” Unfortunately this beautiful manuscript was damaged by fire and now resides within the hallowed halls of the British Library. Fortunately however, the illustration that went with it, remained largely un-scorched. It depicts a dog bound by a chain to the plant and in the process of hauling it up from its nesting place in the earth. The plant has been drawn in a rough, human form and has leaves sprouting from the top of its head as if it were hair. Apuleius also declared of the Mandrake that, “it shineth at night like a lamp”. There is also a belief that elephants consume the Mandrake in order to arouse their sexual desires.
The Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc, always declared that the voices she heard were those of St. Michael, St. Margaret and St. Catherine. Her accusers however, stated that she heard evil spirits and some even said that what she heard were audio hallucinations, brought about by the Mandrake they believed she carried, secreted in her bosom.
Because the Mandrake grows in the dark, many clairvoyants and mediums favour its narcotic properties in order to boost their powers when channelling the spirits, believing it to have an alliance with dark powers. In Europe it was commonly believed that the Mandrake sprouted from the semen, involuntarily ejaculated by men, who were hanged and so was most likely to be found at the foot of the gallows. The botanist John Gerard wrote; “There hath beene many ridiculous tales brought up of this plant, whether of old wives, or some runnagate surgeons or physicke-mongers I know not… that it is never or very seldome to be found growing naturally but under a gallowes, where the matter that hath fallen from the dead body hath given it the shape of a man; and the matter of a woman, the substance of a female plant.”
Of course the Mandrake wasn’t always found at the foot of the gallows and there were obvious explanations for this. Either the miscreant who had been hanged was innocent and was forced into confession of the crime under torture or, he had been a thief, born of a family of thieves and that his mother had stolen while he was in the womb. It is common knowledge that when the spinal chord is severed due to the broken neck brought about by hanging, it can bring about an erection. Mandrakes cut free from the foot of the gibbet were called Little Gallows Man and strict rules had to be observed.
Using the dog, it could only be uprooted on a Friday evening just before sunset. As soon as it left the ground, it was cut free from the body of the canine and taken home to be washed clean in red wine. After this it was dressed in a garment of either white or red silk and placed in a box. This ritual had to be observed every following Friday at sunset and dressing it in a new garment at each new moon. Should these rules be observed, then the benefits were great. The Little Gallows Man would speak when spoken to and tell of future events. Those who possessed the Mandrake and kept to all these rules would have no enemies and never go hungry for, by placing a gold coin, beside the plant at night before retiring to bed, they would awake in the morning to find their coin had doubled. If this procedure was carried out too often however, the Mandrake was apt to succumb to stress and die. If properly looked after, the plant would thrive. It was always passed down to the youngest son by tradition instead of the oldest. In order for the Mandrake to keep blessing the new owner it was imperative that the previous owner was laid to rest in a certain way, burying him with a piece of bread and a coin. The bread so that he should not go hungry on his journey to the after life and the coin to pay Charon, the Ferryman. If this procedure was not carried out to the letter, then the magical properties of the plant would dissipate.
There are so many things I could say about this magical plant and its properties but perhaps I’ll leave that for another day. I hope I have given the reader an insight into the superstition and history of this remarkable plant, no matter how small and that you enjoy the article. It just remains for me to say God Bless and the Very Fondest of Wishes to you all.
