Why Did We Start Believing Witches Fly? The Dark 15th-Century Origin of Night Flights and Flying Salve

The iconic image of flying witches soaring across a full moon was born not out of ancient folklore or harmless fairy tales, but from a calculated panic engineered by 15th-century European authorities. Church officials and judges convinced themselves that a hidden demonic network was meeting in secret, requiring an impossible mode of transit to make their dark gatherings logistically plausible.

To explain how isolated individuals could regularly assemble across massive distances, demonologists needed an answer. Their solution was supernatural flight, powered either by the devil himself or through mysterious, sinister herbal recipes known as flying salves.

What started as a paranoid theory to justify demonic conspiracy allegations gradually morphed into one of the most enduring figures in global pop culture.

The Demonology Logistical Problem: Solving the Secret Coven

During the 1400s, fears of witchcraft transformed from localized superstitions into institutional terror. Inquisitors and secular magistrates began treating witches as organized foot soldiers in a coordinated war against Christendom.

This organized conspiracy presented an immediate practical question for early investigators: how could conspirators living miles apart in separate villages travel back and forth in a single night without being detected?

“If you want to believe witchcraft is a conspiracy, you have to think of a way that conspirators can meet up,” explains University of South Carolina professor Kathryn Edwards, who teaches classes on demonology and magic.

The concept of nighttime aerial travel solved that narrative puzzle entirely. Texts like the infamous 15th-century manual Malleus Maleficarum and visual artworks such as Hans Baldung’s The Witches cemented the idea that accused heretics were carried away under the cover of darkness with demonic assistance.

Potions, Hallucinogens, and Torture: The Reality of Flying Ointment

According to Washington and Lee University professor Mikki Brock, who specializes in the age of witch hunts, the early written accounts focused heavily on the supposed contents of special magical unguents rather than the mechanics of flight itself.

Villagers and authorities claimed these pastes were mixed from toxic botanicals or, in the most horrific accusations, the boiled remains of unbaptized infants. Accused individuals were said to rub these salves over their bodies or implements before taking off to the Witches’ Sabbath.

A coven of witches around a cauldron.

Even centuries ago, debates raged over whether these flights occurred physically or solely within the mind. Modern researchers frequently theorize that the recipes relied on psychoactive plants like belladonna and henbane that induced vivid hallucinations of flying.

Brock cautions against accepting the psychedelic theory at face value. A critical share of this testimony was never an authentic account of herbalism; it was extracted under intense physical torture and guided by the leading questions of inquisitors who had already decided what they wanted to hear.

Myth vs. Historical Record

Separating courtroom fiction from everyday reality reveals how dramatically clerical paranoia shaped the historical narrative.

From Farm Goats to Broomsticks

Long before the iconic broomstick took over Halloween displays, early European folklore envisioned far stranger methods of travel. Depictions from the 15th and 16th centuries showed accused sorcerers riding everything from spinning tools and pitchforks to farm animals.

Goats were particularly common mounts in woodcuts and sketches, chosen specifically because early church teachings closely associated horned beasts with the devil. Everyday domestic equipment dominated the myth because women primarily handled textile and household work.

The broomstick gradually took center stage over subsequent centuries as popular literature, stage plays, and illustrated stories streamlined the messy folklore into the standardized witch figure recognized across the world today.

The Modern Second Life of Flying Salves

While the witch trials faded centuries ago, the lore surrounding magical salves has found unexpected traction in modern alternative subcultures. Online marketplaces like Etsy feature dozens of boutique listings for modernized herbal mixtures marketed as flying ointments.

Today’s crafters strip out the sinister, demonic connotations of the 1400s, instead promoting the balms for lucid dreaming, herbal meditation, and spiritual rituals. Sellers promise that herbal blends will calm the nervous system and induce sensations of lightness or weightlessness during deep rest.

What originated as evidence in capital trials has transformed into a wellness commodity, completing a centuries-long evolution from courtroom horror to digital trend.

💬 The journey of magical flight shows how easily social panic can harden into permanent cultural folklore.

✨ From forced inquisitorial confessions to everyday cottagecore aesthetics, the myth proved impossible to extinguish.

👇 Did you know the classic broomstick was once a courtroom accusation? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!