The image is burned into our collective brain. It’s midnight. A group of women, maybe smeared with strange ointments, are flying through the cold night air toward a clearing in the woods. They’re heading to meet the devil. They’re going to dance, feast, and renounce everything holy. This is the classic mental picture of witches going to their sabbath, a concept that fueled the Great Witch Heists of the 16th and 17th centuries and sent thousands of people to the gallows or the stake. But if you look at the actual trial records from places like Trier or the Basque Country, the reality is way more complicated than a spooky campfire story. It was a mix of hallucinogenic plants, mass hysteria, and a very specific kind of legal paranoia that basically invented a secret society that didn't exist—at least not in the way the inquisitors thought.
People actually believed this was happening. It wasn't just a metaphor. If you were a peasant in 1620, the idea of your neighbor sneaking out to a "Sabbat" or "Sabbath" was a terrifying, literal possibility.
Why the Sabbath Idea Even Existed
Before we get into the "flying" part, we have to look at where this idea came from. It didn't just pop out of nowhere. Medieval authorities were obsessed with the idea of a "counter-church." Basically, if God had the Mass, then the Devil must have a parody of it. This is where the Sabbath comes in. The word itself is a direct, and pretty anti-Semitic, theft of the Jewish Shabbat. Early persecutors wanted to link "heretics" with Jewish traditions to make them seem more "other" and dangerous.
Historian Carlo Ginzburg, in his seminal work Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath, argues that these stories were actually a mashup of two things: ancient shamanic traditions and the paranoid fantasies of the ruling elite. Ginzburg found records of the Benandanti in northern Italy—people who believed they left their bodies at night to fight evil spirits to protect the crops. When the Inquisition got a hold of them, they told the judges, "No, we're the good guys." The judges basically said, "If you're leaving your body at night, you're hanging out with the devil." And just like that, a pagan fertility rite was rebranded as a satanic sabbath.
The Flying Ointment Myth
How did they get there? That's the question everyone asks. The "broomstick" thing is the famous answer, but the actual court transcripts often talk about "flying ointments."
Honestly, this is where the science gets wild. These recipes usually contained plants from the Solanaceae family. We’re talking about Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), Hyoscyamus niger (henbane), and Datura stramonium (thornapple). These plants contain alkaloids like atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine. If you rub these onto your skin—especially thin skin—they absorb into the bloodstream. They don't make you fly. They make you hallucinate. They cause a sensation of "transcendental flight" and vivid, often terrifying or erotic, visions.
Writers like Joni Seager and various ethnobotanists have pointed out that a woman using a herbal salve to induce a trance state is a far cry from a literal flight to a mountain top. But to a 17th-century judge, there was no difference between a drug-induced dream and a physical journey. If you saw the devil in your sleep after using an ointment, you were guilty.
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The Geography of the Sabbath
It wasn't just "the woods." Specific places became infamous as the "headquarters" for witches going to their sabbath.
- The Brocken: The highest peak in the Harz Mountains of Germany. This is the site of Walpurgisnacht.
- Mora, Sweden: In 1668, a massive panic started here when children claimed they were being taken to a place called "Blockula."
- The Cave of Zugarramurdi: Located in the Basque Country of Spain, this cave was said to be the site of massive gatherings. In 1610, the Logroño auto-da-fé saw dozens of people accused of attending feasts here.
In Zugarramurdi, the descriptions were vivid. People talked about "The Great Goat" (Akerbeltz in Basque) presiding over the meeting. But if you visit the cave today, it’s just a massive, impressive natural tunnel. There’s no evidence of thousands of people gathered there, but the belief that it happened was enough to destroy lives.
What Actually Happened at a Sabbath?
According to the "experts" of the time—men like Pierre de Lancre or Johannes Nider—the Sabbath followed a strict schedule. It was almost like a corporate retreat from hell. First, there was the "Osculum Infame," or the shameful kiss, where followers would kiss the devil's backside. Then came the banquet.
Interestingly, the food at these sabbaths was almost always described as "disgusting." Accused witches often testified that the meat was cold, there was no salt, and it didn't satisfy their hunger. Why? Because salt was a symbol of wisdom and incorruptibility in Christian tradition. A devil's feast couldn't have salt.
The Legal Trap
The Sabbath was the ultimate "conspiracy theory" of the early modern period. Because it was supposedly a secret meeting, it allowed judges to use "spectral evidence." If a witness claimed they saw your spirit at the Sabbath while your physical body was asleep in bed, that counted as proof. You couldn't have an alibi. You were literally trapped by the logic of the supernatural.
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Historian Brian Levack notes that the Sabbath was a "cumulative concept." It wasn't one single belief but a bunch of different fears—heresy, poison, night-flying, and sexual deviance—all rolled into one big, scary ball.
The Shift to Modern Paganism
By the time the 20th century rolled around, the idea of the Sabbath took a hard turn. Margaret Murray, an anthropologist whose work has mostly been debunked but was hugely influential, claimed that the "witches" were actually members of a surviving pre-Christian fertility religion. She reframed the Sabbath as a joyful, natural celebration of the "Horned God."
While historians like Ronald Hutton have shown that there is no direct "unbroken chain" from ancient pagans to 17th-century "witches," Murray’s ideas laid the groundwork for modern Wicca. For contemporary practitioners, witches going to their sabbath (now often called Sabbats) isn't about the devil or flying on brooms. It’s about the "Wheel of the Year."
There are eight major Sabbats in modern paganism:
- Samhain (Halloween/New Year)
- Yule (Winter Solstice)
- Imbolc (Early February)
- Ostara (Spring Equinox)
- Beltane (May 1st)
- Litha (Summer Solstice)
- Lughnasadh (Harvest)
- Mabon (Autumn Equinox)
It’s a complete 180-degree flip. What was once a symbol of "anti-social evil" is now a framework for "seasonal mindfulness."
Why We Still Care
Why does the image of the Sabbath still show up in movies like The Witch or Hereditary? Probably because it taps into a deep, primal fear of the "secret meeting." We’re naturally suspicious of things happening in the dark, away from the eyes of the community.
But the real tragedy of the history of witches going to their sabbath isn't the monsters. It's the humans. It's the fact that for nearly 300 years, the European legal system was geared towards finding a secret society that wasn't there. They used torture to extract "confessions" that confirmed their own nightmares. Once a woman was forced to "confess" that she flew to the Brocken, the judges had the "proof" they needed to go after her neighbors. It was a self-sustaining loop of terror.
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Looking at the Evidence
If you want to understand this better, don't look at modern "spooky" books. Look at the primary sources.
- Malleus Maleficarum (1486): This is the "Hammer of Witches." It’s a hateful, misogynistic manual, but it shows exactly what the inquisitors were looking for.
- The Records of the Salem Witch Trials (1692): While the Sabbath wasn't as central in Salem as it was in Europe, the idea of "signing the Devil's book" at a meeting in the woods was a major part of the testimony.
- The Trial of Suzanne Gaudry (1652): Her testimony is heartbreaking. She eventually admitted to going to the Sabbath just to make the questioning stop, even though her descriptions were vague and inconsistent.
Practical Insights into the Folklore
If you are researching the history of the Sabbath for a creative project, a historical paper, or just personal interest, keep these distinctions in mind to avoid the usual clichés.
- Differentiate between "High Magic" and "Low Magic": The Sabbath was a "High Magic" concept—it was a theological conspiracy. Most real-life "village witches" were just people selling herbal cures or "cunning folk" who were actually quite religious.
- Check the Geography: A "Sabbath" in Italy (the Treguenda) looked very different from one in Scotland or Germany. Local folklore always bled into the "official" demonic narrative.
- Focus on the Ointments: If you want to ground the story in reality, look at the ethnobotany. The transition from "ingesting hallucinogens" to "flying on a broom" is one of the most fascinating shifts in human history.
- Acknowledge the Gender Gap: While men were accused, the Sabbath was overwhelmingly framed as a female space. This tells us more about the 17th-century fear of independent women than it does about actual magic.
The story of the Sabbath is a reminder of how easily "fake news" and collective anxiety can create a monster that feels totally real until you shine a light on it. It’s a lesson in how we project our fears onto the "other," and how those projections can eventually become a permanent part of our culture.