#ergotism

Corn Red Moon, 1990, Caroliner Rainbow Stewed Angel Skins.

Seigle d’Auvergne (Photo credit: The Partisan Baker) Imagine this: Lying on your filthy straw bed, one rat running pell-mell over your burning toes (or what’s left of them on your right foot) and another hovering like a vulture near your face, you groan and inhale the fetid odor of rot. Your left foot fell off yesterday — you vaguely remember your sister wrapping the shrunken, blackened flesh in…

Rosebay Willowherb (Fireweed)

Celibacy, Pretension

Epilobium angustifolium L. (1753)

The sentiment of celibacy arises from the rosebay willowherb's association with St Anthony, as in the French names such as 'herbe de Saint-Antoine' ('herb St Anthony').

St Anthony the Great (251-356, Coptic: Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲁⲛⲧⲱⲛⲓ) was a Coptic Christian who abandoned a life of wealth in Koma, Lower Egypt, to live as a hermit. According to tradition, although Anthony was plagued by temptations, he lived a strict ascetic life including celibacy, and a following of other ascetics grew around the abandoned Roman fort he had occupied in Pispir (now Der-el-Memun) in admiration of his devotion. Eventually, Anthony emerged from his solitude and instructed the disciples who had waited for him before again withdrawing to a home on Mount Colzim, where a monastery which bears his name, Der Mar Antonios, still stands.

As the first man to organise ascetic, withdrawn disciples in Christianity, he is also known as the 'Father of Monasticism', although Anthony himself did not establish a monastery. He is credited with miraculous healings, particularly from ergotism and skin diseases, variously under the label 'St Anthony's fire'.

Phillips calls rosebay willowherb 'his favourite flower', but the plant does not grow in Egypt, where Anthony spent his lifetime. The association appears to come from a belief that rosebay willowherb could cure 'St Anthony's fire'.

While rosebay willowherb is ostensibly edible and has had traditional medicinal applications, I have not viewed any evidence towards this remedy or any others, and furthermore, given it often grows in heavily polluted sites and can carry toxic heavy metals, I must discourage the reader, like St Anthony, from the temptation of consuming this beautiful plant.

Waterman compares this plant, growing by the water's side and bowing to the surface, to 'a vain woman, proud of her charms' (226), from whence arises the American sentiment of pretension.

Read more here on Glossa Hortensia:

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Why Fairy Ring mushrooms used to suck

Fairy ring mushrooms were considered really bad luck in Medieval Europe because it was believed that if you stepped into the circle the fairies would scoop your soul out and make off with it. Nobody would know it had happened. Not even you. You wouldn't have a clue you were essentially operating on battery power until you just keeled over for some reason.

How the stroke got its name

The word 'stroke' doesn't just cover the medical affliction. It's an archaic term for a blow, or a hit. What we now know as having a stroke was once believed to be an attack from the Fair Folk, as the term elf-stroke was used for a while. It eventually got shortened to just 'stroke'.

Changeling children

You remember the myths of the fairies stealing human children and leaving one of their own in the stolen child's place? That led to a lot of infanticide, but where it gets REALLY creepy is when one realizes that some of the indicators of a child being a changeling match up with autism symptoms...

How paranoia killed a third of Europe's population

Remember the witch craze in the Dark Ages? How everybody's grandmother got accused of witchcraft and so many people died? What you probably don't realize is that it extended to cats. All cats. ALL cats. Not just black cats, but cats in general were believed evil and killed off. This led to a nuclear explosion in the rat population, because you know what happens when you remove any prey species' main predator... And the rats coming off of trader ships were like "Holy shit, they're doing WHAT to your cats?! Grab our luggage, honey! We're moving in!" And what comes with rats? Fleas! Lots of fleas! And the rats coming off the trader ships had real nasty fleas, and THOSE fleas bore the Black Plague. See where I'm going? More rats, more fleas...

Bad bread, ball-tripping and Salem rye

There's a not-crazy hypothesis that the Salem Witch Trials took place because of bad bread. See, in Salem they ate mostly (if not all) rye bread, and rye is prone to a fungus called ergot. Ergot contains a diluted form of the active ingredient in LSD, and it builds up in the system of whoever eats it. Throw in some ignorance and a lot of paranoia, and...

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Ripper Street (2012–2017) The King Came Calling

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