Weird Sisters Deciphering the Cauldron: Potion Bottle Project

I'm back with the next Deciphering the Cauldron post and potion bottle project!

I'm going to post more about the ingredients after my upcoming festival show, ArtoberFest/ Winter Springs Festival of the Arts, this weekend. So look for more of those posts over on Patreon after I've hauled everything back home and had a chance to get a few winks.

If you're a Patron, you know what the "eye" of a plant is from our last post.

And you also know there are several plants that have their own folk names that refer to their looks.

I've drawn the blossom that the plant is from, and it's one that humans have used for millennia. 

~Brassica nigra~

black mustard

Nope, not a real newt, but the eye of the plant does resemble a newt's eye. Teensy tiny and black when dried. Black mustard has varied use in folk medicine from colds to inflammation. It can relieve edema by stimulating the kidneys but it can also induce vomiting, so don't try it without an herbalist. 

But the question I come to with each ingredient;

Why "eye of newt"?

There are a few ways to go with this, and I think they are all correct.

It has to do with which side you're on concerning the role of the sisters, and the perspectives the author was simultaneously coddling and leaving open.Are they meddling hags, truly supernatural beings like the Fates, or are they a manifestation of Macbeth's inner demons?

• Black mustard seed is widely believed to be the seed Christ spoke of in His parable, and even that parable's meaning is debated within religious circles.  
• Black mustard seed holds a great deal of potential, energetically speaking, and its seeds germinate incredibly quickly. Once they drop, you'll almost certainly have a plant. 
• Black mustard seed is used in conjure work to confuse one's rivals.

This latter fact is the one I'm leaning toward, and also why I was early convinced that the author was not merely using gross sounding rhymes. This herb/spice is straight up used to sew confusion in enemies in witchy work, and the visions in Act IV are right in line.

 Whatever option you choose, it's an ingredient that is meant to crank the faith and potential of whatever you throw in after it.

Up next-Toe of frog.Any guesses? Now, on to some light fun. 

Snape approved Potion bottles for easy Halloweeny decor 

Start collecting bottles~

I gathered a box and instead of throwing them into recycling, I stashed them in there for a while. Another inexpensive option is the Dollar Tree or the dollar bin section of Michaels. I already had a few of these little containers, like the green bottle to the left, that I got for buck or two.

 It has a seal and everything, so storing actual herbs/flowers/seeds is an option, or even your loose crystals and beads.  I lose the hell out of those, so cute containers are fantastic. But tbh, the seal makes it perfect for making large watercolor washes and not needing to worry about them drying out. If you paint in washes, pick one up for that alone.

Sand paper will rough up the surface so that paint can stick to the plastic. With some plastic bottles, like this orange rx bottle, it looks kind of cool with just the sanded surface.

Craft paints are fine for this project. I made some washes to create a dirty, drippy effect.

 If you have sticky labels that won't come off- leave them! IMO, the more texture, the better.

 

 A couple layers of craft paint...

Glue for oozing drips and sticking on your cap adornments.

Things like rocks, twine, beads, etc. to make them look as bog witchy or sophisticated as you please.

Then you're ready to download and print out the labels.

If you're not a Patron and want to design your own, there are so many options!

I love parchment paper, but make sure to use a waterproof pen, or even better a pencil. Otherwise the glue could smear your drawing. 

The pdf page is a free download for level 2 Patrons. Individual jpgs will be available for level 3 Patrons soon.

(I'm especially fond of this one, b/c the beads I used resemble the hounds tongue flower and a real tongue <3.)

After you print out your labels, cut them and either use scrapbooking tape (great option if you don't want to leave the labels on year-round) or an all purpose glue and apply with a brush on the back and edges. If your glue was too watery and the ink smears a bit, lightly brush it around for an aged look.
OR you could print it out and start again. Patrons can print their downloads at home as often as they like. 

Allow the labels to dry, add any extra decoration you think it needs, and you should be good to go. 

My artemisia seeds are going in my Blind Worm's Sting jar, which is good, b/c those things are tiny and were going to get lost in my seed drawer. 

Put things inside;

 herbs,

the office kitty, secrets you'll take to the grave, etc.

I have my bottles on our hearth. Probably to stay. Fun Christmas with the family...

Visit my Patreon to support nerdy stuff like this & art projects and get weird printables like these.

 Toe of frog is up next!

What potion are you making?

~D. Renée

In the cauldron boil & bake...

 

The MOST wonderful time of the year is here! October may still be muggy and lush here in Florida, but it's always Samhain in my soul. 

I was born in the autumn and Midwestern fall was my season.

Perfectly cool days, cracking leaves underfoot, woodsmoke in the air and chilly nights. A Harvest or Blood Moon in the clear, twinkling autumn sky makes it easier to hear whispers through the veil.

  The one thing about Florida "fall" I'll give it, we can still plant and grow things. Gardening is my grounding go-to, so I'm okay with this trade off. These are crazy times. If I can't have a long walk in the cold, autumn air, I might as well be able to get down and dirty with muh plant babes.

 For my spooky autumnal Patreon project, this has worked out quite well.

Deciphering the Cauldron; Finger of birth-strangled babe; Foxglove. (It's only visible to the public for a limited time, so hurry over if you want a peek. It goes back to Patrons only this weekend.)
I go into what's actually behind all those weird and seemingly gross ingredients of the Weird Sisters witches brew in Macbeth. Hint- not really body parts. It's plants. Some are highly toxic. (Shocker!) Some are used in modern medicine, and a few are favorites of witchy types like Shakespeare (-cough--Francis Bacon-cough, sneeze, I have a cold, sorry) for astrological, folklore, and other various correspondences.

 I'll give you a taste of what's coming next, but fair warning- it's a toxic one. Even touching this ingredient can result in blistered skin. Most definitely don't eat it...

Fillet of a fenny snake, 

In the cauldron boil and bake

Macbeth, Act IV, S. I

Gross? Not exactly. As I've explained in the Foxglove post, most ingredients used in potions and brews by wise women were coded due to the secretive nature of their craft. This was for a few reasons, but the danger of laypersons fiddling about with potentially toxic plants was one of them. Also, King James hated witches, and Shakespeare really kicked up the nefarious a notch to pander to ol' Jimmy's disdain for the ladies of lore. 

Let's get down to it. 

Fillet = Filet = Meat

(Brits don't like to pronounce things the French way. Think Claret.)

Whenever an old Hedge Witch/herbalist/wise woman or even an alchemist  said to use the meat of a plant, they were referring to its fruit or berries.
We go over the corresponding secret code names for plant parts on the Patrons only post.

 Okay, then...

Wtf is a fenny?

It's nothing more than an archaic term for a boggy, wetland-ish area. Fenny = bog

So, we know we're looking for a plant in a boggy area that looks like like a snake and we need its "meat". Oh, wait! There's totally a plant that already is called "snake's meat" colloquially. Dang, Shakespeare made that really easy.

Cuckoo Pint / Arum Maculatum

aka; Lord's & Ladies, Naked Boys and Naked Girls, Arum Lily, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Soldiers Diddies, Starch Root, Adder's Root, Adam and Eve, the list goes on and on but, hey one more Cheese and Toast because that one's great, and heeeeere we go-

Snake's Meat

The plant obviously has quite a few names, and most of them refer to couples and doin' the deed, because of the spadix and spathe formation. It's pretty. It's cool. It's a plant. Humans are weird.

The entire plant contains raphides, calcium oxalate crystals. 

(Raphides under 600x magnification)

This means that if disturbed, the plant will produce these crystals, which will get onto you if you touch the plant. They are a skin irritant, and if eaten, your throat and airways can close.

That's just the rest of the plant. We need the berries.

Cool tidbit about these plants, they are little tricksters. To get a pollinator, they disguise themselves with a fecal scent and higher temperature than the surrounding air. This attracts owl-midges in particular. We'll come back to the owl-midge flies!

The bottom ring of female flowers is topped by a ring of male flowers on the spadix. The male flowers are then surrounded by a ring of tiny hairs that act as an insect trap. This keeps the insect stuck inside for a while. They eventually figure out ho to escape through a tiny hole, and they repeat the process on surrounding Arum plants, this time covered in pollen. 

The roots of the plant are large and hold a great deal of starch. It was actually used to starch the collars and ruffs of nobility and was the only way to make communion linen. You can imagine how hard that was on the hands of the women that had to do the work.

This was written in 1597 by John Gerard, 

 ‘The most pure and white starch is made of the rootes of Cuckowpint [i.e. lords-and-ladies], but most hurtfull to the hands of the laudresse that have the handling of it, for it choppeth, blistereth, and maketh hands rough and withall smarting’. 

Right. All for stiff collars? Jeesh. The root could actually be used for medicinal use and flour if cooked properly, but it was risky. 

Okay. So now that we know what a fillet of a fenny snake was,

why?

Well, what do you think?

Owl Midge photo from Cabinet of Curiosities

 We have the toxic aspect down, but keep in mind this is the first ingredient for the cauldron in this scene of Act IV. The sisters are kicking it up here for the visions/apparition prophesies.

I'm going to remind you that when they first said "Something wicked this way comes" at the beginning of the play, they certainly weren't talking about themselves. 

It was the overly ambitious and now murderous Macbeth. 

Macbeth who is represented within the play by an owl, Duncan by a falcon, and the Macduff family birds.

Macbeth the "obscure bird", or owl, that has killed, and plans to keep on killing. 

 If you want to see what's in the rest of Deciphering the Cauldron series, 

what's behind the printable line art page I came up with for Fenny Snake, or you want in on the upcoming potion bottle printables and  tutorial, head over to Patreon to pledge support and get access to more posts and free printables art & svg files.

 Thanks for stopping by, and be careful in your gardens. Always know your plants, and don't work with it if you aren't comfortable. See you pretties later!

I have to go catch a frog. Literally. There's tree frogs and toads all over the plants in the pool house. 

Frog poop everywhere. Tis the season!

 ~D. Renée