Detailed examination of traditional European folk medicine and the healing arts of witches. Explores the forbidden "alternative" medicine of witches that was suppressed by the state and the Church and how these plants can be used today. Reveals that women's shamanic medicine can be found in cultures around the world. Illustrated with color and black-and-white reproductions of art dating from the 16th century. Witches' medicine is wild medicine. It does more than make someone healthy; it creates desire and knowledge, ecstasy, and mythological insight. In Witchcraft Medicine, the authors take the reader on a journey exploring women who mix potions and become healers; the legacy of Hecate; the demonization of the healing powers of nature and sensuality; the witch as shaman; and the plants associated with witches and demons. They explore important festivals of the year and the plants related to them, such as bats and marigolds as solstice herbs and vervain as a herb of the Día de los Muertos—Samhain or Halloween. They also examine the history of forbidden medicine from the Inquisition to today's drug laws, with a glimpse of how the sacred plants of our ancestors can be used again.