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A mandrake is the root of the Mandragora family of plant founds across Mediterranean region and throughout Europe. Variations apply but most have a thick, branched roots with almost no stem, sprout squat bell-shaped leaves, and bear yellow or orange berries.
Almost all of the plant is hallucinogenic or outright poisonous if ingested. Most notably the roots often resemble human figures, giving rise to a number of superstitious practices through the centuries.
Possibly the most abiding belief about the mandrake concerned its harvesting. Mandrake was often made into amulets for good fortune or a curative for sterility, making them sought after commodities.
The problem was that anyone who pulled up the root would be condemned to hell, and the mandrake root would scream and cry as it was pulled from the ground, killing anyone who heard it. The solution was to tie a dog or farm animal to the root and scare it to run away,
thereby making the animal the reaper of the mandrake’s fate. Once the dog was dead the mandrake would stop screaming and could be safely handled.
Another superstition held that a mandrake could only grow under the tree used to hang a criminal. Blood from the criminal’s left hand would drop to the soil and here a mandrake would germinate.
There are several mentions of the plant in the Bible, most memorably in Genesis 30. Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob and Leah, finds a mandrake in a field. Rachel, Jacob's infertile second wife and Leah's sister, desperately wants to use the mandrake in a potion
to help her conceive and barters with Leah for it. In return Leah asks to spend the night in Jacob’s bed. Because of their deal it is Leah who therefore gives Jacob another son.
The mandrake pervades into the 19th century as a magical ingredient, as explained by occultist Jean-Baptiste Pitois in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤:
"Would you like to make a Mandragora, as powerful as the homunculus (little man in a bottle) so praised by Paracelsus? Then find a root of the plant called bryony. Take it out of the ground on a Monday (the day of the moon), a little time after the vernal equinox.
Cut off the ends of the root and bury it at night in some country churchyard in a dead man's grave. For 30 days, water it with cow's milk in which three bats have been drowned. When the 31st day arrives, take out the root in the middle of the night
and dry it in an oven heated with branches of verbena; then wrap it up in a piece of a dead man's winding-sheet and carry it with you everywhere."
Medicinal use of mandrake takes an experienced herbalist; a poultice of grated root can reliever rheumatic pains, a mandrake tea can treat melancholia, convulsions or mania, and in the right quantities can it successfully induce unconscious for surgeries.
However when used as a deliriant accidental death is not uncommon. And it’s not quick. You are likely to experience intense bouts of vomiting, blurred vision, hyperactivity, dilation of the pupils, inability to urinate, racing heartbeat and hallucinations.
**Reminder that my little mandrakes are available in the etsy shop (link in bio), a great gift for the kitchen witch or homunculus collector in your life 
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**#folkhorror #mandrake #mandragora #kitchenwitch #homunculus #wicca #pagan #odinism #hangedman
