Mandrake
Mandrake became famous in magic andwitchcraft because of its powerful narcotic effects and the bizarre form of its root. It would be difficult to find a better example of the application of the philosophy of the Doctrine of Signatures. For the root of the herbaceousperennial, unassuming in its growth appearance, is so twisted and branched that it occasionally resembles the human body. This extraordinary resemblance led early to the belief that it exercised great supernatural powers over the human body and mind, even though actually its chemical composition gave it no greater psychoactivity than some other normal shaped species. From earliest times, curious beliefs about the need to exercisegreat care in harvesting the root grew up. Theophrastus in thethird century B.C. wrote that collectors of medicinal plants drewcircles around Mandrake, and they cut off the top part of theroot while facing west; the remainder of the root was gatheredafter the collectors had performed certain dances and recitedspecial formulas. Two centuries earlier, the Greek Pythagoras had described Mandrake root as an anthropomorph or tiny human being. It was in Roman times that magic began extensively to be associated with the psychoactive properties of the plant. In the first century A.D., Josephus Flavius wrote that there grew a plant in the Dead Sea area that glowed red at night and that it was difficult to approach the plant which hid when a man drew near it; but it could be tamed if urine and menstrual blood were sprinkled on it. It was physically dangerous to pull the plant from the earth, but a dog, tied to the root, was employed to extract the root, after which, according to belief, the animal usually died.
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