Thorn Apple
This thorn apple flower I found growing in the hills of Tamworth. John Gerard immodestly claimed in 1597 that
The juice of Thornapple, boiled with hog's grease, cureth all inflammations whatsoever, all manner of burnings and scaldings, as well of fire, water, boiling lead, gunpowder, as that which comes by lightning and that in very short time, as myself have found in daily practice, to my great credit and profit.
I cannot vouch for Master Gerard’s prescriptions or physic, but it is not uncommon for fallen humans to take something good in nature and put it too ill-use. This flower is also known as devil's snare and devil's trumpet for its occultic connotations. It is linked to Shiva the god of destruction in ancient Hindu lore and is an ingredient used in Haitian Voodoo practices to aid spiritism. Wood we use to make idols, stone for heathenish altars, wine for inebriation, food for greed. Let us not separate what God has joined, nor demote and corrupt what He created for good.
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Romans 1:22-23, NKJV
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