On Polliwogs, Witches & Charms
I almost stepped on this little one – thought it was a piece of leaf. The colours in the driveway, rust against grey, gravel and leaf litter. But a wind went rustling, and the thing moved unlike a leaf and I paused – lucky, for both toad and me.
Certainty perplexed when looking at him though – funny, had my head wrapped around tadpoles, and love the big toads out back with their belligerent bumps. I guess I hadn’t given much thought to the in between time, how does the wee polliwog become the grumpy toad?
Prompted to wonder, and now I know: eggs lain in spring pools, several days pass and they stir and shake loose from their gelatinous dreamings - then the transformations – does it hurt, the growing of those odd little gills? And then there is even more metamorphosing: in the turning of gills to lungs; in the absorption of their tails back into their bodies; in the growing of legs. All of that in the short span of just over a month.
Once they find their sea legs, many toadlets emerge from their shallow birthplace, but few survive. I wished the diminutive fellow in my driveway good luck and he hopped off to once again became one with the leaf litter. I left slowly, tiptoed, a good reminder that you never know what’s underfoot.
Of course, some folks find toads rather repulsive, what with all their warty bumps. And then there is that old association with witchcraft. In folklore, toads were assumed to be common familiars – it was thought that perhaps, on any given evening, a witch might treat her amphibian companion to a snack of her own blood. For a creature that regularly sheds its skin and then eats it, this might be just what the doctor ordered, a delectable culinary delight.
It was a bargain, of course, witch’s blood in exchange for toad’s poison. That is what they carry in the bumps (glands) behind their eyes, a toxin that makes a toad unappetizing to potential predators. But the venom also contains bufotenine, a serotonergic psychedelic.
Psychedelics (serotonergic hallucinogens) are powerful psychoactive substances that alter perception and mood and affect numerous cognitive processes.
- American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 2016
So their hallucinogenic properties, along with their skin-shedding & shape shifting, could not help but draw the attention of herbalists, folk medicine practitioners, alchemists and necromancers. Toad legs, bones, frogs worn as amulets, but more often the skins were dried and ground to dust.
The resultant “dust” does wonders, and cannot help to. It transmutes everything into perfect clarity, as the clarity of the Moon. It completely changes the perspective, as Mars is said to do. If you have imbibed the dust at a measurement of 3.2, and drink, based on your own perspective, you will find life-spirit which transcends and far outweighs the effort or cost you have put into the making of this product. … While undergoing the effects of the compound, the NOW is separated from the THEN/later.
- Michael Scot, 13th century alchemist, Liber Dedali, from Ars alchemie
Sadly for some toads, such as the Sonoran Desert Toad, the contemporary appeal of the psychedelic potential has led to poaching and an increase in unregulated trade or even illegal trade, some on the dark web. Poor toads, minding their own business, putting their wet toad minds to separating the Now from the Then/later - we just can’t leave them alone.
So much to consider with each individual creature we meet along our entangled paths – lots to learn, be careful about, be careful around. All the words this creature has been burdened with through history: witch, evil, bewitching, curses, spells, charms. I think this morning, the air filled with the intoxicating scents of choke cherry blossoms and poplar balsam, I’ll take toad for who he is, just a little charmer.
What a fascinating reflection on toads. You taught me things I didn’t know about frogs (where their poison was and that it was perception-changer) and made me think more deeply about how we perceive our world.
I just had a similar encounter with a toad in my yard. My first instinct was to start talking to him, and then laughed out loud as I did. I apologized for disturbing him, and wished him well.