It´s the time again for toad migration.
Common Toads are very particular about where they breed and migrate back to their ancestral breeding ponds every year. They follow the same route, regardless of what gets in their way, which sometimes leads to them crossing roads. If you come across a toad on your way, treat it with respect and if necessary help her to continue her way unscathed.
The toad has a very rich folklore in Germany and other countries around the world.
According to popular beliefs, a toad (lat. Bufo Bufo) sitting by the roadside is said to be an enchanted witch,
just waiting to lead travelers and unbelievers astray.
Symbolically toads were associated with bad luck and witches, because all of them were ugly like toads with warts on the face. Handicapped people and people who did not correspond to the ideal of beauty at the time have always been considered cursed, bewitched or being the result of darkness and hell. Toads hopping around on the ground (just like anything crawling like snakes, newts, beetles) were associated with the underworld, the evil and the demonic.
Our ancestors compared the developmental stages of a toad with the triple goddess and as a symbol, such as growth and fertility. This also made the toad the messenger of the underworld and the dark side of the goddess.
The toad was also called a midwife helper and an important teacher and guide to the earth goddess among the indigenous peoples. Anyone looking for her contact only needed to turn to a toad, because only she knew the only correct way to the goddess.
The toad as a witch´s familiar
In the Middle Ages toads didn´t have it easy because they were driven away, skewered and crushed. The people believed that their golden eyes looks into a person's soul and thus betrayed them to the witches. Even a magic potion only became effective if parts of a toad or the whole animal were cooked in it because of its poison.
The so-called in German “Krötenstein” was supposed to be located in the head of the animal. The “toad stone” was considered to be a protective talisman should be able to recognize who was trying to harm a witch. On the bottom of a drinking cup or placed under the tongue it should protect against poisoning as well.
The poison of some toad species, which is said to be similar to LSD, was probably also a component of some witch ointments.
Anyone who knew about magic also knew how gold is made from toads. Even today,
the German word "Kröten" (toads) is used for the word money.
At the same time both the toads was life giver and life taker. There are toad rituals to protect property and livestock and toad spells to bring sickness and calamity.It is said as well if you didn't know about the secrets of life, stupid words in the form of toads jumped out of your mouth. The toad is the bearer of messages and if you listen carefully to them, they can point you to profitable opportunities or hidden talents that may be revealed.
A part or the whole toad was also often included in spells such as for example in love spells.
If a boy wanted to win a young girl for himself, he only had to take the skeleton or the claws of a toad, put the items secretly
to the dress or the skirt of the girl and the love for him would blossom.
Toads are also often referred as the witches' familiars ... but what does that mean?
Familiar are spirits who come into the witch's life to instruct them, to give them protection and to help them with their magic. These spirits were seen by the witches themselves as nature spirits, who showed themselves to the witches in the form of animals such as cats, owls, martens, toads and mythical creatures, sometimes as hybrid beings or in human form. Some of these spirits could also change their shape and so the same spirit of the witch could sometimes appear as a beautiful man, sometimes as a rabbit or black dog. From the point of view of the inquisition and the church, these spirits were of course interpreted as demons and it was believed that the devil had sent these familiars to the witches. Many witches themselves testified that the ghosts appeared while they were out in the woods or when they needed help at a crossroads and they received their familiars from there. The witches of the early Middle Ages also received their guardian spirits from the witch queen or witch goddess. The toad was more than just a pet for a witch.
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