Here's an extract from a new book called
Love Philtres by
Jon G. Hughes. The subtitle is
The Magicis Materiae of Witches, Cunning Folk, Druids, and Conjurors. It's published by Inner Traditions International and Bear and Company:
Ethics Governing Love Magic
Cautionary Considerations on the Dangers of Crafting and Using Love Philtres and Other Love Magic Devices
One of the enduring dichotomies of the use of love potions is whether they may be cast with a genuine desire to enhance and direct an individual’s loving emotions toward another, or whether their use is a planned and deliberate attempt to coerce, entrap, or subjugate an unwitting individual, by someone wishing to manipulate and control them. The simple answer to this prevailing question is that, like all other forms of magic, Love Magic’s purpose and use is ultimately dependent upon the integrity of the adept employing it. Without exception, every aspect of magic is open to deliberate abuse, distortion, and exploitation. Similarly, every element of magic may be misused unintentionally, through the ignorance or lack of experience of the newly initiated adept. For millennia, the teacher–learner paradigm of the Druidic tradition has ensured that no neophyte can inadvertently misuse their burgeoning powers. However, there are no safeguards to prevent an experienced adept who is fully conversant with the ethics governing the use of all Love Magic from deliberately misusing the powers and knowledge they possess.
With this in mind, I make no apologies for choosing this section on the ethics and dangers of Love Magic as the first that readers encounter in this book, and I have little doubt that it may also be the most contentious. Since the earliest mention of the use of Love Magic recorded in the cuneiform tablets of the ancient Near East around 2300 BCE, we see repeated examples of the use of Love Magic as a means of coercion and entrapment, in a way that would most certainly be considered inappropriate, if not illegal, in the majority of today’s societies. While it may be easy to demonize the use of animal organs, human corpses, and many of the other bizarre substances used in these early love philtres, it should also be remembered that the borders between magic, religion, and nascent science were nonexistent when these early accounts were recorded some 4,300 years ago, and that the social and cultural mores of the time were very different from today’s.
While the use of the “blood from a blind infant, the flesh of a dead brigand and the black dust from a decomposing tomb” are recommended ingredients of a love potion devised by the Italian Girolamo Folengo (1491–1544 CE) in his “Le Maccheronee” (1519 CE),1 this does not mean that such materials would be considered acceptable ingredients for a modern-day love philtre. However, does this imply that using love philtres per se must be dismissed out of hand, even if other, more palatable (and legal) ingredients were to be employed? Furthermore, just because the infamous Bavarian physician and alchemist Albertus Magnus (c. 1200–1280), also known as St. Albert the Great or Albert of Cologne, recommended that a particular love charm should be “given to her to drinke when she knoweth not, and she shal desire no other man,”2 does this therefore suggest that all love philtres, or “love charms” as he refers to them, must be administered secretly without the knowledge of the subject for them to be effective?
Historical accounts drawn from ancient Greece, classical Rome, the Near East, and other arcane sources, tell us that such philtres and potions were used by scheming, manipulative individuals who would cast a spell upon an unsuspecting ingenue for their own malevolent purposes. Few if any of these spells appear to have turned out well. Medieval texts and later references from Shakespearean literature reinforce the sinister aspects of the use of such love philtres, once again with predominantly dire consequences. It must be noted, however, that these historical and literary references surely represent a very small proportion of the many, many occasions when love philtres were used, and moreover, we have no reliable information on the success or failure of the efforts that went unrecorded. One thing is consistent across all these accounts, however, which is that none of them suggest that the recipients/victims knowingly consented to the administration of the love philtres.
There is not a single account that may be interpreted as: Girl meets boy. Girl falls in love with boy. Boy is not so keen. Girl says to boy, “I’ve made this special drink that I believe will make you love me deeply, even though you may not want to. Will you drink it please?” Boy replies, “That seems like a good idea! Pass me the bottle!”
No matter how hard you try, it seems impossible to interpret any of these ancient accounts as anything other than coercion when viewed within today’s societal mores. Having said that, it seems unlikely that a person with little or no affection for another would willingly consent to taking a draft that would alter their feelings in such a profound way, sacrificing their own free will to the whims of someone who, by definition, they have no real affection for. Taking a love philtres by mutual consent seems an extremely unlikely (and infrequent) event. Does this then leave us with a definition of all love philtres as being solely malevolent potions that may only be used for unwitting coercion and entrapment? This takes us to the core of the love philtres dichotomy: are they malevolent, manipulative concoctions used for ill intent, or may they be innocuous, beneficial philtres, innocently used to amplify and direct existing, unrecognized emotions with harmless and loving intent?
It is imperative that these challenging ethical dilemmas be considered and resolved by anyone intending to craft and use any form of Love Magic in today’s world.
About the Author Jon G. Hughes is from of a lineage of Druids that has been practicing for five generations in a remote area of Wales. He is now teaching the tradition at his home in western Ireland and gives workshops and seminars throughout Europe under his Welsh name, Cynon. Author of Sexual Practices of the Druids, he is the director of the Irish Centre for Druidic Practices.
Love Philtres is published by Inner Traditions International and Bear & Company, © 2026. All rights reserved. http://www.Innertraditions.com Reprinted with permission of publisher. Available wherever books are sold.
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