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How did folklore about nighttime spirit journeys influence beliefs about witches’ sabbaths?

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Oil painting The Witches' Sabbath by Francisco de Goya shows a group of figures in dark robes gathered around a crouching person, with eerie creatures flying in a moonlit sky. — Witchcraft *El conjuro* or *Las brujas* (“The Conjuring” or “The Witches”), oil on canvas by Francisco Goya, 1797–98; in the Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid.

Folklore regarding nighttime spirit journeys significantly shaped the development of the witches’ sabbath stereotype during the early modern period. Long-standing folk beliefs held that certain individuals, often women, traveled at night to participate in nocturnal revels with supernatural beings.1

Literate investigators and inquisitors reinterpreted these popular traditions through the lens of demonological conspiracy theories. For example, in 16th- and 17th-century Friuli, Italy, members of the benandanti—who believed their spirits traveled at night to protect community crops—were put on trial. Inquisitors rejected the benandanti’s own explanations, instead insisting that these nocturnal journeys were actually diabolical flights to attend Satanic gatherings.21

This reinterpretation transformed a visionary folk tradition into a central component of the "witches' sabbath" stereotype, where witches were accused of using special ointments or demonic mounts to fly to assemblies to worship the Devil. Consequently, these folklore-inspired spirit journeys were integrated into the broader, often coerced, narratives of Satanic conspiracy that fueled the early modern witch trials.312