| Healing Potions & How To Make Them A healing potion adds +1 to chirurgy, medicine and wound recovery rolls. These potions are quite easy to make and a skillful healer can craft several potions a day. Typical ingredients of the healing potions are: herb + vinegar used for burns, bites, skin ointments, cough, flu, antidotes herb + almond oil used for ointments herb + nut oil used for ointments herb + laurel oil used for ointments herb + grease ( e.g. calf, goat, goose, pig, slug, snake) used for ointments herb + wax used for ointments herb + dung used for ointments herb + milk used as a drink herb + water used for tea herb + white wine used for antidote to poisons herb + red wine used for antidote to poisons, cough, parasites, heart diseases herb + hydromel (honey, water) used for fever, cough, stomach ailments herb + oxymel (honey, old vinegar, sea salt, water used for boiling) used for fever, cough, snake bites herb + oxyalme (salt, fresh vinegar, water used for boiling) used for fever, cough, snake bites herb + rain water used for cough herb + sapa (boiled grape juice) used for fever ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Tinctures Begin with a good supply of dried plant materials. Fresh herbs won't work due to their water content. Consult the list of recommended herbs on these pages or experiment on your own. Grind the dried herbs that are to be tinctured in your mortar and pestle. Reduce to the finest possible powder. This is especially important with woods such as sandalwood; you may wish to buy them pre-ground. Next, empower the herb, keeping in mind the magickal goal of the tincture you're about to make. Pour the herb into a small bottle with a tight-fitting lid. Using a small funnel, pour just enought ethyl alcohol into the bottle to wet and cover the herb. Cap tightly. Shake the bottle vigorously every day for a week or two. Every time you shake, visualize the tincture's magickal goal. Then, using a coffee filter (or a piece of cheesecloth laid in a strainer), strain the alcohol. The scent may be strong enought at this point-it usually is with gums such as frankincense and myrrh. If not, add more herb to the bottle and pour tha alcohol over it. Do this quickly; alcohol evaporates when exposed to air. Let this sit again and repeat the process, shaking every day. The alcohol should become heavily scented and colored. If it doesn't you're using a plant that isn't readily soluble in alcohol. Add a bit of water to the alcohol and try again. To correctly determine whether the tincture is properly scented, apply a drop or two to your wrist. Wait until the alcohol has evaporated and then sniff. Many tinctures won't smell true in the bottle. When the plants scent has completely overpowered the sickly-sweet alcohol odor, filter it one last time, bottle, add a few drops of castor oil or glycerine to stabilize the fragrance, and label and store in a cool place out of direct sunlight until needed. Using Tinctures One use is scented incense papers. This seems to work best with gum and resin tinctures or with any heavily fragranced tinctures. Some tinctures can be used to anoint the skin, to bring the plant's power within you, but try this out on a small area of the skin at first. Some tinctures can be irritating to the skin, while others leave rather nasty stains or gummy, sticky residues. Such as frankincense and copal tinctures. Lavender, clove, patchouly and many other tinctures are fine for anointing purposes, but all alcohol-based tinctures can dry sensitive skin. You can also use them to anoint magickal tools, sachets, candles and jewelry; added to bath water, mixed in with oils, added to ointments and so on. A few quick notes: ethyl alcohol will quickly take scents from such spices as clove and star anise. Gums such as frankincense, myrrh, benzoin and copal also work well, though the results, as mentioned above can be rather gummy. |
 |
 |
 |