Following Mara's advice, I've made this thread for us to discuss herb lore and potion making.
I owned a book entitled "The Secrets of High Magic" by Francis Melville containing a recipe to make, what he termed, "sal salis" i.e. salt of salt. Unfortunately my copy was stolen, so this is purely from memory.
Sal Salis:
This salt is made from the ash of wood and could be used to create "oleum salis" which is in turn used to create powerful tinctures.
The recipe:
The recipe spoke of burning the wood of the tree which corresponds to the type of tinctures you wish to make with this salt. The fire must be started by the Sun, for maximal energy transference. Therefore, he suggested lighting a candle by means of a magnifying glass.
Once the wood has burnt out completely, collect the ash and grind it into a fine powder using a mortar and pestle.
Throw the powdered ash into a heatproof container and place it over the fire until the ash is completely white.
Remove the container from the heat and add rainwater to the ash, enough for it to be more liquid than paste.
Boil this mixture for approximately an hour, and filter the liquid.
Bury the ash in your garden, and bring the filtered liquid to a boil until all the liquid has evaporated.
What should be left in the container is a fine salt. This is the “sal salis”.
Oleum Salis:
To create the oil needed for tinctures, place the sal salis in a silver bowl outside before dawn. The dew will liquefy the sal salis and produce the oil.
Tincture:
Fill a bottel with oleum salis and the herb you wish to make a tincture of. Place this bottle in a dark place for a week. The oil should change colour as it absorbs the essential oil of the herb. Filter the tincture and pour the tincture into a dark bottle.
I have to reiterate that this is purely from memory, so if anyone knows the correct recipe, I would love to have it on record again.
Great post Lacoon! thanks for accepting my advice and i hope the members will take your lead in this thread, i am on my way on finding potions and stuff through my notebooks and books to fill up this baby ^.^ Well done.
Sorry I have been trying to read up on herb lore, obviously I tried finding sources on the internet much to my dismay keeps bringing up Runescape game for making potions, also I have not found anything in the Link Archive of our coven forum. I am now searching our forum and will be moving onto the SoM forum after if no luck. I am not ignoring this thread but am yet to find anything of value, I am trying.
