A Wicca's Guide to Alchemy by Beatrice Porter

== Wicca’s Training Manual – ==
=== Alchemy, Part I – Elixirs of Aspects ===
==== Contents – ====
Elixir of the Bear
Elixir of the Cat
Elixir of the Drake
Elixir of the Hawk
Elixir of the Mongoose
Elixir of the Wolf
As always, all alchemical recipes should be made using crystalline
glassware to improve yield and purity.
=== Elixir of the Bear ===
“The elixir of the bear increases your resistance to
physical attacks, making your ‘hide’ thicker, and able to withstand heavier and
more costly blows.”
-       
Garret Morley, Harvest Wicca of Pyrewood
The ingredients list for this elixir is as follows:
-       
Sprigs of Wild Steelbloom, roughly equal to
three ounces
-       
A small vial of (CLEAN AND HEALTHY) bear saliva
-       
Pure Spring water, roughly equal to one bottle.
Treated.
-       
One ounce of crushed Mageroyal petals and/or
leaves
-       
One small vial of Mageroyal Oil
-       
A pinch of salts
Heat your mixing apparatus until too hot to touch, adding
the spring water and salt. Allow this mixture to reach a boil and remove the
heat. Add the dried Mageroyal leaves, stirring as added to insure the mixture
turns a vibrant green colour. If the mixture turns brown, the water has
over-boiled.
Once the mixture is infused, leave to set for roughly one
hour in a cool, dry room. Mix in the Mageroyal Oil to this set mixture, this
creating a sticky, viscous substance. Mix in the Wild Steelbloom sprigs, the
mixture blending into the green to form a near-purple hue. Bring this mixture
to the boil, allowing it to thin out into a translucent, water-like liquid. The
sprigs should rest at the bottom of the mixture.
Drain the liquid into a glass vial, leaving behind the
sprigs. Add the bear saliva and watch as the solution turns into a
near-transparent brown colour. Leave to rest for roughly a day or longer.
At the end, a solid brown liquid should have formed. Drain
this into a crystalline vial in order to keep the elixir fresh for longer.
=== Elixir of the Cat ===
“The elixir of the cat… For one who needs the ability to see
in the dark. Useful for guards or huntsmen, this elixir is an easy, yet potent,
way to enable drinkers to see in the dark.”
-       
Martin Cherise, Apprentice to the Royal
Alchemist, Gilneas
The ingredients list for this elixir is as follows:
-       
Extract of dwayberries (otherwise known as
nightshade), roughly one small vial
-       
Crushed carrot roots, exactly one ounce
-       
Marrow of cat, whether big cat or domesticated
-       
Pure Spring Water
Add pure spring water to a crystalline bottle, adding the
extract of dwayberries. Ensure thorough mixing of these elements. Begin to warm
the mixture, slowly adding the crushed carrot roots, stirring upon each
addition until the mixture turns an earthen brown hue.
Mash the marrow into a paste and slowly add the mixture,
filtering away the roots, into the paste. Heat this completely mixed substance
in a crystalline single run distillation column.
Take the purified mixture and place it into another
crystalline vial, leaving it to rest for a day or two before use.
=== Elixir of the Drake ===
“While regal in name, this elixir is a simple idea –
resistance to magic. While simple in idea and nature, the elixir itself is
difficult to procure, being very delicate and the ingredients difficult to
acquire.”
-       
Martin Cherise, Apprentice to the Royal
Alchemist, Gilneas
The ingredient list for this elixir is as follows:
-       
Crushed mana crystals, roughly half an ounce
-       
Fresh dragon scale, preferably red or black
-       
Pure Spring Water, one small bottle worth
-       
Cinderbloom Tonic (Cinderbloom extract and
salted water)
Prepare the Cinderbloom tonic by warming salted water with
Cinderbloom extract. Leave to rest while preparing the pure spring water, mana
crystals and dragon scale in a separate, reinforced crystalline bottle. The
mixture will effervesce fervently, allow it to do so. Once it has calmed, add
this mixture SLOWLY to the tonic. Stir thoroughly while adding.
Allow the mixture to settle, and then reheat several times,
letting the mixture turn a vibrant blue. Once this mixture is prepared, filter
out the crystals that remain and the depleted scale.
=== The Elixir of the Hawk ===
“The elixir of the Hawk is essential for hunters of big
game. Enhancing sight a hundredfold, and allowing the imbiber to spot minute
details, even from long range.”
-       
Garret Morley, Harvest Wicca of Pyrewood
The ingredients list for this elixir is as follows:
-       
The eye of a hawk, preferably male, unblemished
-       
Pure Spring Water
-       
Crushed Carrot Roots
-       
Infusion of Blackmouth and Firebloom (stamens)
-       
Dwayberry extract (few drops at most)
Lay the eye to rest in the water and sit for a day or two.
To prepare the Firebloom and Blackmouth infusion, take the
stamens from both plants and crush them to form a paste, adding salted water to
this until it becomes a viscous green liquid. Boil this and filter, continuing
to distil it readily over several days at low heat. This can be done while the
eye rests. Filter this infusion into a crystalline bottle.
Filter the pure spring water, leaving behind the eye, into
the distilled and filtered infusion slowly.
Finally, combine the crushed carrot roots and nightshade
drops to this new mixture, stirring vigorously.
Filter the remaining mixture into a crystalline vial and let
rest for roughly an hour.
=== The Elixir of the Mongoose ===
“The mongoose is a dangerous little blighter. Being both
aggressive and lightning fast, its aspect reflects that. The elixir of its
namesake lends itself to the imbiber by providing enhanced reflexes and speed.”
-       
Harold Gretchenwald, Physician, Lordaeron
The ingredient list for this elixir is as follows:
-       
Swift-thistle leaves, ground, half an ounce
brewed into a tea
-       
Black lotus petals, ground, half an ounce
-       
Pure Spring Water
-       
Wild Steelbloom sprigs, whole, including flower.
Quarter ounce
Brew the swift-thistle leaf into a tea, adding the leaves
into a black kettle (to keep in heat) and allowing to fully infuse for roughly
one hour.
While the tea is being prepared, cut the dry ingredient –
Wild Steelbloom and the Black Lotus petals, into one dish. Grind them together
to form very fine, near-powder flakes. Once this state is reached, add slowly
to spring water to form a viscous fluid. Worry not if some leaves are left
behind, the water is simply saturated.
Filter the swift-thistle leaves from the tea, adding to a
crystalline bottle. Do the same with the viscous liquid mixture.
Once this is done, slowly add into the larger bottle (the
less viscous liquid added to the more so) and observe to form a vibrant green
mixture.
Once this mixture is fully added, thoroughly mix and leave
rest for a few minutes before distilling in a single column. Once the mixture
is distilled three or more times, add the liquid (filter out any residues as
needed) into a crystal vial.
=== The Elixir of the Wolf ===
“Wolves, while being fierce, pack animals, also have one of
the keenest smell capacities of mammals, able to pick up a scent from a small
article and using it to track something down several miles away. This elixir is
perfect for replicating such a feat! Marvellous!”
-       
Jarod Gersung, tracker, Lordaeron
The ingredients list for this elixir is as follows:
-       
Milk, one quart, pasteurised, sterilised
-       
Vinegar, pure
-       
Wolf blood, half a pint
-       
Pure Spring Water
Prepare the whey extract by separating the milk, curdling it
using the vinegar extract. Take the lumpy mixture and filter it, using only the
small amount of liquid, doing away with the lumps.
Mix the blood and water, though it will be likely the blood
will become immiscible below the water’s surface, as it is heavier than water.
Stir until as mixed as possible, and begin to heat, never bringing either
liquid to boil.
Once the mixture has mixed almost completely, add the whey
extract from part one into the still-hot blood-water mix, stirring thoroughly.
Place into a bell funnelling glass, crystalline if possible, and allow the
layers to separate. Three layers will be present. Filter out the bottom layer
and discard it, followed by the second which is kept. The top layer is then
also discarded.
Distil this mixture and filter into a small, crystalline
vial. Not much is needed for the right effect.