Mordax et al

cunningcelt:

The Dresden files are a series of supernatural fictional books by author Jim Butcher, featuring Harry Dresden, a wizard P.I. working in Chicago. The books are fantastically written and I highly recommend them to anyone.

One thing I really love is the way potions are brewed in this series. Every potion has a total of eight ingredients, no more, no less, and every ingredient is obviously different for each potion.
First, you start off with a base liquid in which everything is brewed.
Then you add an ingredient for each of the five senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste), which in some way relates to the purpose of the potion, be it symbolically, magically, culinarily, etc.
Then an ingredient for the heart (or soul/spirit), and an ingredient for the mind.

These ingredients do not need to be your basic herbs and spices; think outside the box! The sound of Wagner’s Valkyrie could be the sound ingredient for a courage potion. A piece of bandage could be the touch ingredient for a healing potion. Sunshine could be the heart ingredient for a happiness potion. Soap could be the smell ingredient for a cleansing potion.

Obviously, if you’re putting inedible or even toxic ingredients into your potion then you won’t be able to ingest them (and such magical brews would technically fall under the category of elixir).

This is a really fascinating and well thought out piece of magic that could very easily be utilised by real life witches, and would make inventing your own potion or elixir recipes incredibly easy. The possibilities are endless!