A while ago, I blogged about a study we are doing at COFF, which is on potions. One of the first things we talked about was the different alcoholic ingredients that a lot of brews have in them. I decided to share my findings with you, and perhaps you can use them in your BOS if you wish.
We’ll begin with the most common liquors that are standard for so many witch’s brews. In no way does a brew or potion need to have alcohol to make it magickal; however, it is an excellent addition, especially on the cold nights of winter, when you want to warm up. Besides using it in drinks, you can also use alcohol as a preservative for other preparations.
All liquors are started as fermentations of either fruit, grain, or root (potato). With fruit and grain, you can just ferment them and have wine, beers, and meads. If you take it a step further, you get the hard liquors of whiskey, Schott, brandy, vodka, and the mixes and variations that go along with these.
We can even make our own flavored liquors to suit our tastes and desires, this being most common with vodka, although there is nothing that says you can’t flavor whiskey or rum. Then there is the cordial, which is a sweetened and herbed, or spiced liquor that can also be a fortified wine that has some brandy added to it. In this one topic, there is plenty to go over. For this post, we will talk about the alcohol itself:
Wine and Mead
I think people believe that mead is something special, with a mysterious way of concocting this very old drink. I hate to disappoint, but wine and mead are very nearly the same thing, with the same process of creating and finishing. The difference, what makes a mead a mead, is what is used to sweeten the brew, which is honey. Plus, you can make mead with just honey itself if you wish; the modern brewer (and some older recipes) add other ingredients for flavor and contrast. Generally, when you think of wine, you think of grapes, which aren’t the only fruit that can be used, however. Any fruit (including tomato) can be used to make a wine, just as you would do the same for a mead. There are plenty of books and websites for you to peruse to learn more on this subject if you wish to make your own. For this blog, we are going to concentrate on the properties wine holds.
Magical uses of wine are fertility, money, prosperity, and devotion, with its day being Monday and its planet the Moon. So you can see some emotional and water magicks there.
Beer
Beer, just like wine, is the result of fermentation, just of grains instead of fruit. At one time in ancient Egypt, slaves were paid with beer. A much sweeter, almost soda-like drink, this helped fortify the slaves during the hard, hot work days in the desert. To make a beer, you first need to sprout your grain, which releases the sugar. Once that has been achieved, the grain is then roasted, ground, and boiled to make a mash. At one time, there were many different herbs to give the beer its bitter tones. When the discovery of hops came onto the scene (about the same time was when women had the beer halls stolen from them), it became law that the only bittering agent that was allowed to be used was hops. So this is what all the recipes have as a main ingredient.
Magical uses for beer can be fertility, potency, aphrodisiac, lust, and prosperity, with Friday being its day and Earth its planet. Beer tends to be the favorite pastime drink for men, especially when watching sports.
Bourbon
As I mentioned earlier, liquors are distilled wine or beers, and bourbon is no exception this whisky or whiskey is corn-based with its roots in corn beer. The largest producer of this alcoholic beverage is Kentucky, and like other grain spirits, this too is barrel aged.
Using bourbon in magick, you will do well with protection, invoking nature spirits, and blessings. Bourbon’s day is Sunday, and its planet is the Sun.
Vodka
Being a very Russian drink served ice cold, vodka is often made of grain, usually rye. However, a true vodka is potato based, and along with corn whiskey, it is a traditional base for moonshiners. This particular spirit is a good base to use in tinctures and as a preservative in other concoctions, because it has no flavor of its own. This is also a wonderful base to create your own flavors with fruits and herbs. You could have a very sleek bar of homemade flavored vodkas if you wished.
Magical uses for vodka are comfort, healing, money, luck, and protection, with its day being Monday and its planet being the Moon.
Rum
There is one thing I did forget to mention about one specific spirit, which is rum. Although its base comes from a botanical, the base is not the botanical itself; rather, it’s a byproduct of sugar production.
Rum was created in the Caribbean islands, where sugar production was at its largest. Part of producing white sugar is the removal of the molasses. At a time when you wasted nothing, that molasses was turned into rum, a favorite of Jamaica. This spirit is wonderful spiced or plain, and can too be used as a base for some of your creations.
Magical uses of rum are of the love, lust, and sex variety, as well as lightening the mood, uplifting, preservation, and recovery, with Friday being its day and Venus being its planet.
There are some liquors missing from our list, of course, which you can add at your own leisure if you wish. I do want to make a note on correspondences. Any correspondence for anything should be used as a starting point. Not everyone sees the magical properties of ingredients the same way. I would do some research and see how throughout history that ingredient was used magickally. Then come up with your own conclusions and what you feel it should be used for. In the end, this is your magick, and it needs to feel right to you.
Many Blessings!
High Elder Redhawk
Source:
Blackthorns Botanical Brews: Herbal Potions, Magical Teas, and Spirited Libations, by Amy Blackthorn. Weiser Books 2020, pp. 43-98. ISBN: 9781578637157.
