Daedalus's Rose

Dr Martin Pale's useful spell of Daedalus's Rose entrapped various human qualities, such as courage, cowardice, love, lust, etc., into a semi-solid medium - as it might be beeswax, honey or amber - in such a way that when this enclosing substance was warmed it would release the qualities it contained, either to one's own benefit or to the detriment of one's enemies. We have Childermass' word that by 1817 Daedalus's Rose was among those many ancient spells that no longer worked. Of course, since wild magic has returned to England it may again be functional [61].

The name of the spell appears to refer to the familiar tale of the skilful craftsman Daedalus, who once made wings for himself out of wax. The experiment was not wholly successful, as you may read here.

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Addendum: If the magical practice of Daedalus’s Rose sounds familiar to some readers then they may have some knowledge of the making of perfumes, and more specifically of enfleurage*, the process that uses odorless fats that are solid at room temperature to capture the fragrant compounds exuded by plants. The process can be "cold" enfleurage or "hot" enfleurage.
- In cold enfleurage, a large framed plate of glass is smeared with a layer of animal fat and allowed to set. Botanical matter, usually petals or sometimes whole flowers, is then placed on the fat and its scent allowed to diffuse into it over the course of 1-3 days. The process is then repeated by replacing the spent botanicals with fresh ones until the fat has reached a desired degree of fragrance saturation.
- In hot enfleurage, solid fats are heated and botanical matter is stirred into the warmed fat. The spent botanicals are repeatedly strained from the fat and replaced with fresh material until the fat is thoroughly saturated with fragrance.

• Fleur means flower in French

Two lovely enfleureuses

Enfleurose, or how to extract the exquisite essence of a rose.