Winter Holiday Intentions and Food Magik
Author: Coleen Renee, CSH
As we enter the dark time on the Wheel of the Year, our bodies want to slow down, regenerate – even hibernate a bit. But our mainstream culture has just hit the “crazy button¨. Buy! Shop! Bake! Party! Go! Go! Go!
Listening to the needs of our body is challenging in a world of excess stimulation and major expectations. But Witches do magik and there’s no better time to use our skills to shift our reality. Food magik is the perfect remedy for the winter holiday crazies.
Using food magik at this time allows us to participate at some level with the cultural flow, which many of us choose to deal with because of our families, friends, and habit. It also allows us to keep connected to our Witchy magical selves, while serving to keep us grounded and centered.
One of my favorite food magik books is Patricia Telesco’s book, A Kitchen Witch’s Cookbook, published by Llewellyn. She includes recipes for all points on Wheel of the Year. My favorite part, however, are her lists of correspondences, which provide great references for choosing foods to energetically align with specific intentions, deities, kitchen tools, numbers, colors, astrology and more.
Food magik is not difficult to incorporate into your everyday life. It’s wonderful for imbuing intent and focus into holiday gifting and for ingesting whatever balance you might seek. Here are some basics:
Creating Sacred Space
At the end of a long day, I will often use cooking dinner as a tool for shifting my energies and moving myself (and those with whom I engage) into an intentional space for the evening. As I wash my hands I let go of whatever stress I might be carrying from the day that isn’t mine. Then I greet Water with a song or just simple words of greeting. I get out my teapot and welcome in Earth. I choose an aromatic tea and welcome in Air. Then putting Water on to boil, I welcome Fire. As I pour the heated water over the tea and into the pot, I welcome Spirit. My kitchen is now a sacred space. If I am alone I cast a formal circle. If I know others will be coming in and out of the kitchen, casting a circle is rather impractical. But holding the intention of sacred space is always doable.
The Magikal Acts of Food Preparation
Peeling, chopping, stirring, blending, etc. can all be magical acts. Bringing that focus to whatever food preparation you do will shift your experience and can be quite useful. Within the sacred space I have created I use the acts of preparing food to process my day. I peel away anything I have no control over for the next few hours :or the entire evening. This brings me to the present and unburdens me.
I might use chopping to help me break down into digestible pieces anything I do want to deal with in the next little bit. For example, I might wish to discuss something over dinner with someone and use the act of chopping to sort it out into reasonable sections. This often helps me to get to the real core of what I need to say. I end up cutting away the fluff or details that are not relevant or might become a distraction.
If I have a huge list of tasks waiting to be done (like gift making, shopping, cleaning, etc.) I might use the chopping to break it all down into what I might reasonably achieve tonight. Again, this process allows me to sort through and cut away anything that isn’t necessary- particularly the shoulds and have-to’s of other peoples’ agendas that simply don’t work for me.
Blending is quite useful for gathering all the aspects you might want to put into something and mixing them together to make a wonderful ‘stew’ of intentions. For example, I might want to remember (rosemary) my love for my family; while wanting the courage (black pepper) to maintain my own intentions for the holidays; and celebrate the peace (marjoram) of the winter; and maintain my own physical energy and health (garlic) while moving through the busy holidays. I can blend these together by hand or in a mortar and pestle to really get the magical aromatherapy benefits. (See Scott Cunningham’s book, Magical Aromatherapy, from Llewellyn) .
The Food – A Tool of Magik
Sometimes I choose specific foods around a particular intention. Other times I simply choose to be aware of the energies of the foods I feel like eating. This is a good thing to do in times of stress. It helps to avoid eating poorly in a time when you really need the boost of the healing energies food can bring to you. Awareness is a powerful Witch’s tool!
Food correspondences are easily available on many Internet sites. Here’s a list to get you started (adapted from The Kitchen Witch’s Cookbook) :
Holiday Foods and their Energetic Associations
Allspice: Luck, health
Apple: peace, love, health
Baking soda/powder/yeast: raising expectations
Bay: strength, health
Beans: prosperity, decisions
Bread: kinship, sustenance
Broccoli: strength, leadership
Brussels sprouts: endurance, tenacity
Butter: tenacity, smoothing relationships
Cake: celebration
Caraway: protection from negativity
Carrot: vision, masculinity
Cardamom: strength of unions
Celery: passion, grounding, peace
Cheese: joy, health, fruition
Chives: protection, breaking bad habits
Chocolate: love, lifting emotions
Clove: fun love, protection, piercing illusions
Coconut: diversity, flexibility, spirituality
Coffee: energy, alertness, mental awareness
Cookies: maternal instincts, nurturing love
Coriander: love, well-being, intelligence
Corn: eternity
Cranberry: security and protection
Date: Resurrection, eternity, spirit
Eggs: fertility, ancient questions
Flour: revealing hidden matters, consistency
Garlic: health, protection
Ginger: health, cleansing, vibrant energy, zeal
Grape: dreams, visions, fertility
Gravy: smooth transitions, consistency, and uniformity
Hazelnut: wisdom, fertility
Honey: sweet things in life, happiness
Horseradish: protection, fiery energy
Jelly: joy, energy, pleasantness
Juice: rejuvenation, vitality
Lavender: comfort, acknowledgement
Lemon: longevity, joy, faithfulness
Lettuce: financial magic, peace, relaxation
Lime: cleansing
Milk: maternal instinct, nurturing
Mustard: faith, mental alertness
Oats: prosperity
Olive: peace
Orange: health, fidelity, love
Parsley: luck, protection from accidents
Pear: longevity, luck
Peas: love
Pomegranate: fruitfulness, hospitality, wishes
Peppers: Black: cleansing, protection, Green: growth, prosperity, Red: vitality, strength
Yellow: empowered creativity
Potato: health, grounding
Soup: steady change, improved communication
Sweet potato: well founded gentle love
Tomato: attracting love
Walnut: mental faculties
Wine: joy, honoring positive action
Some Other Hints
– As with all magik, the more of your self you bring to it, the more power it will hold.
– Remember to breathe!
– Involve other household members. Cooking magik is a fun way to teach young ones.
-Raise energy with a song before you sit down to the table. Infuse the food and your body with the song. Try the refrain from the Prosperity Song on my Come Walk in Beauty CD.
I will never hunger, I will never thirst
Goddess brings abundance to all on Earth.
Food and friends and rest a play
All I need each and everyday.
-The energy will be naturally grounded in the eating of the meal.
-As you clean up, don’t forget to thank and release the Elements.
This information around creating a meal can also be used in making holiday gifts (potpourri, specialty teas, cookies, jams, dried fruit) and for holiday baking.
Make your holidays magical with focused intention in the kitchen, at meals and through food gifts. It’s fun, it’s easy – and the little bit of extra time you invest will pay off in ease, joy and sacredness!
Blessed Be
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Footnotes:
Patricia Telesco¡¦s book, A Kitchen Witch¡¦s Cookbook, published by Llewellyn
Scott Cunningham¡¦s book, Magical Aromatherapy, from Llewellyn
Witches Of The Craft® 