When it comes to witchcraft, most people think of Wicca, but there are various forms of solitary witchcraft that are more nature-based, which don’t necessarily follow the ritual-based Wiccan system.
The hedge witch is one such path, with green witchcraft and cottage witchcraft being other examples of natural witchcraft. Kitchen witchery, however, is a unique form of the Craft, which focuses more on honouring the mundane in life. This involves honouring the Goddess by taking care of hearth and home, from finding sacred meaning in daily household chores to blessing everyday cooking with love and magic.
Being a Domestic Goddess with Kitchen Magic
Cookery and food is an integral part of kitchen witchery. The kitchen witch honours what she cooks, preparing meals with loving intent. Using fresh ingredients, often from her own garden, she makes magic in the kitchen by creating delicious, seasonal food, herbal remedies, and magic spells.
Make Household Chores Enjoyable
Finding the sacred in the mundane means carrying out household tasks with joy. Kitchen witches recognise that cleaning, tidying and cooking are important, meaningful tasks – by honouring their home they are honouring the Goddess. They find ways of making chores more enjoyable, thus making magic in the home.
Garden Magic
The garden is very important to the kitchen witch. Here she will grow her own organic vegetables, fruit and herbs. She will grow food seasonally, and share her harvest with the wildlife that visits the garden. She may also spend time in the garden communing with nature, working with elemental spirits, and casting simple spells.
Honouring the Earth with Sustainable Living
Environmentally friendly living is essential for kitchen witches. Using natural products, organic where possible, they avoid chemicals in the house and garden. Recycling initiatives, composting and growing organic food are all facets of kitchen witchcraft.
Attuning to the Seasons
The kitchen witch is attuned to the seasons and elements of nature. She grows and eats food in season, and honours the wheel of the year by marking festivals, solstices and equinoxes, although she does not adhere to specific rules or rituals. Many kitchen witches celebrate a particular festival or season by decorating the home with natural objects, and cooking seasonal meals.
Honouring the Goddess
Kitchen witches honour the Goddess in her many forms. Specific goddesses they may work with include the Greek goddess Hestia, goddess of Hearth and Home (or Vesta, her Roman counterpart). Others include earth goddesses, such as Gaia, grain goddesses like Demeter, and goddesses of fire (Sekhmet), abundance (Lakshmi) or creativity (Sarasvati).
Arts and Crafts
Most kitchen witches are creative in the home, making their own decorative or practical items. Many learn the old crafts, such as weaving, spinning and working the loom. Sewing, embroidery, painting, sculpting and wildcrafting are all common kitchen witch activities. Their homes will feature images of the Goddess – many make their own by sculpting with salt dough or painting Goddess imagery.
Magic Spells for Hearth and Home
Many spells for kitchen witches will involve food. Even the act of preparing a meal is seen as sacred, and can provide a ritualistic basis for focusing intent. Spells for prosperity, harmony, abundance and health are carried out whilst mixing ingredients. Casting magic with candles, needle and thread or natural objects are other methods, along with divination and weather magic.
Kitchen witchery would suit those seeking an informal solitary witchcraft path, and whose interests lie in homemaking, cooking, gardening, crafting and the natural world.
Louise Heyden - Louise Heyden is a writer, artist, work at home mum, sound technician and former school Library Manager.
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