Folklore, Myths and Wisdoms

Let's have a cup of tea and share some folklore, myths, sayings,  poetry, words to live by and an old wives tale or two!

A Bewitchin' Kitchen

By: Gerina Dunwich

It does not take a lot of work, time, or money to transform an ordinary kitchen into a magical workplace. To begin with, there are many simple, yet effective, charms (such as a rope of garlic, a sun-catcher, or pentagram symbols) that can be placed in the kitchen for protection.

A sunny kitchen windowsill filled with pots of magical plants not only looks good, but releases magical energies into the room. Even common culinary herbs that are found in the cabinets or nearly every kitchen possess strong magical properties. For instance, basil is traditionally used for exorcism, love, protection, and purification. Parsley is used for fertility, passion, and protection. Sage is used for healing, protection, and prosperity; and thyme is used for clairvoyance, courage, and love.

Hang a "kitchen Witch" doll for good luck, and addmagic to your cooking by drawing an invisible pentagram inside your pots and pans with a wand or athame. (A wooden spoon, fork, or knife can also be used.)

A well-stocked Witch's kitchen should contain herbs, essential oils, a mortar and pestle (for grinding dried herbs and other magical things), candles, incense, an up-to-date lunar calendar, and cauldron for brewing potions.

Smudge your kitchen with a sage bundle if you sense negativity. Anoint utensils and appliances with essential oils to bless and charge them with powerful vibrations. Editor's Note: never ingest essential oils. If you choose to anoint kitchen tools, either anoint the parts of the tool that do not come into direct contact with food, or make sure that there is no way that the oil will transfer from the tool to your food. Always stir food in a clockwise direction, and be sure to invite the Goddess and God into your new magical workplace.

A WITCH'S KITCHEN BLESSING

Blessed be this Kitchen of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Be warmed by the sacred light of the Goddess and the Horned One. May all that is created here by means both magical and mundane bring nourishment, healing, and sustenance, and cause harm to none. With love and peace, with joy and magic, be now and always filled. So mote it be!

KITCHEN DEITIES

Throughout the world many cultures have believed in and worshipped various kitchen gods and goddesses. These deities are generally regarded as benevolent, and their presence is said to offer protection against kitchen accidents, fires, and food poisoning; to keep negativity, ghosts, and evil influences out of the kitchen; and to bless all foods that are prepared.

The Hindu god Annamurti (a form of the god Vishnu) is the patron deity of kitchens and food. Offerings of payasa (sweetened milk and rice) are traditionally placed before his bronze image at his shrine in southern India.

In Japan, the god and goddess of kitchens are Oki-Tsu-Hiko-No-Kami and his consort Oki-Tsu-Hime-No-Kami. They are the children of the harvest god, and their main duty is to look after the cauldron in which water is boiled. Another Japanese deity associated with the kitchen is Hettsui-No-Kami. She is the goddess of the kitchen range. Each year on the eighth day of November she is honored in Japan with a Shinto festival called the Fuigo Matsuri.

These Chinese god of the stove was a deity who was greatly respected, for he possessed the power to bestow a family with good health, wealth, and prosperity. To keep him from being offended, all family members would take great care not to sing, swear, cry, or kiss in front of the stove. To chop onions on or near the stove was also regarded as disrespectful and was forbidden.

THE FOUR ELEMENTS

In addition to the Pagan gods and goddesses of the kitchen, the spirits of the four ancient elements are strongly connected to, and make their presence well known in, the Witch's kitchen.

The refrigerator is an appliance dedicated to air. Air is also linked to the steam given off by hot foods and boiling liquids. Fire (the source of heat and symbol of transformation) dwells within stove and hearth. Water rules over the kitchen sink as well as the liquids used in the preparation and cooking of foods and potions. Vegetables, fruits, nuts, herbs and spices, and even meats and poultry are all gifts from our blessed planetary Mother. These foods that nourish and sustain us are, of course, ruled by the earth element.

The elemental spirits of air, fire, water, and earth can be invoked at any time in the kitchen for protection, empowerment, magical aid, and so forth. It is through the use of these four basic elements that kitchen magic is created.

KITCHEN OMENS AND SUPERSTITIONS

The reading of omens is an art and practice dating back to antiquity. Omens reveal many things and are all around us, if we permit ourselves to be aware of them. They can be quite beneficial, especially in warning us of dangerous situations ahead of time. The trick is knowing how to correctly interpret the omen.

The kitchen is one place in which many omens manifest. For instance, a rainstorm is portended by the repeated boiling over of a coffeepot and also by the accidental spilling of water on a tablecloth. Other omens include the following:

* Money will soon come your way if any of the following things should occur: bubbles appear in a cup of coffee, you accidentally knock over a sugar bowl, rice forms a ring around the edge of a pot, or tea leaves float to the top of the cup.

* Trouble is indicted by the accidental omission of spices from a recipe or by the spilling of salt. Be prepared for an argument with someone if you should happen to spill pepper on the kitchen table or floor. (According to occult tradition, these bad omens can be remedied by simply adding the spices, and by tossing a pinch of salt or pepper over your left shoulder, respectively.) It is also said that if two persons stir the same boiling pot or sit together on a table, they will soon find themselves involved in a quarrel.

* If your apron comes untied by itself and falls off while you are working in the kitchen, this is generally seen as a sign that someone is thinking about you. Some say that it means your sweetheart is having romantic thoughts about you at that moment.

* It is believed by many to be an omen of good news when baked apples burst while in the oven, or when the salt and sugar are accidentally mixed up.

* If a fork accidentally falls onto the floor, a woman will soon knock on your door; a spoon indicates the arrival of a gentleman. (In some parts of the world, the fork means a man, and the spoon a woman.) Unexpected or unwelcome visitors are also presaged by the dropping of a knife that sticks in the ground and by cracks that form on the shells of eggs boiling in a pot of water.

* If you are engaged or wish to get married, according to an old belief once common in England, you should take care to never sit on a kitchen table, for this will break the engagement and also prevent you from ever being wed.

* There are also numerous kitchen omens concerning bread. It is considered unlucky in certain countries to wash a bread-knife on a Sunday, cut both ends of a loaf of bread, leave a knife stuck in the loaf, or take the last slice of bread. Accidentally dropping a slice of bread with the buttered side down is also said to be a bad omen; however, it is a good sign if the dropped bread lands with the buttered side up. If you and another person reach for the same slice of bread at the same time, an unexpected visitor will soon appear.

~from Llewellyn's Witches' Calendar 1999

Recipe for Getting What you Want

1. Seek after what you love not what others think you love

2. Passionately pursue what you love

3. When you get even a little smidgen of what you love enjoy  it with gusto and enthusiasm. If you are not recognizing that you got what you want you are not going to know that you got it.

4. Look for reasons to be thankful. Every day make a gratitude list. Focus on what has manifest in your life.

5. Clean out your supplies that you use to create your life  if you are not happy.

A. Get rid of people who want you to be miserable  -- Ignore them. Make the go away.

B. Eliminate thoughts that say I can't by  replacing them with thoughts that say I can! Family and society create ideas that are false. Learn to recognize the truth from the lie.

C. Get rid of anything that does not represent to you the you that is being recreated. This includes clothes, books, furniture, dishes, etc. Anything that does not support your image of you that you want to be manifest. Don't keep that family photo that reminds you of misery -- burn it or send it to Aunt Maggie. Don't keep that ugly piece of jewelry that makes you cringe just because it was expensive or belonged to your grandmother. Release all things that go against your image of the life that you would leave behind.

6. Sanitize your work space. Clean your mind. Remember a mind must be changed at least once a day in order to stay clean. Be flexible in how you approach life. While your want to stay focused on the goal you do not necessarily want to limit the way that you can achieve your goal.

7. Never work with a dull knife. Keep your knife sharpened and ready to cut out anything that does not work -- this includes rotten ideas and rotten people. Trim the fat and the useless and you will have a healthier life and healthier  luck.

8. Innovation is a primary ingredient. Creativity is really the ability to take really diverse ideas and concepts and blend them together in a new way. Your life may be perfect but need to be recombined in a different way to give you the sense of happiness that you desire.

9. Most important ingredient is attitude. Develop an attitude.  A lucky attitude. A happy attitude. Know that you deserve and will receive happiness and good luck. If other people disagree read number 5, 6, and 7.

10. Enjoy! Celebrate! Dance!

11. Don't wait till you are hungry to cook up a good dose of happy-luck. Keep your cookie jar filled so that you can share it with others.

The Witches' Creed

Hear Now the words of the witches,

The secrets we hid in the night,

When dark was our destiny's pathway,

That now we bring forth into light.

Mysterious water and fire,

The earth and the wide-ranging air,

By hidden quintessence we know them,

And will and keep silent and dare.

The birth and rebirth of all nature,

The passing of winter and spring,

We share with the life universal,

Rejoice in the magical ring.

Four times in the year the Great Sabbat

Returns, and the witches are seen

At Lammas and Candlemas dancing,

On May Eve and old Hallowe'en.

When day-time and night-time are equal,

Whensun is at greatest and least,

The four Lesser Sabbats are summoned,

And Witches gather in feast.

Thirteen silver moons in a year are,

Thirteen is the coven's array.

Thirteen times at Esbat make merry,

For each golden year and a day.

The power that was passed down the age,

Each time between woman and man,

Each century unto the other,

Ere time and the ages began.

When drawn is the magical circle,

By sword or athame of power,

Its compass between two worlds lies,

In land of the shades for that hour.

This world has no right then to know it,

And world of beyond will tell naught.

The oldest of Gods are invoked there,

The Great Work of magic is wrought.

For the two are mystical pillars,

That stand at the gate of the shrine,

And two are the powers of nature,

The forms and the forces divine.

The dark and the light in succession,

The opposites each unto each,

Shown forth as a God and a Goddess:

Of this our ancestors teach.

By night he's the wild wind's rider,

The Horn'd One, the Lord of the Shades.

By day he's the King of the Woodland,

The dweller in green forest glades.

She is youthful or old as she pleases,

She sails the torn clouds in her barque,

The bright silver lady of midnight,

The crone who weaves spells in the dark.

The master and mistress of magic,

That dwell in the deeps of the mind,

Immortal and ever-renewing,

With power to free or to bind.

So drink the good wine to the Old Gods,

And Dance and make love in their praise,

Till Elphame's fair land shall receive us

In peace at the end of our days.

And Do What You Will be the challenge,

So be it Love that harms none,

For this is the only commandment.

By Magic of old, be it done!

Doreen Valiente,

"Witchcraft For Tomorrow"

pp.172-173

The Gingerbread Husband

Remember the fairy tale about the man-shaped gingerbread cookie that sprang from the oven and ran off to elude a trail of hungry captors before he was eventually devoured by a wily fox? The notion of edible animal and human figurines goes back to ancient celebrations in which they were used as substitutes for live sacrifices. More recently, on All Hallows' Eve, English village maidens would eat a gingerbread "husband" to ensure that they would find a real mate.

-Saveur-

A Little Warm Milk Will Help You Go to Sleep

Milk can increase your chances of drifting easily off to sleep. It's rich in calcium, which helps relax muscles, and is also a source of tryptophan, a protein that enables the brain to produce serotonin. This chemical, in turn, helps switch on the brain's sleep centers.

If you can't stand the thought of warm milk, cold milk works just as well. However warm or cold many insist the milk really needs a cookie to be effective.

Freckles

The Victorian superstition was that if you get your hands wet with the morning dew, and rub your freckles saying, " Dew, Dew, do do, take my freckles away with you. Dew, Dew, thank-you," they will go away.

- A Victorian Grimoire-

Reach

for the

Moon

If you fall short

you may land

on a

Star!

Blessed

are

we

who

can

Laugh

at

ourselves

for we

shall

never

cease

to

be

amused.

Catch a Falling Star!

Reach for your dreams. And if something wonderful falls your way, catch it!

  Life is too short to wear tight shoes!