Magic Edibles: Feeding Heart & Soul

“One cannot think well, love well and sleep well if one has not dined well.”
– Virginia Woolf

There is an art to cooking that can make any meal, even macaroni, and cheese, into an appetizing, seductive dish. If the way to the heart is through the stomach, then add magic to the mixture for a helpful nudge.

Food, Love, and Magic

For the Kitchen Witch, the difference between everyday edibles and magical meals depends on your attitude. Approaching your kitchen with a respectful, spiritual outlook affects the energy the food absorbs. Beyond this, here are some hints for magically empowering your love-centered foods.

Consider:

• Combining Ingredients for their magical symbolism. Mix and match those best suited to your goals and the dish being prepared. Consider side dishes and beverages, too. Nearly every edible item has been given a mystical correspondence at some point in history. Use this association, or, better yet, personal significance, in choosing your menu.
• Choosing ingredients with the colors that represent your goals, or visualize them being filled with colored light. With some foods, like cookies, you can add food coloring to the mixture to increase the magic.
• Adding magically charged herbs to a recipe as long as the flavor isn’t detrimental to the dish (otherwise consider a tincture).
• Creating your dish during supportive moon phases (or other symbolic times).
• Cooking with aromatic herbs applying aromatherapy principles. The scent of Sage, for example, is an aphrodisiac, ginger boosts the libido, and orange inspires playful interactions.
• Preparing your food during auspicious astrological hours or days. It can always be frozen until needed.
• Using a significant number of courses or ingredients. For example, two main dishes can symbolize partnership.
• Stirring mixtures clockwise to draw positive energies; Stir counterclockwise to banish negative energies.
• Keeping a strong image of your goal in mind while you work.
• Cooking with joy and love in your heart.
• Praying, chanting, or incanting spells over your food while preparing it.
• Eating expectantly, internalizing the energy created.

Bach’s Flower Essences for Kitchen Magick

When you want a subtle approach to vibrationally enhanced foods and beverages, try adding a few drops of Bach’s Flower Essences. These essences are designed to affect the energies, characteristics, or outlook of the person consuming them. Note that Bach Essences have no flavor of their own, so they won’t hurt your dish in the slightest. Here are some for your perusal:

• Increasing Tolerance: Beech
• Increasing Trust: Holly
• Increasing Perseverance: Oak
• Increasing Interest: Wild Rose
• Increasing Love: Holly
• Increasing Friendship: Vine
• Decreasing Fear: Cherry Plum
• Decreasing Worry and Insecurity: Red Chestnut
• Decreasing Possessiveness: Chicory
• Decreasing Egotism or Self−Involvement: Heather
• Decreasing Oppressiveness: Vine
• Decreasing Bitterness or Anger: Willow

Magical Friendship Foods

“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.”
– James Beard

Make your foods for friendship warm, welcoming, and cozy. They should inspire happy memories and associations of your present relationship. They can also symbolize characteristics you would wish for in new friends. Check out your pantry! There are probably a lot of items you can friendship fare, just waiting.

Handy friendship foods and their associations include:

• Almonds: Restoring friendship
• Apples: Peace, love
• Berries: Joy
• Bread: Kinship
• Butter: Healing emotional wounds
• Caraway: Trust
• Cardamom: Unity
• Celery: Grounding energy, tranquility
• Leeks: Community spirit, common bonds
• Lemon: Steadfastness
• Lentils: Happiness, spiritual love
• Lettuce: Peaceful fellowship
• Passion fruit: Friendship, cordial feelings
• Pineapple: Hospitality, welcome
• Rice: Blessings, abundance
• Sweets: Life’s sweetness

A friendship meal might d begin with an appetizer of warm dill bread drizzled with melted cheese. The warmth of the loaf represents congenial feelings; the cheese and dill symbolize love. Next, enjoy a lentil soup and a tossed salad. Make sure to leave the lettuce leaves whole rather than cutting them, lest you cut off peace and prosperity. The main dish should appeal to the tastes of you and your companion. Top off the evening with mixed berries and passion fruit garnished with sweet cream, inspiring sweetness, and happiness.

Romantic Magickal Rations

“Food is symbolic of love when words are inadequate.”
– Alan D. Wolfelt

The foods for romance should tickle all the senses. The more pleasing a feast is to our eyes, nose, and mouth, the more it arouses romantic feelings. The only precaution here is avoiding overly heavy foods which might inspire napping instead.

Potential romantic delights include:

• Allspice: Luck
• Apricots: Sentimental feelings
• Barley: Healing of a broken heart, inspiring loving feelings
• Beets: Passion
• Berries: Happy, playful romance
• Brazil Nuts: Growing emotions
• Brussels Sprouts: Stability
• Cheese: Fruition, harmony
• Cinnamon: Faithfulness, devotion
• Guavas: Fantasy
• Honey: “Sweet” feelings
• Lamb: Sensitivity
• Orange: Devotion, self−love
• Peas: General love
• Pumpkin Seeds: Increased interest
• Quince: Joy, contentment
• Strawberries: Happy love
• Sweet Potatoes: Gentleness, kindness
• Tomatoes: “Love apples”

This particular grouping of foods is a vegetarian’s dream come true. For a romantic rendezvous, begin with spiced pumpkin seeds to “spice things up.” Move on to a sweet potato pie and perhaps a tomato salad. Then have strawberries tossed with chopped brazil nuts and sweet cream for dessert!

Eros Magical Edibles

“Great food is like great sex. The more you have the more you want.”
– Gael Greene

Since the dawn of time, people have looked to food and drink to inspire sexual interest and passion. Many of the foods listed for romance are suitable in helping achieve that goal.

Our Aphrodisiac Suggestions are:

• Asparagus: Sexual prowess
• Carrots: Desire (Glaze them to make the encounter sweeter).
• Cashew: Zeal
• Celery: Passion
• Chocolate: Love, adoration
• Dill: Exhilaration, endurance
• Eggs: Fertility
• Figs: Physical energy, passion
• Licorice: Enhancement of sexual experience
• Mint: Stimulation of physical interest
• Olives: Stress relief, arousal
• Onion: Increased energy
• Sesame (with honey): Increased physical attractiveness and interest in sex
• Shellfish: Passion
• Rice: Improvement of sexual skill, fertility
• Vanilla: Loving energies and expressions

For a menu based on the above ingredients, begin with an Italian tomato salad with onions and chopped celery to tantalize the taste buds and the imagination. Move on to an asparagus quiche (for prowess and fertility), and top the meal off by feeding one another a chocolate cashew pie. You may want to have two mints waiting on the bed, thereby avoiding onion breath.

Love Potions

“I will show you a love potion without drug or herb, or any witch’s spell; if you wish to be loved, love.”
― Charles Lindberg

Historically, one of the most popular Witch’s tools in the “hunt” for a mate has been the love potion. Better still, it works beautifully with the Kitchen Witch’s feast of fancy.

Magical Friendship Beverage

“Drinking tea with a pinch of imagination!” ― 50 Ways to Drink Tea

These beverages can serve one of two purposes: Prepare them to open the way for new friendships. Alternatively, deepen existing friendships.

Common components for friendship-stimulating beverages include:

• Allspice : Luck
• Almond Extract: Wisdom, understanding
• Apple: An all-purpose love juice or flavoring
• Bay: Heightened awareness and intuition when seeking new companions
• Elder (water): Peace, wholeness
• Fennel: Protection from people who may not have your best interest at heart
• Grape (juice or wine): Celebration
• Lavender (water): Happiness
• Lemon (juice or flavoring): Kinship, honesty
• Mulberry (wine): Creative but practical exchanges
• Passionfruit (juice): The traditional fruit of friendship
• Pineapple: Deepened level of commitment
• Strawberry (juice or flavoring): Light-hearted fun

Romance and Magical Love Refreshments

“Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart. And they both take practice.”
– Samuel Johnson

These refreshments may enhance an ongoing relationship or spice up a new one. Since love thrives best when it isn’t manipulated, only share these with people who are aware of what they’re drinking. Otherwise, enjoy them yourself to internalize the magical attributes for self-love.

Potential components for romance refreshments include:

• Anise: Longevity
• Cardamom: A favorite Arabian herb for love and romance
• Chamomile: Reduced tension, so that romance can flourish
• Cherry: Playful love, fertility
• Clove: A traditional love spice often appearing in ancient potion recipes
• Currant: Abundant, exciting romance
• Ginger: Energetic love and liaisons
• Honey: Happiness
• Kiwi: Uncomplicated, youthful love
• Marjoram: Safe, healthy relationships
• Orange: Devotion, fidelity, and luck
• Plum: Respectful adoration
• Strawberry: Light-hearted love, joy
• Tea: Peaceful, healthy relationships
• Vanilla: Zestful interest, admiration
• Violet: Charm, love, passion, and a little luck (it is edible)

Passion Magic Potions

“Believe in your heart that you’re meant to live a life full of passion, purpose, magic and miracles.”
― Roy T. Bennett

Potions that encourage passion also make us feel good about ourselves and our lovers. The following magical ingredients inspire energetic interest, a sense of security, and intimacy between people who want a more titillating sexual relationship.

Potential components for passion potions include many for love and romance, since these feelings often go hand-in-hand. Other useful ingredients are:

• Banana: Improved male sexual prowess
• Carrot (juice): Emphasized sexual nature
• Coriander: Heightened sexual enjoyment
• Hazelnut: Insight, fertility
• Mango: Excitement of romantic passion, especially for women
• Milk: The lunar, romantic, mysterious self
• Mint: Lust
• Peach: Fertility balanced with wisdom
• Pear: Zeal, zest
• Pomegranate: Improved creativity in bed, fertility

Adapted from “Little Book of Love Magic.” by Patricia Telesco. All rights reserved.