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5 Quick & Easy Spells Every Kitchen Witch Should Know, by Gwion Raven

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

One of the biggest advantages of being a kitchen witch is being in your magickal workshop practically every day. There's a good chance that you'll be in the kitchen at some point during each day, even if you're just doing the dishes or re-heating your coffee. Each time you find yourself stirring a pot of stew or toasting sesame seeds or reading a recipe, you have an opportunity to practice magick.

I have favorite spells I do all the time, and virtually all of them happen in the kitchen. The spells are easy, fast, and, most importantly, effective.

1. Sweep Away Your Troubles
My kitchen floor always needs sweeping. I can't tell you how many times a piece of carrot shoots off the cutting board and lands somewhere out of sight. Sweeping the kitchen happens several times a week in my house, so it's the perfect time to do a little magick.

I grab my trusty broom and start sweeping. As I do, I think about my day. What needs sweeping away? Is there a conversation I'm holding onto that I shouldn't be? Are my thoughts a little cluttered today? Sweeping gives me the opportunity to clean the kitchen and clear away anything that's bothering me.

Find a place in your kitchen to start sweeping. Move in a counter-clockwise direction. As you sweep, say, "I'm sweeping away my troubles. I'm clearing the cobwebs. I'm cleansing anything that doesn't serve me right now."

If you need to pack a bit more "oomph" into this spell, add a ¼ cup of white vinegar to a gallon of warm water and add five drops of your favourite essential oil and mop the floor. I use lavender, as it is calming. You might choose lemon for cleansing; cinnamon to warm up a cool mood; or peppermint for clarity, tranquility, and an uplifted mood.

2. Cooking with Charm Bags
Charm bags are used in many different craft and folk magick traditions. Typically they might contain combinations of herbs, stones, and charms. There's a kitchen witchery version of charm bags, too. In French cooking terminology, you might know these as bouquet garni: wrapped bundles of herbs to flavour soups, stocks, teas, and milk drinks. It's a long-held magickal belief that herbs can heal us, inspire us, and protect us. What better way to use charm bags than right in the meal you're preparing?

It's easy enough. Cut two six-inch squares of cheesecloth. Place them on top of each other to form a double layer. (You can also use a muslin bag.) Add combinations of herbs, such as thyme, parsley, and rosemary. Tie the bundle with cooking twine and store them in a cool, dry place for up to three months. I tend to make up a big batch and store it in a sealed mason jar. You can make charm bags with herbs you associate with certain conditions, like Happy Home or Love or Abundance.

Here are two versions I use all the time.

Abundance Bouquet Garni
Many of these herbs are associated with abundance magick.

• 1 tablespoon dried tarragon
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf

Love Bouquet Garni
These are some of my favorite herbs to inspire love.

• 1 tablespoon of dried basil
• 1 tablespoon dried fennel
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• Zest of one lemon

3. Prosperity Cake
I love ginger cake. I can eat it any day of the week. It's easy to prepare and even easier to imbue with a little prosperity magick. I'll give ginger cake as a gift, especially if I know someone could use a little more prosperity. Cinnamon, cloves, and ginger are often associated with prosperity.

Ingredients

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2/3 cup mild-flavored molasses
• 2/3 cup boiling water
• 1 large egg

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
2. Grease a 9x9 pan with butter then lightly dust the pan with flour.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients, except the sugar.
4. In another bowl, mix the melted butter, sugar, molasses, and hot water.
5. Whisk in the egg.
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and give it a good whisk. You want to make sure there are no dry clumps, but it doesn't have to be silky smooth.
7. Pour mixture into your greased pan and bake for about 35 minutes. Let the cake cool for a few minutes before cutting into slices.

4. Get Outta Here
On occasion, a person comes into my life that I'd rather not have there. When more polite ways of asking them to leave have been exhausted, I head to the kitchen and make up a big batch of Get Outta Here. Hoodoo practitioners will recognise this formula as a version of Hotfoot Powder, and that's exactly what it is. I'm a big believer in using what works and, let me tell you, this little bit of magick does the trick every time.

The ingredients are simple enough; you probably have most of them in your cupboard right now. More, shall we say, potent versions add graveyard dirt in the mix. You're welcome to gather that if you choose.

A word of caution, though, before you make this. You'll be sprinkling this powder in front of your doorway or putting it in the shoes of the person you're wanting to leave, or even dropping it carefully around the office, in the places they walk. Make sure you really want this person out of your life.

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon dried mint
• 1 rusty nail (or the rusty scrapings from a nail)

Instructions
Mix everything together in a small mason jar and seal it with a lid. Write the person's name on the lid of the jar. Light a small, black chime candle or birthday cake candle. (As with any fire magick, never leave a lit candle or flame unattended.) Dribble a few drops of hot wax on the lid and stick the candle on the lid. The candle will only take a few minutes to burn all the way down. While it's burning, tell the mason jar full of Get Outta Here mix to get to work removing this person from your life. When the candle is fully burned out, let the wax cool down and set. Then sprinkle the mixture, a little at a time, as needed.

5. A Meal Shared
By far, this is my favorite kitchen witchery spell. It's deceptively simple, yet its impact can be profound.There are three parts to this working, each as important as the other.

The first step is to invite someone to share a meal with you. If you have a roommate, friends, or family that live in the same household as you, they could be easy choices. If you live by yourself, this might be an opportunity to ask a friend, neighbor, or co-worker over. Perhaps there's someone you'd want to share a meal with that lives hundreds of miles away. Online video chats totally count! However you do it, ask someone to set a time with you to share a meal.

The second step is to create the meal. Again, circumstances may dictate exactly how you do this, but see if you can make a meal together. Perhaps your shared meal includes shopping. Maybe you do the cooking and they set the table. If you're sharing a meal with someone online, do your best to prepare the meal at the same time. The key is that each person has a hand in the meal, somehow.

You get to choose how elaborate the meal is. Maybe you pull out all the stops and prepare a feast for the ages. Perhaps it's a nice cup of tea and store-bought scones.

The third step is to talk, but there's a catch to this. Try and avoid work talk or gossip. Chat about the food you've just made, ask them about a favorite meal they remember, and ask why that meal is so important to them.

There are a couple of guidelines that I suggest here.

• Ask a few basic dietary questions so that you'll know what, if any, food types should be avoided.
• Set a minimum time limit. In other words, let them know the meal will last at least sixty minutes (or thirty minutes or two hours).
• Unless it's absolutely vital, agree to limit or completely avoid interacting with a phone, tablet, or other device that gets you online. See if you can devote the entire time to sharing the meal. If you're sharing a meal online, agree that no other devices are allowed.
• If they offer to help clean up after the meal, let them.

There's a particular magick in sharing food with other people. Two mini chocolate chip cookies served with a side of conversation and generosity can leave you more satisfied than a seven-course meal served in the world's fanciest restaurants.

The Magick Of Food
My kitchen is nothing special. It's not huge. I don't have all the latest gadgets. There's a stove, a fridge, some sharp knives, wooden spoons, a few pots and pans, and a collection of treasured cookbooks. I bet it's a lot like your kitchen.

However, when I think about what I do in my kitchen, the spells I practice and the meals I make, then it transforms into a wondrous, magickal place. Kitchen witchery feeds and nourishes me and all those with whom I choose to share food. Kitchen magick connects me to the seasons and to the vibrant bounty of nature. Relationships are forged and mended and remade over cups of coffee. Covens and magickal deeds have been birthed over late night snacks, whipped up with a moment's notice.

I believe in the magick of food, because I see it working every day.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2020. All rights reserved.

I read Kajama's advice columns every week, and I'm often struck by the types of questions people pose. A lot of people have relationship problems. While this may sound odd, I would simply LOVE to have a relationship problem, because it would mean I had relationships! Sometimes I have to look in the mirror or pinch myself to remind myself that I exist, because I feel so alone and ignored. I've even been to therapy and been the only one without a "real" problem. Most other people had relationship problems, whereas I just wanted a relationship of any kind just to be able to interact with another human being! Even one close friend would do. Am I inherently bad? It sure feels like I am not good enough to be in this world.

- the lady no one wants

Dreamchaser:

Quantum physics offers scientific proof that we create our realities via what we think. The only name attached to your question was "the lady no one wants." The letters were not even capitalized!

Do you see how statements like that help to create the reality you live in? You have convinced yourself that no one wants you and that you are going to be alone, thus this is the reality that you are creating every day.

In What the Bleep do We Know (a film that everyone should rush out and buy or rent if you haven't seen it already), Dr. Joe Dispenza said, "I wake up in the morning and I consciously create my day the way I want it to happen. Now sometimes because my mind is examining all the things that I need to get done, it takes me a little bit to settle down and get to the point of where I'm actually intentionally creating my day. But here's the thing: When I create my day and out of nowhere little things happen that are so unexplainable, I know that they are the process or the result of my creation. And the more I do that, the more I build a neural net in my brain that I accept that that's possible. (This) gives me the power and the incentive to do it the next day.

"So if we're consciously designing our destiny, and if we're consciously from a spiritual standpoint throwing in with the idea that our thoughts can affect our reality or affect our life - because reality equals life - then I have this little pact that I have when I create my day.

"I say, 'I'm taking this time to create my day and I'm infecting the quantum field. Now if (it) is a fact the observer's watching me the whole time that I'm doing this and there is a spiritual aspect to myself, then show me a sign today that you paid attention to any one of these things that I created, and bring them in a way that I won't expect, so I'm as surprised at my ability to be able to experience these things. And make it so that I have no doubt that it's come from you,' and so I live my life, in a sense, all day long thinking about being a genius or thinking about being the glory and the power of God or thinking about being unconditional love."

Take a really close look at how you react and interact with people who cross your path. Do you go out and actively seek this love you are asking for? Are you taking the risks that are necessary to find love? The truth is that whatever we have going on outside ourselves is a direct reflection of what we think we deserve on the inside.

I wish you new creations.

2517

Astrea:

I'm always stumped when people ask why they don't have love in their lives. You're not bad, you're not ugly, and I'm sure you don't smell awful. I feel that you are, however, very quiet and shy, and that you were badly hurt or disappointed as a child. Thus you are so terrified of being hurt that you won't allow other people access to your emotional world.

You're not the only person who feels this way in the crazy world we live in. There are LOTS of people who are every bit as lonely as you feel right now! Other people have their own problems, so they're not going to just fall into your lap. The Universe can HELP us to a goal, but it won't fulfill our goals for us.

No one is going to try to draw you out. Most people are too self-involved to struggle to get past your self-protective barriers. Don't depend on anyone but yourself to manifest the happiness you desire.

If you want relationships, you have to improve your relationship with YOURSELF first. You're very hard on that lady in the mirror! You don't really think she deserves to have anyone in her life. If you don't feel you are worthy of love, how are you ever going to feel that what you have to offer others is valuable? Since you seem to have had this attitude for many years, nothing is going to happen overnight, but as you improve your relationship with yourself, you'll begin to develop relationships with others.

You have to be able to give love to receive love, and you're hiding from everyone. It sounds like the therapy you tried was group therapy, and you probably would benefit more from personal counseling. Once you determine the deeper reasons you don't have relationships, you can get past it and find all kinds of people who will love to spend time with you. It probably won't take you long, since you already know you don't like what's happening now. When people want change, change happens, and you sound like you're ready for that.

I honestly believe in my heart that when a person gives love unselfishly, real love comes back to that person. Practice gratitude in place of self-pity and see what happens. Every time you feel like you're unloved or unwanted, extend a hand to someone. Volunteer to read to the blind or serve in a soup kitchen. More than any therapy, THAT will open your heart to the truth that you really do have a lot to give and to be thankful for. The feelings you'll get from the good deeds you do will radiate from your aura and draw wonderful relationships of all kinds into your experience.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.