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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'm in a relationship that I used to be excited about, but now I find myself no longer interested. My boyfriend has many wonderful qualities, but he is often very negative. I'm also just not sexually attracted to him anymore. However, I am grateful, because without him, I wouldn't be able to have my current lifestyle. He works very hard while I pursue my acting career. In fact, he pays for everything. I should note that I recently left a good job to move a very long distance so we could be together. I know that a loving "soul mate" relationship must be created, and that it takes work for both parties. For quite a while I was really trying to be romantic, to communicate, to restore the romance. I do love him, but I'm afraid I'm just no longer "in love" with him, and worst of all, I don't really want to be anymore. I imagine us parting somewhere down the road, and I'm okay with that! I know with this attitude our relationship definitely isn't going to work, and I do want to have a successful relationship at last. Can I find a way to make myself want this nice guy? I really believe we make our own happiness or unhappiness, and I take full responsibility for my life. On the other hand, maybe he's just not the "right one" for me? Thank you!

--L

Dreamchaser:

I think you have "reality-itis." This relationship was fabulous when you were long-distance, but now that you have quit your job and moved, you are dealing with the full reality.

This happens so often with long-distance relationships. We meet someone and talk on the phone or on the internet. We are open and honest and speak freely. We meet for short periods of time to eat, drink and be merry. Long distance relationships are full of loving moments, after which we go back to our respective homes with a "love hangover." We think that this relationship is everything we could ever want, so we do all we can to move closer to each other.

This is when the bumps and flaws become apparent. Everyone's real personalities come out. Reality has finally set in.

If you are not physically or sexually interested in a man anymore, it is going to be next to impossible to make this into what you say you want. Your gut instincts are telling you the truth. You are not in love, and you probably never were - you just really wanted to be. You now know that you are not going to be together for the long haul.

"It" is either there, or "it" is not. We can't force ourselves to like or love someone. You don't want to talk to him half the time, and you definitely don't want to be intimate with him. What kind of relationship can you expect to build when you feel this way deep down in your core?

I'm sure the fact that he is paying for your lifestyle is making you hesitant to leave him. It's natural for you to really like the fact that you can do whatever you want while someone else picks up the tab. I'm sorry to tell you that the free ride is now over, my friend: it's time to get back to work.

Do yourself a favor and start to figure out where you want to go from here. You were not happy in your old life, so you do not want to go backwards. If you want to stay where you are now and pursue your acting career, that's fine. However, you need to either find your own job and move into your own place, or ask him about just being "roommates" for a while.

You can't continue to allow him to pay all the expenses for both of you given how you feel about him. That's just wrong; it will create bad karma for you, and you know it. He is just as dejected as you are about the way things are. You are not THAT good of an actress - he knows things are not great beneath the surface, but he has no idea what to do about it. Thus you both just continue on like things are fabulous when they absolutely are not.

You are constantly reinventing yourself, and it is time to do it again. At least you're now in the area of the world you really wanted and needed to be in. That is one blessing to come out of this whole relationship experience.

I wish you happy new horizons.

*****

Astrea:

As long as you're only thinking about yourself and your own needs, you can't make yourself love your boyfriend again. It certainly seems the loving relationship you once had is over. Both of you are just going through the motions now. He lets things go on and on because he still feels he is in love with you. You let things go on and on because you don't want to give up your acting dreams and support yourself. Perhaps that's enough to keep you together a while longer - stranger things have certainly happened with couples.

It's interesting that both of you were born so close to the cusp of your signs. While you're a Cancer, you have a LOT of Leo influence in your chart. This Leo is the part of you that wants to break and run and find someone new and exciting, while the Cancer part wants to hold on to the security you've found. He's a stable, caring Virgo, but the Libra in his chart makes him voice his negative feelings like resentment now and then. His free Libra spirit hates being used.

He can feel that you're no longer in love with him and that you don't feel you will always be together. He knows he's being used, and while he's no longer in love with you the way he once was, it's natural for him to ignore or deny that to himself. When he is negative, that repressed awareness is coming up. Usually Virgos can hide their feelings from others, but since he is about at his limit in this situation, it sneaks out now and then.

You say that you did all you could to be romantic, caring and considerate, and I believe you! It's sad, but the two of you have just grown apart. If you can live this way, that's fine, but it's not what EITHER of you truly wants.

You are no longer in love with your "very negative" boyfriend who creates the "lifestyle" you want to enjoy while you "don't work and pursue your acting career." I know that you know that you sound awfully shallow, like an ungrateful sponge who is just using him to get what you want in life at his expense. As long as you are using another person and not giving anything back but resentment, the Universe won't reward your efforts.

If you want to stay with him and rekindle your love, the two of you should IMMEDIATELY get into some kind of couples counseling. There isn't any excuse in the whole world for not doing that. The success of this counseling will depend on how receptive the two of you are to change.

You can indeed choose to love anyone you want to love, but once you've decided the love is gone, it's very difficult to get it back again. Often, however, love dies simply because we allow resentment to build over time. Unless the people involved in the relationship can learn to GIVE to each other the way they did in the beginning again, it's silly to try to stay together.

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.