Cottage Witchery (8 page)

a juicy spell for removing bad vibes

To remove sour feelings and bad vibes, take a small glass bowl, ceramic dish, or coffee mug and sprinkle a few inches of salt in the bottom. Next squirt a bit of lemon juice on top of the salt. Say:

Lemon juice and white salt, by mixing thee

No bad vibes will cling or hang around me.

Remove all the negativity and despair

By the powers of earth, water, fire, and air.

sweet prosperity spell

Mix together a teaspoon of cinnamon for prosperity, a teaspoon of allspice to bring money, and a half cup of sugar to sweeten up your life. Mix the ingredients together, then pour into a glass container. Snap or screw the lid into place. Empower the mixture to bring prosperity into your life. Try this charm:

Sugar and spice and everything nice,

Make up this Witch's spell,

A pinch of magick, a bit of charm,

And all will turn out well.

You could put a pinch of this mixture into a charm bag, or seal a tablespoon of it inside an envelope and keep it in your bill drawer or the bottom of your purse to promote prosperity. Or just sprinkle a spoonful on your buttered toast in the morning to add prosperity and success to your day.

protection charm bag

Garlic is a great protective herb. Besides its supposed properties of keeping away vampires and the roaming undead, a clove of garlic comes in handy for kitchen magick. For this kitchen charm, use a four-inch square of black fabric and about six to eight inches of black ribbon. Place the clove of garlic for protection and purification in the center of the fabric. Add a pinch of salt to break up any negativity you feel may be surrounding you or the situation.

Gather up each edge of the square, naming them for each of the four elements. After you gather the corners together, tie the bag closed with the ribbon. Take a careful look at this kitchen charm, the directions are all laid out for you.

By the powers of earth (pick up one corner)

And air (gather the second corner)

And fire (pick up the third)

And water (add the last corner)

I create this Witch's protective charm.
(tie the fabric closed with the ribbon)

Grant me safety and shield me from all harm.

Remember to seal this charm with the closing line,

By all the powers of three times three,

As I will it, then so shall it be.

You may keep the charm bag on your person or tucked away in the most-used room of your home to boost your magickal household protections.

apples of knowledge spell

For this divinatory spell you'll need your divinatory tools (tarot cards, runes, etc.), an apple, and a pinch of mace. Mace is a great-tasting spice to add to old-fashioned and country apple dishes and recipes. Apples have long been considered magickal fruits. Their associations run the gambit from love to divination to healing. Slice the apple crosswise to reveal the star that is hidden inside. Dust the apple with a pinch of mace to encourage psychic powers. Place the apple pieces inside of a bowl and intone the following divinatory charm:

Apples of red, green, and gold,

Show me what my future holds.

Mace is a spice that encourages foresight,

Help this kitchen witch's spell to turn out right.

Now cast your runes or deal out your tarot cards. When you are finished with this kitchen charm, leave the apple neatly outside for nature to reclaim. Or you could eat the apple for a snack, thus taking the power of foresight and knowledge into yourself.

For more ideas on kitchen divination, check out our next section. Have you ever considered trying your hand at tea-leaf reading?

Tell me, Gypsy, what can you see in my cup of tea?

Can you predict my future, tell me my past?

Anonymous

Reading Tea Leaves

Tea-leaf reading was a popular pastime in England, Scotland, Ireland, and in Victorian- era America. Also known as tasseography, tea-leaf reading was probably one of the more popular forms of divination practiced a century or two ago. To perform tea-leaf reading you need to start with a fresh pot of tea. First brew up some loose tea in a pot and pour the unstrained tea into each cup. It is recommended that you use plain china cups for tea-leaf reading, as a patterned cup makes the shapes harder to discern. This would be fun to do at a circle meeting, an old-fashioned Halloween party, or a Samhain get-together with your magickal friends. Try this out and see what kind of results you get.

Have the questioner drink the tea until the liquid is almost gone. Then take the cup and turn it around deosil (that's clockwise) three times while saying the following charm:

Great Goddess, show me love, happiness, and good luck

As I divine the future within this teacup.

By all the powers of three times three,

As I will it, then so shall it be.

Turn the cup over and onto the saucer and allow the remaining tea to drain out. Now you're ready to read. Look for shapes made by the leaves—use your imagination! Leaves that are closer to the rim of the cup show events in the immediate future. Leaves deeper into the cup or at the bottom indicate events in the distant future. Likewise, the handle of the teacup is important in the reading as well. How close the shapes are to the handle tells you how close these events are to occurring.

tea-leaf symbols and their meanings

anchor:
travel

bell:
good news

butterfly:
happiness

candle:
illumination

cat:
secrets

crescent moon:
Goddess and moon magick

cup:
emotions and psychic abilities

dog:
loyalty

egg:
pregnancy

eye:
protection

flower:
happiness and admiration

hand:
help is on the way

heart:
love

house:
security

horse:
stamina

key:
opportunity and knowledge

ladder:
promotion at work

leaf:
Green Man and earth magick

question mark:
uncertainty

ring:
marriage

snake:
gossip and hurt feelings

star:
magick

tree:
good luck and success

Remember that just like other divinatory tools, such as the runes or the tarot, tea-leaf readings are open to personal interpretation. Feel free to include your own personal symbolic meanings to other shapes that are not listed here. Also, more than one shape within the cup can make for a more interesting reading, as both the symbols must be interpreted by how they affect each other—such as a question mark and a ring popping up in the same cup. Marriage may indeed be a part of the questioner's future, but how do they feel about it? Are they uncertain? Another school of thought is that clear shapes distinguish good luck while vague shapes indicate an unclear outcome and delay. This type of divinatory reading takes some practice. I guess you'd better break out some fancy cookies, brew up a pot of fragrant tea, and start practicing!

I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet,

simple things of life which are the real ones after all.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Cottage Witchery in the Kitchen

How do you go about working cottage witchery in the kitchen? Well, I just grab my trusty jars of dried garden herbs and gather a few fresh magickal flowers. Then I dig through my kitchen spices and seasonings and conjure up a little magick. I work out a quick charm or spell and use my imagination and typically I keep things very simple. A small candle, herbs, flowers, and occasionally a wooden spoon that doubles for a wand. If I am not working or digging in the garden, there is a good chance I'm stirring up some natural magick in the kitchen.

Some supplies to keep on hand for natural kitchen magick would be a vase for garden flowers and fresh herbal foliage; a candle holder and some plain tealights; assorted glass storage jars for your various dried magickal herbs and flowers; small glass, ceramic, or wooden bowls; a small cauldron or an old cooking pot; and a wooden spoon. You could cast or conjure with this wooden spoon, create a circle, or stir up your herbal ingredients.

Now, before someone even starts complaining, there is
nothing
demeaning about using a wooden spoon in kitchen magick! I have a decorative antique wooden spoon that I keep in a crock on the kitchen counter. (I don't use it in food preparation.) In a pinch it makes for a great wand. For example, when my kids were small and I was working a little magick at the counter while doing the mundane chores of cooking and cleaning, I would use that spoon to direct the energy where I wanted it to go. You know, just point, aim, and shoot? Hey, don't knock it. It always worked for me.

So here I am, barefoot, in jeans and a T-shirt, daring to conjure up simple, natural magicks with what I have on hand. I know it blows my image not to be flouncing about in ritual wear 2
4
/7, but the majority of the time when I work my magick I am in street clothes. (Shocking, isn't it?) Don't even try and convince me that most Witches work in ceremonial robes every day of the week. Let's be realistic.

It is not what you wear, or how many fancy ritual accessories that you own, that makes you into a creative and powerful Witch. It's how you use and work with the natural supplies and the down-to-earth magickal tools that you do have. How do you interact with the magickal environment that is around you? What sort of magickal energy radiates from your home? All of this makes for very personal and individualized magick. It also helps to remind us that every Witch is unique. We should celebrate this and refine our techniques. This is what makes magick powerful. Hence the idea for cottage witchery was born.

Write your own spells, come up with your own custom-made charms. Just do your own thing. If you're wondering where to start, I'm about to give you a spell worksheet to help you organize and create your own simple natural spells and kitchen magick. Check this worksheet out for yourself; refer to the information and simple kitchen supplies that were featured in this chapter. Just imagine all of the spicy spells and charms you can whip up!

For more information on garden flowers to use in natural magick, check out my previous book,
Garden Witchery
. It's crammed full of gardening information and easy-to-grow magickal flowers and herbs that incorporate nicely into natural magick and kitchen witch charms and spells.

Natural Kitchen Magick Worksheet

goal:

kitchen spices used:

magickal significance of the spices:

candle color (for candle magick):

fresh herbs or garden flowers:

charm or verse:

Fun Kitchen Folklore

In closing up this chapter, I thought a touch of folklore would be just the thing. Folklore and old country superstitions are a treasure-trove full of magickal lore and fun. Some of this information could be used in practical magick and some is just for your enjoyment.

Kitchen folklore states that bubbles appearing in your coffee cup signal that money is on the way. Likewise for knocking over the sugar bowl, rice that forms a ring around the cooking pot, and tea leaves that float to the top of the teacup.

Visitors are coming to your home if cutlery drops to the floor; a fork signifies a man, and a spoon a woman. In the Ozarks it's a fork for a fellow and a knife for a lady. If a glass falls to the floor but does not break, it is an indication of true and trustworthy friends. There is the old-time belief, revitalized by the movie
Practical Magic
, that if a broom falls over, company is coming. Also, if you prop your kitchen broom up against the doorframe, it keeps all troublesome family members or unwanted visitors out.

Here is another little gem of kitchen magick: scattering mustard seeds across the threshold was thought to keep out unwanted guests. To keep away spirits you are supposed to bury mustard seeds under your doorway or porch.