Eating Spirituality
Baking the Body of the Lord: A Transformative Ritual
Spell to be Healthy and Eat Less
A Witch's Kitchen Blessing
The kitchen is a room of life -- most people congregate there when visiting with friends, and the last decade or so has seen more homes being built with kitchens that are designed for entertaining -- breakfast nooks, counters for stools to be pulled up to, open designs that allow the cook to be a part of the group, rather than shut away in isolation.
For a Witch, the kitchen can also be a magickal room. Many witches keep their ritual supplies in the kitchen -- indistinguishable from everyday items. I suggest that they keep them in a separate drawer, or on a different shelf, thereby preserving its sacred energies.
If the energy in the kitchen feels 'stale' or even 'bad', try putting fresh flowers there, or burning a vanilla, cinnamon, or lavender candle in the room for a little while.
When cooking, pay attention to the fact that you are re-enacting a ritual as old as humankind. For this time, you are the Great Goddess, the Mother, feeding Her children. See the healing, nutritious benefits of the food you are creating and know that this is sacred magick.
One thing I like to do is bake sacred bread. I play positive, loving (fun!) music. Then, while I'm kneading the bread, I meditate on how each bite of this bread will bring health, wealth, and joy to my family. I feel energy moving through me into the bread and I know that I am Goddess.
~Ma'at
Food doesn't seem terribly spiritual to most
of us. You buy it, cook it,
slap it on the table, and eat it. But food is associated historically
with
politics, legal systems, health maintenance, and, oh yes, religion.
Long, ago, humans spent most of their time
ensuring a constant supply of
food. Unfortunately, this supply could be wiped out in a matter of
moments by
fire, flood, insects, drought, rain, or any other of a number of natural
disasters. To prevent this from happening, deity was actively called
upon to
intervene. If the harvest was spared, an offering of the very best
humans had
to give was set aside and given to deity.
Modern technology can't change the weather,
but the trucking industry
has certainly widened our access to seasonally available foods. This
has
created an interesting phenomenon within the Pagan world. We have lost
touch
with the seasons. Yes we still celebrate the holidays, but how many
of you
know what the land is doing at those times? When the grocery stores
are
filled year round with fresh vegetables and fruits, how can you tell
what is
currently in season?
Our ancestors worshiped food, seeing it as
a gift from the hands of the
deities. You don't have to worship the food to respect it as a
life-sustaining substance containing the energies of the earth. Food
of any
kind is manifestation of the divine essential for our survival. Bring
yourself back into cycle with the natural year and with the land around
you
by discovering what is seasonal. When you use the local foods to recontact
the cycles of the land around you, food becomes a tool of self-transformation
and a rekindling of faith in nature. As your body absorbs the fuel
necessary
to exist, so too your soul absorbs the magic that surrounds the special
holiday.
excerpt from Breid Foxsong
Llewellyn's Witches Calendar 2000
Baking the Body of the Lord:
A Transformative Ritual to Reconcile the War God with
the Mother Goddess
by Ben Gruagach
Modern conceptions of the Lord are strongly coloured by patriarchy and war, even within feminist Witchcraft. To facilitate the decomposition of the antagonistic War God, we need to transform the God to a peaceful and loving archetype that is more in tune with the Mother Goddess. What better, more constructive way to do this than by mixing and baking magical cakes, the "body and soul of the Lord"? These magickal cakes can be ritually consumed in rites performed to help transform the War God to a more appropriate form.
For this ritual, you need to assemble all the ingredients and tools
in your kitchen, with your recipe and ritual on hand to read from as necessary.
We will cast a circle in the kitchen, draw in the magickal forces of the
universe, and make the circle the microcosmic mirror/centre of the macrocosm.
Through action in this crucible, this microcosm, we hope to effect change
in the
macrocosm.
Tools Needed:
1. Athame.
2. Pentacle or platter with Earth symbols painted on it.
3. Pure spring water in a ritual cup or container (this is not
the cup of water used in the recipe below).
4. Salt in a small ritual bowl or dish (sea salt is best, but
table salt will do).
5. Cooking utensils and all ingredients needed to bake the cakes
(see recipe following).
6. Tarot cards, a book, or something else that you can occupy
yourself with while the cakes are baking. Try to limit your "past
time" to something that is quiet, requires little preparation or extra
room, and would be pleasing to the Goddess.
Recipe for Cakes
This recipe was given to me by Sabina B., an inventive cook and a fine
wiccan!
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup icing sugar
3/4 cups bran
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water (more if necessary)
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
1 teaspoon saffron
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
Method:
Combine all dry ingredients, then add liquids and egg. Mix well.
Spoon into greased, floured muffin pan. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
for 20 minutes. Makes 12 cakes.
The Ritual
1. Make sure all the materials are present in the kitchen, so
that you will not need to leave the circle area once the ritual has begun.
2. Pick up the athame in your power hand, and say:
Blessed be, thou creature of Art.
Blessed be, that you may channel the power of Mother Tiamat,
and direct it out to do Her will.
3. Pick up the pentacle in your other hand, the receptive hand,
and say
Blessed be, thou creature of Art.
Blessed be, that you may channel the power of Mother Tiamat,
and draw energies in to do Her will.
4. Bring the two together in front of you, so that the tip of
the athame blade touches the center of the pentacle. Say:
Active and Receptive,
Outer and Inner,
the spark of the Goddess between you!
Blessed be.
5. Place the pentacle and athame on the table. Place the
ritual cup of water on the pentacle. Pick up the athame, and dip
its tip into the water, charging it with these words:
By the holy power of Tiamat, this water is made pure.
May it cast out all impurities in all that it touches.
Blessed be!
6. Set aside the cup of water, then place the dish of salt on
the pentacle. Touch the salt with the tip of the athame, and charge
it with these words:
By the holy power of Tiamat, this salt is made pure.
May it draw good to all that it touches.
Blessed be!
7. Remove the dish of salt from the pentacle, then pick up the
cup of water and put it on the pentacle again. Pick up a few grains
of salt with your fingers, and sprinkle them in the water, then recite
the litany of the sea mother:
Marah, Bohu, Bahu, Bau,
Tiawthu, Zarpanitu,
Gasmu, Nina, Sabitu,
Omoroca, Tiamat!
8. Take the cup of charged water around the kitchen, sprinkling
it liberally with your fingers to cleanse the area, and cast the circle.
Make sure that you go around the room clockwise, and start at your oven,
then work around the kitchen and back to the oven. Recite the invocation
to Zarpanitu, She Who Produces Seed:
As I move about this place,
Always I come back to the Source of my Meaning;
The Oven, the Womb of Life and Sustenance,
The Source of Fertility and Seed.
Zarpanitu, holy maiden of growth,
Bearer of the Seed, the Potential of All,
Bless me now in my work, that I may partake
Of Your holy essence.
Touch me, touch my work,
And transform us all!
9. Place the cup of holy water by the pentacle, then take the
athame, and move about the room again. Begin again at the oven, draw
an invoking pentagram in the air above it, turn on the oven to preheat
to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Move about the room clockwise, and then
draw another invoking pentagram at the oven again, and say:
The oven is warming,
The quickening has begun,
May the fire of the Goddess
Bake and transform!
10. Go to the ingredients you have laid out for the recipe.
Place each ingredient, in it container, on the pentacle and touch it with
the athame tip before you use the ingredient. Charge it with these
words:
Tiamat, Zarpanitu,
bless this (flour, egg, etc.) so it be pure,
Charge it with your magick bright,
Fill it with Your holy light.
11. Mix the ingredients together, according to the instructions
in the recipe. When the cakes are in their pan, and are being placed
in the oven, recite the following Blessing of the Cakes While They Bake:
We do not bake you, cakes, with salt and milk,
Nor do we cook with honey and with meal;
We bake the body and the blood and the soul,
The soul of Lord Marduk, so that he shall heal.
Be not far from here, but be with us
In all your glory, in these cakes,
That we may consume you, in our Mother's name
To restore you to her belly,
That She might give birth to the Lord again.
So we wait, in honour of Her, Great Mother,
The Cauldron of Life and Death and Birth,
The Oven that burns and bakes
Reducing all to ash, that we may rise again.
We do bake his body and soul.
ECCO MARDUK!
ECCE NAMMU!
ECCE HERTHA!
BLESSED BE!
12. Set a timer for the length of time necessary for the cakes to bake. While the cakes are baking, you have a good opportunity to meditate, reflect, read, or perform diviniations. Try to make sure that you do not leave the circle until the whole ritual is done. When the cakes are all done, lay them out on a plate to cool, and finish baking any remaining dough.
13. When the cakes are all baked, dip your finger in the blessed
holy water and lightly sprinkle each cake, while saying:
Ecco Marduk!
14. After the cakes are blessed, pick up the holy water, go to
the oven and turn the oven off. Sprinkle the area with holy water,
and say:
Bless this oven, faithful Mother,
That has served You so well.
Thank you, and may we always be at peace.
15. Draw a banishing pentagram in the air with your finger, then
go clockwise around the kitchen, sprinkling the holy water.
Say:
In the name of the holy Mother, Tiamat,
In the name of the holy Maiden, Zarpanitu,
And by the wisdom of the holy Crone, Zi-Kura,
I thank all who are present here!
Blessed be!
16. Place the cup of water back on the pentacle, and say:
The circle is open, but unbroken,
May the peace of the Old Ones
Go in our hearts.
Merry meet, and merry part,
And merry 'til we meet again!
Blessed be.
17. The ritual is over; clean up the kitchen, and put the cakes in a safe place until they are needed in a ritual meal. When they are eventually consumed, consider the cakes to be representative of the War God decomposing to primal unformed essence in the Womb of the Goddess, to be reborn as Her loving son.
Spell to be Healthy and Eat Less
Time of month: Sunset on a Waning Moon (moving from the full to the
new moon)
Tools: yellow candle with holder, rose petals, lavender oil, small
garnets, carnelian or turquoise stone, small jar with lid or plastic
bag
that seals, picture of yourself healthy.
Charge yellow candle with desired goal and place in holder . As you
light the candle, visualize yourself passing on second helpings of
food,
small portions on your plate and looking healthy and physically fit.
Charge rose petals, oil and stones.
Sprinkle petals around candle, again visualize your goal.
Place the charged garnet stones and a few drops of oil into the jar
or
bag. [A baby food sized jar might work well.] As you do this visualize
again. Then pick up the petals and place them into the jar or bag also.
Seal the jar or bag and say:
"By this jar/bag of powered oil, petals and stones, it will bring me
courage and help me meet my goal to not eat or snack as much and become
healthier."
Visualize yourself becoming healthier and moving the weight on the scale
to the left.
Carry this jar or bag with you and sniff charged items before eating.
Rub the charged carnelian or turquoise on the picture of yourself then
rub onto your body while visualizing yourself become the you in the
picture.
Say:
"In no way will this spell cause me to suffer any adverse effects.
So mote it be!"
Carry the stone with you and rub it when you have the urge to snack
or
eat too much. Hang the picture up in your kitchen to view. Allow the
candle to burn for another hour then snuff it out and put away. Burn
it
whenever you need the moral support.
"Blessed be this kitchen of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Be warmed by
the
sacred light of the Goddess and horned One. My all that is created
here by means both
magical and mundane bring nourishment, healing, sustenance and cause
harm to
none. With love and peace, joy and magic, be now and always filled.
So mote
it be."
Source; Llewellyn's 1999 Witch's Calendar