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The woman bent over the stone hearth, adding twisted branches to the embers that glowed behind the andirons. Once they'd sprung into flickering life, she stepped outside to pump water into the old iron pot. She returned to her house and placed the heavy cauldron directly over the fire, positioning its three long legs evenly around the blaze. As the water warmed, she carved a small heart on to a beeswax candle, placed it in a pewter holder on the kitchen table, and lit its wick. She uncovered the baskets of strawberries that she had gathered that morning. Removing one, she placed it on the cutting board. "Love...for...me," she murmured. Working slowly and deliberately, she transferred the luscious fruits to the board, placing them in a pattern. She soon had created a small heart fashioned of strawberries. The woman made another heart around the first, then another and another, until her supply of strawberries was exhausted. She smiled and chopped the strawberries, imagining what her life would be like once she'd met a man.
While waiting for the water to boil, she took an apple from a string hung from the ceiling. She carefully carved a heart into its peel with a white-handled knife, saying:"Love for me!" The woman stared at the apple, smiled, and bit into the fruit. The sweetness refreshed her. She slowly ate the apple, biting clockwise around the fruit from where she'd first penetrated it, slowly consuming the heart. Later, the woman rose from her spinning and checked the pot. It was nearly boiling. She took the cutting board to the openfaced hearth and, using the white-handled knife, slid the chopped strawberries into the rustling water. As the fruit dropped into the cauldron, she said:"Love for me!" The cake of sugar had sat undisturbed in its ceramic pot for three months, but now was the time. The woman gently added it to the simmering, fruit-filled cauldron. It absorbed the water and melted. She sat beside the fire and took up a spoon made of cherry wood. Slowly stirring, and moving the spoon in the direction of the sun, the woman cooked her strawberry jam. As it boiled, she said, over and over again in a voice barely audible above the crackling wood and the bubbling water"Love for me!" The practice of folk magic* utilizes a variety of tools to empower simple rituals. These tools include visualization, candles, colors, words, affirmations, herbs, essential oils, stones, and metals. Other tools, fashioned by our hands, are also used, but these are merely power-directors. They contain little energy save that which is provided by the magician. Another magical tool is at our disposal, a tool that contains specific energies which we can use to create great changes in our lives. This tool is all around us. We encounter it every day without realizing the potential for change that exists within it; without knowing that, with a few simple actions and a visualization or two, this tool can be as powerful as the rarest stone or the costliest sword. What is this untapped source of power? Food. That's right, food. The oatmeal you had for breakfast, your salad-and-seafood lunch, even the chocolate ice cream that topped off your evening meal, are all potent magical tools. This isn't a new idea. From antiquity, humans have honored food as the sustainer of all life, a gift from the unseen deities who graciously provided it. Food played an important role in religious rituals for most cultures of the Earth as they entered the earliest stages of civilization. Its essence was offered up to the deities that watched overhead, while its physical portion, if not burned, was shared by the priestesses and priests. Food became connected with rites of passage such as birth, puberty, initiation into mystical and social groups, marriage, childbirth, maturity, and death. Not only was food linked with all early religions; it was also understood to possess a nonphysical energy. Different types of food were known to contain different types of energy. Certain foods were eaten for physical strength, for success in battle, for easy childbirth, for health, sex, prosperity, and fertility.
Though food magic was born in an earlier age, it hasn't died out. Foods are used in magic in both the East and West, though the rationale for including them may have changed. Birthday cakes are an example. Most birthday cakes contain iced wishes of good luck. Why should we eat words? Originally, the words were thought to contain the energies associated with them. So the birthday celebrant was believed to enjoy both the cake and the energy of the words. Birthday cakes are a contemporary form of food magic, whether or not those who perpetuate this ritual are aware of it. While food magic has suffered from neglect in most of the Western world (outside of religious connections), there are many places where food is still viewed as a tool of personal transformation. In Japan and China, specific foods are eaten to ensure long life, health, love, even a passing grade on an examination. Such rituals have continued for 2,000 to 3,000 years because they are effective.
In my twenty-year excursion into the realm of magic, I've realized that no part of our lives is divorced from its power. I began researching the magical uses of food about seventeen years ago, when I was struck with the knowledge that it, too, was a tool of magic and could be used to create positive, needed change. Many of my peers expressed disbelief when I first explained the premise of this book. Locked into one particular viewpoint concerning magic, they couldn't grasp the simple idea that food itself could be a force for magical change. Most of them agreed that herbs contain energies. All right, I said. If herbs are properly chosen and used, the magician can release their energies to manifest a specific change. Right? Correct, they said. Well, herbs are plants. Plants are food. And if food is properly chosen and used, couldn't the magician release its energies for magical purposes? Of course they could, and they do. Doesn't it make sense that the rosemary a magician burns during a love ceremony could be used in other magical ways—in cooking, perhaps? Since lemons have been used for centuries in purifying rituals, can't we bake a lemon pie and internalize its cleansing energies? This is the magic of food.
Both familiar and strange dishes can be found on these pages. Their magical energies are clearly stated. Where needed, directions for preparation are also given. I've included recipes where I felt they were appropriate, though you've probably prepared, or at least eaten, most of these dishes. Every meal and every snack offers us a chance to change ourselves and our world. We can empower our lives with the energies of food. With knowledge and a few short rituals, we can spark the powers naturally inherent in food, transforming them into edible versions of the stones, woods, and metals used by magicians. We must eat to live. Similarly, we must take control of our lives to be truly happy. The tools for doing just this are in your cupboards, in your refrigerator, and on your kitchen table. Turn the page, and discover the magic that awaits!
