Spiritual Nourishment and Magical Cooking
November places us at the gateway to Winter. The nights are longer and the dark comes early. The air is crisp and already there have been glimpses of frost. It is a time to be inside, to eat warming foods, and to bring light into our hearts to carry us through until Spring. I think that is why people gather with family and friends, create large feasts to share, and potentially think about what they have to be grateful for.
Thanksgiving is a dualistic holiday, simultaneously providing a reason to come together in love and gratitude (one of the rare moments in the wheel of the year when our culture will stop to honor time with family), and an unconscious observance of this country’s history of betrayal and exploitation of Indigenous Peoples. If you’re not sure how to feel about it, you’re not alone. This year, of course, brings another level of complexity, since it may not be possible to travel to see family who live far away. Questions of safety have to be considered, even when it comes to gathering with our local family members and friends. Yet, however we choose to honor traditions involving family, spiritual history, and the transmutation of oppression, sharing the foods that make us feel like we are held, abundant in the ways that matter, and at home on the earth will likely be at the center of our holiday rituals.
How we eat, in many ways, reflects how we honor ourselves as spirits having a corporeal experience, dancing to the song of the earth for a short time. We can celebrate that experience by caring for our vitality, and engaging with the medicine, sensuality, and magic of food, or we can be unconscious about it. I am grateful to my lineage in Curanderismo for the precolonial lessons I received about eating. The Mexicas (or Aztecs), for example, ate a diet that was primarily vegetarian, apart from ceremonial feasts where meat would have been specially prepared and the animal honored for its sacrifice. They believed, in general, that freshly harvested plants and flowers were high in life force energy and kept the vitality strong and the mind light for dreaming and seership. From Curandersimo, I learned to reinvigorate living foods by soaking them in water before preparing them, to serve chocolate at all family occasions to promote happiness, and that tamales must be made within a joyful atmosphere of music and laughter, and wrapped in their corn husks with love, like babies.
The world is full of rich traditions of food magic and folklore. It can be fun to learn the roots of family customs, stemming from both tricks of survival and remnants of ritual. Perhaps along with, or in place of, sharing time with relatives and spiritual family, we can share stories about the origin and meanings of our recipes. This is one way to create the warmth of placement and connection, and to nourish ourselves and each other, whether physically together or not. In addition, here are some things to consider about magical cooking this holiday season.
Preparing and sharing a meal is a sacred act that creates a bond, and brings both physical and energetic nourishment. When we consider the medicinal and magical properties of our food we awaken its spiritual aspects. When we cook with love and intention, we direct these energies toward a purpose. Magic can be simple like this, and simple is often very powerful. It is about creating relationship with the world around us and focusing our will, in partnership with these elemental forces. Begin by quieting the mind and creating sacred space in your kitchen in whatever way is right for you, perhaps using scent, candles, flowers, or whatever you prefer. Consider the effect you are hoping to create and choose foods and herbs that resonate. Always take time to touch and interact with the chosen ingredients, charging them with your intention. If you can, use wooden cooking utensils instead of metal or plastic. Clay, glass, or copper pots and pans are best as well, but not essential if you don’t have them at hand. The most important thing is to use your visualization to focus on the desired outcome, and to cook with the emotion you wish to imbue, as you chop, mix, layer, and stir your creations.
Another important aspect is to connect with the foods of the season, in order to align with the earth’s changes and the needs of body and soul as the weather and life rhythms shift. In the late Fall, root vegetables like potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets become abundant and help us to ground, and to warm ourselves as we adjust to the colder months. Squashes, and pumpkins in particular, are symbols of the Fall season and the abundance of the Divine Feminine. Pomegranates appear and remind us of our relationship to the underworld, while persimmons bring the joyful light of the sun, stored from the summer months, to our bodies and homes. Apples are prevalent, with their cross cultural relationship to folk magic for love and health.
The holidays are a perfect time for baking. Baking, with its special kind of transmutation of simple ingredients into fragrant and delightful treats, is its own form of magic, especially since for most it is not an everyday act. At this time of year, pies are a common staple of traditional celebrations, and one with a rich history. In Scott Cunningham’s Wicca In The Kitchen, a delightful resource book that was originally titled The Magic Of Food, there is an interesting description of the history and symbology of pies. He explains that the round pies that we are most familiar with are an American adaptation of the European tradition, which favors a deep square or oblong pan. Fruit was more scarce in the colonial United States, and so a more shallow and round version was created. He suggests that the round shape signifies spirituality, whereas the more square form symbolizes abundance, and that the lattice work of crust on top represents protection. Cultural nuances like these offer suggestions for how to make your magical feasts creative and specific to your needs.
Even if you are cooking for yourself alone, the onset of the Winter months is an important time for rituals of nourishment. In this transitional time, we prepare to go inward towards a season of dreaming and relative quiet. Enlivening our food with intention can help us to fortify ourselves both physically and emotionally. It is a gesture we make to ourselves and those we care for. When we cannot be outwardly expansive, with the large gatherings and the travel across distances we might be used to, we can take the time to cultivate depth in the simple acts of care we perform for ourselves and those in our immediate surroundings. Begin now with a moment of reflection, with your oracle cards or inner voice of guidance. What inside you needs nourishing? What most needs to be cultivated in your heart, your family, your home this season? Cook, bake, create with this intention. And, when you sit down to enjoy your small feasts, take a moment to honor and receive the magic you have shaped from the blessings of the earth.
-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez, and published originally with the eleventh house