What does an intentional kitchen look like?
So you’ve made it this far and are ready to begin or perhaps revitalize your journey into creating a utterly divine spiritual space of your very own, but what does that mean and where do you begin? While a magickal kitchen is regularly a work in progress and time seems to always be in short supply, having some go-to tools at the ready will help bring ease to making your spiritual practice a daily routine. Below are a few of my favorite tips that you can employ to help jump start you on your path.
Stock Your Pantry For Success!
I’ll be honest, I truly believe that this is every witch’s secret weapon when it comes to creating kitchen spellwork in a pinch. A diverse pantry full of shelf stable staples and homemade items offers you the convenience of being able to whip up a meal for practically any intention you desire any time you need. While I do plan to expand upon how to stock an epic intentional pantry in future posts, the following are my all-time must haves. The best part? You probably have most of these ingredients already!
Dried Herbs and Spices: I believe wholeheartedly that having a bounty of herbs and spices at your fingertips is one of the most powerful, while simultaneously fastest and easiest ways to inject an intentional boost into your foods and drinks. There are countless options for every purpose at your disposal via supermarkets, as well as local and online spice shops. You can even mix and store your own blends to have at the ready for specific intentions. While there are tons I could recommend for you to keep in stock (and will in later posts, I promise!), I advise you go with herbs and spices based on your own personal tastes/needs. Also, always be sure your spices/herbs haven’t gone stale on you (fresher=stronger intentional workings).
Canned Tomatoes: Another normal staple in most pantries that also doubles as everyday witchy gold. While fresh produce is wonderful during the summer months, canned tomatoes offer you a quick option anytime of the year. They come in a variety of forms and flavors, which allows them to be insanely useful in a myriad of applications. Intentionally, tomatoes are often used when you are looking to create dishes to draw in love, good health, and creative inspiration.
Beans/Lentils: Humble and unassuming, beans and lentils are too often overlooked in the kitchen, but they can be a powerful tool in your edible spellwork arsenal. They are extremely versatile, are an excellent source of vegetarian protein and budget friendly to boot. In general terms, beans and lentils in dishes help bring prosperity, luck, health, and inspiration.
Flour/Sugar/Other Baking Items: I know this is a vast, and to some, a very intimidating category, however, baking is a wonderful and classic way to bring your goals to fruition. Having at least the basics of baking in your pantry will allow you to create lots of different goodies to help sweeten up your love life, honor your ancestors, aid in communication and nearly every sort of intention you can imagine. As with spices, periodically check these items if you aren’t going through them as flours, yeast, and leaveners can become less usable with age.
Tea/Coffee: To some (including my husband), this may be the most important staple of have on hand at all times. Whether you are looking to get a caffeine fix or an herbal boost, coffee and tea are amazing to utilize in all types of daily witchcraft. You can even tailor your own blends of tea for specific times of year or workings, as well as intentionally jazzing up your day by placing spices into your ground coffee as it brews.
Create With Goals In Mind
This is perhaps one of the most important steps in any witchcraft you do, in the kitchen or not. Manifestation is a huge part of our practice and to be truly successful you have to envision what you are working towards.
In an intentional kitchen this means keeping your goal in mind at every step of the process. Keep you intentions close to heart as you are chopping vegetables, seasoning your dish, shaking your cocktail, plating, and even eating or drinking the final product. It’s only half the equation to use ingredients that line up with the intention you are trying to work towards; you have to put your own energy into it to truly imbue it.
That being said, you can tailor this to how you feel best works for you. Some feel comfortable tracing or cutting sigils into their foods before they cook or bake them. Others stir foods or drinks intentionally clockwise or counter clockwise a varied number of times depending on the intention they are aiming for. For me personally, I do better repeating a few key words pertaining to what goal I am looking to achieve. Take some time to experiment with your own ways of weaving a spell into your food and see what works best for you.
Practice Makes (You) Perfect
This last tip is less about your space and more about you personally. It is a reminder that is this is your practice and you should always go with what feels correct and comfortable to you. Sometimes there feels like a lot of pressure to be “perfect” when it comes to workings, especially when you are just starting out. Even those of us who have walked this path a long while still feel overwhelmed at times by the pull of perfection. I am here to tell you without a doubt that you get to choose what feels best to you.
There are so many ways to walk your spiritual path and it is absolutely okay to forge your own. There is such an immense wealth of information available to you and numerous schools of thought about how to practice out there. These resources are enlightening and truly amazing, but it can sometimes also get confusing and overwhelming. Learn from all you can but don’t feel pressured to subscribe to it unless it resonates with you. You do you, Boo; Walk forward with confidence on your personal path, enjoy the process and go on with your magickal self!
