Magical Things To Do at the Hearth
A tea kettle whistling on the stove.
The sun pouring through the kitchen window. A pie cooling on the sill. Magic fills the air in a home where a kitchen witch lives. Particularly in the kitchen itself. Many kitchen witches want to know what rituals they can do on a daily basis. How do we fit magick into our everyday mundane lives? Here we provide the Kitchen Witch with daily rituals to incorporate into their witchcraft practice. Use and/or adapt the ones you like.
But First, What is Kitchen Witchery?
There are many different types of witchcraft, one being kitchen witchery also sometimes called hearth or cottage witchcraft. This is a tradition in which the witch is primarily focused on weaving his/her magic into their daily domestic lives. The kitchen becomes the witch’s sanctuary. The counters are the kitchen witch’s altar. Wooden spoons become magical wands. The dutch oven? A cauldron. The stove and oven become the catalyst for spells and workings of all kinds.
Kitchen witches love to cook and bake, and they use these acts as actual spells and rituals. In addition to cooking and baking magically, kitchen witches might also enjoy brewing herbal teas, making candles, and infusing oils at the hearth. They may grow culinary herbs to use in their food and brews. And they might also honor their ancestors, kitchen gods, and household spirits at the hearth. The best thing about being a kitchen witch is that cooking, baking and cleaning, once mundane tasks, become magical rituals and powerful invocations.
Kitchen Witch Daily Rituals With Herbs
1. Daily Herb Studies
Since kitchen witches are all about the herbs and spices, an easy way to study herbalism is to choose one herb/spice a day to focus on. Choose one that’s in your herb cabinet. Pull it out of the cabinet and set it on the counter. Research it’s folklore, medicinal and magical uses. Then try to use it in a meal or herbal concoction, etc.
2. Brew Tea
What kitchen witch doesn’t love a hot cup of tea? Make your tea-brewing process a daily ritual. Put thought into the herbs you’re using, thank the water element while pouring the water, draw symbols over the tea kettle as it heats, etc. A small and simple daily ritual for the kitchen witch. You’ll need a kettle, herbs, a special teacup or mug, and either a tea diffuser OR your own fillable tea bags.
3. Cook With Herbs
This is an obvious but simple one – cook with herbs every day! This becomes a daily ritual in and of itself when the kitchen witch selects an herb or spice from the cabinet or a specific intention. For example, adding garlic to any dish has a purifying, healing effect on those who eat it. My herb cabinet has literally become one of my favorite corners in my house! I feel witchy just walking into it.
4. The Herb Garden in Daily Rituals
You don’t have to be a green witch with a green thumb to have an herb garden. The herb garden becomes part of the kitchen witch’s daily rituals when the witch visits it every day. She greets her plants, tends to her garden, and harvests herbs for magical, culinary, and medicinal purposes. Even if you can’t have a garden, a couple of pots with your favorite herbs will do. I recommend rosemary, basil, sage, thyme, oregano, mint, lavender, and parsley.
5. Tend To Your Kitchen Altar
If you haven’t yet, start a kitchen altar. It doesn’t have to be big and elaborate, it can be as small as a shelf with a candle and a few magical items. Tending the kitchen altar will become part of a kitchen witch’s daily rituals when offerings are given to ancestors, household spirits and kitchen gods.
6. Kitchen Witch Guardians
Every kitchen should have a guardian spirit. The kitchen witch can create a guardian by making a kitchen poppet. Or you can purchase a kitchen witch doll or statue. Once you have your kitchen guardian, you’ll need to infuse the guardian with your magical intentions/energy OR invite an ancestor’s spirit to take residence in the doll/statue. This kitchen witch guardian will then protect your kitchen and family. Caring for the kitchen guardian will become part of your daily rituals. Offerings and care are essential.
7. Candle Flame
One simple daily ritual I do every day in my kitchen is light a candle to honor the hearth-fire of my ancestors. The kitchen witch lights candles in the kitchen as a thankful gesture to the fire element (which gives us the ability to cook), as well as for the household spirits, kitchen guardians, and ancestors.
8. Keep a Kitchen Grimoire
The kitchen grimoire or Book of Shadows is important to a kitchen witch. It’s a book in which we keep our magical recipes, ancestors’ recipes, kitchen rituals and spells, herbal anecdotes, and more. Writing in your kitchen grimoire becomes a daily ritual for the kitchen witch.
9. Cleaning & Cleansing
Every day, the kitchen witch should make sure his or her kitchen is clean. There should be no dishes in the sink when you go to bed else you’ll have nightmares (or so the old wives tale goes). Keeping a clean kitchen is honorable to your household spirits and ancestors. In addition, cleansing the space of negative vibes is also a simple daily ritual. You can use sprays, smudge bundles, etc. The besom is used to sweep away negative energy (a quick cleanser).
10. Offerings as Daily Ritual
Giving offerings to your kitchen gods, spirits and ancestors is a daily ritual that is rewarding and easy. Leave a cup of water, coffee, wine, etc. on your altar for your gods/ancestors. Change it daily. If you’re in a place where you can’t leave offerings out, setting aside a bite or two on your own plate and mentally praying to your spirits is offering enough.
11. Charge Your Meals With Symbols
Another great daily ritual for kitchen witches is to charge your meals and beverages with sacred, magical symbols. This is as simple as drawing a symbol over the meal or drink in the air. OR using condiments, oils, herbs, etc. to draw symbols and sigils directly onto food. Many baking witches even enjoy sneaking magical sigils at the bottom of pie crusts!
12. COOK Like a Kitchen Witch
I think it’s funny that I wrote this blog post years ago, not realizing that I FORGOT to add the most important daily ritual for a kitchen witch – COOKING. LOL! We have to eat every day, don’t we? Which means many of us cook every day. So make your cooking process magical by choosing ingredients based on your intuition and based on their magical and medicinal properties.
When you have more time, get inspired and try cooking something NEW and exciting. Maybe something your ancestors once made or something that utilizes ingredients you’ve never used before. Try making your own homemade pasta. And then make your own pesto using homegrown basil and mix it into your homemade fettuccine!
13. BAKE Magical
Baking is a science in and of itself. It is truly an art form and sometimes takes kitchen witches longer to master than cooking. Case in point, I thought I was the cookie master until this Christmas when I started coming up with burnt and flat cookies! It takes extra effort and thought. So I’ll be going back to the drawing board and trying again! Start small with baking, like making banana bread from scratch. Then work your way up to making homemade bread wreaths, lattice pies, and elaborately decorated layered cakes. Always add your own touch to it with favorite herbs, symbols, edible flowers, etc.
14. Work with Kitchen and Hearth Deities
One of my key practices is spirit work…specifically developing connections with gods and goddesses. And if you happen to be in the kitchen for most of your witch-crafting, why not incorporate kitchen gods and hearth goddesses into your daily routines? Set up a small altar or space for a deity that watches over the hearth i.e. Hestia, Vesta, Bes, Frigg or Loki. Include them in your kitchen workings on a daily basis and watch your blessings flow in.
