Bewitchin' Kitchen Tips

    All purpose sifted flour is excellent for attracting money.  Take a little pinch and spread it somewhere dark...under your kitchen counter, in the back of a cupboard,  or under the sink.

    Running out of salt supposedly foretells a loss of health or wealth.  Always keep an extra box of salt that you never use on a high shelf to help ensure good fortune.

    Fill a small jar with alfalfa and deposit it in the food cupboard.  As long as it remains there, the family will never know hunger.

    Use buttons, change, safety pins, or toothpicks in a jar to work on abundance and prosperity spells.  Add an item each day to increase your prosperity.

    Olive oil is a good substitute for any kind of anointing of candles and great for mixing with oils and powders to bless and anoint surfaces.

    Place ears of red corn in baskets on the floor to protect the home.

    A clove of garlic sitting on the sink board draws illness away from the family.  Don't eat it; instead throw it away every month and replace it with a new one.

    Braids of garlic, onions, or peppers make a lovely decoration for your kitchen and also ward off negativity.

    An onion on your kitchen windowsill will absorb ill will.  When it starts to decay, replace it and throw it away.  Do not eat it under any circumstances!

    If you quarter an onion and place the quarters in the four corners of your house, you'll get rid of any disease. Replace the onion quarters when they turn black.

    Leaded-glass crystal sun-catchers hung in a sunny kitchen window are excellent protective devices.

     Placing a mirror in a window on each side of your home, facing outwards, will reflect negativity back to the sender.  Likewise hanging a witch ball, a polished glass globe, in the window will absorb and return negative energy.

    Chili pepper seeds are wonderful for protective magick and repelling.  Wash them, let them dry out, and then place them in a little glass jar with  a lid.  Bless your seeds in any way you wish.  You can even make a label for your jar that reads "Magickal Pepper Seeds" or whatever you like.  You can use the seeds to banish negativity from your home whenever you feel the need.  There are two methods for this:

1. Sprinkle a few seeds around your kitchen or home and then vacuum or sweep them out the back door.

2. Place some seeds in a mortar and ground them to a powder.  Sprinkle the powder where needed and the proceed to vacuum or sweep up.  Discard out your back door.

    When sweeping, remember to do so towards the fireplace, if you have one.  If not, sweep in any direction except towards the front door.  If you ignore this warning, you might remove your house's luck.

    Take two needles, make an equal-armed cross with them and place the cross in a broom.  Stand the broom behind a door and it will guard your home.  When standing a broom in the corner, put its bristles up, handle to the floor.  This not only ensures that the bristles will last longer, it also brings good luck.

     For general household protection place one or two feathers in each window.  A small bundle of feathers tied with red and green thread can be hung in the room of a baby or small child to bring long life and good fortune.

    All household work--from scrubbing stains in the kitchen sink to swabbing the floor with a mop to polishing wood furniture--should be done with clockwise motions.  This practice imbues your work, and the object you're cleaning, with positive energy.

    Next time it rains, hang one of your dishrags outside to receive the liquid blessings.  Or, bury one outdoors by the light of the full moon.  Both actions are thought to be lucky.

    Salt water left out in the centre of a room all night will absorb negativity.  Wash it away with flowing water the next morning.  If you are on a septic tank, either pour the water into the woods or into a body of running water.

    When cooking any type of food, add magick to your cooking by drawing an invisible pentagram inside your pots and pans with you finger, a wooden spoon or another utensil.  This guards the pan and the food, ensuring its wholesomeness.

    For good luck hang a "kitchen witch" doll in your kitchen to oversee and bless your magickal workings.  You can purchase one or make your own.

    Turn a ladder into steps for success by painting the ladder in bright colours and adding plants as decorative objects.  Paint magickal symbols under the rungs to help your prosperity (and plants) grow.  As the plants grows, so does your prosperity.

    Grow an aloe plant in your kitchen.  To soothe burns and scrapes, gently cut off a mature, fleshy stalk, thanking the plant for its sacrifice, and squeeze the gel from inside the leaf onto the wounded area.  The aloe plant has magickal properties as well--it also guards the cook against food preparation accidents that can be very nasty.  When using aloe gel in the kitchen, dab some onto major appliances, windows, doors, and tools to safeguard them as well.

     Many herbs and plants can be grown and hung in the windows or scattered on windowsills and doorways to prevent ill will from entering.  Good choices are chili, hydrangea, thistle, and vetivert.

    When you purchase fresh herbs or gather them from your garden, cut the bottoms off and place the herbs in a nice vase in your kitchen.  This not only brightens up the room, it adds fragrance, keeps the fresh herbs longer, and has the added benefit of reminding you to use them in your dishes.

     Strings of dried hops are thought to dispel all bad humour and encourage liveliness of energy.  Give chains of hops as a blessing on a new home.

    Mistletoe, also known as golden bough, carried in a little hand sewn cloth bag is a traditional  method of protecting the self.

    If you are having trouble following a recipe or are feeling generally "out of it," take a whiff of rosemary.  This herb helps to promote mental clarity and improve memory.

    Sew herbs and magickal powders into the lining of your drapes.  Place packets of herbs or powders under throw rugs.

     When someone dear to you travels away, hang a sprig of sage in the kitchen: so long as it is healthy they will be happy in their travels.

    Sprinkle nettles around the house for protection against negative thoughts and lightening.   Placed in a charm bag nettles will keep negativity and fear at bay, and could be hung in a child's bedroom to prevent nightmares.

    Marjoram or wild oregano is believed to absorb dangerous negative energies when powdered and sprinkled about the home.  Make this herb into a tea and add it to the wash and scrub water to protect the home and its inhabitants.

    A quartz crystal placed on or near the stove when cooking makes food taste better.

    Copper molds can be hung on the kitchen walls to lend their rich colours.  Since copper is ruled by Venus, the planet of love, these molds also bring love vibrations into the kitchen.

    Wash all the dishes every night if you  work with faerie magick.  The fairies don't like dirt and they won't let  you sleep peacefully until the kitchen is clean!

     Lemon juice in water can be used to cleanse magickal objects and is particularly good at shining up silverware.

     Lemon charms can be made and given to bring blessings and luck, especially in a new home.  Take a small lemon and tie it with red ribbon to hang it up.  Into the remaining skin press as many pins as you can or arrange them in a pleasing pattern or magickal symbol of your choice.  Hang it in the central room of the house.  An alternate version is to press cloves into the skin.

    Bells or wind chimes hung from the doors guard against intruders and stagnant energy.  Hang them where the air currents can ring them.  They will set up movement in the air and clear the psychic energy of your home.

    Mirrors are great protection in the bedroom, as they repel negative influences. Put a small one on the headboard or facing the door to stay safe through the night.        

    Eucalyptus leaves or cinquefoil beneath the pillow, or a knife under the bed will keep you safe through the night.

    Three amber beads hung on a thread in the window will deflect the negative thoughts of others.

    Sieves, sifters, and colanders hung or placed around the kitchen for protective purposes will keep the kitchen secure.

    A kitchen witch bottle can be constructed to protect your food from contamination.  Put three needles, three nails, and three pins into a jar.  Fill the jar with salt, seal it tightly, vigorously shake nine times and drip red candle wax over the seal.  Then place it in the cupboard where it won't be seen.

    If you wish to perfect your execution of a recipe, copy it in red ink.  Lay this on a flat surface in the kitchen.  On top, place a red candle in a holder and light the candle.  Let it burn down completely before you try the recipe.  As it burns visualize yourself cooking the dish successfully.

    When you burn food, cut yourself, drop pots and pans, or experience a rash of accidents in your kitchen, this could indicate the need for a cleansing.

    If you seem to be always burning or cutting yourself, try a "kitchen accident" amulet. In a muslin bag, place a small kitchen knife, a pinch of flour and a paua shell, tie it to your apron or tuck it in a pocket as you go about your kitchen duties.

    Before eating, place your hands on either side of the food and send energy to the food through visualization.  Receive its energy back and then enjoy.

    In setting the table, put the salt on first, and take it off last thing after the meal.  The salt will guard the food and the diners.  While dining with others, pass the salt with a smile.

    Pass items clockwise around the table to bless them with positive vibrations and ensure that they are healthy.

    Prior to eating any liquid with a spoon (such as soup or porridge), stir the bowl's contents clockwise three times, then withdraw the spoon and enjoy.

    Turn your beverage glass clockwise three times before drinking to bless the contents.

    Whenever you make a toast, be sure that the glasses clink.  If not, the toast won't be heard by the higher forces.

    Always leave a morsel or two on your plate, for tradition says that they who clean their plates will know only poverty.

    The first time you use a new set of silverware, make a wish.  Visualize the wish every time you lift a fork or spoon and the wish may come true.

    For unity, have all those sharing the meal drink from the same cup.

    Decorate foods and beverages with unique toothpicks, umbrellas, stirrers, and the like whose colour or imagery represents your goal; the item can then be carried later as an amulet or charm to keep that energy going.

    Choose a bowl, plate, or placemat whose colour or imagery represents your magickal goal.

    Arrange the food on the plate or platter in the form of a symbol to which you can relate while eating, such as a smile for joy.

    Cut food into a symbolic image, such as a toast house that you consume while looking for a new residence.

    Add an aromatherapy inspired centerpiece.  For aromatherapy correspondences see the Enhancing Your Kitchen Magick section of A Kitchen Witch's Book of Shadows.

    A cut glass or etched cruet makes a pretty dishwashing liquid holder.

    Everyone manages to collect plastic grocery bags.  Instead of stuffing them in a crowded drawer, fold and pack them into an empty tissue box covered in pretty self-stick paper.  Then pull out as needed.