The Art of the Kitchen Witch
The Kitchen Witch at Home
By Onomaris

Kitchen witch is a very open term - it covers all sorts of things but
usually seems to be the catch-all phrase for people who whip stuff up
in the kitchen. Magical meals and sensuous scents. Most of the
kitchen witches I know are in actuality something else - Wiccan,
Druid, Asatruar...they use the term 'kitchen witch' to refer to the
non-religious magical aspects of their lives. The momentary,
temporary things they do on the spur of the moment or to add oomph to
a ritual.

But a kitchen witch can be so much more. It's a wonderful term for
the eclectic Pagan who uses magic to enhance his/her life and
performs most of that magic at home during the daily course of life.
It's a term that crosses all boundaries in Paganism and a simple way
to intoduce friends and children to the wonder of magic without the
religion. It's also a nice meeting point between earthy Pagan,
hedonistic Pagan, and techno-Pagan.

This series of articles will be looking kitchen witchcraft within the
home and garden. And I'd love to hear from you about how you
incorporate witchcraft into your life, simple spells and recipes,
learning experiences, and everything else.

The kitchen is often called the heart of the home - and it's probably
the most over-referenced in kitchen witch articles. But it is simply
one of the many rooms in your home. So let's leave the kitchen to
last and start elsewhere... the bathroom. This is more important than
people often think. It is the collecting place for almost all the
grime of your life and a such it easily becomes an unbalanced place
that drains your energy. The lighting, the ventilation, the location,
the color...all these things affect the energy within a room and so
often the bathroom suffers in these areas. How many bathrooms are lit
with fluorescent bulbs, a dingy cream or yellow, and dusty in all the
corners? How often does the grime build up in the bath and a yellow
ring grow around the sink plughole? Does your toilet have an odor? Is
the trash can overflowing? Are the towels a little past their wash-by-
date and the face cloths discolored?

The bathroom is a room ruled by water - as such it should be filled
with flowing energy, refreshing and restorative. This is a place to
connect with our past, present, and future. A place to cleanse our
bodies - and spirits - and freshen up. A place to eliminate waste.
But so often we let our bathrooms stagnate. And this is foolish. How
well can you cleanse your body if the place you use is stagnant? And
how refreshing will the energy of such a room be? Instead of washing
away the dirt of the day you end up adding to the burden you carry.

We tend to hurry in and out of the bathroom which I feel is a great
pity. Here are some suggestions to create a room that will calm you
down even if you need to hurry:

First the practical matters. Clean the room thoroughly - wipe out the
corners to get rid of the gathered dead skin cells and body hair.
Clean the mirror. Wash the shower curtain. Drip some lemon oil on an
old cloth and wipe over the surfaces to disinfect and leave it
smelling fresh but not sweet. Try using matching or complimentary
towels (they don't have to be frilly) and add some reading material.
Put up a picture or a poster of a landascape (water-based scenes work
well).

Wash the towels and face cloths regularly - add a few drops of tea
tree oil to the final rinse. It kills the bugs and helps kills odd
odors. A cup of vinegar in the rinse will also help brighten whites
and kill moldy smells.

Add some potpourri, incense, or scented candles. Go for scents that
suit your personality as well as being calming. If you loathe flowery
smells, fill a basket with pinecones, bark, dried lemon and orange
peel, and seed pods. Add a few drops of some masculine essential oils
such as bergamot, lemongrass, pine, juniper, and sandalwood. You
could place a few cones of sandalwood incense and a couple of chunks
of myrrh resin up on the windowsill or in the cupboard - pleasant and
non-feminine smelling, this incense will release its scent without
being lit or looking 'pretty'.

Switch the shower out for the occasional bath (or if you hate baths,
try sitting in the shower and meditating once a week). Add 10 drops
of rosemary oil and a tablespoon of salt to the water. It's a sharp,
pleasant smell that awakens memories and metaphysically cleanses.
Invest in some organic herbal toiletries. Not those flowery and
fruity ones. Go for products that use essential oils and have
that 'natural' look and feel to them. Soaps with oatmeal and lemon.
Shampoos with teatree and lemon. Conditioners with almond oil and
rosemary.

These things will help change the bathroom to a room that promotes
peace and healing. When you use your bathroom to prepare for a ritual
or for work, you can do so knowing you have increased the energy you
are walking out of the house with...and washed away the grime - both
physical and metaphorical