The Magick of Food: Rituals, Offerings & Why We Eat Together

by Gwion Raven

Overview

Delight Your Senses and Your Soul with a Feast of Recipes, Rituals, and Spells

Discover a magickal collection of lore, recipes, and practices from modern and ancient cultures of the world. The Magick of Food reveals how to transform the mundane task of fueling your body into an opportunity for deep nourishment and connection to loved ones and the divine. This powerful book provides detailed information on food magick and rituals, from edible aphrodisiacs to feasts for the gods.

Whether you're preparing boar tacos for Bacchus or a vegetable frittata to celebrate the equinox, this book helps you find community through food and build your kitchen witch skills. Using history, magick, and more than forty delicious recipes, you'll breathe new life into your devotional practice while you connect with ancestors and deities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738760858
Publisher:	Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Publication date:	01/08/2020
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	633,315
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Gwion Raven is a tattooed Pagan, writer, traveler, musician, cook, kitchen witch, occult shop owner, and teacher. Although initiated in three magickal traditions, Gwion describes his practice as virtually anything that celebrates the wild, sensuous, living, breathing, dancing, ecstatic, divine experiences of this lifetime.

Born and raised in London, England, he now resides in Northern California and shares space with redwood trees, the Pacific Ocean, and his beloved partner.

Table of Contents

Contents

List of Recipes xiii

List of Rituals, Spells & Things to Try xv

Disclaimer xvii

Acknowledgments xix

Foreword by Kristoffer Hughes xxi

Introduction 1

How to Use This Book 5

SECTION I: A Brief and Incomplete History of Food and Ritual
Chapter 1: Sumer 11
Chapter 2: Greece 25
Chapter 3: Rome 41
Chapter 4: The Isles of the Mighty 51

SECTION II: Food, Magick, and Rituals for Today
Chapter 5: Food and Magick 61
Chapter 6: Food and Sex 85
Chapter 7: Food and Healing 101
Chapter 8: Food and Grief 131
Chapter 9: Food and Community 143
Chapter 10: Food and the Kitchen Witch 169

SECTION III: All the Recipes
Chapter 11: Everyday Food Magick 191
Chapter 12: Magick Potions 199
Chapter 13: Food Magick for Special Occasions 215

Conclusion: Time to Clean the Kitchen 255

Bibliography 257

Index 259

Editorial Reviews

11/04/2019

Raven, writer for the Witches & Pagans website, combines a light historicism, sensual kitchen-themed rituals, and easy-to-follow recipes in his bright, affable ode to cooking and eating. Raven dashes through examples of how different cultures (the ancient Sumerians, Greeks, Romans, and the British Isles particularly) prepared simple devotional feasts to honor deities. He then turns to food in modern culture that aims to add “re-enchantment to the mundane,” including elaborate feast dishes (such as lamb and arugula stew), cocktails and “mocktails” that can been used as potions, and a recipe for each stop in the Celtic Wheel of the Year. In order to engage a “real, visceral connection” to the food we consume, he suggests simple activities such as paying closer attention to the smell and warmth of one’s cup of tea, enjoying older or handmade dishes and utensils, and grocery shopping with one’s senses instead of just sustenance in mind. Each chapter contains an overview based on a location or theme (such as Rome or “Food and Grief”) and a final section collects recipes from all the regions and traditions Raven covers. Raven’s breezy style, focused on simple recipes and intentionality, will inspire spiritual home cooks to incorporate their beliefs into their cooking. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Raven, writer for the Witches & Pagans website, combines a light historicism, sensual kitchen-themed rituals, and easy-to-follow recipes in his bright, affable ode to cooking and eating. ... Raven's breezy style, focused on simple recipes and intentionality, will inspire spiritual home cooks to incorporate their beliefs into their cooking."—Publishers Weekly

"Gwion takes us on a rich and witty journey through our Pagan food history, and then brings us bang up to the present day and current Pagan practice, and asks us 'What is the magic you bring to the table?' With history, lore, amusing anecdotes, practical, down-to-earth advice, and dozens of recipes from ancient simple flat bread and rolled date bites and seasonal dishes for the sabbats to spells with metamorphoses mojitos and midnight margaritas, this is a feast of a book."—Anna Franklin, author of The Hearth Witch's Compendium

"Wildly original and a feast for both the body and the spirit, Gwion Raven has created the must-have tool for Witches who love food, magick, and combining the two. The Magick of Food is fun, fascinating, and incredibly comprehensive. This book is delicious!"—Deborah Blake, author of Everyday Witchcraft

"This book is truly a joy. It reads like a wonderful deep conversation with a dear friend that not only covers a wealth of great recipes, but also branches into history, magic, and the power of community. There is a great deal of wisdom within these pages, offering insight into the elements, the gods, ritual, magic; even addressing grief and healing. Above all, this book is a celebration of life, which I feel serves an important need in the magical community and should be in every witch's home."—Michael Furie, author of Supermarket Sabbats

"The Magick of Food is your travel guide through tens of thousands of years of culinary myth and history, from ancient Sumer right up to the present day. With a generous portion of wit and wisdom, Gwion Raven escorts us through exotic lands and delicious dishes to delight the senses and inform the soul, all while grounding the experience with practices and exercises to help us make a deeper connection with the food we eat, the land from which it was made, and each other as we share our sacred meals."—Storm Faerywolf, author of Forbidden Mysteries of Faery Witchcraft

"Kitchen Witches could not possibly be better represented than they are in the pages of this delightful and informative book. Gwion has perfectly captured the love and magick of food and serves it up in a spectacular multi-course meal for the spirit."—Katrina Rasbold, author of Crossroads of Conjure

From the Publisher