TERSUS ANIMUS | CLEAN SPIRIT

I had the rare pleasure of spending the afternoon with my mother to do some baking for Christmas. Every year she makes an abundance of holiday treats... traditional Italian biscotti, pizzelle, sugar cookies, and these chewy chocolate-espresso numbers that are my favourite!

As I was rolling dough in icing sugar this afternoon, I got to thinking about kitchen magick and the alchemy of food, (such vast topic in and of itself, and to which there are better experts than I). I have spent the last few years spending most of my time and energy invested in studying the Hermetic arts, spiritual alchemy, high and low magick, and everything in between. So much of my time invested in this that I admittedly have not spent much time in the kitchen with my mother and her mother, learning the recipes that have nourished our family for generations. Having the opportunity today to apprentice my mother, I was humbled and honoured to aid and serve her, to wash dishes, chop marichino cherries and roll dough... whatever she needed done, I did. She is the master and the expert, as I am a mere novice in the alchemy lab of baking!

My experience apprenticing as a shaman, priestess and student in the esoteric arts, has given me a greater appreciation for the methods behind the apprenticeship process. This has also shown me how cooking is some of the most powerful magick in the world! Just like any magick, the recipes you learn from books can be good, but the recipes that yield the best results are the ones that you have work to learn and are handed down to you through tradition.

I was taught by my Master Teacher in the Mystery School that "Magick is tied to tradition" and today I was reminded that so is good cooking!