Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen (15 page)

Once cocoa beans were introduced into Europe, the recipe for chocolate beverages changed. It was the Spaniards who added sugar to cocoa and made the drink popular among the nobility of that country. By the late 1600s, chocolate had become a popular drink in western Europe. The clergy soon attempted to stamp out the “sinful” practice of drinking chocolate, trying to link chocolate with the “sorceries” of the Aztecs who had created it. Fortunately, they didn't succeed.
71, 120

In the 1800s, the first solid chocolate was produced. This “eating chocolate,” rich, solid, and delicious, was the forerunner of the sweet substance as we know it today.
104

Chocolate is produced from cocoa (the ground, dry powder); cocoa butter (which is removed from the seeds during processing and then added to the cocoa); sugar (to counteract the bitterness); and several other ingredients, depending upon its intended use and country of origin. Milk, vanillan, salt, and nuts are the other major ingredients.

The chocolate bar wasn't introduced until about 1910. During World War II, millions of Hershey's chocolate bars were packed into D-rations. The familiar brown bar reminded the soldiers and sailors of home and sustained them through days of continuous fighting.
71

Today, chocolate is known and loved around the world. We all know “chocoholics,” those people who can't seem to get through the day without eating their favorite food. Recently, psychiatrists have speculated that many people, particularly women, eat large amounts of chocolate in an attempt to heal themselves from the effects of emotional trauma. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine, a substance that lifts us from depression and that produces effects similar to those of amphetamines.
71
(This is why chocolate should never be eaten at night by those who suffer from insomnia.)

Magical uses:
When summing up the historical, magical, emotional, and scientific information concerning chocolate, its role in magical diets becomes clear. Chocolate foods, in any form, can be used to increase our ability to give and to receive love. Chocolate is also suitable for increased money and prosperity.

Use this potent food with visualization. As you cook, do so with visualization. Spoon or slice with visualization. Eat with visualization. Limit your daily intake of chocolate for the best magical results.

Today, chocolate is a multibillion-dollar business. Whole magazines and books are devoted to the subject. Cocoa futures are a popular item in the commodities markets. We're deluged with advertising singing the wonders of chocolate. Chocolate-scented pencils, erasers, and even perfumes are available.

Many of our peers see chocolate as an indulgence or, to use a Christian term, even a sin. To the food magician, chocolate is but one of many tools that we can use to improve our lives. A delicious one, true, but simply one among hundreds of others.

Some people don't eat chocolate, and these words aren't meant to convince them to begin consuming the food of the gods. If you enjoy chocolate, however, isn't it pleasant to realize that every delicious bite can be a union of energies, and that a slice of chocolate cake can be an effective partner in a private magical ritual?

Carob

(Ceratonia siliqua)

Planet:
Venus

Element:
Water

Energies:
Love, money

Lore:
Carob, a chocolate substitute that has found favor among health-food aficionados, isn't new. Its pods were used to produce a sweet beer in ancient Egypt.
69
Carob seeds, which are remarkably uniform in size, are said to have once been used as a standard unit of weight. The jeweler's “carat” (as in a one-carat diamond) may have originally been the weight of one carob seed.
29, 64, 90

In American and European folk magic, carob (also known as St. John's bread) was used to attract money and to guard health.

Magical uses:
Carob doesn't taste much like chocolate. True, when the powdered pods (minus the seeds) are ground and made into various dishes, the foods look much like chocolate, but its taste will give carob away. However, carob is much more nutritious than chocolate, has less fat, and doesn't contain caffeine.
90

Those who enjoy carob's intensely sweet flavor can use it in love-attracting diets. Eat carob-flavored foods with proper visualization.

Carob can also be consumed to draw additional money. Look in health-food stores for carob powder and many carob-flavored foods.

Maple Syrup

(Acer saccharum)

Planet:
Jupiter

Element:
Earth

Energies:
Money, love

Lore:
Maple trees are native to both Europe and America, but the Europeans never tapped the sweet sap of the tree or used it as a sweetener.
124

Things were different here. Long before Christopher Columbus arrived on our shores, many American Indian tribes, including the Ojibway, the Iroquois, and the Algonquin, possessed myths concerning the maple tree and its sweet syrup.
71
Lacking honey, Native Americans used maple sugar and, where the maples don't grow, fruit juice for sweetening foods.

By the 1700s, the settlers were using maple syrup as a medicine, particularly for colds and rheumatism.
111
Thomas Jefferson so liked maple syrup that he planted a grove of the trees and used no other sweetener.
111

Magical uses:
Maple syrup and maple sugar are now more expensive than sugar. Two hundred years ago, sugar was the more costly. Most maple syrup is still produced by hand in the United States and Canada.

Both maple syrup and maple sugar are fine sweeteners for use in money-attracting diets. Before adding the syrup to a recipe (or putting it on to your morning cereal), pour it on to a clean place in the shape of a dollar sign, while visualizing. Scrape it off with a spatula and then enjoy your food.

Maple sugar and syrup are also powerful love-stimulants.

There are many “maple” syrups on the market today. Most of these contain less than 10 percent maple syrup and all are
artificially preserved. For true maple magic, use genuine, 100 percent pure maple syrup. This is sold in small bottles at fairly high prices. Maple sugar (available in health-food stores) can also be used.

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Chapter Fourteen

Nuts & Alleged Nuts

I
once despised nuts. To the young kid that I once was, they were dry, hard to chew, and came in difficult-to-open packages. I eventually realized that there were other varieties besides walnuts (which I still don't relish), and that even cracking them could be fun.

The title of this chapter refers to foods often mistaken for nuts (brazil nuts) as well as at least one substance (sesame) that, though a seed, has a nutty flavor.

It is curious that one contemporary slang term for insanity is “nuts,” as in, “That politician's gone nuts.” In the past, these crunchy foods were thought to bestow wisdom, not mental derangement.
****

In any case, nuts are gifts from trees, the largest vegetable life forms on our planet. Trees were once worshipped as deities, or as the abodes of divine beings and spirits; nuts, the fruits of these trees, were sacred and magical.

Generally speaking, all nuts were thought to be useful for promoting physical fertility—the ability to produce children. Heart-shaped nuts were carried to promote love, while all double nuts (those rarities in which two nuts are formed within the shell) were considered to be the luckiest of all.

Today, we're rediscovering the importance of nuts in our diets. Here are some reasons why we should eat more of them.

Almond

(Prunus dulcis)

Planet:
Mercury

Element:
Air

Energies:
Money, healing

Lore:
In the past, five almonds eaten before drinking were believed to prevent intoxication. They probably would—if the taste of the nut changed one's mind about imbibing.
120

In what was once known as Persia (modern-day Iran), almonds were used to cure insomnia, to stimulate lactation in nursing mothers, to relieve headache, and to guard against the evil eye.
120
Today, candied almonds are given as presents to the guests at Italian weddings.

Magical uses:
Eat fresh almonds, roasted almonds, or other almond dishes to bring money into your life. Or, crunch these delicious nuts to stimulate health and to speed the body's healing processes. Eat with visualization!

Marzipan, an Arabic invention,
104
can also be eaten for these uses.

Brazil Nut

(Bertholletia excelsa)

Planet:
Venus

Element:
Earth

Energies:
Love, money

Magical uses:
This food, which is technically a fruit, is a delicious addition to love-inducing diets. Make banana bread with chopped brazil nuts for a potent love loaf.

Brazil “nuts” can also be used to bring increased money and prosperity. To do this, draw a small five-pointed star on the “nut” with visualization and eat.

Cashew

(Anacardium occidentale)

Planet:
Sun

Element:
Fire

Energies:
Money

Magical uses:
These nuts can be eaten to increase your income. Tasty Yuletide cookies created with cashews are perfect for this use, as is the Chinese dish of “cashew chicken.” Or, eat them right out of the bag.

Chestnut

(Castanea
spp.)

Planet:
Sun

Element:
Air

Energies:
Love, conscious mind

Lore:
At one time, Europeans left chestnuts on the table after eating supper on Samhain (November 1) to nourish the poor deceased souls of the dead.
61

Magical uses:
Roasted chestnuts, immortalized in the classic Nat King Cole song, are an excellent inducement to love. Though you might be tired of reading this, do remember to eat them with visualization. Chestnuts are also consumed to strengthen the conscious mind.

Coconut

(Cocos nucifera)

Planet:
Moon

Element:
Water

Energies:
Spirituality, psychic awareness, purification

Lore:
The coconut is one of the world's most useful trees. As many as three hundred products can be made from the fruit, husk, flower stalks, leaves, and trunk. Found in tropical areas around the world, it was probably spread from its currently unknown place of origin by ocean currents and by the migration of humans.

In ancient Hawaii, coconut was offered to many deities, including Kane. Coconut groves were worshipped as spiritual places linked with the divine.
7
Throughout the Pacific, Hina, goddess of the moon, is linked with the creation of the original coconut.
7

Magical uses:
This white, round nut would naturally have lunar symbolism, with all that implies—moistness, love, spirituality. Eat fresh coconut before or during rituals designed to boost your spiritual awareness. It is also a fine psychic-awareness food. Coconut is also useful for inner purification, if eaten with the proper visualization.

Whole coconuts are kept in the kitchen for power. Fresh coconut is best for magical and culinary purposes, but the shredded, packaged kind will do in a pinch.

Hazelnut

(Corylus
spp.)

Planet:
Sun

Element:
Air

Energies:
Wisdom, conscious mind, fertility

Lore:
This tree, and its round, delicious nuts, played important roles in European folklore and folk religion. Linked with deities of the sky, the hazel was considered a guardian against lightning, damaging storms, and fire.
37
Hazelnuts were once placed into small bags and given to the bride on her wedding day.
114

Magical uses:
The hazelnut is thought to bestow wisdom on those who eat it. Wisdom isn't merely the accumulation of knowledge; it is the ability to correctly assimilate and utilize information. Hazelnuts stimulate the conscious mind in order to bring us closer to wisdom.

The nuts are age-old symbols of fertility, and so can be eaten with visualization if this is a problem.

Macadamia

(Macadamia
spp.)

Planet:
Jupiter

Element:
Earth

Energies:
Money

Lore:
There is little ancient lore concerning macadamia nuts. Native to Australia, they have become quite popular in the United States in the last fifty or so years. The best crops are grown on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Magical uses:
Nutritionists describe the macadamia as “the richest nut.” Though high in calories, the macadamia has an unmatched taste. Eat macadamias—plain, made into candied brittle, or in pies—to manifest increased money in your life. But be prepared to pay handsomely for these yellowishbrown treats.

Peanut

(Arachea hypogaea)

Planet:
Jupiter

Element:
Earth

Energies:
Money

Lore:
Peanuts have an ancient history. Native to South America,
71
they were extensively cultivated by the Aztecs and the Mayas.
120
Soon after the conquest of Mexico, the Spaniards and the Portuguese brought the peanut to Spain, Africa, the Philippines, Java, China, and Japan. It soon became an important food crop around the world.
71

Here in the United States, however, peanuts were looked down upon as a food of slaves and of slaveowners.
120
If not for the untiring efforts of the Afro-American botanist, statesman, chemist, and educator George Washington Carver, we might not be enjoying peanut butter sandwiches, ice creams, and brittle today.

Magical uses:
This is another nut that is not (a nut, that is). Peanuts are actually seeds that grow underground.
71

Raw or roasted peanuts are powerful money attractants. They can be eaten in any form, with visualization, to increase prosperity. Peanut butter.and grape jelly sandwiches are an excellent money food, particularly if made with oat bread.

Pecan

(Carya illinoensis)

Planet:
Mercury

Element:
Air

Energies:
Money, employment

Magical uses:
The word
pecan
is Algonquin.

I've always admired the exquisite gooiness of pecan pie. I was introduced to the wonderful flavor of pecan cake on my second visit to New Orleans, and have added this treat to my roster of magical foods.

Both of these dishes, as well as pecan pralines, pecan butter, pralines-and-cream ice cream, or anything else made with pecans, can be eaten as a part of money diets. The plain nuts themselves can also be enjoyed by themselves.

Eat pecans when seeking employment.

Pine Nut

(Pinus
spp.)

Planet:
Mars

Element:
Air

Energies:
Money, physical strength, love

Lore:
Pine seeds were an important part of the diets of many American Indian tribes, for whom these “nuts” were a major food source.
33
They were also known and eaten throughout the Mediterranean region.
61
To the Chinese, they symbolize friendship and constancy. Pine nuts are actually naked seeds.

Magical uses:
Visualize and eat pine nuts for money. Or, eat them for physical strength, as the ancient Romans did. Pine nuts can also be used to promote all forms of love.

Pistachio

(Pistachia vera)

Planet:
Mercury

Element:
Air

Energies:
Love

Lore:
Native to Asia, the pistachio has been consumed since at least 7000
b.c.e.
71
I find it curious that processed foods containing pistachios, such as puddings, are artificially colored green, while the shells themselves are often dyed red.

Magical uses:
Eat pistachios for love.

Sesame

(Sesamum indicum)

Planet:
Sun

Element:
Fire

Energies:
Sex, fertility, money, protection

Lore:
Sesame was known in Egypt since at least 200
b.c.e.
, and possibly earlier.
23
Grecian brides received sesame cakes as symbols of fruitfulness. In ancient Athens, the seeds may also have been connected with serpent worship. In Rome, sesame was sacred to Hecate, goddess of the crossroads and of the Waning Moon.
35

Ancient Babylonian women ate
halvah,
a sweet food made of sesame seeds and honey, to encourage the desire for sexual relations and to enhance their sexual attractiveness.
15

An old ritual of unknown origin: “So men know not the evil that you do, mix eleven grains of wheat with sesame seed and wine and the juice of a (nonpoisonous) yellow flower and drink it daily.”

Magical uses:
Sesame was once known as the most fruitful of all plants. Women can follow the example of their ancient Babylonian counterparts by eating the seeds to stimulate sexual feelings. Sesame is also useful for encouraging conception.

Sesame-flavored foods can be eaten, or sesame seeds can be sprinkled onto foods, to draw money. With proper visualization, the seeds are also used for protection.

Walnut

(Juglans regia)

Planet:
Sun

Element:
Fire

Energies:
Conscious mind, protection

Lore:
Walnuts are native to North America, Asia, and Europe.
71
The ancient Greeks believed walnuts to be one of the foods eaten by the goddesses and gods.
64
Walnuts were used to treat problems of the brain in European folk medicine (because of this nut's remarkable resemblance to this organ).

These are the nuts that I didn't enjoy as a child. I still don't like them, but many people do. These furrowed nuts can be eaten for increased intellectual abilities. Alternately, walnuts can be added to protective diets.

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