Baking came into my life some years ago for social reasons as I was lacking cooking abilities or better to say experiences. To create the desert was fine and worst case everyone would have had a meal already. However, people seemed to really enjoy my chocolate nut cakes and so I started to like baking.
In the meantime, I had developed a growing fascination for rituals, ancestoral healing methods, ideas of a magical world of spells and rituals which operates beyond our “normal” perception of the world.
I desired to open up to the knowledge of traditional witchcraft, then later discovered energy healing and herbalism. In the beginning studying books on the energies of flowers, crystals, magic and religion, my new experiences opened a path of spiritual awakening, as if my soul was desiring to connect to the spirit realm, to my own spirituality and lastly my intuitive feminine side. A side of me that actually felt gone lost over the course of my life.
Especially during my early fascination for witchcraft and spells, I found much joy in adding some magic to my cakes or cookies. While I would insist not to work with spells without considering the laws of karma, so to never poison your food or tea with intentions that might not be for the highest good of all, I believe that many of us find a reawakening pull and curiosity towards the magical side of our history and the mystical side of life.
It can be a playful and deeply romantic experience, using spells or magic as a ritual for personal well-being, a ritualised act in order to rekindle or intensify a friendship or partnership by co-creating in a special magical ritual using flowers, crystals, herbs, symbolic items and words as spells to reinforce spiritual intentions.
I sometimes bake for events with friends or neighbours and add special herbs to my bakery, set an intention for my cookies or cake to elevate the well-being or love life of the people who eat from it, and tell the guests that my cookies are magical cookies to warm our hearts or help our body heal. It’s important when we work with these ideas to understand the ingredients we use but also to understand that magic operates on a soul level. Our intentions can cause us fear and drama if they are coming from such a direction, like poison, or they can bring well-being and harmony if they come from a place of compassion and love.
Creating a ritual
Magical baking in its simplest way is easy. As for tea, you add ingredients with certain healing properties such as anis seed, cinnamon, fresh vanilla, nettle, honey or whatever you desire. By creating a ritual around the act of baking, you invite in magic.
For example:
– you can light a candle (white for purity and protection or use a certain colour representing the energy or chakra you’d like to work with)
– connect with the energy of flowers matching the energetical preferences of your ceremony and arrange them in your kitchen space
– you can place crystals energetically representing and enhancing your intentions around the preparation space of your kitchen
Creating a ritual around the act of baking opens yourself to a deeper spiritually focused experience and it’s therefor beautiful when you open your ritual, for example by lighting the candles or focusing joyfully that you will now start preparing and mixing all the ingredients. If you like you can additionally chant your intentions or write them on a piece of paper. There is a lot of room for play, romance and creativity that I feel comes best from a form of inner alignment, so not to get it right or wrong but to be authentic.
Once your cake or cookies are ready, you close the ceremony. It’s common to say “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” or alternatively “And so it is. Thank you!”
You will find many beautiful books and collections, such as “Magische Heilkunst” by Claire, “The Book of Flower Spells” by Cheralyn Darcey or “Witch, Please” by Victoria “Vix” Maxwell, providing you insightful knowledge and years of their personal research on properties of plants, flowers and crystals as well as traditional or self made spells to try.
I’d always suggest to see spells as powerful examples or field of study, however, feel free to tune in and get creative with your own spells, something that really resonates with your soul and authentic self. Used in a healthy way, magic is joyful, an act of reconnecting with our mystical side, lighthearted and nurturing.
This idea of magic is not for everyone and that’s ok.
The idea of magical rituals doesn’t resonate with everyone. Corina and I had an interesting phone call discussing the topic on the phone yesterday, based on a previous version of this piece. There was a lot of laughter between us, especially on feeling silly. Giggling while we imagined Corina and her fiancé binding their love and family in a spell. If this is how you feel, I believe these ideas are not for you, it’s simply not a form of ritual or approach to life that resonates with you and that’s fine. Vice versa, luckily, for me it seems unlikely to get burned on a stake for my fascination for these rituals.
And so it is. Thank you!
-with love- Your Lina
sown & uprooted 