Thursday’s Q&A: Why am I a kitchen witch?

Hannah playing green lady.

Sarah at One Starry Night asks:

How did you start on your pagan path? Do you teach your children your beliefs?
Good question Sarah!  When I was oh, around 13 or so, I was really into reading occult and horror fiction and I thought I would rebel (and scare my grandma, who I lived with) by calling myself a WITCH. I brought home some tarot cards and brazenly asked my grandma if she would like a “reading”.  I had no idea what I was doing- I had just bought the darn things- and I spent an inordinate amount of time peering at the microscopic letters in the teeny little book, flipping pages and trying to figure out what each card meant…  She trumped my rebellious witchery by declaring it “cool”.

Huh-rumph.

But… My friends thought it was cool so I stuck with it.  We would do little circles and dabble with crystals and spells, and at one point broke out my dad’s old Ouija board.  That was terrifically scary.  But super fun.  To this day I am not sure which of them was moving the planchette.  Heather? Amanda? April? I have no idea.  But it was SCARY.

I continued to read and read and read throughout my teens, and I soon discovered that not only was witchcraft this uber-cool thing, it also had some religious stuff tied to it.  And that was when I discovered Wicca.  When Hannah was a baby I moved into a little apartment above a flower shop in Pawtucket.  The woman that lived next door was very nice, and I loved hanging out and talking to her.  One day when we were sitting in her living room, I noticed that I had read most of the books on her bookshelves.  Witchy books- she later told me she was a high priestess.  We started talking about wicca and magick, and eventually began to do our circles together and eventually she helped me with my dedication ceremony.  It wasn’t into a coven or anything like that.  It was just me formerly declaring to myself, to the Gods, that this is what I was.

A witch.

I used to worry about how to label myself.  We witchy people seem to adore labels!  Celtic, Green, Druidic, Strega, Asatru, Hellenic, Wiccan, Egyptian, it goes on and on!  At first I decided to call myself an “eclectic witch”.  It just made sense to take this and that and meld it together into something that felt right to me.

In 2002 I discovered a book called A Kitchen Witch’s Cookbook.  And I fell in love with what I read.

Ever since then I have called myself a kitchen witch.  My kitchen witchery focuses on hearth and home.  It deals with the everyday magick involved in caring for your loved ones.  The magick in making a home, in keeping your family healthy and safe.  Part of that deals with making yummy food, baking, crafting-that sort of thing.

It involves herbal lore.  I love learning what is used for what.

My “magick”  is more of a nurturing magick, and in my opinion, that is closer to the old ways-and the way witches really lived- and I’d rather have that than know all there is to know about each and every pantheon and who was the God of hair-dos.

My kids are being raised plain old “pagan”.  They learn about the gods, the earth and sky, the plants and animals and people.  We sing songs and tell stories and grow things in the soft dirt of our gardens.  We use Circle Round often- it is our favorite book, and it is worn and torn up and missing the covers after so many years of love.

When they are grown up they can be whoever they want, follow whatever path feels right to them.  But in the meantime we will teach them to love this earth we call mother, and help them to grow and be respectful and kind people.

Be Sociable, Share!

•