The House Witch: Your Complete Guide to Creating a Magical Space with Rituals and Spells for Hearth and Home - Arin Murphy-Hiscock 2018

Kitchen Witchcraft
A Place to Call Home

There are many other traditions that possess an element of hearthcraft to them, but the most familiar of them is likely to be kitchen witchcraft. As previously mentioned, the two paths are differentiated by emphasizing the spiritual element found in the path of the house witch, as opposed to the more magic-based path of the kitchen witch.

A kitchen witch is someone who practices magic through cooking, baking, and other kitchen-based activity. Patricia Telesco, arguably kitchen witchery’s most visible practitioner, says in her book A Kitchen Witch’s Cookbook, “Since we all have to prepare food at one time or another, why not make the best possible use of that time in the kitchen?”

The Kitchen Witch As Good Luck

The kitchen witch is also familiar for the use of her figure as a kitchen icon or good luck charm. Regardless of the spiritual path followed by the family, many homes feature a small witch doll, usually astride a broom, hanging somewhere in the kitchen. This little talisman is said to bring successful cooking and good luck to the residents of and visitors to the kitchen. Perhaps more precisely, such dolls are said to guard against failed cooking or cooking disasters. German folklore has it that they guard specifically against dough failing to rise, milk curdling, and fallen cakes. The dolls are made of many different materials. Some are corn husk dolls; some have dried apples for heads; others are made entirely of fabric. The earliest appearances of these kitchen icons are in German and Scandinavian traditions.

There are other parallels to the kitchen witch doll. As a harvest custom, communities in Britain and Europe would tie together the last sheaf of wheat and keep it over the winter as good luck and protection. Sometimes the sheaf was draped with cloth or otherwise dressed and adorned. Other communities would weave the first or last stalks cut in the harvest into various shapes of different sizes, including geometric shapes and animal forms. Confusingly, these were also called corn dollies, even when they were not in human form. The term dolly is thought to be derived from the word idol. These customs stemmed from the belief that the first or last stalks of wheat that were cut contained the spirit of the crop. By keeping the dolly in a place of honor and safety over the winter, the farmers would in essence be protecting the success of the next year’s crops. The dolly was often plowed into the fields when the time came to prepare them for the spring planting, or it was burned after the harvest as an offering to the harvest deities. Sometimes the sheaf is referred to as the harvest queen, the corn mother, or the corn maiden, and there are a wide variety of shapes into which the stalks are woven, according to local tradition. The art is still practiced today and is called both corn dolly plaiting and wheat weaving. Beautiful abstract shapes and designs are created, as well as figures and religious objects.

If you wish to make your own protective kitchen witch icon, a craft detailing how to make a corn husk doll can be found in Chapter 10. Making a new one every year is certainly a possibility, after disposing of the old one by burning or shredding it and mixing it into your compost or mulch. It’s a nice tradition to link to Thanksgiving, the autumnal equinox, or any of the harvest festivals found in various religious calendars. It may also be tied into a purification ritual, with the dismantling of the old, symbolizing the clearing of accumulated negativity or stale energy, and the introduction of the new, symbolizing a fresh start.