Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen - Scott Cunningham 1990
From the Dairy
The magic of food
Milk
Planet: Moon
Element: Water
Energies: Love, spirituality
Lore: In about the year 8000 B.C.E., humans began domesticating animals. No longer willing to follow roaming herds across the countryside, they built pens and began feeding and watering their stock.
This revolutionary practice certainly ensured food supplies, but the domestication of animals may have religious origins. Milk, both human and animal, was strongly associated with the birth of young. Birth was associated with life and with deity. What better offering than the food of life could be made to the Mother Goddess, the source of all fertility? At least one food historian believes that the early domestication of animals may have sprung from the need for a regular supply of milk for use in religious rituals.29
Though human infants have always drunk human milk, several thousand years of genetic change were necessary before we could successfully drink the milk of animals. Today, a large percentage of the human population still lacks the enzyme necessary for the digestion of animal milk.29
Both cow’s and goat’s milk have been linked with deities and with religion. The famous Egyptian goddess Hathor, usually depicted with the head of a cow, provided milk to deceased pharaohs as well as to the living. The cow was revered as her symbol.
Many statues of a seated Isis holding her son Horus to her breast have survived from antiquity. These are often thought to have inspired similar representations of the Virgin Mary and her son.23 The symbolism is the same: woman (the Goddess) during the act of nourishment.
Milk was a prime offering to the deities in ancient Egypt. Tutmose III placed gold and silver jars of milk on the altar to Amon. The divine liquid was also offered to Min, the ancient Egyptian deity of fertility.24
In Greece, goat nursemaids provided milk to Zeus, Dionysius, Asclepius, and many other deities. In his infancy, Zeus was attended by nymphs and by Almathea, the goat who fed him. Goats were thus honored as sustainers of life and bringers of food. Zeus created the cornucopeia (horn of plenty; cornucopia) when he presented one of the horns of Almathea to the nymphs.88
Though most milk today is pasteurized, it still retains some of its magical qualities. Contemporary Wiccan Esbats (Full Moon rituals) may include the serving of milk as a physical symbol of the Mother Goddess. In this way, coven members gain life from her, both symbolically and in reality.
Magical uses: Not surprisingly, milk is usually classed as a moon food, under the additional rulership of the element of water. It is a loving food, effective for strengthening your ability to give and to receive love.
As a major source of nourishment to billions of humans and to billions of animals, milk is linked with the endless Mother Goddess, provider of fertility. It’s a fine food for use in diets designed to promote spirituality.
Those concerned with healthy eating prefer unpasteurized goat’s milk over cow’s milk. For those steeped in Egyptian lore, however, the cow’s mythic connection with Isis and Hathor may suggest the use of cow’s milk. This depends on the drinker’s personal taste.
Butter
Planet: Moon
Element: Earth
Energies: Spirituality
Lore: Humans have been consuming butter for thousands of years. In ancient Mesopotamia, butter was offered on the altars of Ea, Shamash, Marduk, and other deities.24 During the days of classical Greece and Rome, butter was deemed by the upper class to be a food fit only for barbarians such as cattleherders, who would certainly possess great quantities of it. For cooking purposes and for moistening bread, olive oil was preferred.104 Since olive oil was expensive, the rich who could afford it looked down upon those who could not.
In India, ghee (clarified butter made from the milk of yaks) is poured on to images of the goddesses and gods as an act of worship and sacrifice.
Churning, the process whereby cream is separated from fresh milk, has long been an uncertain practice. With the hopes of “bringing” the butter, elder twigs were attached to the churn, or a bullet was placed in the milk itself. Chants, usually of quasi-Christian origin, were often said as well. This is a typical specimen:
“Come, butter, come!
Come, butter, come!
Peter’s standing at the gate,
Waiting for a buttered cake.
Come, butter, come!”
Magical uses: Butter, as a dairy food, is useful in spirituality diets.
Yogurt
Planet: Moon
Element: Water
Energies: Spirituality
Lore: Though its use in the American diet was once extremely limited, yogurt can now be found in virtually every food store in the country. This explosive growth in the popularity of yogurt began in the late 1960s. An ancient food, yogurt probably first appeared by accident: milk was left to sit for too long, the proper bacteria found their way into it, and a fermentation process created the yogurt.71 Later, this nutritious food was deliberately produced to add a valuable new dish to the human diet.
Yogurt (also spelled yoghurt) is eaten around the world wherever herds of cows are maintained. In India, yogurt is offered to the goddesses and gods. Like butter, it is sometimes poured over small statues of the deities.
Frozen yogurt, an innovation of the 1970s, has by now fully penetrated the American “pop-food” market. It is available in a wide variety of flavors. Some brands are now fat-free and quite low in calories.
One company recently introduced a line of canned, yogurt-like milk products that contain no acidopillus cultures. Without the traditional “bite” of the genuine item, and with an extended shelflife, this new food cannot be classified as a yogurt. It’s closer to a pudding.
Magical uses: To be of any magical benefit, yogurt should be plain or naturally flavored and colored. Honey-sweetened is best. Frozen yogurt or the more conventional kind can be used. For best results, eat plain yogurt. This food is fine for stimulating a greater awareness of the spiritual.
Cheese
Planet: Saturn
Element: Earth
Energies: Various (see below)
Lore: Cheese, a mildly odorous, solid or semisolid food created from milk, has been both adored and despised. We’ve had plenty of time to decide whether we like it or not—cheese has been around for as long as 5,000 years. Cuneiform tablets found at Sumerian and Babylonian archaeological sites mention cheese,70 and the remains of what was probably cheese were discovered in an Egyptian tomb dating from as early as 3000 B.C.E. The tomb, incidentally, was that of a woman.23, 104
In Greece, Aristaeus, the son of Apollo, was credited with “giving” cheese to humans. Greek children ate cheese just as some children today eat candy. It was a favored food for the general populace and made up the basic diet of athletes training for the Olympics.70 In parts of ancient Greece, wedding cakes were usually cheesecakes, made by pounding and straining cheese, mixing this with honey and flour, and baking the lot.70
There are many varieties of cheese. Some, such as Roquefort, have been known for over a thousand years.70
Magical uses: Cheese is generally ruled by Saturn and by the element of earth. However, semihard cheeses such as cheddar, jack, and others can be used in a variety of ritual applications.
Cut cheese into slices. As you cut, visualize your need. Using a sharp knife, cut each slice into a two-dimensional magical symbol that represents your goal. Infuse each slice with personal power, visualize, and eat.
The range of useful symbols is endless: pentagrams for protection, circles for spirituality, squares for money, hearts for love. See Symbols, page 341, for more ideas.
White cheese can be cut into crescent-moon shapes for Wiccan Esbat rituals, or for spells involving the moon.
Pasteurized processed cheese “foods” (such as American cheese) and cheese substitutes have no magical value whatsoever. These false cheeses shouldn’t be eaten.
Ice Cream
Planet: Moon
Element: Water
Energies: Various (see below)
Lore: In the United. States, more than nine billion dollars of ice cream was sold in 1987. The national consumption for that year was estimated at a record 905 million gallons. Recently, premium ice creams (with a higher butterfat content) have swept into the stores, and ice cream is one of our favorite dessert foods.
No one knows for sure who invented ice cream. Alexander the Great is usually given credit. It was he (or, rather, his chefs) who concocted a chilled, jellied dessert then known as macedoine. In the first century C.E., Nero sent teams of runners into the mountains to bring back snow for his ice desserts.124
Marco Polo is said to have brought a recipe for what seems to be sherbet to Italy upon his return from Asia. Apparently, this iced dish evolved into ice cream in the 1500s in Italy.
Until 1777, ice cream was still rare in the United States. With the invention of insulated icehouses, the delicious dessert gained national popularity. Less than one hundred years later, the invention of hand-cranked home ice cream makers brought the cool food within the reach of millions.124
Magical uses: Flavor determines the magical uses of ice cream. Here’s a list of specific flavors and their uses:
Blueberry cheesecake: Protection
Butter pecan: Money, employment
Cherry vanilla: Love
Chocolate (chip, fudge ripple, etc.): Money, love
Coffee: Conscious mind
Cookies and cream: Money
Macadamia nut: Money
Neapolitan: Love, money
Peach: Love, health, happiness, wisdom
Peanut butter: Money
Peppermint: Healing, purification
Pumpkin: Healing, money
Praline: Money
Strawberry: Love
Swiss almond: Money, healing
Vanilla: Love