Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen - Scott Cunningham 1990

Purification
Magical food diets

At times, we don’t feel like ourselves. We may have been brooding about something for several weeks. We may just be stepping away from an unsatisfying relationship. Or, perhaps, we simply realize that it’s time for a change—time to break an addiction or transform our lives.

If (and when) this is the case, a purification diet can be useful in creating a physical transformation. Adding these foods to your diet, preparing them with visualization, and eating them with power blows the cobwebs out of your mind, body, and emotions. The concept of purification not only includes removing the bad or the useless, but also means renewal. A purification diet can do both.

Some people may eat purifying foods while undergoing a major change in their lives, such as when halting a substance dependency. Such a diet may also be a part of spiritual quests. It is also useful before other types of magical diets in clearing the way for the change.

Purification foods bring a welcome change in our bodies and emotions. Try this diet for a week or so if you’ve been feeling hampered by the past, imprisoned by your emotions, or “unclean” due to the actions of others in your immediate vicinity.

This is also an excellent diet for psychics (not for those on a psychic diet, but for those among us who don’t need to work at being psychic). This diet won’t close you down, but it will purify you from the negative energies that you can sometimes easily pick up from others.

Eat purification foods for a week after following a heavy protection diet. Purification and protection diets can be alternated if necessary. Give it a try.

Herbs and Spices

Fruits

Other Purifying Foods

Anisette

Beer

Creme de menthe

Flowers

Fresh juices

Honey

Lemonade

Lemon sorbet

Onion soup

Orange juice

Peppermint tea

Salt (in moderation)

Shellfish

Soups

Steamed foods

Vinegar

Water

Yeast products

These are some of the foods that you can enjoy during your purification diet. Water should, of course, be as pure as you can find it. Bottled spring water is ideal. We should drink eight glasses of water every day to maintain good health. To boost water’s purifying properties, float a slice of fresh lemon in every glass.

Foods to Avoid

Canned foods

Dried foods

Meat

Preserved foods

Meat shouldn’t be eaten in large amounts, if at all. Avoid processed foods and especially all artificially flavored, colored, or preserved foods. Fresh is best.

Cooking and Preparing Purifying Foods

At least one white candle should be burning in the kitchen. Cut foods into round or oblong shapes—but no sharp, julienned slices. Psychologically and magically, such shapes are less purifying than rounded ones.

A glass of beer each day after your last meal is purifying but, as with all alcohol, keep it to one or one-half glass. What do you do with the rest of the beer? Add it to your bath. It purifies from the outside. (Some people enjoy pouring warm beer on to their hair after shampooing—another possible use for the left-over brew.)

Salt is a purifying substance, but use it only in small amounts. Salt is an ancient symbol of purity; but we now know that consuming too much salt can be deadly.

Yeast products have been recommended because of the nature of yeast—an active, alive food. If you’re on a no-yeast diet (as many are today), simply don’t include yeast foods. Soups are fine purifying tools, as long as they don’t contain meat.

Recipes

Winds of Change Drink

3 oranges

2 grapefruit

1 lemon

1 lime

Honey to taste

Slice and juice the fruits, visualizing their purifying energies. Pour the juices into a glass. Add 1 teaspoon honey; stir well. Taste. If desired, add more honey. Enjoy as often as you wish during your purification diet.

Purification Mead (nonalcoholic)

1 quart water

1 cup honey

1 lemon (cut into slices)

1⁄2 teaspoon nutmeg

Juice of 1⁄2 lemon

A pinch salt

As you slice the lemon, smell its purifying fragrance. Visualize. Place the water, honey, lemon slices, and nutmeg into a stainless steel or glass pot. Boil. Scum will begin to form on the surface of the water. Skim this off with a wooden spoon as it rises. When the liquid is clear, add the salt and the juice.

Strain and cool. Drink at room temperature or cold. This is a nonalcoholic replacement for honey wine that’s quite purifying.