A Kitchen Witch’s Grace

This is the fifth in a series of guest blog posts by up-and-coming author, Suzanne Hersey. Her first book, Faith, Food, Family, will be available from Iaconagraphy Press in Fall of 2018!

As someone who was raised Catholic, I understood the different concepts of Grace from a very young age. I know that I am lucky not to bear the scars that so many other witches do. Even as a child, I saw the wonder in the Eucharist, a meal prepared for friends and family, really, and over that meal was Grace. Those moments, I stood in wonder as a priest spoke over bread and wine and turned it into the Body and Blood of Christ. That act of Transubstantiation is actually a form of magick; a form of alchemy. I was a believer in the magick that the bread and wine really did change to blood and body; that when you left the Church, you carry that miracle with you. That is both Grace and grace. To me, Grace in a sense is being in the eyes of something greater than yourself, knowing the magick, having faith in it, and that the other thing that is greater than you has faith in you as well. Saying grace is something altogether different, but requires the first kind of Grace. You can stand and speak over food the whole day long, but if you do not believe you are changing the food to something more than simply food, those are just words.

My parents said grace before meals on holidays, but in a way we said it ourselves every time we sat down for a meal together and thanked my mother for the food she had prepared. At holidays, my father would stand at the head of a long table and thank his God for all that we had been blessed with: the food, the family, and our faith. It was not until I sat and started working on my book that I realized how I had carried his grace with me all along, even onto the Path of the Witch.

My father believed that he was blessing the food and that through that blessing, we would find peace together; we would be healthier, happier, safer, and loved. He was grateful for that time when all his children would sit together, even for a short time. That is what I do when I make Kitchen Magick or work on my Hearth-Space. I bring the eyes of my Gods upon all that I am doing and hope that They deem to make what I prepare magickal along with me. I know I have the magick within me, but a bit of the Godly touch is something else altogether.

I have read in the past that water changes its actual make-up when blessed and made “Holy”. That is why even those that are not “Christian” still consider tossing Holy Water at stuff in haunted places a viable option. I know that when I push my energy into the food I prepare I make it magickal. I make it what I Will it to be. I make Grace.

I live my Kitchen Witch life simply and quietly for the most part. I don’t make a big show of standing at the table and “saying grace” in a restaurant, at home, or even at my desk when I eat lunch. I simply, quietly say a prayer to my Gods; I thank Them and all that went into the food I am eating or serving for the magick it brings. I breathe in and fill my core with bright light and then I push that light into the food I am about to eat. That is a tribute to my father: gratitude for what we have when so many do not have; gratitude to the Gods that guide me, to the plants and animals that sustain me; to the magick I can feel.

I try every day to live with a kind of Grace to my Gods, to all the Gods because I certainly cannot predict who will show up at my table. I have friends and family from many paths. When they come to my hearth-space they bring their Gods along with them, and all are welcome that mean no harm. We give blot, tributes, altar space, and we ask things of Them. Should we not then behave with some Grace? Sit back and watch the wonder of our magick; of how it touches those around us. To be grateful for those moments–the smiles, the passion, the comfort that comes from the food we consume–is more than “nice”, it is necessary.

In these times where there seems so little hope or joy, we walk sometimes in a fog, and maybe we forget that we are Witches, full of magick and our Gods. If we want a more graceful world, perhaps a few moments to just stop and be grateful for what we have in that moment would create such a thing. We should be grateful for the magick we have: the food, the family, and the faith in and from our Gods.

Thank You,
Oh Goddesses and Gods,
For all that I have before me in this moment and in the next.
Let me not forget that I am loved,
That I am magickal;
That I am enough.
Thank You,
Goddesses and Gods,
For the plants and the animals,
For the minerals;
The water and the fire
That came to nourish me and those I love.
Let me take each step in this day to bring better things into the world.
Blessed Be.