Knowing that tomorrow I will be busy I decided to get cooking done today.
I realized as I cooked two dishes side by side I was doing a cut and clear spell in the form of cooking.It did not occur to me it until about half way through the cooking process around the time that all of my senses began to engage in the process.
For those of us who would like to know what a cut and clear spell is I will tell you.
Its the most excellent ritual for releasing that which does not serve while attracting that which does!
I learned from a woman named Susan Diamond years ago on a dark and stormy night at the foot of the redwoods.
In a circle of salt and a circle of lemon
You place a black candle, white candle and a list with a line drawn down the center.
One side of the sheet (left side) contains a list of all that one wishes to release and it might appear like this.
Heartache
Deception
Betrayal
Deceit
Jealousy
Cruelty
A line down the center of the sheet then on the other side of the sheet it might look like this
Heart Healing Comfort Soothing
Safety for Trust to be Nurtured
Honor and Loyalty
Integrity
Support in and through Joy
Kindness
lemon is sprinkled down the center of the sheet
a piece of twine is tied between the two candles which you have annointed in herbs and oils that represent your intentions
Herbs and Oils for the black candle are for releasing intentions
Washing hands before applying attraction herbs and oils to white candle
cutting the paper down the center then lighting both candles before burning the the twine of the candles in the center keep the list on the right and burn the list on the left.
I gaze at the candles as they burn, watch them, look for shapes in the wax , mediate on what I am bringing in while letting go of thoughts of what I am releasing.
This is a cut and clear spell and it has been most effective of releasing hard to break habits or anything that I really need to let go of to bring in the new.
Today as I was cooking I realized I was doing a cut and clear instinctively in my cooking. I looked down and there were two pots.
The one on the left had become quite peppery and contained all cleansing agents in regards to the alchemical properties of food. Pepper for hex aka habit breaking, celery for cleansing the blood, zucchini protection and honesty in love, Asparagus for rejuvenation, strength and to fight off fatigue, Sea Salt to cleanse. I was thinking about the people in my life who have experienced heartache, betrayal, cheating, or have gone through multiple break ups with the same person unable to create change that they so desire.
At the same time I was also feeling gratitude for all the romance, sweet love and blessings in my life.
In the right pot was a concoction that am creating to use both as a cider, as a base for sangria later this year and the pulp will be used to make candle holders. I use the pulp and add alot of cinnamon and instead of making ornaments I planned to make little chandelier candle holders. They smell great and make the environment in which they are kept smell great for a long while I thought of the two week long time that my fiance and I spent together celebrating our engagement again and our plans for our handfasting next year at this time. I though about our fucking and love making. I Felt the joy of the memory of all the laughs I hear out of us and the smiles, flirts, touching, teamwork and kisses. How we hold each other, and honor what we want or need. There are five years of good memories that can inspire the sweetest and spiciest brews.
I didnt realize I was actually doing a cut and clear till I found myself reaching for vinegar or lemon and not being certain why because I knew I didn't want it in either of the dishes.
I decided I would clean the places on the stove where parts of the pot had spilled and would do this using lemon juice.
Thats when I realized it. I am doing a cooking cut and clear for all the pain, heartache and loss that people experience. So many people I know recently are enduring heart ache, break ups, loss. I tasted the dish and there was so much sage it tasted like soap and so much pepper it could have been a pest control agent. As I added more spring water I tasted the other parts and realized it.
The sea salt, all the tears I have ever shed at betrayal,loss of love or heartbreak and knowing the tears that the people in my life have shed at their heart ache. I send them healing and love.
The moment celery accidentally cut under the thumb of my right hand as I tried to push the celery stalks down into the compost bin this was when I knew I needed to pay attention. I needed to slow down and think more about what I was doing. How odd that celery slipped under the nail bed of my thumb and cut me. I bled that moment. As I was cleaning the blood from under my thumb under the kitchen sink, so it wouldn't get in the cooking I thought, "what does celery represent? The alchemical properties of celery is for blood cleansing... What does the right hand represent? The right hand symbolizes masculine, the bloodline, ancestry cleansing of heart ache and suffering and loss and replacement of all that pain not only for people I know around me going through heartache but an honoring and releasing of pain of all those who came before me in my own ancestry.My thumb and nail are fine.
The right hand represents actions taken in the world. It represents the space I will hold for people to come over and burn that which does not serve them in the fire pit and I will hold this space for these people who have been going through heartbreak and break ups.It can also represent ego. May I stay humble as I experience joy in my relationship and I bear witness to other people's heartbreak because I have been the one heartbroken before. Loss can and does happen to us all and may I be honoring of other peoples process in ways that others were not honoring of mine. May I know its a humble honor to hold space for the loss of others while simultaneously rejoicing in the gratitude of the abundance of all that is love.
I do not gloat that I am not the one going through betrayal, a break up etc right now. I am humble at the knowing of that painful rite of passage that many of us endure and I ask the universe and all that is love to hold the people I know in healing loving energy.
Pepper, its protection for the person in my life who had to get a restraining order from the person she has had a hard time releasing.
Zucchini was used for faithfulness, fidelity and honesty in love. This is for my friend who experienced lying and cheating. As they heal I wish and send out the energy that this experience will be no more for them in the future. Asparagus, is for vitality and strength. I think of the exhaustion that comes from grief. May we all experience a break and relief from that and Asparagus is about feeling sexy. For the friend who spoke the words about having a sexless relationship and the friends who feel less sexy during a break up because heartache can do that, may we all know how incredibly vital and sexy and alive with the extraordinary that we all are despite hardships that befall us.
As I look at the two pots I think of Grandma and Grandpa Lillie who lived and stayed in love from two weeks after they met till he died this past January. I will be eating the pot of peppery stew and it will be gone like Grandpa Lillie and the salt and pepper gravy he would make. We would consume his gravy which tasted so amazing and he always insisted was nothing but salt and pepper.
The apple mixture in the right pot is like my Grandma Lillie. I will still engage with her, I will create beautiful things that are sweet or pay attention to the sweet parts of life and share them with her as much as I can. She is still alive in her sweetness, she is still helping out at the library, planting pretty flowers and enjoying hummingbird feeders along with her grandchildren through her heartache and loss she is still in a place of love and light.
May I and everyone who wants an honest, faithful loyal steadfast love experience it as they did. Yes there was loss for them at the end too because loss is a part of life and she must now live her days without him. Her tear soup has different ingredients than the tear soups of those of us who have experienced shorter loves that have been embued with lying, cheating and unsafe actions. May we all have love.
The pot of apples, apples are love magic, cinnamon for fire passion, protection abundance and spicy sweetness, clove for more exciting lusty yet still protective love, cardamon another aphrodisiac, I used stevia with the intention of sweetness that is pure and comes from a grounded healthy place. Stevia unlike sugar is not made of ground up bones, bleaching and processing. It requires fresh air and sun to grow and when its ground up it changes from a beautiful green to a white color. It doesnt require processing and it doesn't harm bees the way many honeys do.
Meaning can be found in all we do. Being present while cooking can imbue magik into our food. The creation of food for me is a form of sex magik because sex is the creative force, its from where we all came both pun intended and non figuratively. I believe anytime we are willing to work with the energy of releasing and rebirth which is todays cooking session was thoughts and knowing of that which does not serve our highest good and we are willing to simultaneously create thoughts and material with the intention of bringing in the experiences which we prefer to live and know, in a sense we are working with sex magik.
I send out this revealing of my own personal process around cooking, presence, grief, joy and loving my community through their journey. I place this here with a willingness to reveal with perfect love and perfect trust, harming none and helping all by the power of three, So mote it be.
This Thursday I will be opening my home and backyard hearth in the
garden to hold space for friends who have experienced heartache,
heartbreaks and loss. Rather than have a circle and submit myself and
those who are grieving to large energy I am doing this throughout the
day allowing an hour for each friend with a space of an hour or two in
between. Each friend I will hold in witnessing as they release to the
fire anything that they wish to be cleansed of, transform or that which
does not serve them. I do not find it ironic that I know so many people
going through heartache and I am humbled that it is not me this time
going through the break up. I think of all those who have held me during
my heartbreaks and all of those who were not able. The thought of being
able to honor other people during their rite of passage in processing
loss is meaningful to me and I have the energy and space to do this.
Nothing could feel more right for me during this time. On Friday I will
release the ashes of the fire in the garden for them to be recycled into
winter growing plants.
