Read Online Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen by Scott Cunningham - Free Book Online Page A

Mexico, simply don’t have the same symbolism or energies as corn tortillas
    If you buy tortillas prepackaged, check the label. Choose only those that contain no artificial preservatives. They can be made at home (any good Mexican cookbook has directions) or, in many U.S. towns, can be purchased at tortillerias.
    Warm tortillas, with butter or cheese, are wonderful foods at any time, but are particularly satisfying after intense magical workings. They instantly nourish the body and refuel it.
    Round tortillas can also be added to spirituality diets. Warmed and spread with garlic butter, corn tortillas are a delicious part of a protective diet.
    Wheat
    (Triticum spp.)
    Planet: Venus
    Element: Earth
    Energies: various (see below)
    Lore: Wheat has long played a part in the human diet. After rice, it’s the second-most commonly used grain for human food, and was first cultivated during the Neolithic age. 120
    The Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Hittites, Greeks, and Romans all worshipped harvest deities associated with wheat. Wheat is particularly a symbol of the Mother Goddess. She taught the secrets of agriculture to women, the grain’s first farmers and cultivators.
    In ancient Greece, newly married couples were pelted with sweetmeats and grains of wheat. 31 The Romans crowned brides and grooms with wreaths of wheat and with lilies to symbolize purity and fertility . 75
    Magical uses: Whole wheat is best for magical (and nutritional) purposes. Bleached wheat has had more than its vitamins, minerals, and bran removed: it also lacks magical energy. Though white bread was eaten by the Roman upper classes, it’s a spiritually dead food.
    Eat wheat-based foods (breads and all dough products) to bring prosperity and money into your life.
    Before baking a loaf of bread, use a sharp knife to ritually incise a symbol of a specific energy that you wish to bring into your life. Do this with visualization. Various types of wheat bread have diverse energies and magical uses. Here are some of them:
    Twisted breads (any bread-recipe book contains directions) are fine additions to protective diets. The more twists, the more protection. Visualize as you braid the dough.
    Egg breads are baked and eaten, with visualization, to promote physical fertility.
    Saffron bread enhances spirituality. To a lesser extent, so too do all round loaves.
    Sprouted bread is excellent for increasing psychic awareness.
    Pita bread (also known as “pocket bread”) is a fine spirituality food.
    Seven-grain bread (or its eight-grain cousin) is a fine money attractant.
    Dill bread promotes love.
    Garlic bread, created by slathering slices of bread with garlic-flavored butter, is a delicious and powerful addition to protection diets.
    Most European countries produce sweetened breads for use during spring festivals (which are now connected with later Christian holidays such as Easter). Sweetened breads are discussed in chapter 9 .
    [contents]
    *** The pentagram is a five-pointed star, with one point up and two points down. It is an ancient symbol of protection and has no connection with the modern, spurious practice of Satanism.
    â€ â€ â€  See Symbols, pages 341–344, for magical symbols and runes.

Chapter Nine
    Cakes, Sweetened Breads,
Cookies, & Pies
    H umans have always eaten sweetened foods. Honey has been in use since at least 8000 b.c.e. Cave paintings of humans gathering honey attest to this. 71 Date syrup and grape syrup were also commonly used throughout Meso-potamia and the Mediterranean region for sweetening purposes. 29 Until fairly recently, only India and Hawaii used sugar as their major sweetener (see chapter 13 for further information about sweeteners).
    Sweetened breads and cakes have always been linked with religion and folk magic. The history of these foods is a journey through dozens of cultures and peoples around the globe.
    Babylonians baked cakes for the goddess Ishtar in the shape of male and female human