Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen (23 page)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Peace & Happiness

W
e're all subjected to stress and to disappointment. Our jobs, our interactions with others, and the very structure of our civilization creates stress. When we drive (or run for the bus), when we open our mail, when we answer the telephone or ask our employers for a raise—we experience stress.

Many of us succumb to such pressures. We may experience depression, or “escape” into mind- and mood-altering substances.
§§§§§
Our bodies and our minds are telling us to slow down, to release, and to relax.

Stress is a part of our daily lives, but so too are its opposites—peace, happiness, and relaxation. Many of us meditate to release stress. Some exercise or see a massage therapist. A half hour of yoga does the trick for many individuals. But isn't there something else we can do to bring peace and happiness into our lives?

Yes, there is. We can eat foods that have traditionally been used to encourage happiness and to produce peace. Naturally, a diet such as the one outlined in this chapter can't work in a vacuum. You, the eater, must allow these energies to take effect. You must take an active role in transforming the effects of physical, emotional, financial, and mental stress into peace and happiness.

Magicians know that we can't always be at peace, or forever remain happy. We're humans, after all. But the addition of certain foods to our diets—and a few other simple steps—can help in increasing our happiness and in producing peace.

Realize that happiness and peace come from within. No one else can give them to us. Though we may feel these emotions when we're with others, only
we
can bring ourselves to experience them.

Positive thinking is one avenue of change.
¶¶¶¶¶
Instead of always searching for the negative aspects of everything you see or hear about, look for the positive. Alter your thought patterns. If you're used to seeing the world from a disgruntled, cynical viewpoint, change the way you think.

Certainly, if you're locked into a loveless relationship, work at a dead-end job (or no job at all), have few friends, and many bills, things can get pretty bleak. It's easy to get caught up in the unfairness of it all. It's easy to sit back and let circumstances step all over you.

But if you've decided that a change is in order, or if you've decided that your life isn't what it could and should be, then reprogram yourself and your energies. Charge them with positive thinking. Change your life—perhaps by cutting off dead-ening relationships, moving, or finding a more fulfilling job.

While you're taking the first steps toward finding peace and happiness in your life, spend five minutes every day to sit and think. Instead of dwelling on the negative aspects of your life, think of the positive ones. Visualize, if you wish, the glowing life that you will soon lead. These short “meditations” will begin to alter your thinking and actually charge your personal power with positive energies.

The past is just that: past. We can certainly learn from it, but it isn't a map for our futures. We can create a depressing future or a happy future. Create your future today by taking control of your life. Happiness isn't in the prism of the past. It's our birthright, and we can achieve it now, today, by reprogramming ourselves to accept the peace and happiness that we deserve. To further speed the change from a sad life to a happy one, alter your diet as well. The following foods, correctly prepared with visualization, are another way in which you can empower your life with peace and happiness.

Herbs and Spices

Add small amounts of these ingredients to happiness and peace foods. Charge with energy by touching the spice with your index finger and visualizing. The rose recipes in
chapter 26
can be used with good effect for happiness, but eat only small portions (these dishes have a high sugar content).

Vegetables

Cucumber

Lettuce

Olive

Don't eat any of these vegetables if you don't enjoy them. This will only depress you.

Fruits

A fresh, ripe piece of fruit can be a comforting food. Mark a circle intersected with an equal-armed cross on the fruit prior to eating it or cooking with it.

Other Peace and Happiness Foods

Celery soup

Cheese pizza (flavored with oregano)

Chocolate

Fish

Honey

Lemon pie

Lentil

Milk

Saffron bread

Saffron rice (see the recipe in
chapter 26
)

Wine

Foods to Avoid

Alcohol (in excess)

Coffee

Heavy foods

Meat

Root foods

Salt

Spicy foods

Tea

Eat more frequent, smaller meals. Avoid very heavy dishes and meals that rely solely on meat for protein. Eat less sugar. Once it has been ingested, it boosts the blood-sugar level, producing pleasant feelings. However, its effects soon wear off, leaving us in a dangerous, depressed state. Eat fresh fruit when you have the urge for something sweet. All love foods (save those heavy with sugar) can also be eaten.

Preparing and Cooking Peace
and Happiness Foods

Burn one white or one light blue candle in the kitchen while cooking or preparing these foods. Cut the vegetables and fruits into round or ball shapes to stimulate peace.

Passion fruit is increasing in popularity as a flavoring for fruit drinks and “tropical”-style yogurts. Look in your grocery store for these products and add them to your peace-and-happiness diet. Passion fruit seed salad dressing may be available in your area; it can also be obtained through the mail.

Though I've listed many healthful foods above, some of you may zero in on two in particular: wine and chocolate. In small amounts (no more than a glass a day), wine can be a friend that soothes us after a hard day's work. Drinking any more than this will quickly turn it into an enemy. Watch yourself.

As stated in
chapter 13
, chocolate contains a substance that seems to cause the human brain to secrete chemicals that soothe and relax us. But chocolate eating can soon become chocolate addiction. As long as we're dependent upon a substance, we can never be truly happy. Again, eat in moderation.

Recipes

Perpetual Happiness Drink

1
⁄
2
cup apple juice

1
⁄
2
cup cherry juice

1
⁄
2
cup apricot juice (or nectar)

4 or 5 fresh raspberries

Blend together all ingredients for a few seconds. Pour into a glass, place your hands on either side of the glass, and visualize, arousing the peaceful energies that reside within the fruits.

Drink half a cup whenever you desire. Store the remainder in the refrigerator. Alternately, drink a cup of apple juice.

Peaceful Cider Cake

3 cups sifted flour

1
⁄
2
teaspoon baking soda

1
⁄
4
teaspoon nutmeg, ground

1
⁄
4
teaspoon cinnamon, ground

1
⁄
2
cup butter, softened

1
1
⁄
2
cups sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1
⁄
2
cup apple cider

Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).

Visualize yourself as a peaceful person while you measure the spice, flour, and baking soda. Sift together the first 4 ingredients and set aside.

Beat together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs and mix. Alternately, add the flour mixture and the apple cider. Begin and end with the flour mixture.

Place the batter into a well-buttered loaf pan. Bake at 350°F (177°C) for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out dry.

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Chapter Twenty-Nine

Purification

A
t 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.

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