Kitchen Witchcraft, also known as Cottage Witchcraft, combines hearth and home with magic and enchantment. The lines between the magic and the mundane are blurred as the Witch brings magic into everyday life and everyday chores. It’s not very ceremonial in nature; it’s about putting that spark of magic into everything as you go about your domestic duties.
The Kitchen Witch is the ultimate domestic diva, enchantress of the hearth and home or magical master of his domain. It is a wonderful way to bring magic into your everyday life.
Kitchen witchery is getting back to the roots of the Craft. Back before the “Burning Times” back before the Dark Ages, but back when the Craft was practiced by men and women working around their hearth-fires in their small and simple dwellings. They didn’t have kitchens, or even rooms as we know them today – but they had areas of their homes that were specifically for a certain purpose – sleeping, eating, cooking, crafting etc etc etc.
Back in the days where the village wise-men and wise-women were free and respected, when they were the people to turn to for help and problem solving. Their homes would be filled with the bits and pieces they would need for their Craft – herbs, sticks and stones, bottles and pouches. They would have used the same tools for their Craft as they would have used in their day-to-day living – cooking pot, cutting knives, wooden spoons, chopping boards, bowls…they may have used separate tools for magickal work than ordinary cooking, but the tools would have looked the same nonetheless.
Modern witchcraft is very often equated to Wicca, and to many they are one and the same. However, there are many that identify with Witch but not Wicca (there are also those who identify with Wicca and not Witch). Wicca is the religion, it has the ceremonial rituals, the distinction between magickal and mundane. Witchcraft is the practice, it’s the down and dirty end of magick.
Kitchen Witch, Green Witch, Hedge Witch – these are all terms for those witches not desiring to follow the theatrics of a religion, but who prefer to work their Craft, to connect on a daily basis to Life, to Nature, and where best to do that but in the heart of their homes? I’m not saying that Wicca doesn’t desire these same things, but they have different methods of doing it.
To a Kitchen Witch, the kitchen is sacred. It’s where the magick happens, whether it’s mixing up a potion, or cooking up a family dinner. Kitchen Witches use the same tools for magickal work as they do for mundane, as ALL work is magickal, and by using these tools, it puts in our energies and binds them to us, makes them more powerful and meaningful. We don’t save our tools for “best” – every day is a reason to get the “best” out from the back of the cupboard.
A Kitchen Witch is often a good cook also and knows a trick or two about keeping house. A house is more than just a home for a kitchen witch – it is their sacred space and the heart of the home, the place where this magick takes place – that is the kitchen…
“Kitchen witchery is a unique form of solitary witchcraft, which honours the mundane in life and finds sacredness in every day, simple acts. The kitchen witch finds pleasure and meaning in cooking especially, but also knows the secrets of making housework magical and turning the garden into a source of healing and wonder.”
How to Become a Kitchen Witch
Become mindful and make yourself present in the moment as you’re going about your housekeeping, cooking and chores. Become aware of the magic and energy going on in the moment.
Begin studying magic, particularly green magic, folk magic and energy work. All magic is rooted in the same theories and works on the same principles, it just largely depends on how you wish to exercise it.
Start cleaning up your home and garden. It doesn’t have to be a show place, but it should be someplace that makes you feel warm and comfortable, someplace you find inviting. Your home is your own little sanctuary in this big old world.
Start planting a garden. No land? No problem—I have no land either. I keep a few dozen pots on wire shelving or hanging from hooks around the perimeter of a big screen porch with southern exposure. I grow lots of herbs, flowers, houseplants, and even a nice little salad garden of tomato, cucumber, peppers, lettuce, spinach, squashes and the like. These are mostly planted in old storage containers, coffee cans and butter tubs. Even if all you have is a sunny windowsill, there is a way to have just a few herbs.
If you can’t have a garden, collect dry herbs or purchase them in bulk from the local farmer’s market.
Foster an attitude of gratitude for your food. Give thanks not just at harvest festivals, but for every little meal and snack. Thank the spirit of the animals and plants that you consume and be aware of their power that you are taking into your body.
Connect to your animals and plants on a spiritual level. Stop thinking of them as lower life forms and start celebrating them as spiritual beings in their own right. Learn to listen, to read their signs, to communicate and learn their lessons.
Cook—cooking is a big part of Kitchen Witchery. You change your herbs and ingredients; you imbue your food with your magical desires and then consuming.
Begin learning some herbal remedies. I wouldn’t rush off and treat serious conditions on your own without a doctor’s care, and keep in mind that even culinary herbs in large doses can be very dangerous. But you can start with some simple things like making poultices for bruises, salves for bee stings or lotions for skin irritations.
Start to shift to a more organic way of life. Move away from the excess, the waste, the chemicals, the poisons. Start recycling and reusing things, begin composting for your garden, use herbs to create your own all-natural cleaning supplies.
Begin thinking magically in everything you do. When you stoke the fire or cook over the stove, when you shower and do the dishes, when you turn on the fan or dig in the garden, give praise to the spirits of the elements. When you cook, don’t just follow a recipe—turn it into a spell, and charge that food or drink with the energy of that which you want to work toward. When you do your spring cleaning, perform it with reverence as a purification of your temple. Don’t just suck up the dust bunnies under the bed with your vacuum—banish these negative entities from your life.
Before you know it, you won’t be looking at the calendar wondering when the next Esbat is or thinking about stopping by that New Age store for some spell components or ritual tools. Everything in your life becomes part of your magical endeavors, and this can bring an abundance of blessings and joy.
A common way of performing kitchen magic is by forming the cooking and baking into a spell. The most important ingredient in a home-cooked meal is Will. If you’ve ever watched Like Water for Chocolate, you know how powerful one’s Will can be while stirring a pot or batter or kneading a dough: the emotion and intent is swallowed into the body with each morsel, each grain and seed and herb and vegetable slice, with each spoonful of compote and each bite of sweet and sour fruit. Cooking and baking are therefore powerful methods of spellcasting, especially for healing, prosperity, abundance and fertility, and harmony.
- Placing a crystal or amethyst on or near the stove is said to make food cooked there taste better by keeping negativity out of the bubbling pots on the stove and the pans of breads and baked goods in the oven.
- Physical cleanliness is an important aspect of spiritual cleanliness in kitchen witchcraft. Maintaining organization, keeping spaces clutter-free, and sanitizing the home are essential, and all ought to be performed before any spiritual home purifications and protection charms, no matter your tradition. To the kitchen witch, honoring the home means honoring her goddess(es), and is a sacred practice.
- Chants are a big aspect of kitchen magic, the simplest method of trance, utilized while cleaning or preparing a dish.
- Stir the pot or batter in the direction most befitting your intent. The number of times a dough is kneaded, or the contents of a bowl or pot are stirred round can also be decided based on the sacred numerology of your tradition.
- Every herb and spice has its own associations; use the ones most relevant to your Will.
- This is the Mead Moon–why not brew some mead with magical intent?
- Sigil magicians weave its way into kitchen magic. Create sigils with spreads and condiments across bread, in how you add ingredients to your bowl or pot, or in how you decorate the meal before serving.
- Grow seasonal and organic foods and herbs in your garden, to be cooked in your kitchen and shared with your guests from the wild. The garden is sacred space, and can be used to bury offerings, pour libations, recite prayers and supplications; cast spells and charms, and interacts with the Land spirits and the sprites of your land.
- Live more sustainably. Go vegetarian or vegan, purchase fair-trade, organic, all-natural products that aren’t tested on animals, recycle, compost, avoid chemicals and processed junk, utilize herbal remedies, and try to give back just a little of what you take, perhaps by doing a little restoration at your nearest forest, or removing invasive species where spotted.
- Crafting is the sphere of the kitchen and traditional witch just as it is the realm of household goddesses and goddesses of destiny. Decorate your home with wildcrafts, woodcrafts, knits, quilts, tapestries, your loom, spindles, or spinning wheel, sculptures of the Gods, paintings, poetry, and other crafts made by your own hand. Creativity is a form of devotion.
- Enchant your crafts and utilize them in charms and spells.
- Other forms of folk magic have a place in kitchen witchery, including weather magic, ribbon charms, divination and prophecy (which most Hearth-goddesses practice), and candle magic.
- Research the traditional foods of your hearth-culture or heritage, and their associated folklore. Food is how I have personally deepened my connections with my Afro-Caribbean, Irish, Welsh, and Scottish ancestry. There is just something so right about honoring your ancestors with their traditional dishes and imagining the lives they may have lived as you feast with the Dead. Check your local thrift stores for old, out-of-print traditional recipe books; you’d be surprised what you can find!
Goddesses of Hearth & Home
Kitchen witches honor the goddess of the Hearth, the sacred center of the home, the source of all life and where, in ancient times, the eternal flame, that little spark of the greater Sun, burned eternally. We are all familiar with The White Goddess by Robert Graves; he wrote that one symbol of “the White Goddess” was the omphalos, which he believed was the same white brick as the burning lump of charcoal of the hearth. The following are some popular Hearth-goddesses.
Many kitchen witches create shrines to their Hearth-gods in their kitchen. I’ve written about three–Hestia, Frigga, and Brighid–but other Indo-European Hearth-goddesses include Vesta, Matka Gabia, Gabija, and Berehynia; and Ceridwen, as the stirrer of the magical cauldron of Awen, is also commonly worshipped. Earth-goddesses are also honored, and the Indo-European Earth-goddesses are known as Mother Earth, Gaia, Demeter, Nerthus, Jorth, Danu, Aine, Prthivi, Dheghom Matr, the Cailleach/Bone Mother (the dark and dying Earth), Don, Ceres, and Tellus Terra Mater.
Hestia
The Hearth-goddess of the ancient Greeks, who crafted the omphalos, was Hestia. She was the first God who received the sacrifice at all public rites of offering, as well as first and last libations of wine at feasts, as ordained by Zeus, who is Her brother and reveres Her, as well. She is a protectoress, and in ancient Greece, anyone who prayed for Her aid at any of Her shrines in all households and court houses, received it. In Greece, the Hearth was the sacrificial altar, and Hestia as its goddess represented personal security and happiness.
Hestia never takes part in wars and disputes and has never accepted any amorous offers from her fellow gods; after being approached by Poseidon and Apollo after Cronus’ dethronement, She vowed by Zeus’ head to remain a virgin (for which He rewarded Her first sacrifice, for preserving the peace of Olympus). Hestia sat on a wooden throne with a white woolen cushion, and never took an emblem. The central hearth and sacred fire of the state or community was especially sacred to Her, and She was the keeper of the sacred fire in the Olympian hearth. The Homeric hymn to Her tells us a bit more:
Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollo, the Far-shooter at goodly Pytho, with soft oil dripping ever from your locks, come now into this house, come, having one mind with Zeus the all-wise: draw near, and withal bestow grace upon my song.
Frigga
Frigga is the wife of Odin and Queen of Asgard, and the only Being besides Odin Himself who is permitted to sit on His high seat Hlidskjalf and look out over all the Realms of the Universe. Friday is named for Her, and She is still remembered for ruling over love and marriage, in addition to being a seeress, though She never reveals Her secrets, and Her powers of prophecy caused Her great pain when She Saw the death of Her son Baldur, whom She loved dearly and who was killed by Loki, the Trickster having discovered the one thing that She couldn’t iamgine would kill Him: mistletoe. Frigg’s hall in Asgard is Fensalir, “Marsh Halls,” and She sits at Her spindle and weaves the destiny of Gods and humans alike. The Goose is sacred to Her, a symbol of her nurturing nature. She is invoked by women in labor and the dying.
The loving Mother who labored all of Midwinter Night giving birth to the radiant Baldur, Goddess of love, marriage, fertility, and weaving, who weaved the clouds and therefore brought rain to the crops, Frigga has a beautiful and complex body of myth behind Her.
Brighid
Also known as Bríd, Bride, Brigid, and Brigit, this Triple Goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann rules over poetry, healing, and smithing, as well as fertility and agriculture. In Her earliest incarnation, as Breo-Saighit, She was called the Flame of Ireland, and a goddess of the forge. The household fire is sacred to Her, and at Kildare, Her eternal flame was kept by nineteen priestesses. Brighid was also a sage, a wise-woman, and a prophetess; She dipped Her cupped hands into Her frith to divine that which was lost, that which was to come, and that which was far away. She is honored at Là Fhèill Brìghde (Scots-Gaelic) or Lá Fhéile Bríde (Irish-Gaelic) on February 1, also called Imbolc (“Ewe’s Milk”), during which festival Her figure is crafted, placed into a bed, and invited into the home. She, like Hestia, is a keeper of the sacred hearth; but is also extraordinarily diverse in Her skills and knowledge.
Let’s start with the basics
Salt~
Basic Ritual:
In a glass jar or bowl, mix 1/2 cup salt with desired herbs. While mixing, focus your mind on your intentions (i.e. protection, health, self-love). Picture your intentions manifesting. Feel the safety and peace rippling through you if your salt is for protection. Imagine your body (or your loved one’s) healing if you’re manifesting health. Picture that person up and about, running and jumping and feeling amazing! If your blend is for self-love, imagine yourself standing before a mirror, liking what you see. Smile at yourself. Tell yourself you are loved that you are human and you are doing your best, that your best is enough, that you are worthy of love, especially your own.
Once you can visualize the outcome in your mind’s eye, place the jar outside or on a windowsill where it will be exposed to the moonlight all night. In Goddess pose (arms above head like the “Y” in the YMCA dance), thank the Goddess Moon for lending her energies to your spell and take a moment to appreciate the beauty that is a full moon.
Leave the jar on the windowsill until the following morning. Cover it, put it on your magic shelf, and you’re done! Now you have a blessing salt you can use to protect your home or vehicle, to circle a table for a healing spell, or to bless a special piece of jewelry or crystal to keep with you to remind yourself that you are worthy of love!
These herbs can be added in any amount. Generally, I listen to instinct and see what the herb is saying to me (so to speak. I don’t hear herbal voices, but how cool would that be?!) If you find yourself drawn to one more than another, either by scent or smell or pure instinct, follow your gut! Magick is all about instinct. The best spells you will ever cast are the ones where you followed your intuition.
Protection Blend
Dill
Cedar
Clove
Sage
Lavender
Healing Blend
Cinnamon
Lavender
Pine
Rosemary
Sandalwood
Self-Love Blend
Chamomile
Lavender
Rose
Jasmine
HERBS AND SPICES
Cardamom — add whole pods to a charm bag or mojo hand for love and sex, dust in its powdered form on candles along with cinnamon for a sex me up spell, use whole pods along with dried rose petals, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla bean in olive oil for a love unguent.
Cinnamon — for hot herb magic action sprinkle a pinch combined with sugar outside your place of business to draw customers, use it to heat up love situations, dust a candle with cinnamon and peppermint in honor of St. Expedite.
Coffee — use it to compel people and “encourage” them to do what you want, serve a cup of coffee to someone that you need to bring over to your point of view, add a spoonful of sugar if you need them to be sweet to you and add a pinch of cinnamon if you want them to give you money. Murmur their name over the cup as you stir clockwise calling out your desire.
Bay Leaf — for victory, triumph, and success. Bay Laurel crowns were awarded to stellar poets and soldiers in Ancient Greece and Rome. They are also a key ingredient in traditionally made Archangel Michael packets and sacred to Archangel Michael.
Black Peppercorns — use in baneful workings when an enemy needs to feel the heat and vamanos! May also be used in harsher compelling workings-like when the insurance company is holding out on you-in the latter case combine with licorice root-which makes a delicious and soothing tea by the way.
Ginger — powerful protective ingredient found in herb mixes, anointing oils, and baths. Combine ginger, bay leaf, and cinnamon to protect your ability to success and prosper.
Kosher Salt –Kosher salt has actually been blessed and may be sprinkled along with cumin seeds around the circumference of your home for blessings and protection. May be mixed with oils and herbs for any number of spiritual baths, may be used to cleanse a room or space when combined with holy water.
Lemongrass –an essential ingredient for cleansing herb blends and bath mixes as well as communication blends. Used in road opening work. May be mixed with peppermint, sage, and kosher salt for an on-the-fly spiritual cleansing bath chock full of good herb magic mojo! Also, a key ingredient in Sacred Washes and Sprays.
Red Pepper — has a long history of use in herb magic and can banish unfriendly people from your life, “hot foot” unwanted visitors and in the cases of sweeter red peppers like Arbol chiles, a tiny pinch may be added to sluggish love affairs to get the object of your affection to respond/wake up!/contact you. If you are being visited by someone and you want them to leave sooner rather than later dust your broom with a bit of red pepper and sweep it out onto the path, they will use to enter your home, calling their name and stating that they need to keep their visit short.
Rosemary — encourages peace in the home, hang a few sprigs above the door tied with blue ribbon to foster a sense of serenity and tranquility. Combine in food with lavender, thyme, and garlic for peace and protection, add to charm bags for peace and gentleness, also aids memory and concentration.
Sage — Used for cleansing-this is sometimes referred to as Turkey sage-it’s not the white sage you find in smudge sticks, but it may be burned as a purification rite nonetheless. May be crushed and combined with Solomon Seal Root and Deerstongue leaf to inspire wisdom and eloquence in speech and speaking engagements.
Sugar — use to sweet people to you, combine with cinnamon for money, use to candy rose petals for love magic, create a lover come, lover stay body scrub by combining one cup sugar, half a cup olive oil (or almond oil if you have it), a handful of dried red or pink rose petals, lavender blossoms, and Cardamom pods-add one cinnamon stick to the jar and voila!
Vanilla Bean — fosters sweetness and home sweet home feelings. Stick in your sugar jar for peace and warmth in hearth and home, use in making truffles or ice cream for drawing and fostering love and romance. Another herb magic standby that I consider essential to always have.
OILS AND VINEGARS
Honey — though not specifically herb magic honey is a handy and common kitchen goody. Use in a honey jar to sweeten your romantic relationships, get the promotion, or make your in laws favor you.
Olive oil — may be used in place of any ritual anointing oil in a pinch, is the base for many hi altar or temple type oils, traditionally used to anoint a beloved’s foot after a foot washing ritual.
Vinegar (Red, White, Balsamic, Rice, etc) — great for baneful workings to break up people working against you-put them in a mason jar with vinegar, hot red peppers, and poppy seeds so that their conversations with each other become confused, inflammatory, and lead to break ups. Sour someone’s words or close the mouth of a gossip by taking a petition paper and placing it in a bottle with vinegar and alum.
Pantry and fridge
Flour — use to make bread for offerings at the altar, combine with other ingredients to make magically inspired cakes and biscuits, combine with salt and stamp with meaningful symbols to create a powerful ward against the evil eye that may be hung in the kitchen or home. Use arrowroot powder as a base for making your own sachet powders.
Butter — roll in herbs like Thyme, Lavender, and Rosemary for home sweet home vibes and serve at a family dinner. Reduce with garlic and a sliver of ginger and a pinch of red pepper and serve to a potential enemy so that you are protected, and they are banished.
Milk — set out as an offering to the faerie folk or as an offering to certain Spirits and Deities on the altar. You may also use milk as a vehicle through which personal concerns can be delivered when the milk is consumed by the target. In Conjure bathing with the milk from a black cow imbues one with special protective properties.
Herbs and Some of their uses~
- Basil – (Fire/Mars)
A herb long considered divine which lends itself very well to rites of cleansing, exorcism, and protection. It can be burned as incense, added to magical herbal sachets, made into an herbal tea for use as a floor wash or room spray, or added to a magical bath. Basil soothes people’s emotions and anxiety making it excellent for general house cleansing. In folklore where there is basil, no evil lives, but it is still not one of the strongest banishing herbs – if you need something more “serious” I’d recommend bay, cloves, garlic, or rosemary. As an added bonus for witches, basil is also associated with flying and can be added to concoctions or baths to aid in spirit flight.
- Bay – (Fire/Sun)
The Bay Laurel you put it in your soups and sauces but ancient Greek priestesses chewed the leaves to receive visions for supplicants at the temples of Apollo. The leaves of the bay laurel are excellent for concoctions for divination and the sight and are often burned or ingested to induce prophetic visions and dreams. Bay also has a long history of being used for purification, banishing, curse reversal, and protection from evil spirits and illness. Add dried bay leaves to holy water when sprinkling a space or object to purify it. Burn bay leaves to aid in curse reversals or the banishment of undesired spirits. For a bit of simple folk magic, write a wish on a dried bay leaf and then burn it hoping the gods and/or spirits will favor you.
- Cinnamon – (Fire/Sun)
Besides its passionate aphrodisiac associations with Aphrodite, cinnamon is also commonly used in folk magic for “heating up” spells — whether they be for love, money, success, or protection. To “heat up” a spell means to make it happen more quickly or more strongly. Cinnamon is found in the ancient holy anointing oil recipe from the Bible and in ancient Egyptian incense recipes from a complex Kyphi to a simple blend of cinnamon, frankincense, and myrrh.
In root work it is an ingredient in the popular “fiery wall of protection” blend as well as other cleansing and protective incenses but is most commonly used to bring good fortune and prosperity to a business. Burn cinnamon at your business and/or make a tea of it and pour it on your front step to bring in customers and their money. Try burning cinnamon in your home to quiet its energies or your children’s. And burn cinnamon with frankincense and myrrh to purify a person, object, or place of evil influences and attached spirits.
- Cloves – (Fire/Jupiter)
Cloves most people don’t use cloves except for a pinch in apple or pumpkin pie once or twice a year – what a waste of all the homemade chai you’re not drinking! Cloves are one of the strongest and best herbs you can burn for protection as the smoke will protect you psychically and physically whether from a deliberate attack or an unconscious evil eye directed at you. Any time you’re worried about a possible attack – burn powdered cloves. If you’re dealing with something really nasty, burn garlic skins and cloves together, due to their protective and cleansing qualities, it should come as no surprise that most Florida Water recipes contain cloves. If you suspect someone is gossiping about you behind your back, stud a candle with whole cloves and burn it down or simply burn more powdered cloves while stating your intent.
- Mint – (Air/Mercury)
Mint is uplifting, refreshing, invigorating, and delightful. There is nothing like the scent of fresh mint! It clears the mind and gives one energy. If you need a mental pick-me-up brew yourself some mint tea to drink or use it to rinse your hair after conditioning. Mint used for stimulating bringing activity and business making it another good herb for “heating up” spells and bringing prosperity. Slip some dried mint leaves in your wallet or cash register to attract money. Place fresh mint on your altar or working space to summon your spirits and double as a lovely offering for them in return for the magic you have planned.
Selling your house or business? Spray a mint hydrosol (or mint essential oil mixed with water) around the rooms or place some mint essential oil in an oil diffuser to attract a buyer. In root work, mint can also be used to protect from curses by stashing some leaves in your shoe or in a sachet you carry on your person. In folk magic, mint can be used to receive visions and enhance psychic abilities making it excellent for teas, smoking blends, incenses, or ritual baths meant to aid in divination, dream work, or visionary experiences.
- Pepper – (Fire/Mars)
Everyone has black pepper in their home, but most don’t think to use it for magic. Pepper is a very potent magical herb, but it is also one that can be used for good or evil depending on the will of practitioner. Belonging to Mars it is often used for martial magic – both for defensive and offensive spells. Use black pepper in protection sachets around your home or on your person when you think you are being attacked.
Mix salt and pepper together and sprinkle in a circle around your land to remove and protect from evil influences. Root workers believe this will also prevent unwanted people from trespassing on your land whether it’s your mother-in-law or a nasty witch who has it in for you. For an even stronger blend, make your own witch’s salt (aka black salt) with black pepper, salt, iron scrapings (from a cauldron or cast-iron pan) and charcoal. Pepper is most used in folk magic for cursing and can be found in various powders, candle spells, and other recipes for causing harm. You can put in your war water or your hot foot recipes for some extra fire power.
- Rosemary – (Fire/Sun)
Rosemary is a ritual herb par excellence used for just about every magical purpose under the sun including banishing, exorcism, healing, love, protection, and purification. Before our ancestors had exotic herbs and resins for incenses, they had rosemary and used it often. Rosemary can be burned instead of the standard frankincense to cleanse a space before ritual or spell work. Plus, who needs sage when you have rosemary? Plagued by evil spirits or the evil eye? Burn some rosemary, smudging yourself and your home. Burn it also for divination, to receive visions, or for spells of love, lust or healing.
Place sachets of dried rosemary around your house for protection and under your bed to ward off nightmares. Make a wash with rosemary to cleanse your hands before performing healing work or making herbal healing remedies. Stuff a poppet full of dried rosemary for a healing spell. Sprinkle rosemary water around a sick room to promote healing. Rosemary mixes very well with evergreen needles and resins as well as juniper berries for homemade multi-purpose incense which smells like a forest. Instead of more traditional floor washes, I like to use rosemary and lemon to cleanse my house. The moral of all this… use more rosemary!
- Thyme – (Water/Venus)
We put thyme in our soups, gravies, and on meat, but the ancient Greeks burned it to purify their sacred temples. We can modify this ancient use by burning thyme as cleansing incense before performing spells and rituals. Thyme is known to be an excellent healing herb and in folk magic it is worn, burned, or added to ritual baths for this purpose. Tuck a sprig of thyme or a sachet of dried thyme under your pillow or mattress for a restful, nightmare-free sleep and to receive prophetic dreams or visions. Thyme is found in a Scottish fairy ointment recipe from the 17th century, and it is also believed that if you wear fresh thyme you will be able to see fairies. For a gentle house cleansing ritual, dip sprigs of fresh thyme into holy water and flick them about all the corners of your house for purification and to add loving energies to your home.