There may be berries aplenty, lush and juicy watermelon, perhaps citrus or tropical fruits, and, I’d venture to guess, at least a couple of stone fruits.

From the alluring dark blush of cherries to the nearly criminally delicious taste of a perfectly sun-ripened peach, summertime is awash with stone fruits in many parts of the world.

Those areas where stone fruits do not grow locally often import them in during the summer months – if not year-round. And many of us have access to various types of stone fruits in either fresh, frozen, juice, syrup, tinned, canned or otherwise preserved form regardless of the season.

During the sizzling hot days of summer, stone fruits are one of nature’s most delectably appealing culinary treasures.

Not only are they highly nutritious, relatively low in calories, and bursting with various vitamins and minerals (such as vitamins A and C), they’re magickal powerhouses as well!

I’ve spent what collectively amounts to a large chunk of my life living in different parts of British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley.

This arid, lake-filled corner of Western Canada is famous the world over for its fruit growing climate, which orchardists, farmers, and vintners have been availing of for well over a century now.

A wide array of fresh produce – and some truly spectacular wines – are grown and produced in this part of the world, with few being more beloved or abundant than the area’s stone fruits.

My childhood summers weren’t just chock-a-block with eating stone fruits, I also picked my fair share, helped my mom and paternal grandma can enough peaches and assorted stone fruit jams to feed a small army, and learned to appreciate both the culinary – and as I grew older – magickal properties of these wonderful fruits.

Depending on where you live in the world stone fruit season can start as early as May. In other spots, the growing season kicks off in June, July or even August, just depending on the particular type(s) of fruit at hand and the local climate.

In our area, June tends to start the season, which can run as far into the year as September.

It’s currently mid-July and multiple varieties of locally grown stone fruit are now readily available. Thus, today seemed like a great time to shine the witchy spotlight on these summertime staple fruits.

We’re going to be doing so by taking a look at 25 magickal ways to use summertime stone fruits in your witchcraft.

But first…

What are stone fruits?

No fruit produces an actual stone in the sense of a rock or pebble. In this instance, the word “stone” refers to the pit that grows inside of a piece of fruit.

Some of the most common stone fruits – and the ones that this post is going to focus on – are cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, and stone fruit hybrids such as plumcots, apriums, peacharines, and peacotums (each of which is created by successfully crossing two or more different stone fruits together).

These are not the only stone fruits out there, however. Others such as dates, mangos, lychees, and green almonds all fall under this header.

However, for the sake of this post, we’re going to focus on the stone fruits that are most associated with summer in North America and various other parts of the world.

And while not at the heart of this post either (seasonally applicable as they are), you might be fascinated to know that raspberries, blackberries, and mulberries are technically stone fruits, too.

They are classified as such because they are comprised of clusters of jewel-like drupelets, each of which has a tiny stone (seed/pit) inside of it. Pretty cool, no?

How to use stone fruits in witchcraft

As with a lot of different types of foods, the clear blue summer sky is the limit when it comes to ways to use stone fruits in your witchcraft.

Whether you intend to eat or work with the food magickally (or both), remember to properly wash and dry your stone fruit before using it.

You may wish to utilize a charged water when cleaning your stone fruit – just make sure it’s safe for human consumption if you plan to eat the fruit yourself or serve it others.

Look through your fruit and remove any that are clearly rotten, have been chomped on by wee critters, or which are oozing juices.

If stone fruits require ripening, do so in a warm, but not excessively hot, location, such as a kitchen table or counter. If they are already ripe and you wish to prolong their life a little bit, store them in the fridge or a very cool spot, such as a cold cellar.

When working with stone fruits – or food of any kind – try to be thankful for the edible blessing that is in your hands. You may wish to give thanks aloud or in your heart or mind, perhaps even saying a prayer of thanksgiving for this summertime bounty.

Stone fruits can be used magickally on their own or combined to create all manner of delicious dishes and magickal spells and workings.

Select fruits with harmonious or complementary properties or whose energies resonate with you and your intended purposes.

When preparing your stone fruit, mindfully think about the purpose it will be used for, the desired outcome you’re seeking to manifest, and what spiritual allies or forces, if applicable, you will be calling upon to aid you in your magickal workings.

I find stone fruit magick to be especially effective when carried out in direct summer sunlight (though have also found, that cherries have a fondness for the night and apricots delight in the early morning hours).

This is certainly not essential though. Just an additional way to imbue your workings with summertime energy and correspondence, if and when such is possible.

While this is also not mandatory, you may wish to have a designated cutting board and knife, and possibly a vegetable peeler, too, that you use specifically for food that you’ll be using in a witchy capacity.

By only using these kitchen tools for magickal workings, you will direct and concentrate your own personal energy, as well as that of the foods that come in contact with them, into these items.

Think of this concept a bit like the way a cast-iron skillet that has been expertly seasoned and maintained is able to perform at its best each time, so long as the person using it knows what they’re doing and takes care to maintain the integrity of that skillet.

Magickal properties of summer stone fruits

The following is a list of some of the magickal properties and correspondences that are ascribed to the most common types of summertime stone fruits.

They will apply regardless of if a given fruit is eaten/used in its fresh, frozen, canned, etc form. That said, if you’re able to procure fresh stone fruit when it is in season, all the better and more charged with the energy of the present growing season it will be.

–Apricots: Warmth, soothing anxiety, hopefulness, peace, sunshine, healing, positive health, well-being, longevity, beauty, elegance, love, positivity, carefreeness, beauty, travel, relaxation, wisdom, learning, morning and afternoon, and sunshine.

–Cherries: Divination, love, sex, fertility, youth, sweetness, femininity, emotions, water, air, spirituality, blood, friendship, dreams, beauty, healing, relationships,

In addition, black cherries are particularly tied to repelling negativity, banishing, protection, strength, masculinity, dark moon magick, death and the afterlife.

And sour cherries are beneficial when you wish to focus on riding negativity or gossip, hexes, ending relationships, and aligning order or fairness (balancing sweet and sour).

–Nectarines: Stability, strength, love, warmth, sweetness, hope, moving and new homes, heightening psychic abilities, sunshine, positivity, memories, dreams, and nurturing.

–Peaches: Joy, sweetness, fun, creativity, wisdom, femininity, fertility, longevity, protection, warding, banishing, finding missing or lost items, banishing, motivation, personal expression, ancestry, summer, afternoon and early evening.

(New World Witchery has a wonderfully informative post packed with peach folklore, which you may also enjoy.)

–Plums: Dreams, sleep, love, lust, prosperity, transition, resilience, beauty, writing, art, regality, grace, sophistication, dusk and evening.

–Hybrids, such as pluouts/plumcots and apriums, will generally embody the magickal properties of each fruit that contributed to their genetic makeup. The higher the percentage of a given fruit in the hybrid, the more it stands to channel the properties and correspondences of that fruit.

25 magickal uses for stone fruits

Stone fruits are one of summer’s greatest and most versatile offerings.

They’re an excellent way to inject kitchen and cottage witchery into your sunny weather workings, but are equally open to a wide array of magickal purposes.

Without further ado, here are twenty-five wonderful ways to use stone fruits in your witchcraft.

1. Create a jam spell by making homemade jam (canned, fresh, or freezer) with the stone fruit or fruits of your choice. Mindfully stir your intentions into the jam, set them with the gelling action of the jam, and use the end product for sweetness, abundance, positivity, and a wide range of other magickal purposes.

2. Whip up a magickal fruit salad, sunny sangria, or another dish that includes two or more stone fruits. Enjoy it in the summer sun, indoors or out, eating mindfully and allowing each bite to deliver both physical and spiritual nourishment to your body this season.

3. Use dried flowers, leaves, stems, pits, and (ethically sourced) bark from trees in spells, spell and mojo bags, spell bottles, potpourri mixes, elixirs, offerings, altar decorations, and so forth.

4. Place leaves (or the fruits themselves, though they may attract unwanted insect and animal visitors) around your property for protection, calling on the spirits of the trees they came from to help guard your home.

5. (Carefully!) carve sigils, runes signs, planetary or astrological signs, or other magickal symbols into pits and stones. This is generally best (and more easily) done when the pit or stone has been allowed to dry out first.

6. Work with a wand made from the wood of one of these trees (handmade or made by a source that you trust).

7. Essential oils in the flavours and scents of these fruits can be utilized in a plethora of different ways. Use them as is, as part of spell jars or pillows, to anoint candles, to draw signs and sigils on suitable materials, to aid in sleep and relaxation, as part of ritual baths and showers, and worn on the body, to name but a few possible uses.

8. Use cherry juice in place of blood (and cheery flesh instead of meat or animal flesh) in rituals, spells, offerings and other magickal workings where blood (or meat) may be called for or needed.

This is an ideal substation for those who follow vegetarian, vegan and plant-based diets or who may otherwise prefer not to work with animal products in their witchcraft.

9. Make besoms or other types/sizes of brooms with small branches from stone fruit trees. Bless and concrete your besom or broom with juice from the type of fruit that the tree(s) you sourced your branches from produces.

If you can gather the branches and fruit on a sabbat, such as Beltane, Litha or Lammas, or under the light of a full moon, it may be all the more magickally charged, but this is by no means essential to create a highly effective besom or broom.

You can also extend this DIY witchy tool making method to other types of fruits, nuts, olives, and some very woody herbs that grow on trees or bushes with suitable branches.

It is wise to ask for and receive permission (your own inner voice will usually let you know what the answer is) from the tree before taking anything from a plant/tree/flower/similar, give direct thanks to the plant, and leave an offering or say a blessing aloud for its health and longevity.

10. Cast worries away by focusing one concern per stone or pit and flinging it away from your body into a running body of water (ensure that doing so will not hurt the natural ecosystem of the river or creek you’re working with).

11. Research if the deity(ies) you currently work with have any known connections to stone fruits or the months when they’re most commonly in season. If so, consider leaving an offering of this fruit or otherwise including it in some of the workings you do with this deity.

Cherries, for example, are linked to such gods and goddesses as Artemis, Mars, Herne, (the) Morrigan, Thor, Vertumnus, and Pan. Whereas peaches are connected to such deities as Hathor, Freya, Venus, and Aphrodite, to name but a few.

12. Peach sticks have a longstanding tradition, particularly in traditional American folk magick, of being used as dowsing rods. If dowsing appeals to you and you have access to a peach tree from which a suitable branch can safely be removed, why not give it a go and see where a bit of peach wood dowsing leads you?

13. Split a suitable sized stone fruit partially open, carefully remove the pit, and place a written spell or intention inside of it. Close the fruit over the paper and bury the fruit, thus allow the mighty earth below to help bring your desired outcome into being. This type of stone fruit working lends itself especially nicely to spells pertaining to success, prosperity and the desire to have something blossom abundantly in your life.

14. Gather stone fruit by hand yourself. Research local stone fruit growers in your area and see if any of them allow the public to come and pick their own fruit.

Alternatively, harvest fruit from your own garden, or with permission, from a neighbour, friend, or relative’s yard. Or, if you’re extra lucky and have edible varieties of stone fruit growing wild in your area, forge some when it is in season.

By directly picking, handling, and bringing home the fruit yourself, you are preserving even more of the source-to-working (or simply eating) energy and magick that is inherent in the fruit tree itself.

15. Work with cherries in your spells or other magickal purposes on Fridays. The last day before the weekend is connected with Venus, as are cherries, so you get double the energy and connection one of earth’s nearest planetary neighbours.

16. Dried peach pits can be carved and/or drilled to create a hole and then strung on a cord, chain, or suitable jump ring and used a protective amulet if you’re in need of some extra safety when it comes to your well being, health, or state of mind.

You could also create several such peach pits and make a belt or sash, a pair of anklets, earrings, hair accessories (glue them to a barrette or place one pit on the each end of a pair or hair sticks, for example), or embellishments for a hand drum.

17. Stone fruits have long been associated with love, lust, passion, and sex, and therefore are considered to have aphrodisiacal properties. One has only to look at the sloping curves and mounds of a ripe peach, nectarine or plum to see why this is the case!

If you’re in need of some extra oomph or wish to spice things up in this area of your life, work with stone fruit spells and enjoy a hearty helping of them with your special someone to help get your own juices flowing all the more. (Always bearing in mind the importance of not interfering with another person’s free will.)

18. Use stone fruit juice – darker varieties such as cherries tend to work best, though peaches and other paler hued fruits can be used as well – to dye fabric for use in magickal applications, such as spell and amulet bags, spell pillows and sachets, altar clothes (how fabulous would a stone fruit dyed altar cloth be for Litha or Lammas?), to line forging or gardening baskets, to make tarot or oracle deck bags, for sabbat table linens, or any other suitable purpose you think of.

You’ll most likely want to ensure the colourfastness of your hand dyed fabric by setting it with a natural fixative, such as a vinegar or salt fixative.

Once dried, and colourfastness has been established, use your naturally dyed fabric for the purposes mentioned above or scores of others, from poppet making to sewing magick.

19. Utilize stone fruit tree wood or leaves in summertime bonfires, particularly those held on sabbats and esbats. If you can’t obtain suitably dry stone fruit tree wood or branches, use leaves instead. If leaves aren’t possible, consider adding a few pieces of the actual fruit or fruit peels to your summertime blaze.

20. Use stone fruit to help you connect with the Elements during the summer months. While many stone fruits are primarily associated with water and earth, they are also directly linked to the air (in which they grow, that blows through their leaves, etc) and fire via the roasty-toasty summer sunshine that facilitates their growth and ripening.

21. Cherry wood is said to have many wonderful properties and magickal uses. These include such things as helping one to focus and stabilize, deepening intuition, helping with (or being used in) divination, working with the animal kingdom, unifying couples or groups, for protection and shielding, and when working with the planet Venus.

As well, cherry wood magickal tools such as wands (or can be handmade), altar tables and tarot card boxes are available for sale from various online and offline sources.

22. Obtain enough of one or more types of stone fruits to use some fresh as part of a spell and then to make homemade fruit leather with the remaining fruit.

Charge the fruit leather with the intention and desired outcome of the spell and eat it a piece of it on a regular (e.g., daily or weekly) basis to help strengthen and manifest your working.

23. Utilize summertime stone fruits in colour magick. The beautiful hues of peaches, cherries, apricots, plums, nectarines and stone fruit hybrids makes them ideal food sources to use in color magick workings. The leaves, bark, branches, and blossoms (both fresh and dried) of stone fruit trees can be used in colour magick as well.

24. On Litha or Lammas, make pancakes to represent the glowing, life-giving and harvest facilitating sunshine of summer. Top them with the stone fruit, jam, preserved or fresh stone fruit of your choice.

Pancakes are also excellent representations for the full moon at esbats and can be used in the same way for these special, highly spiritually charged days as well.

25. Use cherry juice to write magickal spells. Cherry juice use can be used instead of dragon’s blood ink, actual blood (as discussed above), and most dark inks.

Cherry juice starts off paler than many actual red and black inks, fades to an even lighter shade over time, and may not be as archivally long-lasting as some other inks.

However, it is a wonderful material to utilize in written spells, incantations, journal entries, and when writing love letters where a red or brown ink, or an ink derived straight from nature, is the order of the day.

Turn to cherry juice ink for love, sex, fertility, stamina, strength, divination, grief, healing, death, and afterlife related spellwork in particular.

Stone fruits for kitchen witchery and much more!

The magickal uses for peaches, cherries, apricots, nectarines, plums and the like are abundant. I find these fruits to be wonderfully enjoyable to work with. Most tend to have a sunny disposition and energy, borne of the season that helped bring them to maturity.

In addition to the many possible ways to use stone fruits that we just discussed, you may wish to gather a small amount of dirt from around the base of stone fruit trees.

Use this earth in spells and other workings involving dirt for which the magickal properties of the tree(s) that grew in the soil you collected would be beneficial to your desired outcome.

Likewise – though it may take some patience – gathering dew or rainwater from the leaves of fruit trees is also a great form of charmed/magickally imbued water. A quicker approach is to place a bucket or other waterproof receptacle under the branches of a stone fruit tree and gather the water that runs through the leaves.

You can also utilize stone fruit scented products such as candles and incense – all the better if they contain at least a small amount of some portion (for example, the juice or dried fruit) of the actual fruit itself, not merely a synthetic version.

And, if you’re looking for a longer-lasting version of stone fruits to use as part of your magickal workings, consider those rendered in everything from crochet to ceramic, crystal to beadwork. These kinds of fruit shaped items can be awesome additions to altars, sabbat table décor, as a stand-in for the real deal in some types of spells and rituals, and many other uses.

If you have a chance to work some stone fruit magick this summer, I highly encourage you to give it go and hope that the results you achieve will be as sweet and wonderful as the taste of these delectable warm weather treats themselves.

The post 25 magickal ways to use summertime stone fruits appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Historically, Beltane has often marked the start of the light half of the year, which is characterized by such things as abundant sunlight, warmth, and a wide variety of fresh crops.

This light-filled half will conclude, from a sabbat standpoint, with Samhain at the end of October, from which point onward the world will experience the darker half of the year. Until, in a dance that has played out since time immemorial, the cycle begins anew once more the following Beltane.

For those north of the equator (south of this point, the seasons – and, optionally, Wheel of the Year – are experienced in reverse order to those in the northern hemisphere), May and June are often a gloriously lovely time.

All of nature has come out of hibernation, the sky rivals tropical seas with the depth of its azure tones, the grass is verdant, lush and inviting to our sandal clad feet, and some of the most delicious fresh food of the entire year is once again in season.

This year, however, while all of those same things still ring true, the Covid-19 pandemic and continued need to remain in self-isolation, coupled with global food chain and supply shortages of certain products means that popping down to the nearest grocery store or farmer’s market for fresh produce may not be possible at present

Even if our local supermarkets are open, there’s no guarantee that the items we’re after will be on their shelves. Nor that we’ll be in a position – be it due to health, finances, or safety – to reach the stores nearest to us in the first place.

I’m a huge proponent of eating fresh, shopping locally, and (if feasible and so desired) growing some of your own food.

Tough times alter our lives, however. The types and availability of food that we presently have available to us is currently one of the ways in which many people are experiencing the impacts of this devastating global pandemic.

In today’s post, we are going to explore some of the foods that are closely associated with Beltane coupled with ways to make the most of those foods in store cupboard form, as that is what an ever-increasing number of us are working with for our daily menus and sabbat meals alike.

What foods are traditionally associated with Beltane?

Beltane is the Celtic May Day festival whose roots stretch far back in history, to a time of a primarily agrarian-based society the predated the industrial revolutions by hundreds upon hundreds of years.

It is one of the four traditional Celtic/Gaelic festivals that helped to delineate the seasons for these early people (the others were Samhain, Imbolc, and Lughnasadh/Lammas, respectively).

Beltane was heavily associated with the start of the summer pastoral season, fresh produce, and energy filled life, plus fiery passion, and was seen to be a time when – much as at Samhain – the veil between the worlds thinned.

The ancient Celts were certainly not the only culture to celebrate, honour and/or worship the start of May, but it is largely through their observance of this annual happening that we’ve derived much of our 21^st century interpretation of Beltane. Influences from other early European cultures, including the Norse and the Germanic peoples can be felt as well.

As this springtime sabbat is typically observed on, or right around, May 1^st, the foods that have traditionally been associated with Beltane tend to be those that are at are in season at that point in the spring.

These include, but are not limited to, the following:

-Asparagus

-Artichokes

-Baby/new potatoes

-Bannock

-Blueberries

-Carrots

-Celery

-Dairy products (vegetarians, vegans, and those who do not otherwise consume animal milk products can easily swap in dairy alternatives instead)

-Garlic (as well as wild garlic)

-Green beans

-Green peas

-Edible springtime flowers such as honeysuckle, lilacs, jasmine, roses, and violets

*IMPORTANT NOTE* Only Jasminum officinale is edible. All other jasmine species, including “false jasmine” are poisonous. Please see this page on edible flowers for more details.

-Honey

-Leeks

-Lemons

-Lettuce

-May Wine (alcoholic or non-alcoholic versions; here is a lovely May Wine recipe that you may enjoy)

-Oatcakes

-Radishes

-Ramps (a species of wild onions)

-Roses (and rose water)

-Rhubarb (in some areas, in others it may be ready later in the summer)

-Scones

-Spinach

-Spring onions

-Strawberries

-Swiss chard

-Various herbs such as chives, dill, lavender, lemon balm, rosemary, tarragon, and thyme

-Watercress

Importantly, it should be noted that the ancients did not have had access to all of these foods at the same time and in the same place. (Ye olde Whole Foods Market was definitely not a thing yet! )

However, chances are that of those they were able to harvest or otherwise obtain (such as through trading), they would likely have included a variety of these healthy offerings into their diet during the spring and early summer months.

Some of the above listed foods are going to be explored in further detail below, complete with their respective magickal correspondences.

Are fresh foods a better choice for Beltane?

While you might prefer the taste or texture of fresh versions of certain foods, from a magickal standpoint, I do not personally believe that canned, tinned, frozen, dehydrated, or otherwise non-perishable forms of food are automatically less effective, magickal, or meaningful (especially if little to no preservatives or artificial ingredients have been added to them).

You can impart, bless, charge, or otherwise imbue anything that you eat or work with in your practice with the energy and intent of your choosing.

Doing so should help to ensure that foods with far off expiration dates are just as useful and beneficial in your workings (and daily meals) as those that were just plucked from the field or tree.

Objectively, while some foods are seen as being fairly common non-perishable pantry or store cupboard staples, I have no way of knowing what you have on hand and/or may readily have access to at present.

I encourage you to keep in mind as you continue reading from this point onward, that this is not a checklist. It is totally okay if you do not currently have some or even all of these different foods at your house.

Necessity is the mother of invention and of substitution. As lovely as it is to try and eat foods that are traditionally in season – or otherwise plentifully available – at the time of each of the sabbats, if that isn’t feasible for you, please try not to worry about it.

As an alternative, you could aim instead to focus more on the colour of your food. For example, luscious greens and sunny yellows, pretty reds and elegant purples to mirror and correspond to the hues that we see in abundant in the natural world during the month of May.

As well, for the purpose of keeping things concise, I have used the terms “pantry” and “store cupboard” quite liberally here, extending them to cover various foods that you may have in canned, tinned, packaged, frozen or otherwise non-perishable form.

Naturally, if you currently have ready access to the fresh versions of these foods and wish to enjoy them during the Beltane season, by all means do so.

That said, we witchy folk are nothing if not resourceful and know that making the best of what we have at our disposal right now is one of the keys to a happier, more content, and abundantly blessed life and magickal practice alike – so reach for those store cupboard staples!

15 foods for Beltane and their magickal correspondences

1. Asparagus: Magickal properties for asparagus pertain in no small part to lust, sex, power, and fertility – making it one of the most well-suited foods to tuck into at Beltane. In addition, asparagus is linked magickally to cleansing, purifying, healing, water magick, money magick, fortitude, keeping a calm head, standing up for yourself and others, boldness, and masculine energy.

Common non-perishable forms of asparagus include frozen, pickled, and canned/tinned.

2. Artichokes: Magickal properties for artichokes tend to gravitate heavily towards matters of shielding and protection, as well as areas of personal growth, getting to the heart of the matter, letting your inner desires shine or manifest, exposing the truth, boldness, honesty, caring for others, and love of all sorts.

Common non-perishable forms of artichokes include frozen, pickled, and canned/tinned.

3. Blueberries: Magickal properties for blueberries abound – much like the healthy properties of these powerhouse fruits. Turn to blueberry magick for protection (including of pets and other animals, as well as houses and property protection), the moon, feminine energy, health, healing, restoration, aura cleansing and strengthening, divination, faeries, sweetness, vitality, completion (of projects, goals, tasks, etc), shielding and protecting from energy vampires and psychic attacks, and optimism.

Common non-perishable forms of blueberries include frozen, dehydrated, powdered, freeze-dried, syrups, jams, jellies, preserves, and canned/tinned.

4. Carrots: Magickal properties for carrots – by far one of the most iconic and beloved of springtime vegetables – include such things as grounding, healing, protection, desire, sexuality, fertility, seeing things for what they truly are, planting seeds of your desires, positivity and fun, sweetness, healing, opening your third eye, dreams, visions, youthfulness, and playfulness.

Common non-perishable forms of carrots include frozen, dehydrated, freeze-dried, jams, preserved in sweet syrups, relishes, pickled, and canned/tinned.

5. Celery: Magickal properties for celery include those that can help with a number of important areas of our lives, including mental clarity, releasing, banishing, concentration, psychic awareness and gifts, soothing, helping to pass or speed along unwanted situations, serenity, calming, weight related matters, balance and harmony, unearthing the truth, and (much like asparagus) water workings and rituals.

Common non-perishable forms of celery include frozen, dehydrated, celery salt, celery seeds, and canned/tinned.

6. Garlic: Magickal properties for garlic, one of the world’s most frequently used and adored culinary ingredients, are quite abundant and pertain to matters such as protection, luck, distancing yourself from unwanted energies and individuals, health, personal growth, masculinity, strength inclusion in witch jars, spell jars, mojo bags, and poppets; home protection, cleansing, purification, ancestor work, spell breaking, hex and curse breaking, working at the crossroads, and nighttime magick.

Common non-perishable forms of garlic include minced and crushed forms of garlic sold in jars, frozen, freeze dried, garlic salt, garlic powder, garlic paste, pickled, and canned/tinned.

7. Green Beans: Magickal properties for green beans are plentiful – much like the culinary applications for perineal springtime vegetables. Matters of divination, money, creativity, new starts, standing tall (standing up for yourself), insight, wisdom, communication, clarity, personal space, getting out of ruts, hopefulness, creativity, garden and the fae are some of the key areas where green beans can help your magickal spells and other witchy workings. (Note, these magickal properties apply to yellow wax beans as well.)

Common non-perishable forms of green beans include frozen, freeze-dried, pickled, and canned/tinned.

8. Green Peas: Magickal properties for green peas (including sugar snap peas) share points in common with those of green beans, as well as some of their own special strengths. Turn to green pea magick when you want to focus on areas relating to new growth, love, traditions, family matters, ancestor work, history, gardening, environmental protection, Gaia, strength, grounding, acceptance, serenity, and money matters.

Common non-perishable forms of green peas include frozen, freeze-dried, canned/tinned, and green pea snack crisps.

9. Honey: Magickal properties for honey flow as abundantly and beautifully as this ancient, much adored culinary treasure. Work with honey in your spells, rituals, offerings and other magickal activities that pertain to love, happiness, peace, serenity, creativity, femininity, fertility, healing, self care, vital energy, binding, friendships, reaching amicable outcomes, traditions, family, celebrating both life and death (including as an offering at cemeteries, launching new project and businesses, sweetness, kindness, romance, longevity, the sun, in hoodoo honey jars, and as an offering to a wide array of gods, goddesses, and spirit allies.

Most forms of honey, assuming they are properly stored are inherently long-lasting. If needed, honey can be frozen and thawed for later use (or used straight from its frozen form in some types of recipes).

10. Lemons: Magickal properties for lemons are generally upbeat and sunny, reminding one of the vibrant hue of this beloved citrus fruit. Make lemons your magickal main squeeze when you want to focus on spells, rituals, offerings and other witchy workings pertaining to awareness, spirituality, clarity, purification, cleansing, rejuvenation, happiness, compassion, prosperity, warm and friendly relationships, friendship, femininity, fertility, children, auras, lightness of being, dreams, breaking negative ties, optimism, and the moon. (And, my fellow Cancers may enjoy knowing that lemons are closely associated with our astrological sign, much as it is with that of Pisces.)

Common non-perishable forms of lemons include frozen, freeze-dried, dehydrated, preserved, dried lemon peel, lemon extract, lemon juice, lemon concentrate, lemon pepper, jams, marmalades, and candied lemon peel.

11. Oats: Magickal properties for oats stretch far back into the past and oats remain one of the most versatile and useful magickal ingredients you can keep in your kitchen or witchy ingredient cabinet to this day. Use oats in your magickal workings when you’re focusing on areas of happiness, health, tradition, stability, fertility, ancestor work, family matters, fortitude, endurance, persistence, personal change, meditation, house and home, beauty, friendship, faithfulness, good luck, stick-to-itiveness, comfort, healing, respect, spiritual growth, venturing out into the world, education, employment, and achieving balance in your life.

Most varieties of oats, assuming they are properly stored are inherently long-lasting. Some of the most common forms of oats include oatmeal, quick cooking oats, old-fashioned oats, rolled oats, steel-cut oats, oat flour, oatbreads, oatcakes, oat crackers, oat based breakfast cereals, granola, musali, granola bars, British flapjacks, oatmeal cookies, and oat milk.

12. Rosemary: Magickal properties for rosemary abound and this beautiful herb is one that should have a standing spot in both your magickal workings and your kitchen. Use rosemary when you’re focusing on areas pertaining to love, attraction, spicing up your life, the solar plexus, dream work, warding off nightmares, memories, loyalty, sleep, strength, kitchen witchery, home blessings and protection, family, jealousy, bonding, purification, divination, protection from the evil eye, cleaning your space, offerings, the dead, hedge riding, spirits, ancient history, creativity, strengthening relationships, rejuvenation, bathing, and the element of air.

Common non-perishable forms of rosemary include dried, frozen, rosemary paste, rosemary-infused oils, and rosemary salt.

13. Spinach: Magickal properties for spinach are strong and ample (much like the delicious culinary possibilities when cooking with spinach). Tap into the green goodness of spinach when you wish to focus your magickal workings on areas of personal growth, money, fertility, passion, strength, determination, shielding, charging, the forest (and nature in general), travel, transportation, ley lines, astral projection, or the planet Jupiter.

Common non-perishable forms of spinach include frozen, canned/tinned, and dehydrated.

14. Strawberries: Magickal properties for strawberries are generally sweet, upbeat and highly welcome – much like this sunny weather culinary staple. Turn to strawberries in your magickal workings when you’re centering your attention on romance, love, pregnancy, family, youth, beauty, femininity, positivity, hope, truthfulness, creativity, warmth, friendship, overcoming hardships, dedication, success, stamina, reliability, giving, spiritual detoxification and cleansing, good luck, or the goddess Venus.  

Common non-perishable forms of strawberries include frozen, dehydrated, freeze-dried, powdered, syrups, jams, jellies, preserves, and canned/tinned.

15. Thyme: Magickal properties for thyme include those pertaining to purifying, cleansing, releasing and banishing negativity, happiness, personal style, prosperity, sweetness, hope, stability, tradition, balance, personal freedom, boldness, positive outlooks, letting go, compassion, reaching peaceful agreements, easing anxiety and nervousness, grief, trauma processing, releasing negativity, the fae, forest spirits, history, ancestors work, finding lost items, house hunting, financial matters, longevity, creativity, performing arts, writing, and honoring the dead.

Common non-perishable forms of thyme include dried, frozen, thyme paste, thyme-infused oils, and thyme salt.

As discussed earlier in this post, it is useful to remember that the magickal properties of each of the above listed foods apply whether a given food is fresh or preserved in some manner.

I aimed to include foods in this list that are, under normal (aka, pre-Coronavirus) circumstances, relatively readily available in many parts of the world in at least one non-perishable form, such as canned, tinned, frozen or dried.

Thus making them more likely to be a store cupboard (or freezer, spice rack, etc) item that you already have in your home or which you may be able to purchase – depending on what the shops or online sources for groceries (and magickal ingredients) in your area still have in stock at the moment.

Ways to work with food at Beltane

If you’re wondering how to work with food at Beltane, you’ve come to the right place!

The following are some lovely and meaningful ways to involve springtime foods in your Beltane celebrations, rituals and magickal workings.

Before hopping into this list, I need to preface it by making an important point. If you – or anyone in your household/family – need every last bite of food at present, please do not sacrifice even so much as a single blueberry or crumb of oatcake for purposes that do not involve human or pet consumption of said food.

It is a wonderful thing to celebrate the sabbats with food-related activities and festive meals, but we are currently living through some exceptionally different and difficult times and survival must always come first.

So with that important point established, let’s continue on and explore a number of different ways to perform Beltane kitchen witchery and otherwise work with food at Beltane in a magickal context.

–Place offerings of food on your altar or in another spot in your house (or yard) for whatever spirit allies, deities, elementals, angels, or other entities you presently work with.

–Hold a dumb supper. While most commonly associated in a modern Pagan sense with Samhain, the act of holding a silent – or “dumb” – supper in order to honour the departed is a poignant act that is inherently at home come Beltane as well.

This is especially true since Beltane and Samhain are exactly opposite each other on the Wheel of the Year and both are liminal times when the veil between the worlds grows thinner. If you’d like to learn more about Dumb Suppers, I suggest checking out this guest post I wrote on the subject back in 2018.

-Whip up some delicious Beltane recipes and have an early morning feast to welcome the rising sun on Beltane morn (or later in the day as a fun and festive May Day brunch.

-Make a batch of beautiful Beltane cupcakes or a charmingly lovely May Pole Cake, both of which honour the centuries old tradition of dancing around a maypole at the start of May.

–Anoint candles with dried or fresh herbs or flower petals (ensure that anything you burn is safe to be inhaled by humans and any animal friends who live with you).

–Mix dried or fresh herbs with salt (white, black, pink, etc – depending on what you’re aiming to accomplish or manifest) and use it to cleanse, bless, protect, or banish unwanted elements or energies from your house, by sprinkling the herbed salt mixture in various areas inside or out of your home (again, make sure any ingredients you use are safe for pets and humans – especially if you live with children).

–Create healthy, all-natural treats for your beloved pets using some of the same store cupboard ingredients that you may be tucking into this Beltane. For example, these 4-Ingredient Dog Treats that star blueberries and whole wheat flour or these inviting looking Carrot and Catnip Kitty Treats.

-Make a loaf of bread, cake, batch of cookies, tray of brownies, or another recipe that includes two or more of the Beltane foods listed in this post for extra seasonal potency.

For example, what about a carrot, thyme and lemon cake? Why not a vegan pot pie with green peas, spinach, leeks and assorted herbs? Or why not a delicious overnight oatmeal loaded with strawberries and blueberries, plus rosemary or lavender, if you have some to hand.

–Connecting all the more with the fae is one of the key elements of Beltane for some folks, myself included. Why not bake classic oatcakes, scones, Fried Honey Cakes, or Elderflower Fritters to leave as an offering for those faeries who inhabit your immediate environment.

-If you have access to pesticide-free edible flowers that are safe for human consumption, consider creating a gorgeous flower-infused honey that celebrates two of spring’s most meaningful (and delicious elements).

This Rose Honey recipe does the trick superbly (and would also make for a wonderful drizzle atop a wide range of Beltane baked goods, from muffins to cakes to berry crisps, crumbles, and buckles).

-If you’re imbibing this Beltane or otherwise utilizing alcohol in your workings, rituals or offerings, consider adding some delectable spring fruits – such as strawberries and blueberries or, if you can get them, early season or frozen peaches – to the wine or your choice for a delectable Beltane sangria.

–Start a book of your favourite sabbat recipes or magickal recipes, including those for Beltane, and add to it each time you hit upon a dish that’s a winner. Alternatively, jot down your sabbat recipes in your grimoire, book of shadows, or another existing book in which you record information pertaining to your path.

Creating our own light during the darkest of times

Beltane is a time to actively embrace, honour and celebrate the sunshine generated light that has returned to our world.

To this end, bonfires have long been a traditional part of many Mayday festivities and rituals. They are not the only way to let the light shine all the more brightly in our lives, however.

Things are not just tough, they’re out and out brutal for the planet as a whole right now.

At Beltane, I encourage you to look for safe, meaningful ways that you transmit energy, positivity and hope out into the world.

Ensure that you focus on your own well being, while also remembering that of others and the countless ways that we are each doing our best to stay afloat, keep our worlds intact as best we can, and remain alive during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition to working with seasonal foods and kitchen witchery in general, ask yourself what are some things you could do right now to brighten your days or those of others?

Much as there is a limitless amount of energy in the universe, so too do we have a profound amount of both inner energy and light that resides within ourselves.

This Beltane, tap into and honour that light.

Let it shine, allow it to help you process and cope with the current state that the world is in, and permit it to guide you onward through the remaining months of 2020 that lay beyond May 1^st.

With all my might, I wish you a safe, sacred, beautiful, and blessed Beltane.

The post 15 excellent pantry staple foods for Beltane and their magickal properties appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.