Cooking Pot: Cauldron. The nice thing about this correspondence is
that, with a little effort, you can find full sets of cast iron
cookware.

For a broom, you may want to use a small whisk broom, or basting
brush. If you can wait until Halloween, you will be able to find
miniature besoms for sale in the craft stores and departments of
larger stores.

Cutting board: Altar tile. If you are skilled enough, or know someone
who is, you could have a pentacle carved or etched into a wooden
board. You could also put your creativity to work with paint and
paint a pentacle on a cutting board. How creative you get is up to
you.

Even though I have only listed a few, there may be other mundane
tools that you use in your magickal creations. If you use a tool
frequently enough in your magickal practice, find a place in the
altar for it, bless it and consecrate it. The kitchen is a place of
endless opportunities, and your altar, tools should reflect your
path, choices, and spirituality. Be creative and invite the Divine
into the heart of your home, the kitchen.

The term "Kitchen Witch" brings up many different images to people, but
the most common idea is that of a Witch who practices her art mainly
thru cooking and common household skills. Another image is that of one
who uses common everyday items in her art, drawing up memories of the
Burning Times, when it was necessary to hide your working tools from
those who would persecute you for their possession. While both of these
images are certainly true ones, Kitchen Witchery goes far beyond magical
cooking or using ordinary items as magical tools. One Kitchen Witch,
Mama Rose, defines Kitchen Witchery in the following way: "My
spirituality and my priestesshood and my magic are based around the
concept that my home is my temple, all in it are consecrated and holy,
and each action that I do is a portion of the ritual of my life."
It is my belief that the heart of Kitchen Witchery is a talent for
finding the sacred and magical in everyday tasks, a philosophy which
"practices the presence of the Goddess" in daily devotion through
ordinary actions. The Kitchen Witch makes the ordinary, extraordinary,
the mundane magickal and by doing so, acknowledges the presence of the
Divine in all things.
Sacred vs. Profane
One way in which Neo-Pagan religions differ in philosophy from the
Judeo/Christian/Moslem paradigm is in their recognition of the
sacredness in all things. The mainstream paradigm creates a
philosophical dichotomy between the Sacred and the Profane (i.e.
ordinary/mundane), that which is not "sacred" is, by definition
"profane". In Neo-Paganism, ALL things are sacred. No such dichotomy
exists.
The Kitchen Witch takes that philosophy to it's extreme logical
conclusion and finds ways to acknowledge the sacred within the mundane.
How this is done is a matter of personal artistic statement. Most are
familiar, of course, with the act of cooking magickally or setting up
household altars. But it doesn't stop there. Some Kitchen Witches may
clean magically, turning every act of cleaning into a psychic clearing
as well. Others may tend magical gardens, care for familiars or raise
their children within a magickal world. Kitchen Witchery can extend into
actions as mundane and simple as stirring one's coffee clockwise to
bless it or remembering to recycle as an act of daily devotion. Not to
say that being a Kitchen Witch is restricted to the home! Oh, no!
Kitchen Witchery can be practiced anywhere that a Kitchen Witch travels.
It can extend to her car, her work and her play, since it acknowledges
the divine all around us. Thus, keeping a magickal office can be as much
an act of Kitchen Witchery as cooking a magickal meal. Wherever the
Divine exists, a Kitchen Witch will find and acknowledge it. Practicing
the Presence of the Goddess
Barbara Ardinger, in her book A Woman's Book of Rituals and Celebrations
discusses the concept of "practicing the presence of the Goddess". She
describes this practice as a type of mysticism.' In her words;
"Mysticism is not a matter of doing anything special; it's a way of
life. It's recognizing that we're related to everone else, even those
who don't look like us or talk like us... Mysticism in the tradition of
the Goddess is living an ordinary life, not acting spacy or
sanctimonious or as if we were specially 'chosen'. It's making a living,
making car payments, disciplining our kids. It's doing regular things
but doing them in an attitude that some call mindfulness. This means
being aware of what we're doing, reflecting on our thoughts. It's living
with raised consciousness." [A Woman's book of Rituals and Celebrations,
pp. 20] I would expand on that to say that it is also changing your
everyday actions when your conscience requires that you do so.
Regardless of what type of personal artistic statement she uses, the
Kitchen Witch's goal is to reach this level of 'mindfulness'. To reach
the point where "As we live each day on earth, we become more aware each
day of the ways She is present in our lives." [Ibid, pp.
18] In leading a mindful life, the Kitchen Witch becomes sensitized to
the presence of the Goddess both within and without and interacts with
that presence.
Becoming More 'Mindful'.
The central core of Kitchen Witchery is learning to live consiously,
developing the 'mindfulness' that Dr. Ardinger and others refer to. As
Wiccans, we recognize the value of using symbols within ritual to create
an altered state of consiousness, but we often forget that the symbols