The zen of kitchen witching or: People have souls in the morning, too.

I can’t seem to focus on anything internet-related for more than ten minutes for the last few weeks. I think it’s the weather – it really wants me to be outside, admiring the leaves. Unfortunately, I live in the city, and there’s no real opportunity.

I’d been thinking about kitchen witchery all summer though, and these weeks have been a phenomenal impetus to start practicing it. I know the theory, that you can bring your practice into anything and everything sustenance-related, but I just can’t feel it in the stir-fry. For me, kitchen witchery always means baking, and that’s hard to justify when the weather is hot.

There’s another problem we face too, that I don’t think most “cooks” have, but I think a lot of people who would like to cook do. Namely, my kitchen looks like this:

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That’s the whole thing. You can fit one person and a cat, generally, and washing dishes while simultaneously using the counter for chopping is akin to a block puzzle. It’s roughly 2’ by 5’, generously.

So, heat and space are both practical obstacles. Still, I managed a day of pride last week. The following things were produced:

Egg Muffins: They freeze well, and are mini omelettes. These have jalepenos that I grew in my ghetto bucket garden. I am inordinately proud of said garden, and glad I managed to cook with at least some of it.

Banana Cardamom Muffins: Also freeze well, but I don't have the excuse of providing for anyone but myself - I use whatever bananas I forget at work over the weekend, and I'm the only one that eats them.

Bread! Real, honest-to-Goddess, yeast-risen bread. I know for some of you homesteaders, this is pretty basic, but....I made bread! And it worked! This will be amazing to me whenever it happens.

So, in conclusion, it can be done. Most of this is for reheating for breakfast, or toasting for breakfast, at work for the next weeks. I find breakfast to be the most challenging meal, in terms of remembering that I, and everyone else, is a real person who deserves sustenance. Habits in the past have been drinking a pot of coffee, and telling everyone to f* off.

I'm still drinking a pot of coffee, but I'm at least slightly more personable when I eat food. This is a spiritual win, or at least it feels like progress.

Lunch is next. I'm not really sure what to do, but I'll work on it. Dinner will be the biggest challenge....because Taun-taun cooks it at least 75% of the time, and it's really hard to not be lazy when I know he'll feed me. I'm much better at cooking something to freeze, and letting that be the meal the other 25%.

Blessed Be!
Pennanti

Pagan Artist: Kellee Maize

Kellee Maize is a pagan hip-hop artist. I love the genre shift – as mentioned, I don’t always trend towards folksy guitar stylings, so I’m predisposed to pagan artists who break that mold. Her music relates to club and dance genres with the beats and actual music, while the lyrics wouldn’t be out of place at any pagan festival.

The music is electronic, for the most part (I love my beepy sounds), with chimes and hand claps and more standard instruments buried in among the synth. It’s very catchy, and easy to bop along to, which is another good point. It does start to sound the same when you listen to too much of it at once, but when thrown in with other pagan mixes, it’s a refreshing breather. I love, love, love dance music, so it’s hard for me to get tired of it. Kellee Maize seems to find the same spiritual elements in dancing – even in clubs – that I do, and I really connect through that where I have trouble with other artists.

This allows me to forgive her for the one thing throughout the first album (Aligned Archetypes) that drives me absolutely out of my mind – there’s a twenty second or so piece at the end of some tracks that is completely disconnected with the rest of the songs. Sometimes it accapella singing, sometimes it’s just spoken word poetry, but it completely breaks the rhythm, and frequently the topic is only tangentially related to the song, or not at all. It’s like a whole different song, in a different style, buried in bits and pieces throughout the album. That might be your thing, but it makes me twitch. Not enough to make me stop enjoying everything else, fortunately.

The lyrics themselves are unabashedly democratic on pagan topics. It sometimes crosses into slightly fluffy all-is-light-and-love territory, but so confidently that it makes me feel a little ashamed for being self-conscious about it. Crystal children, higher consciousness, past lives, auras, third eyes, chakras, stones, Isis, Goddess, God, psychic powers, karma, astrology, spellwork – it’s all fair game. That alone marks her apart; these songs aren’t always focused on one pagan thing, but rather on an emotional topic and the rest comes intertwined with writing about it. It makes all the rest seem more naturally part of life, and less forced than otherwise.

I really like her, anyway. Third Eye and Friday Night Flu are probably my favorites, but feel free to check out the rest! I’m not as familiar with the other singles and albums she’s released, but I have liked what I heard, so don’t expect any significant style changes from one to the other.

On a positive note, she's freely available on Jamendo (creative commons licensed music), though you can also buy her music from Amazon. The link at the top goes to the Jamendo site, so you can listen or download whatever you like without gambling on your hard-earned pocket-change.

Blessed Be!

Pennanti