Wtf is Wiccan Cuisine?!
i stumbled upon something yesterday…
and i asked myself, what the fuck is wiccan cuisine?!
Is it like Kosher, or Halal, or Pareve, or…?
As a sort of kitchen witch myself, for me there can always be nuance; but for a fundamentally appropriative religion based in thieving eclecticism; it becomes apparent that the more a religion becomes popular the more it will attempt to gain legitimacy and we see this happening always through the medium of food and cuisine.
Now this is no shade to the Wiccan Cuisine instagram account at all. I thoroughly enjoy the nostalgia showcasing various fantasy-world fandom foods... but we gotta remember it is just that. Fantasy. I am a huge Zelda and Disney fan and love me a good home-baked bread and an occasional renaissance faire turkey leg. But why do we pagans and neopagans and wiccans keep romanticising feudalism and historic exploitation, i.e. serfdom?
We know that cottage-core as quaint as it is, can be rife with Proud Boys, TradWives, and Neo-nazi Asatru practitioners as well as fascists in general who are trying to keep the “good old OLDE days” alive and very very white and cisheteronormative.
As I’ve written before, “Wicca. In truth it isn’t a tradition, but a selection of traditions, plural.” And these traditions tend to be cultural practices ripped from the early to mid 1900s and time-warped somehow to Middle Ages Europe (circa 400–1400s). Why?
Why is it always European-centric? There are literally six other WHOLE CONTINENTS and yet we are always seeing wiccan recipes and wicca food ideas on Pinterest or Tik Tok showcasing a quaint European (and lets be real here its English-European medieval styles in reality — they definitely arent showcasing the Golden Age of Umayyad-controlled Spain… that type of culture and cuisine and folk tradition/custom is never given the same spotlight or importance.)
The Silk Road was in full effect during this 1000 year “wiccan-window” into the past. So was the beginning of the colonisation of Turtle Island, Abya Yala, and the rest of South America towards the end there in the late 1400s. For all the want to be important spiritualist “shamans” (ew) wiccans tend to divest from uplifting Indigenous cuisine for which there is a whole food sovereignty movement happening currently as part of the web of decolonisation.
Honestly, this might be why so many wiccans and witches seem to like to live in the past. Perhaps subconsciously we see the Middle Ages as some happy farmer time before slavery and colonisation to live in?? Which is odd because the stereotype for the Middle Ages is plague… lots and lots of plague. Which like all stereotypes both positive and negative, is partially true; while most of Europe was a mess, The Arab Golden Age of Science was happening. But again we dont see the showcasing of Medieval Baghdad. Starting to see a hint of the Islamophobia and racism yet?
What has me even more verklempt is that this shite keeps happening and going on and is celebrated without any sensitivity to regional customs or folk practices. You know… real cuisine and culture.
The reason i find “wiccan cuisine” so weird is because we dont go on about methodist cuisine, or catholic cuisine, or evangelical cuisine or the like is because it isnt a real thing. Cuisines are ethnic. Sure they may sometimes be religiously impacted and influenced (because that is how culture works!) There will be taboos and foods of what are acceptable or not; but there is always variation.
The tendency to lump and universalise things in paganism is an influence of white supremacy and scientific eugenics. Religions and practices are always variant. Umbrella terms are easy, but they are vague and are meant to be a starter point in a conversation… never where the discussion is supposed to end.
It’s time to reclaim our cuisines loves. And not in a weird museum-like way where we bring shite back from before the Spice and Silk Road was a thing.
Cultures and their cuisines change with time!
They fusion and change and diffuse and grow — it is why it is called the art of cooking loves. Because it is an art! So reconnect to living traditions before they are lost for you and your family. And yes, throw in some fun recipes from your fandoms too! Even Link enjoys a good curry and rice balls! We arent nationalistic purists here by any means. But for fuck sake, dont call it “wiccan cuisine”. I beg you…
And keep asking yourself why the fuck are[wicca] and cottagecore so white? And also what the fuck does Irish, Welsh, Isle of Man, Breton, Cornish, and Scottish cuisine look and taste like today? And their subregions? What the fuck does real Polish, Ukrainian, Scandinavian, Russian, French, Italian, Sicilian, Egyptian, Ghanaian, Benian, Turkish, Syrian, Palestinian etc. food look and smell and taste like TODAY? What about real Hawaiian, Puerto Rican, Haitian, Colombian, Peruvian, Chilean, etc. food? How can we offer our solidarity? What kinds of Black and Trans and Indigenous and Asian owned ethnic food stores can I support? What kinds of Indigenous Food Sovereignty restaurants, chefs, foods, etc. should I help uplift as the settler-colonialist that i am?
Oh and for the love of the ancestors, go watch High on the Hog on Netflix!
