I have a chant painted over the door to my kitchen: Blessed be the Lady who provides us with our food. The rest of the chant is, We are grateful, we are grateful today. The Lady referenced is MotherEarth.
Unlike today’s harried trips to big box stores where we play dodge ‘em with others’ shopping carts, and swear at the difficulty in finding gluten-free, soy-free, non-GMO foods, my ancestors hunted and gathered in a sacred manner.
What does that mean, in a sacred manner? It means having respect and reverence for the life force of the foods you eat, and the Earth, Rain, and Sun which have nurtured them that they might nurture us. It means giving thanks for their sacrifice to our need. It means having awareness that all things with a life force have a spiritual consciousness and degree of spiritual energy that is shared with us when we eat.
I bet that’s not an idea you’ve heard much about before.
We might not be able to hunt and gather our food in the same sacred way as our indigenous ancestors, but there are ways to inject more than just some garlic flavored herbalized oils and spices into your holiday turkey. Expressing thankfulness for our blessings can be more of an approach to food prep than a momentary pause between football and pie.
Aligning with the Spiritual Medicine Power of Your Meal
Maybe you’ve heard that food is medicine. Indeed, good, natural food has amazing healing properties. But I’m talking here about the spiritual medicine imbued in not just the animals we consume, but also the plants.
In shamanic cultures, every plant and animal has a spiritual power. When we partake of them to nourish our bodies, we are also allowing them to infuse us with some of their spiritual energies. The more whole and natural the foods are, and more they have been raised / gathered / prepared in a sacred manner, the more spiritual medicine power they have.
There are many websites that provide information about the spiritual energy properties of power animals. When eaten, some of that energy becomes medicine to your soul.
The same is true for plants, which also have spiritual medicine power, although there are fewer websites that detail those properties for typical foods. One that is useful is http://alchemylab.com/guideto.htm#sectY which says, for example, that cranberries provide protective energies and fight off negative influences.
So perhaps make a list of your Thanksgiving ingredients and do a little research. Discover the spiritual medicine powers of your meal, and give thanks to each plant and animal as you work with it in the cooking process.
Injecting Chant Vibes into Your Holiday Feast
As noted above, chanting while preparing a meal is a great way to cook in a sacred manner. Chanting itself creates an energetic vibration that will surround and suffuse everything you do, from chopping onions, to rolling out pie dough, to basting the turkey.
It doesn’t have to be my chant. Any heartfelt expression of gratitude set to a spirit-lifting tune will work. The more the chant makes you want to dance, the more energetic vibration is created, and the more sacredness is put into your meal.
Happy thanks giving!