Sacred Knives

So you may have noticed I haven't been talking about magic as much this last couple of weeks; I did do the Scott Cunningham bath and have been carrying around my little charms and doing my positive affirmations... trying to keep up with meditation and failing miserably these last 10 days or so. Basically, once in a while, a break is in order as it's just too much energy to put out at one time.

But I giot to thinking about my knives today... my kitchen knives. I was thinking about how they are like my athame. Just incase anyone doesn't know, an athame is a ritual knife, normally used to raise and direct energy. I got to thinking how my knives in the kitchen, in my domestic work, are like my athame in ritual... how it is a most basic, versatile tool that can accomplish so much.

And then I realized, knives aren't like my athame; my athame is like my knives... after all, knives originally were not just ued for ritual purposes. The whole reason they found their way onto the altar was because of the useful tools they were in food preparation, work and chores, as well as protecting oneself.

It got me to thinking that I want to cleanse and consecrate my kitchen knives to pay them the respect they deserve and treat them like the sacred life-sustaining tools that they are. I think that is what I am going to do next full moon.

So that got me thinking that maybe I ought to consider being even more aware of my kitchen as a temple, and my cooking tools as sacred, and as a natural extension, as the sustenance prepared as part of a ritual. And I am thinking that maybe I should start using my kitchen shrine to Hestia, my patron Goddess, for more than just big stressful domestic days. Maybe I should start going to the shrine every time I cook, light my candle & incense, make an offering of the food. Maybe making my kitchen a temple and cooking & eating a ritual, it will just feel "right" to do it naturally and healthfully. I just can't imagine sending up prayers to Hestia while throwing her some Doritos and frozen pizza crusts with some Pepsi... it wouldn't feel right.

Just maybe there is hope for me in developing a more healthy relationship with food in my life?

Oh... and one last thing to mention... my damn husband has passed me; at 335, he now weighs less than I do.

When I met him he was 400 lbs (sad thing-- I was only about 220 back then and a size 18-- and at my height, that's really not that bad). Anyway, after moving in with me, he lost about 20 or 30 lbs just because he was 1) not eating the fried crap anymore and endless gulpings of bottles of soda 2) eating some vegetables and balanced meals and 3) not spending most of the day on his rump watching TV. And he kind of hovered at that for a while. Last year I think he lost another 15 lbs or so, when he took on the extra jobs doing maintenance, though he wouldn't get on a scale. Today he finally got on the scale and he's 335.

Here are some pics of him, one from a few months ago, one from last week:

And can you believe it-- he doesn't believe it. He thinks my scale is off. He's been so overweight since his teens he can't think of himself as anything but 400 pounds. But I have a digital scale, unfortunately it only goes to 330 lbs, but he says if he can get on it in a couple of weeks and it reads under 330 he thinks he is going to weep with joy.  But seriously, he's 6'1" tall, and he's a big bear type of guy anyway... if he got down to even 275 and managed to stay there, it'd be 10 times better than where he started and make a huge, huge difference. But maybe it'll prove it to him that there is a difference and be a motivating factor.