Lexa Roséan - The Supermarket Sorceress: Spells, Charms, and Enchantments Using Everyday Ingredients to Make Your Wishes Come True

In 1995, it was my honor to be a guest on The Joan Rivers Show. Joan was doing a Valentine's Day special and exploring love in its many aspects. She asked me to demonstrate some love spells. I came equipped with Venus incense, Love powder, and essential oils to dress an assortment of red figure candles in various gender combinations to call forth love. All the items I worked with were very traditional ingredients that would be difficult to obtain outside of an obscure occult store. Ms. Rivers and I had a wonderfully wicked time working all these love spells, and my impression of her was that along with the irreverence of her on-camera persona, she had a great reverence for all things spiritual. What, you may ask, does this have to do with The Supermarket Sorceress? Well, it's how it all began

In the weeks that followed the show, I received so many calls from people all around the country asking for my help with love spells. None of them lived in New York. I offered to send them catalogues to be able to purchase the candles, essential oils, and incense I had used on the Rivers show. Remember, this was back in the '90s, and there was no real Internet or online ordering. One woman seemed pretty desperate to keep her husband from cheating and leaving her, and several others wanted help with matters of the heart. As I have written many times before, magic is not a quick fix for all that ails. Witchcraft is often turned to as a last resort, but it is much more effective when used early on to help with the formation of projects and desires or for preventative reasons (to keep anything from going wrong). Nonetheless, all these people on the phone were in a big hurry to do a spell.

There is something to the idea of utilizing the energy of our emotions in the moment that they flower, and based on this theory, I helped all the callers to devise effective spells using ingredients they had on hand in their kitchens. Some of these substitutions were no brainersfor example, I had used cinnamon oil on Joan's show. It's a fast-acting hot and spicy oil that brings success in communication and love. It is not a common household product, but most everyone has a jar of ground cinnamon spice in the cupboard. These experiences with the callers were so thought provoking and challenging that they inspired me to further my research.

Kitchen Witchery or Kitchen Magic is a long-standing tradition. We must remember that some of the most ancient spells using obscure sounding ingredients were not obscure items to the ancients. They were the ingredients they had on hand. In ancient Greece, the hearth was the place of gathering, the source of warmth, and area for food preparation and preparation of offerings to the gods. Hestia, goddess of the hearth, was always the first goddess to be given libation or offering. I originally wanted to title this book The Magick of the Hearth, but The Supermarket Sorceress was decided upon by the editor/publisher, and I do think it reflects the modern (post-modern) way of foraging. (We can include farmer's markets, delis, health food stores, specialty shops, and even online shops.) The main message here is that a property, energy, a magic, if you will, is to be found in all things. The key to working spells successfully is not to find the most obscure item out there, but rather to find an item close to home. The closer to the home (the hearth), the more the energy will be likely to resonate with your own will and intent.

Blessed Be. Good luck and good magic!

Lexa Rosan

April 2015