Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen - Scott Cunningham 1990

Food from Sea & River
The magic of food

The ocean has always been worshipped by peoples living near its great expanses. Deities rode the waves or lay submerged, far beyond where human eyes could see them. As late as the 1600s, unearthly monsters were believed to live in the sea’s briny depths, and early maps were marked “Here Bee Monsters” across lonely expanses of the ocean.

The foods of the sea continue to feed millions of people today, as they have in the past. Though we would probably find many of these species repulsive (such as the sea worms that are considered delicacies throughout the South Pacific), many kinds of fish have been eaten for thousands of years.

Fish

Lore: The Egyptian god Ra was reputedly guided on his journey into the underworld by a fish. Naturally, this specific type of fish was eaten to relieve blindness in ancient Egypt.²³ The Egyptians offered fish to Isis, Amon, Aten, Ra, Amon-Ra, Khnum, Hapy, and many other deities. Priests dedicated to Osiris didn’t eat certain kinds of fish due to their mythological entanglements.²³ Thousands of mummified fish have been found in Egyptian tombs and temples.

Fish were sacred to Ishtar in ancient Babylon and probably also to her predecessor, Inanna, in Sumer.¹² In Assyrian myth, one of the finned creatures pushed an egg from the Euphrates River onto the shore. The goddess Atargatis hatched from it. This divine act caused all fish to be worshipped and spared from the cook’s art.⁷⁹

In Greece and Rome, fish were sacred to oceanic deities such as Poseidon and Neptune, to Venus, and to other goddesses and gods—but they were eaten by all.

The old Hawaiians saw similarities between some of their deities and the astonishing fish that swim and flip around their islands. Kane and Pele were both linked with the oopu (a freshwater fish). It was hazardous to eat fish that were sacred to the family’s particular deity.⁷ There are many “fish stories” in Hawaiian mythology, such as the following.

A man from the island of Molokai caught some oopu fish, tied them up in the leaves, and set them on to a fire to cook. The fish suddenly spoke to him (because he wasn’t supposed to eat it), and the poor man ran away in terror.⁷

Fish hooks, once the most important food-gathering device, are symbols of good fortune in Hawaii, where they are still worn. An Omnimax/Imax film, Beyond Hawaii, is centered around a fish hook that takes a Hawaiian youth on a trip into his people’s past. In the night skies over Hawaii, the constellation Scorpio is thought to be Maui’s fish hook.

In China, fish are thought to be transformed birds, while birds are fish that have gone through a transmutation. The fish is a symbol of freedom, harmony, and emancipation. Two fish are given to a newly wedded couple in the belief that the finny creatures will bring them joyous sexual union.³

The sacralness of the fish seems due to its ability to live in complete harmony with its environment, to its prolific egg-laying capability, and to our early dependence on it for food. The Mediterranean goddesses connected with love were usually also associated with water and the ocean, which explains why fish were also used for courtship and marriage rituals in Europe.

Magical uses: Fish swim in the sea, in rivers, and in lakes. Water magically strengthens psychic awareness. Fish are also easier to digest than meat. These factors indicate that fish are fine for those wishing to increase psychic awareness. Poached fish, fish stews, and soups are particularly potent for this purpose.

Due to their long association with love, fish are also excellent foods to consume in order to expand your ability to give and to receive love.

Caviar and fish have also been thought to be aphrodisiacs. If interest in sexual activity is a problem, eat fish and visualize.

To close this section, here’s a Victorian folk ritual that seems to have been popular in England a hundred years ago: on Halloween night, just before going to sleep, eat a raw or roasted salt herring. Don’t drink any liquid with it. Don’t even brush your teeth. Go to bed. As you sleep, you’ll have a dream. In that dream, the man or woman who is to become your husband or wife will come to you with a glass of water to quench your thirst. To many young Victorians, such a ritual must have offered a tantalizing glimpse of the future.

Crab

Lore: These bizarre creatures have always been viewed with suspicion and a bit of awe. Their shells and unusual manner of walking are striking. I once read with shivers about some coral atolls in the South Pacific that are periodically covered with crabs. The strange creatures walk across the islands from one side to the other, scrambling over everything in their path.

To the Japanese, crabs were magical. Dried crab shells were often nailed over doorways of Japanese homes. This wasn’t for decoration, but was meant to drive away evil and to keep those who lived within the house healthy and free of disease.⁵⁴

One type of crab, known as heike-gani, is especially revered. The unusual markings on the crab’s shell roughly resemble the outlines of a human face. The Japanese believed that these crabs were the incarnations of warriors who were defeated and drowned at Dannoura in the Inland Sea.⁵⁴

Magical uses: Crab is another food said to have aphrodisiac properties.

Shellfish

Lore: We’ve all heard the stories of the gigantic clams (Tridacna noa) of the South Pacific. A diver accidentally pushes a leg between the calm’s massive shells. They close around the leg, and the diver is subsequently drowned by the fierce, treacherous clam.

These are myths, of course. The clams aren’t dangerous. It’s impossible to trap a leg or arm between their “jaws.” It’d be dangerous to have one of the shells thrown at you, but that’s the extent of the clam’s possible hazards.

Throughout the world (in the South Pacific, the Americas, in the Middle East, Asia, and elsewhere), clam shells have been used as money, for decoration, and as ritual implements.^††††

Disc-shaped beads of hardshelled clams, known as wampum, were used as money, as a tool of ceremonial exchange, and to send messages by Indians of the eastern coast of the United States. Wampum grew in favor until, in the 1600s, it became a legal form of currency in both English and Dutch colonies in America.

Magical uses: Like all seafoods, shellfish have long been eaten to induce the desire for sexual activity. Clam chowder is perhaps a bit heavy for this purpose, but any other form is fine. Shellfish can also be eaten as a part of psychic-awareness diets.

Sushi

I’ll admit that I’ve never been to a sushi bar; never eaten sea urchin (uni); never spent fifty to a hundred bucks to stuff my face with small, exquisitely prepared foods. But I’ve read up on the subject, and many of my friends have been initiated into the wonders of this particularly Japanese form of food preparation.

Though sushi preparation is quite complex, it generally consists of seafood, seaweed, rice, and some fresh vegetables. These ingredients make sushi an excellent addition to psychic-awareness diets. (Tragically, I’ve heard that some of the newest foods being used in sushi preparation in Japan are the avocado . . . and Spam.)

One favored food often found in Japanese sushi bars has long been banned from being served in the United States. Recently, permission was granted for a team of Japanese chefs to fly from their island nation to the U.S., bringing with them a treasured cargo: fugu. Fugu is responsible for many deaths each year in Japan. This dish looks innocuous enough—thin, almost transparent slices of fish.

The blowfish, however, from which it is prepared, is poisonous. Only the most experienced sushi chefs are allowed to prepare fugu. They remove the most poisonous parts. Even so, the fish is said to produce a slight numbness in the diner. If incorrectly prepared, the fish causes death.⁵⁴

In Japan, fugu is one of the most expensive dishes on the sushi bar. It is also the most hazardous. Even if I do go to a sushi bar, I doubt that I’ll ask the chef for fugu.