Divine Your Dinner A Cookbook for Using Tarot as Your
Guide to Magickal Meals
Visit the link below to download the full version of this book:
https://homemader.com/shop/divine-your-dinner-a-cookbook-for-using-tarot-as-your
-guide-to-magickal-meals/
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD HERE
Copyright © 2021 by Courtney McBroom and Melinda
Lee Holm
Illustrations copyright © 2021 by Kim Thompson
Photographs copyright © 2021 by Kristin Teig
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Clarkson
Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Random House, a
division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
clarksonpotter.com
CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER with
colophon is a registered trademark of Penguin Random
House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is
available upon request.
ISBN 9780593232149
Ebook ISBN 9780593232156
Editor: Sara Neville
Print Designer: Ian Dingman
Production Editor: Serena Wang
Print Production Manager: Heather Williamson
Copy Editor: Kate Slate
Indexer: Jay Kreider
Ebook Production Manager: Eric Sailer
rhid_prh_5.7.1_c0_r0
INTRODUCTION
TAROT 101
DIVINE INSPIRATION
WAYS TO USE THIS BOOK
MAGICKAL INGREDIENT PANTRY
EQUIPMENT AND TECHNIQUES
MINOR ARCANA
SWORDS
WANDS
CUPS
COINS
MAJOR ARCANA
SPELLS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
Over the past decade, our society has
become much more aware of the quality and
sustainability of food and the importance of a
diet that fits our individual health needs. In an
eating revolution that’s already anchored in
mindfulness, Divine Your Dinner is the next
step toward integrating purpose into your
palate.
The seed of this book was planted during
a happy hour date at one of our favorite local
watering holes (RIP Malo). Over some crispy
ground beef tacos (which we re-created on
this page) and spicy margaritas, we got to
talking about which is better: a spicy
margarita or a regular one. Courtney argued
that the simplicity of the standard margarita
allows the flavor and integrity of the spirit to
shine through. Melinda countered that spicy
is better because chiles make us feel
energetic, creative, and magickal through
their transmission of Elemental Fire energy.
And thus, the Great Culinary Magick Debates
began!
That day, our favorite game emerged.
Anytime we hung out and food was involved,
we bounced around recipe ideas based on
ingredients used in magick spells and rituals.
We got really good at crafting menus around
the energies we wanted to invite into our lives
and bodies. With Melinda’s magickal prowess
and Courtney’s food expertise, we matched
food energies with tarot cards and, well, it
was magick! The Sun flooded the light of
clarity down upon us, the Ace of Swords
spoke the truth of the ages, and the Emperor
demanded it: We had to make a full deck of
tarot recipes.
Even if you know nothing about tarot or
why we spell “magick” with that “k” at the
end, you can start integrating this sacred
wisdom into your cooking right now. In fact,
as you explore the recipes in these pages,
you just might discover that you’ve been a
kitchen witch all along! Here’s the thing—we
didn’t invent magickal cooking. Throughout
history, humans have been using common
ingredients for uncommon purposes. Call it a
folk remedy, call it a spell, call it being a
hippie—kitchen witches know that food
affects a lot more than just your stomach.
Scratch the surface of any spell book and
you’ll find all sorts of familiar faces from your
pantry. Bay leaf, thyme, even salt. (Especially
salt!) We’ve matched common ingredients up
with the energies of tarot cards, allowing you
to experience their power with maximum
deliciousness.
Still fuzzy on how all this works? Not to
worry. Read on for a quick tutorial on tarot
(Tarot 101, this page), an explanation of what
on Earth we were thinking (Divine Inspiration,
this page), and how you can join our little
coven and start divining your dinner (Ways to
Use This Book, this page). There’s also a
handy list of our magickal ingredients and
their properties (Magickal Ingredient Pantry,
this page).
MAGICK VS MAGIC ADDING A “K” TO “MAGIC” IS A
CONVENTION USED TO DIFFERENTIATE PRACTICES
INTENDED TO MAKE A REAL IMPACT ON ONE’S LIFE
FROM SHOW MAGIC (RABBITS OUT OF HATS AND THAT
SORT OF THING).
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of how this
book can connect you with your innate
magickal self (making you the most sought-
after potluck guest in town), let’s take a
moment to make sure we’re all on the same
page with what tarot is, why it’s so rad to use
it in cooking, and our strategy for creating
the best possible recipe for each card. But
first things first…
YE OLDEN THYMES
Tarot decks have been around since at least the mid-
fifteenth century when wealthy families in southern
Europe had fancy decks of cards hand-painted for fun
and status. While these decks were originally made for
card games, we now know them as a tool for divination—
for gaining insight into situations through magickal
means.
Tarot decks are made up of seventy-eight cards, fifty-
six of which are organized by suits, similar to modern
playing card decks. These suited cards are collectively
referred to as the Minor Arcana. The other twenty-two
cards have no suit, but they do have formal names and
numbers. These cards are called the Major Arcana. All
tarot decks conform to this structure.
THERE ARE MANY KINDS OF DECKS USED FOR DIVINATION.
LENORMAND DECKS HAVE THEIR OWN SPECIFIC STRUCTURE
AND THERE ARE MANY OTHERS THAT DO NOT FOLLOW ANY
PARTICULAR STRUCTURE—THESE ARE CALLED ORACLE
DECKS.
TAROT TODAY
There is a growing movement of readers and mystics
using tarot and divination for spiritual growth, personal
empowerment, and even therapy! Instead of predicting a
set outcome, these readers open up possibilities by
unveiling larger truths, hidden gems, and pitfalls in the
cosmic field. This is Melinda’s position on tarot and the
one we take in this book. With this view in mind, here’s a
little breakdown of the cards and the roles they play.
The Major Arcana
The majors are, well, major. These cards represent big
energies. The kind you maybe take a whole lifetime to
move through or master. These cards tend to describe
who we are and who we are invited to become. You may
recognize some of the characters here—The Magician,
Death, The Moon—from their appearances in the folk
tales of southern Europe that inspired these cards and
from myths and legends all over the world. Archetypes
are like that. They tend to really get around.
The Minor Arcana
The Minor Arcana cards are divided into four suits—
Swords, Wands, Cups, and Coins—each of which
corresponds to one of the four classical elements—Air,
Fire, Water, and Earth, respectively. Each suit has ten
numbered cards (Ace through Ten) and four court cards
(Page, Knight, Queen, King). The names of the court
cards may vary between decks, but there are always four.
Each court figure also gets their own elemental
association, teaching us the subtle ways each element
can manifest.
WHENEVER YOU SEE A FAMILIAR NOUN CAPITALIZED, YOU’LL
KNOW IT IS REFERRING TO THE ALCHEMICAL ELEMENT AND
NOT THE STANDARD NOUN. FOR EXAMPLE, “FIRE” REFERS TO
THE MAGICKAL ELEMENT THAT INSPIRES ACTION AND
INTUITION, WHILE “fire” REFERS TO THAT THING THAT BURNS
YOU.
The tarot interpretations provided for you to Divine Your
Dinner are rooted in tradition, yet are updated to be
relevant to modern life. As Melinda does in her readings,
we invite you to view all the cards and archetypes as
available and integral to everyone—all gender identities
and expressions, all ages, all ethnicities, all abilities. We
feel confident that as you make your way through these
recipes, you will recognize a part of yourself in each of
the cards.
DIVINE INSPIRATION
Now that you’re a newly minted tarot expert, we’ll let you
in on the secrets of our kitchen magick. We’ve assigned
recipes to cards in two different ways.
For the Major Arcana, Melinda started by choosing
ingredients emblematic of the wisdom of each card (and
that she uses in rituals and spell-work). Courtney created
recipes around each ingredient to invoke the magick of
the ingredients and make them a delight to integrate into
your physical being (i.e., eat them).
The Minor Arcana recipes are divided into culinary
categories to match the element associated with each
suit:
SUIT ELEMENT PLATE
SWORDS AIR POULTRY
WANDS FIRE MEATS
CUPS WATER SEAFOOD
COINS EARTH VEGGIES & GRAINS
The court cards are where we let our hair down a little.
We wanted to add desserts to the mix and this seemed a
great place to do it. Since the court card roles also carry
an elemental energy (Earth for Pages, Fire for Knights,
Water for Queens, Air for Kings), you’ll find a little of their
vibe in each recipe, intermingling with the vibe of the suit
in subtle and not so subtle ways (hello, flambés!).
