What do cooking and witchcraft have in common?

Reading Group Text for Tomorrow Night (9/25/24 - 6pm PST)

I feel confident saying that this month’s essay for Language of the Birds reading club is just as rich as the meal that it describes.

From the Morgan Crusader Bible, Paris, France, ca. 1244-1254. Folio: 20

Country Cook From Central France, by Harry Mathews is even better than I remembered it from the first time I read it.

I mean, when was the last time you read a recipe that included:

• rituals

• caves

• processions

• pilgrims

• shepherds

• folk tales

• humor

• historical analysis

• self-help

• and even a witch or two?

Not only that, but reading the essay I realized it also gave me new insight into the meaning of the tarot card The Six of Wands - a mysterious card if ever there was one.

Card from the “Before Tarot”, which depicts the tarot imagery from the moment just before the traditional depiction in the cards.

I CANNOT WAIT to discuss this text with you tomorrow night (9/25/24 at 6pm PST), dear coveners.

Link to the full text below!

Please do join us if you can, even if you didn’t have time to read the full essay.

Even though it’s really just an elaborate recipe, I feel like this text teaches us so much about the meaning of enchantment, the practice of magic, how to live life!

Foodies forever,

Amanda

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