Bread magic

While doing some research for something else today, I came across a reference to Bread magic.  There was one small example, but nothing more.

That example was blessed bread broken into quarters and placed in the corners of a barn to protect the stored crops.

There was so much more that could have been suggested under this heading, so many ideas that I have and things others have spoken about.  Why was this not included?  So I have chosen to address that lack.

Bread in History and Culture

Bread (in various forms) has long been used in ritual and religious ceremony as well as having strong cultural meanings.  The word companion comes from Latin com - "with" and panis - "bread".  In Central and Eastern Europe, offering guests bread and salt is part of a welcoming ceremony and has been written about in plenty of medieval culture fiction books as a way of ensuring guest rights and responsibilities.

The phrase "to break bread" with someone is commonly used to describe not just a meal shared but also a sense of camaraderie, of meaningful connection, of friendships formed or maintained.

In Abrahamic religions, bread has significance.  From eating Matzo at Passover to the bread of the Eucharist, bread features strongly.  In Islam, bread is representative of all food in general.  In Ancient Egypt, bread was left as offerings to Gods and ancestors as well as being symbolic of all food.

In many Pagan Traditions, bread is a common offering for Gods, spirits and ancestors.  It's sometimes part of the cakes and ale commonly at the end of ritual.

Making Bread

The process of making bread has so many opportunities for magical work.  Getting the yeast started and frothy - a wish could be made or a purpose declared with the sugar and yeast and visualised as growing with the froth and bubbles.

I find kneading my dough to be quite a meditative process even when I'm not adding magic.  So using it for raising energy seems like an obvious step.

Shaping the dough is where, for me, the magic really comes to life.  Someone has hurt you?  A bread poppet, possibly stuffed with other things, then left out for the birds to peck to bits.  Want to draw something to you?  Shape the dough into a sigil or representation of what you want to bring into your life.  Consuming the bread is bringing it more literally into your life and yourself.  The possibilities for this are limited only by your imagination.  Make a protective sigil out of bread, varnish it and keep it stored forever.  Create a blessing for your crops and bury it in your garden.  Some healing magic? Add some beneficial (and culinary) herbs to your dough and eat your way to good health - or gift it to someone who needs it.

Lammas

We can't forget Lammas, quite literally a Bread Festival as Lammas comes from Loaf Mass.  Although it was originally tied to the first grain harvest, for many who are not in an agricultural setting, Lammas is all about baking bread and breaking bread.  Many modern pagans have their own bread recipes and associated bread magic for Lammas.

There are often bread recipes offered for each Sabbat on many blogs, websites and in books.  Many seem to have little association with the Sabbat except perhaps in some subtle way known only to whoever is publishing it.  That said, I would still encourage trying the recipes and seeing if they work for you.

Have some fun with bread and use your imagination!

Blessings




Debbie

How Piracy Has Nearly Stopped Me From Writing

Piracy of copyrighted works has been an issue for as long as the internet has been around.  When I was a teenager, if we wanted a "free copy" of a book, we either had to steal it outright (or pay the fine for not returning it to the library) or photocopy the entire book - which wasn't really free as we had to pay 20c per page at the library.  If you wanted music, you had to tape it off the radio and hope the announcer wouldn't talk over too much of the song, or have a friend who'd bought it on vinyl or tape and copy it onto a tape.  It wasn't as simple as an almost instant download.

Now there are pirate websites offering thousands of pdf copies of books for free.  Some have been closed down, but I believe for each one that is removed, three more spring up overnight.  Some have even started the practice of having reviews and ratings for the pirate works "So at least the author gets some benefit".  Author Michelle Harrison took on a pirate site recently and received some rather aggressive and angry emails in response.  You can see some of it in her Twitter and a write up about it in The Guardian.

I find myself in a very messed up headspace over the issue of piracy.

On the one hand, I self-published.  I never offered my work to a publishing house, I wanted to have total control over my work.  Perhaps this was naive of me, I don't know.  But I kept my words and my voice intact, I kept my meanings intact and clear, I chose the title, the cover design and the font.  All things that another author I know didn't get and it put her off writing forever.  The title her publisher gave her book changed the slant of the entire thing and set her up for a world of hurt.

The bio and book blurb that my publisher had someone write for my approval was awful.  It was immediately clear that they'd read none of my book past the category.  I felt vindicated in my choices.

By self-publishing, I have paid a lot of money to have my work out there.  It is more money than I would normally have freely available.  I borrowed to have some print copies of my own and while I paid a "discount", you can buy my book on Amazon for little more than I paid for my discounted copies.  I paid for marketing.  I paid to have copies sent for review - reviews that I don't know if they've ever happened, I've seen nothing of those reviews.

I knew that writing for a Pagan audience would never make me rich.  Janet Farrar commented in a group I'm in that even in their hey-day, she and Stewart lived below the poverty line and often had to resort to "dumpster diving" to be able to eat.  I went into this with no illusions or delusions about imminent wealth and fame.

However, I didn't think it unreasonable to hope to break even.  I expected that I would at least earn enough to pay back the money I had borrowed. 

I'm not even close.  After almost four years, I think I've had maybe 10% of what I spent back in royalties.

So, I went into a bit of a funk. 

My book is obviously crap.  My friends love it, but they're my friends, they're supposed to support me and things I do.  I'm sure many of them love it purely out of loyalty.  Then I started getting calls at home on my unlisted landline.  From publishing companies.  Asking for me by my married name and not my pen name.  Wanting to "invest" in my book.  They hadn't read it, didn't know it had been published, didn't know my pen name.  They already had my newish email address.  Their "investing" in my work would cost me twice what I've already paid.  I've clearly been put on a list by my publisher that's been sent to other self-publishing companies and hybrid publishing companies.  I'm not making them enough money so they're trying to pass me on to someone else.

My funk deepened. 

I'm 45,000 words into a second book.  I've spent years reading and researching so that this one can have some authority behind my assertions, it has citations and a big healthy bibliography so readers can learn more from smarter people than me.  It's been a huge labour of love, endless hours of reading, even if three weeks of reading and note-taking ends up making a single paragraph. 

Why would I bother?  It's obviously a waste of my time and no one will want to read it.

I find facebook groups that have hundreds and sometimes thousands of pirated pdfs, they never have my book.  What's wrong with my book?  There's other fluff in there that I wouldn't use to prop up a table leg, is mine worse than that?

Then I found a few of those pirate websites that have ratings and reviews.  There are thousands of reviews and ratings on my book there.  Thousands.  It's seems to be sitting at 3.8 to 4.6 stars.  If each person who left a review had even paid 50c towards my book, I would have broken even several times over.  I would have money to put towards the book I'm working on.  I would have been able to buy a few more of the books that I want to read, reference and cite in my current work.

My husband asked me what had been my purpose in writing my book.  Did I want to make money or did I want it to be read?  I wanted it to be read, I wanted the information out there.  Maybe those people wouldn't have read it if they'd had to pay for it?  I don't know. I also don't know if that makes up for the missed royalties.

But I'm still left with a publisher who clearly doesn't want me, unsure if I can finance this next book I've spent years working on.  I'm unsure if I want to continue.  I don't know if it's all worth it.