Witching Kitchen

About Seller

                                             WITCHING KITCHEN 

                        FROM THE CAULDRON OF MEDIEVAL NELL

Witching Kitchen is named in honour of the untold generations of wise Men & women, Witches and Witch Doctors, Healers & Herbiolari, and of the surviving traditional peoples whose  unparalleled ecological and botanical knowledge remains under dire threat. 

These Witching Balms are made with Organic, sustainably produced and Fairly Traded Ingredients, Shea Nut Butter, Botanical Oils, Herbal Infusions, Macerated Oils and Essential Oils are used in carefully measured combinations and under ritually pure conditions according to a range of spells, charms and phyto-chemical ensorcellments.

 These Balms do not contain any animal ingredients, human fat, organs or the blood of unbaptised children. No Animals or Demons were harmed in their production 

                                                                 Phaerie Pharma

from time immemorial plants have been used to both heal and harm. harnessing the natural chemical compounds of flowers, herbs and trees has formed the basis for healing for most of human history.  modern medical Research  has synthesized the active pharmacological compounds of plants from fungi to foxgloves as the basis for antibiotics and other medicines and continues to document the botanical healing traditions of the remaining indigenous peoples whose medicines are based on an incredible wealth of ecological knowledge, the collection and preparation of herbs and other plants for homemade medicines was a routine domestic task, distilling, Brewing and making Herbal & Herbal Simples was the front line of healthcare for the greater part of the population.more  specialist Knowledge of herbal medicine was often represented in folklore as a gift from supernatural entities such as fairies or elves And almost all medicinal plants have a folklore tradition attached to them.  

                                 reclaiming the cauldroN

the image of the witch brewing noxious potions in her cauldron represents the demonization of traditional female roles, including healing practices, in  the period of the European witch trials of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries.  the everyday Domestic tasks of women and Even normal household instruments such as The broomstick, the distaff and the cauldron were repurposed as the mechanisms of malicious magic.   From being a valuable household instrument used in cooking, brewing and the making of herbal remedies, the cauldron became a symbol of harmful magic.

 References to a ‘witch’s ointment’,  feature regularly in the coerced confessions of accused Witches in hundreds of trial transcripts. this ointment, allegedly made from noxious ingredients including human blood, Fat & organs, was supposedly used to enchant broomsticks or spindles into flight  and to hex the witch’s human or animal victims. the ‘witches’ Ointment’ is now considered to have been a figment in the collective imaginations of Witch Finders, Commissioners and Interrogators, but its symbolism grew out of the very real traditions of gathering and preparing plants to make Simples, balms , Compresses and other healing remedies.

Medieval Nell is a Historian of Medicine with a Research Background in History, Pharmacology and Psychopathology. Her ongoing research project ‘Phaerie Pharma’ is an exploration of the interaction between Botanical Medicine, Folklore and the Evolution of Religion. Witching Kitchen is a practical expression of knowledge amassed over 20 years of research into the History of Medicine and the pharmacological properties of Botanical remedies and Traditional Medicines.  

Seller Location