Magical Correspondences for 100+ Cooking Ingredients

A magical correspondence is the planet, the element and the purposes that a writer on magic assigns to an ingredient. Kitchen witchcraft also calls these an ingredient’s magical properties. Basil, for example, belongs to Mars and fire and is used for love, protection and money. The tables below give the magical correspondences of 153 cooking ingredients, and every row is taken from one of Scott Cunningham’s two encyclopedias and marked with the book it came from.

How to read the tables

Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs covers plants, and Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen covers food. On this page they are the herb book and the kitchen book.

• Planet, element. The ruling planet and element Cunningham gives the ingredient.
• Used for. His list of purposes. A row follows the kitchen book wherever that book has an entry, because it is the one written about eating.
• Book. “Herbs” or “Kitchen” names the book a row comes from. “Both” means the two books give the same planet and element, and the purposes shown are the kitchen book’s.

The two books disagree on the planet or element of 13 ingredients, and Hearthlight’s app differs from Cunningham on 18. Both lists are near the end of the page.

Jump to herbs, spices, vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, seeds and lentils, honey, salt, dairy and pantry foods, or the lists by purpose.

Magical correspondences by purpose

Each list is built from the “Used for” column of the six tables that follow. Uses that fit none of these twelve, such as sex, weight loss and beauty, are in the tables only.

Herbs

The kitchen book has no entry for mint under that name, and says spearmint “can be substituted for peppermint”. Tarragon is in the herb book under the name fuzzy weed.

Spices

Cunningham’s chili entry is for the whole genus Capsicum. The kitchen book names jalapeño, cayenne and bell peppers as the kinds most often sold in American markets, and its list of protective spices includes both cayenne and paprika.

Vegetables

Kale, chickpeas and scallions have no entry in either book.

Fruits

Grains, nuts, seeds and lentils

Honey, salt, dairy and other pantry foods

Eggs, fish, shellfish and meat have no planet or element in the kitchen book, so their rows come from the lists of foods for each purpose in its third part. Cunningham writes that “Meat is rarely mentioned in this book”, and one reason he gives is that he found “less ritual and magical information available regarding meat”. His lists name meat as one food, with no separate line for beef, chicken, lamb, pork or turkey, and shrimp has no entry of its own.

Bread shares a chapter with the grains and has no planet line. The kitchen book gives each kind its own use, such as sprouted bread for psychic awareness and pita for spirituality, and the flours are in the grains table. Of cheese it says that semihard kinds “can be used in a variety of ritual applications”.

Honey, milk and wine are also among the staples people set out as offerings. Food offerings: what to offer and what to do afterwards covers that practice.

What each planet and element is used for

The uses in both tables are the short lists in Cunningham’s herb book. Each day is matched to its planet by its Latin name, such as dies Martis for Tuesday and dies Veneris for Friday.

Hearthlight times a dish by its planet’s day, so garlic goes in the pot on a Tuesday and apples in the oven on a Friday. Salt stands outside the table of seven, because the kitchen book gives it the Earth as its planet.

Each zodiac sign has a ruling planet as well. Eating for your birth chart matches foods to the signs through those planets, using older lists by Nicholas Culpeper and William Lilly. Those lists often differ from Cunningham’s: they give barley and lentils to Saturn, almonds to Venus and hazelnuts to Mercury, where the tables above have Venus, the Moon, Mercury and the Sun. If you do not know your signs, you can draw your birth chart free without signing in.

Three dishes built from the tables

Cunningham’s method is to picture the purpose while preparing and eating the food. He calls visualization “the most advanced magical technique necessary for the successful practice of food magic”. His example in chapter 2 of the kitchen book is Marjorie, who wants to increase her income and eats oatmeal for breakfast with “a dab of maple syrup” over it. The first dish follows her breakfast. Hearthlight chose the other pairings and all the quantities.

Oatmeal for money, 1 bowl. Oats, cinnamon, ginger and maple syrup are all listed for money. Bring 1 cup (240 ml) of water or milk and a pinch of salt to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir in 1/2 cup (40 g) of rolled oats, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger. Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring now and then, and pour 1 tablespoon of maple syrup over the bowl.

Garlic and onion broth for protection, 4 cups. Every seasoning in this pot is in the protection list, and the kitchen book counts olive oil among its protective foods as well. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a 3-quart (3-liter) pot over medium heat. Add 1 medium onion, chopped, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until it is soft. Stir in 4 sliced cloves of garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Pour in 4 cups (960 ml) of water or stock, then add 2 bay leaves, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper. Bring the pot to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Take out the bay leaves before serving.

Baked apples for love, serves 2. Apple, sugar, cardamom and vanilla share Venus and water, and Friday is the day of Venus. Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Core 2 apples, stopping short of the base, and stand them in a small baking dish. Mix 2 tablespoons of sugar with 1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamom, spoon the mixture into the cores and add 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract to each apple. Pour 1/4 cup (60 ml) of water into the dish and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until a knife slides in easily.

Where the correspondences come from

Cunningham treats planets and elements as ways of sorting foods. The kitchen book calls a food’s planetary ruler part of an “ancient system of magical correspondence” that “is one method of grouping foods”, and calls the ruling element “another method of classifying items used in magic”.

He also says the choices are his own. “Some magicians will quibble about my selections for planetary and elemental rulers of certain foods”, he writes, “and will even point out that in previous books I’ve made different selections.” His reply is that “It isn’t wrong to say that carrots are ruled by Venus, or that bay leaves are better suited to Mars, but I choose to place them under the rulership of different planets.”

The two books bear that out. Cunningham published the herb book in 1985 and the kitchen book in 1990, under the title The Magic in Food, and in the editions read here the later book gives these 13 ingredients a different planet or element.

The herb book gives turmeric, blueberry and carob no planet or element, so those three rows rest on the kitchen book alone.

Under other names the gap is wider. The herb book’s gourd, which shares a Latin name with the kitchen book’s squash and pumpkin, has the Moon and water, and its kelp has Jupiter where the kitchen book’s seaweed has the Moon. The kitchen book also lists avocado under water in its own table of elements.

Giving plants to planets is far older than either book. Nicholas Culpeper’s herbal, in its enlarged edition of 1653, says of garlic that “Mars owns this Herb”, puts onions under Mars and calls mint “an Herb of Venus”. Cunningham agrees about garlic and onions and gives mint to Mercury. He lists Culpeper in the bibliography of both books, and the herb book describes it as “This most popular (and unfortunately, least reliable) herbal”.

Where Hearthlight’s app differs

Hearthlight’s app keeps its own correspondences for 70 ingredients. Its correspondences feature, which is on the free plan, gives each one an element, a planet and intentions. It agrees with the tables above on planet and element for 43 of them. The 18 below differ (lentils are in the app twice). The app’s values are Hearthlight’s own set.

Eight more ingredients in the app have no planet in either of Cunningham’s books: beef, chia seeds, chicken, chickpea, egg, kale, quinoa and salmon. Their planets and elements there are Hearthlight’s own. The app also draws its intentions from a short fixed list, so it says prosperity where Cunningham says money.

Safety

The three dishes use ordinary cooking amounts.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are magical correspondences in cooking?

They are the planet, the element and the purposes that a writer on magic assigns to an ingredient. They are also called magical properties. In Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen, basil belongs to Mars and fire and is used for love, protection and money.

Which ingredients are used for protection?

Garlic, onion, basil, bay leaf, black pepper, rosemary and salt are seven of the 46 ingredients on this page that Scott Cunningham lists for protection. He ties protection to the Sun, to Mars and to the element of fire.

Which foods are used for money and prosperity?

Scott Cunningham lists 43 of the ingredients here for money, among them basil, cinnamon, ginger, clove, oats, rice, almonds and maple syrup. Jupiter is his planet for money and earth is his element for it.

Which foods are used for love?

Scott Cunningham lists 56 of the ingredients here for love, among them apple, strawberry, cherry, vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, basil, chocolate and sugar. In his books love belongs to Venus and to the element of water.

Where do magical correspondences come from?

The ones on this page come from two books by Scott Cunningham, first published in 1985 and 1990. Giving plants to planets is older, and Nicholas Culpeper’s herbal did it in 1653. Cunningham writes that the selections are his own and that he changed some of them between books.

What if two sources disagree about an ingredient?

Cunningham expected that. His own two books differ on 13 of the ingredients here, and he says other magicians will quibble with his choices. This page follows his kitchen book and shows each difference in a table.

Sources

• Scott Cunningham, Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (Llewellyn, 1985; expanded edition 2000), read in the 2000 edition: the preface, “How to Read the Entries”, the bibliography and the entry for each plant marked Herbs or Both.
• Scott Cunningham, Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen (Llewellyn, 2003), the third edition of a book first published in 1990 as The Magic in Food: the entry for each food marked Kitchen or Both, pages 9 to 11 on method, page 27 on meat, pages 43 to 45 on planets and elements, pages 59 and 60 on bread, page 218 on diet, the food lists in part three and the tables of planets and elements at the back.
• Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physitian Enlarged (London, 1653), in the Wellcome Library’s copy at the Internet Archive, reprinted since as The Complete Herbal (Project Gutenberg text): garlic, onions and mint.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition (1911), “Calendar”, at Wikisource: the Latin names of the days.
• Quaker Oats, “Old Fashioned Oats”: the stove top method for oatmeal.
• U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Botulism Prevention”: honey.
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “Serving Up Safe Buffets”: the two-hour rule.

Last revised October 12, 2026.