Practical Magic: Coffee in Spellwork
The night before Samhain this year, I held a 12-hour candle vigil for my ancestors. Those who know me understand that I am more than capable of staying up very late, and I usually don’t make it to bed until around 3 in the morning. However, staying up ALL night without at least getting a nap in the morning is particularly difficult. So of course, aside from the candle and my Book of Shadows, my best friend was the coffee pot.
My relationship with coffee is a long and caring one. I’ve had expensive coffees and cheap coffees, and I have been known to visit coffee shops simply to sample an espresso or a cappuccino and decide whether that cafe will be a new haunt. And while I tend to be a bit of a “foodie snob” as some of my friends call me, my love of coffee overrides the derision that many other coffee lovers have for cheap coffees like Folgers. Only the watered down or burnt fast food or gas station coffees earn my scorn, as not enough love and care is put into the creation of this divine beverage.
The origins of coffee, I find, are rather humorous. According to legend, a goat herder in Africa had approached a shaman, concerned about the berries and beans that his goats had been eating. They would eat these berries and begin acting strangely, with bouts of energy followed by lethargy.
Upon hearing the herder’s story and looking over the berries, the shaman cast the berries into the fire, warning that the herder should keep the goats away from the berries, as evil spirits clearly inhabit the fruits and are possessing the goats. But as the beans roasted in the flames, they gave off a delightful smell, and the shaman was intrigued. He ground the beans up and created a tea from them, and thus the first cup of coffee was brewed.
Whether the account is true or not, it speaks to the magical qualities of the world’s most popular energy drink. I find that coffee is as powerful as sage, and as multipurpose as quartz in its witchy properties. But to get a good idea of what coffee is capable of, I feel it is best to break it up based on how the coffee is prepared - whether we’re talking about the drink, the grounds, or both.
Perhaps the most ubiquitous use for coffee after one has brewed a cup is for energy. Cars line up at drive-thru cafe’s all over the United States in the early mornings simply to get that caffeine high that’ll get the day started. And while this is understandable, for me the caffeine isn’t enough (I am a caffeine addict, after all… one cup of coffee isn’t going to do anything if I rely upon the caffeine alone!).
Like tea, you can empower your coffee with intent and emotion, channeling visualizations of being energized, awake, and alert into the brew before savoring its rich, bitter flavor. But being energized physically isn’t the only form of alertness that coffee can gift to the witch. I have found that empowering the coffee for psychic awareness - for opening the Third Eye - is exceptionally useful. And for someone like me who drinks coffee as a way of winding down before bed, this is particularly useful for making dreams more vivid and memorable or for helping make astral travel easier and more efficient.
But the way you brew your coffee can even impact spellwork! In some traditions, empowering iced or cold coffees can be useful for more reflective purposes, or for using a spell that can be nice and slow rather than speedy. Espresso, on the other hand, is for quick and hot spells that you need quick results for, or for enhancing concentration (imagine drinking espresso, surrounded by rosemary plants in a garden as you study! I shudder happily at the thought!).
As we begin to look toward the grounds, I feel it makes sense to look at divination before switching over to that subject. Just as tea leaves can be read, those swirls of loose coffee grounds in the bottom of the cup can be used in the same manner. I find this is especially useful if the beverage was brewed in a French press - channel some intent while pressing the coffee, and this is even more useful!
Where to begin! Coffee grounds have so many practical uses! Rather than tossing them in the trash, if some grounds are washed into a disposal and then the disposal turned on, they’ll help break up any blockages as if gently scouring the blades, and they’ll help make the drain smell a bit more pleasant than before. Composting coffee grounds is especially recommended, as the grounds quickly degrade and release nitrogen back into the soil! (Coffee - it’s what plants crave!)
If faced with too many ants in the garden, a coffee solution along with coffee grounds can be used to help lessen the critters’ interest in your fruits and vegetables (though in my experience, this is more effective when trying to keep cats from turning your flower beds into a litter box - I prefer using peppermint oil to deter ants).
All of the uses for grounds that I had mentioned above can be coupled with empowering with intent and visualization. But they aren’t the only magical uses. Using fine ground coffee in loose incense is a great way of clearing psychic blockages and increasing alertness. In addition, if making a witch or mojo bag, adding coffee beans or grounds is a great way of empowering the spell and lending it more energy, much as can be done with juniper or quartz. When feeding your bag, or when feeding your spells in general, you can provide offerings of coffee to give your magick that extra umph that it needs if you find that the spell is starting to stagnate or go stale.
While I have not been able to find any associations between coffee and any particular god or goddess in lore, this lovely beverage certainly has a lot of appeal, and you can use coffee in relation to either God or Goddess as however you feel resonates with you best. In terms of astrological association, the bean is certainly connected with Mercury and Uranus, but as I am not one for delving into making my magick overly complicated, I use coffee whenever the hell I feel like it! As I write, I’ve got a steaming cup within reach!
This is most definitely a magickal brew for the practical witch, and is low-key enough for use in the workplace or even - for those who are either not yet out of the broom closet, or who are Christian witches - in a place where magick isn’t necessarily understood, such as at a church!
So charge up that intent, cast your spell, and stir some sugar or cream into that brew as you desire, brothers and sisters! Coffee is here as further proof that the gods love us and want us to be happy!
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