Spring kitchens are airy, fresh places where we feel stimulated, energized,
alive with possibilities. The first step in making our kitchens places of
inspiration is old fashioned spring-cleaning. Even those of us who loathe
housecleaning as a tiresome, thankless, repetitious, and endlessly boring
chore can learn to enjoy the process of marking our territory with magick.

By the end of winter, the world looks a bit scruffy and neglected. Dead
leaves and fallen branches litter the ground, along with remnants of snow
pocked with grime. Just as a gardener needs to clear away the winter debris
to make room for spring growth and flowering, so it can be a good thing to
clear away debris from our kitchens. Make space in your life for fresh,
good things to grow. Take some time in early spring to decide on your
kitchen essentials: What is truly necessary for you? What could you do
without? Give away anything that doesn't serve you. When your kitchen is
clean and uncluttered, your spirit can breathe.

Once your kitchen is as clean as you feel like making it, you may want to
celebrate the stirring of new life with a few essential springtime
decorations. Flowering bulbs and bare tree branches can both be placed in
water and allowed to bloom. Teardrops of glass hung in the window catch the
light like melting icicles. Dark, earthy, winter colours give way to the
lighter, more airy ones of spring--a pastel rag rug for the floor or a woven
mat for the table may refresh your spirit. Look for shades of
mouth-watering yellow-green, violet, rose, pale blue, silvery dove-gray, and
a tender yellow the colour of the emerging sun. These are the colours that
will help you to envision, to plan, to be inspired.

Spring is associated with air, and with thoughts, ideas, and words. You
could invoke the power of words in your kitchen by writing a few important
ones here and there. Use large letters if you want them to be seen (in a
border around the ceiling, perhaps), or hide tiny ones in secret places.
Get yourself some magnetic poetry for the fridge. What are the words that
you need in your life? Is there a special quote that you could frame or
incorporate into your kitchen?

By the Spring Equinox, the birds are returning and the world is filled with
wings, nests, and the heart-lifting sound of their singing. One traditional
and pleasant way to commemorate the birds' return is to include a nest or
two in your kitchen. You could buy one (Spanish moss, twig, or wicker nests
look very realistic), or you could find a real one (as long as it isn't
being lived in anymore), or create your own.

Fill your nests with eggs. Traditionally, eggs have held a place of special
veneration as objects of power and magick. Egg-decorating is an ancient way
to honour this season. And you may want to tuck in a feather or two, as
well--these are especially meaningful if you've found them yourself.

There are egg-shaped soaps available now that would be fun in a nestlike
soap dish on the sink (look for nice all-natural herbal egg-soaps in
specialty stores or gift catalogues). Or, to make your own, try grating
leftover bits of soap into a bowl, mix with a little water, and shape small
palmfuls into eggs by hand. If you throw in a few leftover coffee grounds,
your soap will have a wild-bird-egg's speckled look and will also be a good
deodorizer for oniony hands. Whenever you wash with a bar of egg-soap, let
the symbol remind you of the incredible power to create that lies in your
hands--and in your heart, your spirit, your mind.

The first tender vegetables of the spring garden make a welcome appearance
now. The tiny carrots, cheery radishes, asparagus spears, and the earliest
new peas to sprout up in gardens may be found on everything from teapots to
vases to dinnerware to teatowels, which let you invite their hopeful message
inside as well. Or you could paint or stencil that veggie of your choice
somewhere special: inside a cupboard door to cheer you whenever you open it,
for instance.

By late spring, the world is strewn with flowers. Make a place on your
table for a vase spilling over with blooms, or find an O'Keeffe print to
brighten your wall. The sensual beauty of flowers has age-old associations
with love, sex, and pleasure, and late spring is certainly the time for
those. To invite the power of loving sensuality into your kitchen, choose
fabrics and accents in shades of rose to remind you of your own sacred
petals. Consider making a rose-patterned pillow for your power place; then,
every time you sit there, you will be embowered by these rich symbols of the
Goddess.

Source: Cait Johnson, "Cooking Like a Goddess"