For the uninitiated, bread is humble, as commonplace as a sunrise. Bread is an everyday staple of most human lives on earth, and has formed a foundational element of human survival and civilization since the rise of the first cities. As a product of fermentation, bread symbolizes cycles of life, death, and rebirth, from the germination of grains to the swift death of living yeast. In the history of magic, bread often embodies a dialogue with spirits, giving flesh to the divine and operating as a glyph for mysteries of transmutation.  As offering cakes, sacred flours, spirit-houses, and allies, the techniques of bread magic can be found in both sacred ritual and folk-craft, weaving a thread of worship and necessity through centuries of kitchen mysticism.
 
This lecture will draw from my ongoing research, as well as my first book, The Witch's Feast: A Kitchen Grimoire, which examines the tools & techniques of culinary magic throughout history. In this lecture, we will focus our gaze on bread & baking, looking at the cakes, loaves, buns, and bakes of witches past, as well as the significance of grains and bread as magical materia. We will explore:
 
A brief overview of bread and its role in early human culture
Bread in magical / religious traditions of the ancient world
Divinities of bread and bakers
Bread as materia magica
Ceremonial bread charms and bread folklore of the middle ages
Bread holidays, festivals, and sabbats
Bread as flesh, as effigy of the divine