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Episode Description
Food can train love... or it can train control.
In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast, Dr. Michael Christian & John follow the threads from ancient hearths & local household idols through the Renaissance’s “cookbook of correspondences” & into today’s wellness culture & #WitchTok.
Why do so many modern routines feel like liturgy... complete with initiation, penance, confession, & excommunication... yet leave us restless?
Along the way, they define the “occult kitchen,” widen the history (Sumeria, Babylon, Old Testament household idols & the prophets’ critique; Neoplatonic theurgy; Renaissance Hermeticism/Agrippa/Dee), & note how social algorithms turn private rites into public identity.
If mercy can’t sit at your table, your rules need repentance.
Takeaways:
The “occult kitchen” = technique used like liturgy to bend outcomes (timing, words, objects).
Ancient → Renaissance → wellness is one lineage: control-by-method with new props each era.
Case studies (cacao circles, lunar eating, manifestation macros, diet purity codes, & biohacking stacks) have real goods... but need re-orientation.
Orthodox contrast: blessing over charging, communion over control, gift over technique.
Fasting is training in love, not leverage; feasting completes fasting.
Practical rule: short prayers at prep/table, modest rhythms (Wed/Fri), Sunday joy, community > scruples.
Quick test: If a practice isolates you, replaces prayer with scripts, or promises sovereignty, it’s turned into a private liturgy.
Sound Bites:
- “Magic treats the world like a machine to hack; the Church treats it like a gift to bless.”
- “If your kitchen has a calendar, make sure it’s the Church’s... not the moon’s.”
- “We don’t charge food... we bless it, & we give thanks.”
- “The recipe isn’t the Savior. Christ is.”
- “Use tools as stewardship; don’t turn them into guarantees.”
- “Fasting trains desire; feasting finishes the song.”
- “If mercy can’t sit at your table, your rules need repentance.”
- “Shared cup? Without Christ, it’s ritual... without communion.”
- “Scrupulosity inflames; thanksgiving heals.”
- “Keep the kitchen; tear down the altar you built inside it.”
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Intro & Outro Music: St. John of Chicago Orthodox Church Choir (Arkansas) - Please support their building fund by buying the whole album here: https://stjohnorthodoxchurch.bandcamp.com/album/come-ye-faithful-building-fundraiser