About Rue's Kitchen
Rue's Kitchen was born in 1998 as a single page on a group website now long lost in the mists of time. Herein you will find a wealth of free information/articles and links to external websites, on Italian and Italian diasporic folk magic and customs dating as far back as the early days of the internet.
Rue’s Kitchen’s primary mission is the preservation of customs and practices. Herein you will find traditional Italian (from various regions) witchcraft (stregoneria), folk magic (magia operativa), folk medicine (medicina popolare tradizionale), and old-fashioned Roman Catholic folk religion, (scongiuri, congiuri ed incantesimi), practiced, by Italians of all faiths, all over the world. You will also find information on customs, traditions, and heirloom recipes. Italian folk magic and witchcraft is an oral tradition handed down in the native languages and dialects of the practitioners. I am multilingual and therefore, it was important to me to preserve the information in their original languages and dialects.
Why "Rue's Kitchen"? The kitchen, my kitchen, has always been the hub of many charms, rituals, healings, and celebrations.
This tradition is very rich, and in it will be found the magical and religious rituals and prayers for the outward expression of one's inner spirituality for every phase and condition of one's life. The practices of witchcraft, folk medicine, blessing rituals, and cooking are inextricably woven into the fabric of Italian culture -no matter where Italians are geographically located. Together, these components are vastly greater, and more intangible, than the sum of their parts thus, from both the practical and cultural standpoint, any effort to divorce one from the other, diminishes the tradition as a whole.
I am blessed to have learned at the feet of the great matriarchs of my family and community, and it is to them that I dedicate this website and my ongoing devotion to 'the things we do'.
About Rue
"Rue is both a traditional and Saint Magic healer. She breaks the stereotype of an uneducated person steeped in superstition. She is a registered nurse who combines skills as a psychic medium, natural health consultant and Reiki Master Teacher into her healing practice." Eric K. Lerner
Author | Masciara | Cartomante
Mary-Grace Fahrun, also known as Rue, was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Italian immigrant parents and grew up in the Italian neighborhoods of Connecticut and Montreal. Multilingual, she is primarily fluent in English, Italian, and French. Describing herself as “an avid keeper of customs, traditions, and secrets,” she is an authority on Italian folk magic and folk healing traditions.
She is the author of the influential book Italian Folk Magic: Rue’s Kitchen Witchery and the creatrix of Rue’s Kitchen, a website dedicated to preserving and sharing Italian folk practices. Her work has been instrumental in the modern resurgence of folk magic, helping practitioners connect with ancestral traditions in meaningful ways.
Mary-Grace resides in British Columbia, Canada. Connect with her at rueskitchen.com, on Instagram @rueskitchen, and on YouTube @MaryGraceFahrun..