The consecration and consumption of some type of food and drink, rite, is often a precursor to casual socializing, which commonly follows the gathering.
On the one hand, it helps participants to ground their energies (Ground and Center); on the other, it seems to be inspired by the Eucharistic bread and wine.
The core format of the ceremony, which goes back to Gerald Gardner, is one of the defining aspects of the neo-Pagan movement:
1. I'll start by casting the circle.
2. The quarters are being called.
3. Calling on the gods.
4. Increasing and using energy
5. A tiny symbolic cake and wine feast.
6. Ignoring the gods and quarters.
7. Bringing the loop to a close.
Cakes and wine or cakes and ale appears to be an allusion to Jeremiah 44, where Jewish women inform Jeremiah that they will return to burning incense and offering wine and "cakes bearing her image" to the "Queen of Heaven," because they "had plenty of food, prospered, and saw no evil" in the past when they followed those practices.
- By ceremonially dipping the tip of the athame (Tools of the Art) into a cup of wine, the wine is charged.
- The third-degree Initiation of Gardnerianism, in which the insertion of the athame into the cup is seen as a symbolic Great Rite, inspired the particular of this ritual.
- The cakes are also charged, and the gathering is then served wine and cakes.
You may also want to read more about Paganism here.
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