THE SACRED HEARTH

It is in our homes that the first resonance of the sacred lies and where we create a reflection of hallowed space.

The business of the home rotates around the hearth- it is the place where people meet to cook, eat and talk together. It is the traditional place to house the shrine of the guardian spirit of the dwelling, and should provide a focus for religious meditation and worship within the household. The hearth has been the centre of human life for at least 400,000 years. In Celtic tradition the ty teallach or 'hearth' was the heart of the home, and fire was often literally placed centrally in ancient dwelling places, such as Bronze and Iron Age roundhouses. Imagine frozen, blustery winter days, when there was little work that could be done on the land, and when the hours of daylight were short and the nights long. Fire meant the difference between survival and death, between comfort and cold pain. It was the centre of activity, where everyone gathered to eat and cook, to sit and warm themselves, and listen to the stories of the bards. The Latin word for it was focus, since it is the focus of the home. We call our coven a hearth, because it is the spiritual nourishing place of its family of members.

Nowadays, most people do not have a big open fire where they cook and sit in the evenings. Many simply have an electric hob in the kitchen and central heating in the living room. This doesn’t matter; remember that the hearth is a symbol for the hospitality and living spirit of the home. By connecting with the energies of the hearth, you can invite ancient magic into your life and learn to make your home a happier, more attractive place. Your home is your personal temple and this should not be overlooked; it is here that the magic begins. It doesn’t matter whether you are living in a bed-sit in the middle of the city, or a pretty cottage in the countryside. The principle is the same. It is a refuge, a place of worship, the shrine of the sacred flame, and a celebration of life.

For the ancients, the hearth-place was also the altar of the household gods, where offerings could be made; when you being to think of your home as having indwelling spirit it can make a huge difference to the quality of life within it. You can use your mantelpiece as an altar, and many people do, or you can make a small shrine or niche beside it. What you put on that altar is up to you. You might want statues of gods and goddesses or a an image to represent the house spirit. You could bring the outside in by adding stones, crystals, leaves, plus candles and your magical tools if this seems appropriate. Change the flowers often and decorate it for the Eight Festivals. As the place of protection, decorate it with shiny horse brasses, which attract sun energy and deflect negativity.

You can feel the atmosphere of a dwelling as soon as you walk through the door and this indicates the satisfaction or otherwise of the house spirit. Is your home welcoming and comfortable to you? A disordered home may reflect the chaotic relationships and natures of the people who live within it. An extremely untidy dwelling is not cosy- and neither is a house kept as a show exhibit. It doesn’t take expensive furniture to make it a home, but only a bit of thought applied to colours, flowers, plants, pets, and pictures of family and friends. We all need sunlight to stop us getting depressed, so let in as much light and fresh air as possible. Fill it with the reviving green energy of living plants. Get rid of fluorescent tubes and use more friendly lighting. You can use candles and oil lamps instead of a fire to symbolise the living flame of the hearth. Representing the light of the spirit and the presence of the living Deity, candles play an important part in many rituals.

Every house has its own spirit, what we detect as an ‘atmosphere’ when we enter it. A witch should be aware of this spirit and make sure that it is honoured in the proper way. It was once the custom to make gifts to the spirit before entering a dwelling, offering it bread and salt. In bygone Rome this spirit was called the Lar familiaris (‘household lar’) and was given daily offerings of food and monthly gifts of garlands, all placed on the hearth shrine. The Lar protected the house and its wealth. Its presence was invoked on family occasions such as birthdays, weddings, births and deaths. Legends of house spirits are found throughout the world, from the Hawaiian Menahune to the Scottish and northern English Brownie, the Spanish Duende, the German Hausmänner, the Russian Igosha, the Finnish Kodin-Haltia, and the North American Shvod and Cambodian Àràk.

The first thing that people did when they moved into a new house was to greet its resident spirit. For example, the Dĕduška (‘Grandfather’) is a Russian house fairy who appears as an old man covered in hair, often in the likeness of a family patriarch. He wears a red shirt, cloak and a red belt. He lives behind the oven or near the threshold of the house, in the cupboard, or in the stable, sometimes with his wife and children. He will protect the family, their home and their livestock from bad luck, keep the servants in order and do all kinds of chores about the place while everyone is sleeping. He is especially keen on spinning. To keep him happy he should be given something from each meal and white linen should be placed in his favourite room. The family that pleases its fairy will prosper in all things but the family that fails to do him honour or uses bad language in his presence will suffer his anger. He will revenge himself on the crops and cattle or leave the house altogether. The unprotected family will then fall ill and die.To entice an alienated spirit home, the inhabitants must dress in their best clothes and go out in the evening and walk about their courtyard saying "Dĕduška Domovoy come and live with us and tend our flocks". Salted bread is wrapped in white cloth and put in the hall or courtyard while the family bows to the four quarters, praising the fairy and asking him to forgive them and return. Without a Dĕduška Domovoy a house is unprotected, so when a new home is built certain rituals must be performed to gain one. The first creature to cross the threshold is in some danger so a cat or cock is thrown inside. Some of the first bread baked in the house is broken and buried in the right hand corner of the attic with an invocation to a spirit to come and protect the place and obey a new master. The Dĕduška Domovoy is sometimes thought to be an incarnation of an ancestral spirit.

When a family moves house, they will make every effort to take their house fairy with them. At the old house an elderly woman will clean the cinders from the hearth into a pan which she covers with a cloth. She then opens all the windows and invites the fairy to leave this house and go to the new one. She takes the cinders to the new house where the master and mistress wait with bread and salt at the gate. They bow low, take the pan into the house, and empty the cinders into the new grate. The pan is broken and buried in a corner of the room.

Brownies are solitary fairies found in southern Scotland and the northern counties of England. They become attached to particular houses or families and while the humans are asleep, they work about the house or farm, cleaning, tidying up, or help with the brewing. When the cock crows it is to let the brownie know it is time to go to bed. The only reward they ask is a bowl of cream or best milk. They are very good at hiding and can make themselves disappear at will, but those who have seen them describe them as small, shaggy haired and ugly, with flat faces. They are often ragged in appearance, but they are offended by gifts of clothes and will promptly disappear forever if given a new suit, so if you have a helpful house fairy don’t be tempted to reward it in this fashion. Brownies have a mischievous side and like to play tricks on humans, such as rattling the fire irons, smashing crockery, hiding objects, or making a mess. They are easily offended, and if they are mistreated they turn into destructive boggarts. House fairies often have a mischievous side and like to play tricks on the human inhabitants of a dwelling, particularly if they are not getting their due. Such pranks might include rattling the fire irons, smashing crockery, hiding objects, or just making a mess.

To attract and honour a brownie, make an altar in a small wall niche or on the mantle shelf over the fireplace, since this is the traditional shrine of the house spirit. Place on it an image that represents the spirit, or something that you associate with the sanctity and work of the home. Place regular offerings of flowers on the altar, especially at family gatherings and occasions. Tell the fairy all of the family news. Never make demands and place offerings on the altar instead of saying ‘thank you’, which brownies don’t like- where brownies are concerned the mysteries should not be acknowledged with words or discussed with others.

As well as protective ancestral spirits, the goddess of hearth and fire dwells within every hearth, whether large or small. In many ancient religions, a fire was kept constantly burning to represent the presence of the divine. These would be ceremonially put out and relit on special occasions. Nowadays, you probably don’t have a fire in your home all the time, if at all. But you can celebrate the living flame with candles, joss sticks, incense on charcoal and oil lamps. The domestic goddess protects the home, safeguarding the well-being and security of the inhabitants, as well as its wealth and supplies. To make sure that your home stays under her protection, honour her with a fire in the hearth, or a candle on the mantelpiece, and recognise that a home needs a heart.

In Greek myth the hearth goddess is Hestia. She refused a throne on Olympus to look after the hearth, and never took part in the wars and arguments of the gods. Instead she was the calm centre, the safe haven of the home, where people could seek refuge and shelter. She was worshipped as that centre, whether the centre of the city, the house, even the centre of the world, the omphalos (‘the navel’) at Delphi. As the domestic hearth is the sacred centre of the home, the hearth of the gods is the centre of the cosmos. According to Plato, the twelve Olympian gods, who represent the twelve constellations of the zodiac, circle the House of Heaven, while Hestia remains still at the centre, tending the hearth, which is called ‘the Everlasting Place’.

She is the gentlest and most principled of all the gods, and the hearth is both her altar and shrine. She represents security and the solemn duty of hospitality. She presided over all hearth and altar fires, and she was worshipped every day with prayers offered to her before and after meals. Her hearth was in the care of the woman of the home and before each meal something was thrown on the fire as an offering. Each city had a public hearth dedicated to her and in new cities the public hearth would be lit from that of another city; this ensured that every city had a living heart and spirit, which is something that new cities often seem to lack today.

Hestia was the first born of the Olympian deities and last released by her father Cronos (Father Time), who had swallowed all his offspring to prevent them usurping his throne. Thus it is said that she is both the beginning and the end- alpha and omega. Her name, according to Plato, means 'the essence of things'; a formless essence symbolised by the flame, which flows through everything that has life.

Vesta is the virgin fire goddess of Rome, equivalent to the Greek Hestia. She refused a place in heaven, preferring to remain on Earth, tending the fires in homes and temples. She was worshipped in private households and every day, during a meal, a small cake was thrown on the fire for her; it was good luck if it burnt with a crackle. She was also worshipped in an important state cult, maintained in a sacred building on the Forum Romanum with a circular chamber housing an eternal flame that was never allowed to die out. It is said that the cult was founded by king Numa Pompilius (715-673 BCE) and the sacred fire burned until 394 CE. Vesta is usually depicted as an austere woman, wearing a long dress and with her head covered. In her left hand, she holds a sceptre. She represents shelter and the safety and security of life.

Vesta's temple was served by six chaste priestesses called the Vestal Virgins. When a position became vacant, the Pontifex Maximus ("high priest") would select a girl from candidates offered by the best Patrician families. She had to be between the age of six and ten, fair of face, and without physical defect or blemish. The new priestess was then taken by the hand with the words "I take you, you shall be the priestess of Vesta and you shall fulfil the sacred rites for the safety of the Roman people". Her hair would be cut, and then she would be dressed in bridal white, with a white fillet binding her hair, and a white veil. During the period she was to serve as a Vestal, the priestess undertook to keep a vow of chastity. After thirty years, Vestals were able to leave and marry if they wished. Their elevated positions and personal wealth ensured that they were much sought after as wives.

While in service the Vestal Virgins enjoyed enormous privileges: their person was sacred, they were free from the control of the pater, and they were allowed to own and dispose of property as they saw fit. They even had the prerogative of freeing criminals sentenced to death. When they went out, fasces were carried before them to symbolise their authority.

The Vestals' chief function was to tend the ignis inextinctus ('undying fire') and the priestess who neglected her duty was flogged. The Romans regarded hearth and home as sacrosanct, the foundation on which the stability of Roman society rested. The Hearth of Vesta symbolised the spirit and permanence of Rome itself: to offend against it was to bring bad luck to Rome. If the fire went out, it had to be rekindled in the ancient way, by the use of friction.

The cult of Vesta probably originated in tribal society, when a fire was the central focus of the village. This may have been attended by women chosen as its priestesses, forerunners of the Vestal Virgins. Vesta symbolises the purity of fire, so it is appropriate that her priestesses should be virgins.

Brighid is pan-Celtic goddess, appearing as Brighid or Brigit in Ireland, Brigantia in Northern England, Bride in Scotland, and Brigandu in Brittany. Her name is variously interpreted as meaning "Fiery Arrow", "The Bright One", and "the Powerful One "or" The High One. She was born at sunrise and immediately a tower of flame emerged from her forehead that stretched from earth to heaven. She is said to be the daughter of the Dagda ('good god') and the wife of Bres. Her face is either pied, half youthful and half crone, or half beautiful and half ugly.

Brighid is a triple goddess, and some say that there are three Brighids: the Brighid of poetry, prophecy and inspiration who invented Ogham; the Brighid of healing waters and midwifery; and lastly the Brighid of fire who oversees the hearth, and the forge and who is the patroness of craftsmen and women. This triplication was represented by the Druidic sign of awen ('inspiration'), known as the fiery arrows of Brighid, since it is represented by three shafts of sunlight. It was likely Brighid who inspired the line in the famous Song of Amergin: "I am a fire in the head". She also has aspects as a goddess of fertility, livestock and warfare.

Her festival is Imbolc (2^nd February) also called Oimelc ('ewe's milk') which marked the first stirrings of spring when young sheep were born, and when ewes came into milk. On this day, the first of the Celtic spring, she was said to use her white wand to "breathe life into the mouth of the dead winter", meaning the white fire of the sun awakened the land. Her festival became Candlemas when church candles were blessed. It remained a popular occasion in Celtic areas and most of its customs are plainly Pagan. Brighid was invited into the home by the woman of the house, in the form of a doll or corn dolly dressed in maiden white. Oracles were taken from the ashes of the hearth fire, which people examined for a sign that Brighid had visited, i.e. a mark that looked like a swan's footprint; if found, it was a lucky omen (the swan was an ancient attribute of the goddess Brighid). Many Irish homes still have a Brighid's cross hung up. This four equal-armed cross was originally a solar symbol.

The goddess's chief shrine was at Kildare (Cull Dara = 'Temple of the Oak') where a perpetual flame was kept burning behind a circular hedge of shrubs or thorns. It was tended by a college of nineteen virgin priestesses called Daughters of the Flame. Each day a different priestess was responsible for maintaining the flame from sundown till sundown. On the twentieth day, Brighid herself tended the flame. No man was ever allowed to enter the Shrine or have contact with the priestesses; any male who did went mad. With the coming of Christianity, the priestesses became nuns of the abbey said to have been founded by 'Saint Brigit' and kept the flame burning for another thousand years, until the Vatican decreed it was merely a Pagan ritual and ordered it extinguished. During the Vatican modernisation program of the 1960's St. Brigit was decanonised.

Gabija is the Lithuanian fire goddess and her cult has survived for thousands of years. She has been variously imagined as a cat, a bird and a winged woman dressed in red. Her name is derived from the verb apgaubti, which means ‘to cover up’ and refers to the practice of the mistress of the house vigilantly banking the fire at night so that it will neither go out, nor spread from the hearth.

Care was taken not to offend the goddess. The fire could only be extinguished with cold, clean water and people were not allowed to spit into it. When it was being lit, everyone had to remain silent. The goddess would be offered salt sprinkled on the fire (to make it crackle) with the words 'Sacred Gabija, be nourished’ and a glass of clean water was placed on the hearth with the words “Bathe and rest, Fiery One".

She is attended only by women, particularly the head woman of the clan or house. She is invoked at all family rituals and occasions, since without her they would not be possible. She is also a mediator, carrying prayers to the other gods. Like Brighid, she had special festivals at the beginning of February dedicated to the renewal of the hearth fire and the household gods. During every Baltic festival a fire was lit in some form. An Eternal Flame once burned at Sventaragis Valley tended by priestesses, known as Vaidilutes.

The fire was believed to be the connection with the world of the ancestors who continued to live in the hearth flame. A similar belief existed among the Celts who left offerings on the hearth for the departed spirits of the ancestors at Samhain.

Svasti is the Hindu goddess of the home and its prosperity. Her symbol is the swastika, an emblem of the sun and also of the fire drill, two sticks which are rotated to create fire. Hindus believe that the cosmos was created by a similar twirling or churning method, when the gods and demons (i.e. two opposing forces or polarities acting together), churned the oceans to find amrita the drink of immortality. The serpent Ananta (‘Endless’) uprooted the mountain Mandara and the gods took it to the ocean to churn the waters, using the serpent Vasuki as 'the cord'. First the constellations appeared and at last the physician of the gods bearing a bowl of amrita. The process of fire-lighting represents the act of creation, the generating of the divine spark of life and as a ritual act recreates the process of Cosmic Creation.

As the dwelling place of the living flame, the hearth was a holy place, a threshold between this world and the realm of the gods. Its rising smoke took prayers to the gods of the Upperworld, while the gods of the Worlds Below could be contacted through the hearthstone.

In many tales, the hearth and chimney it is the entrance and egress of spirits. In lore, various fairies are said to live behind the hearth, or to come down the chimney. Remember the tales of Father Christmas? He originates in the stories of Siberian shamans whose spirits flew out through the smoke-hole of the hut to travel the Otherworld after they had taken the red and white fly agaric mushrooms, which give Santa his costume. [i]

[i] The story that father Christmas wears red and white as the result of a Coca-Cola promotion is an urban myth, and it is more likely that, like the red caps of other fairies, his costume associates him with the fly agaric mushroom. Like the northern shaman, he enters the house via the smoke hole or chimney, or perhaps, like other fairies and spirits, his method of entrance and egress is via the hearth. It is usually claimed that he originated with St Nicholas, a fourth century bishop who saved three sisters from prostitution by leaving bags of gold in their stockings, which were hung up to dry. However, he has origins that are far more ancient. It is possible that he devolved from the Scandinavian/Germanic god Odin or Woden, who rode the skies at Yule wearing a red, bloody, flayed animal skin, punishing the wicked and rewarding the good. It seems likely that he passed into English folklore, traceable in the character that appears as master of ceremonies in the mumming plays, and as the King of Christmas.