Some Notes: The Hearthstone
The hearthstone symbolizes the ancient hearth, as well as the very heart of a family or coven, it also helps to connect us with our ancestors and other household spirits. It can be used to symbolize hearth and fire deities as well. Any items to be blessed can be laid upon the hearthstone as you do so. This is a very useful tool indeed.
The most popular places to hide witch bottles used to be under the hearthstone or doorstep. The seventeenth century witch-bellarmines of East Anglia have mostly been found buried beneath the threshold or the hearthstone of old buildings.
It is interesting to note that in old Mexican lore the umbilical cord is to be burned in the hearth to detach the baby from unclean, antisocial prenatal influences. In this lore the hearth symbolizes the unity of those who live together and endows this unity with sacred characteristics.
There is an old Somerset tradition that says you must draw a cross on a new hearthstone before you light the first fire – but not with an elder stave.
It was at the hearth where communication with spirits and ancestors was practiced and it was on the hearthstone where… Continue reading
Hallowed Hearth
“Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.” ~ Joseph Campbell
Throughout history the hearth has had a special significance in the home. For ancient cultures, the hearth was the center of the home. Nearly every household in history had a hearth, in one form or another, which was particularly respected by each member of the family, but typically cared for and safeguarded by the household matriarch. The fire had greater meaning than merely the source of light and warmth it symbolized the lifeline of the family and its ancestry.
In Modern days, the kitchen is still a focal point of the home, as is the fireplace. Even the fire pit out in the backyard is still a place around which humanity instinctively congregates. Personally, the sound of the furnace “firing up” is very welcome in my home during winter.
Finding the sacred in your home is as easy as stopping for a minute, and thinking about the sources of heat, warmth, comfort, food and togetherness in your home. This may be the ornamental fireplace, the stove, the fire pit outside, even if you lack all these things, there is still someplace in your home where… Continue reading
What’s It Worth To You?
If you are never late for work, yet never on time at an Open Circle?
If you always try to keep your promises, but feel justified in not showing up to help out at Pagan Pride Day like you said you would?
If you will go out of your way to buy that expensive latte at your favorite coffee shop, but never make an appearance at the local Pagan Coffee Meet & Greet?
If you donate to the food bank through work every year at Christmas, but somehow never remember to bring a can of beans when the local Pagan clergy are collecting?
If you spend a fortune on cheap beer and yet have never bought a jug of mead from your local Heathen brewer?
If you always mean to do this or that ritual, but never get around to it for any real reason?
If you’ll spend $200 and a weekend drinking with your buddies, but never show up for Pagan Pub Night?
If you go to the pharmacy and buy up all the bottles labeled “herbal” but have never been to the actual herbalist in town?
If you would always offer to do the dishes after having dinner… Continue reading
Hearth Craft
Hearth Craft
“An rud a nitear sa chuil, thig e dh’ionnsaigh an teine” ~ What’s done in the corner will come to the hearth.
“No matter where I serve my guests, it seems they like the kitchen best” ~ A decorative plate that once hung in my Great Grandmother’s kitchen.
In these modern times, in Western society especially, the home of today is centered on the television. The furniture is placed strategically around it; the couch or sofa faces it and the faces of the family are also turned towards it. Often our most prized family photos, trophies, mementos and the like rest on or near it. Surely if archaeologists one day dig up the bones of our civilization, they will think the television was our God.
But before primetime TV and soaps operas took over our lives, before Nintendo and Xbox, the household and everyone in it would gather around the family stove, and before that, the hearth. The hearth was such in integral part of European (and Colonial) culture that there was no separating hearth and home, fireside and family. In fact, the word for “hearth” in Latin is “focus”.
Hearthcraft is working with the magick and… Continue reading
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