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
Ye Olde Reading List
I came across this old reading list on Mysticwicks the other day. I like the MW Magazine (I have a couple of articles in early editions) but have neglected the forum for a while now. Anyways it seems 4 years later people are still using this reading list and I realized its not on the Hedge!
It used to be, back in the early days when the Hedge was lavender, pink and pastel green … written by hand in novice HTML code. Remember those days? hehehehe
So for old times sake, here is an old reading list. Not sure if all these books would be on this list today, and I wouldn’t be so bold and arrogant as to separate things into categories such as Beginner or Advanced. But I will let it stand as it was some 4 years ago (or however long its been, has it been that long???)
You can find a somewhat updated list here.
Some Book Suggestions for a Nature Witch
* Books with an asterisk are on Juniper’s favorite list.*
I would recommend reading at least one book in each subject group before moving on to the next level (beginner to intermediate, intermediate to… Continue reading
To Fly By Night
Hoofprints in the Wildwood
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