The House Witch: Your Complete Guide to Creating a Magical Space with Rituals and Spells for Hearth and Home - Arin Murphy-Hiscock 2018

Accessing the Energy of Your Spiritual Hearth
Your Spiritual Hearth

One of the reasons for creating and maintaining a spiritual hearth is the power and energy that it provides for the household. It’s a symbiotic relationship: the household creates energy that feeds the spiritual hearth, which in turn nourishes and lends power to the household.

Theoretically you are always connected to your spiritual hearth, but at times it can be hard to sense the connection, especially when you are tired or stressed. When you are in need of energy to replenish your own or to shore you up, you have two options: you can draw on your spiritual hearth, or you can draw on the energy of the earth. The latter is a technique called grounding.

To draw on the energy of the earth, imagine your personal energy extending a tendril of awareness down through the water, through the earth under the building, to the center of the earth. Feel how rooted you are, how connected to the world and its energy.

You can also use this technique to access the energy of your spiritual hearth. Visualize a tendril of your awareness extending to your spiritual hearth, wherever you feel that may be. You might visualize the physical location within your home that you have designated your spiritual hearth or a shrine you have constructed (see Chapter 6), or you might reach out for the feeling the energy of your spiritual hearth creates. Through that tendril, absorb the energy of your spiritual hearth. Withdraw the tendril back into your energy center when you are done.

If you’re unfamiliar with grounding or would like a more structured technique, here’s a more detailed step-by-step process for drawing on the energy of your spiritual hearth.

1. Visualize your physical representation of your spiritual hearth or your virtual hearth. Imagine yourself standing before it.

2. Visualize a flame burning on it—a candle, an oil lamp, a needfire, or some other form. This flame represents the spiritual power of your hearth, the energy you and your family have put into it as well as the energy it produces on its own.

3. Hold your hands out to it. Imagine your hands feeling the warmth of the flame. The warmth is a form of that spiritual energy.

4. Draw that warmth into your hands and feel it flow up your arms and into your body. Let it fill up your heart and spirit. Absorb as much as you need.

5. When you feel energized, balanced, relaxed, or however you wanted the spiritual hearth to make you feel, move your hands away from the flame and place your palms together. This closes the energy connection you have made to the flame and prevents you from absorbing too much of the energy.

6. Thank your spiritual hearth in your own words and allow the visualization to fade. Open your eyes and take a few deep, slow breaths. Make sure you feel yourself fully back in the moment. Stretch gently if you like.

If you prefer an alternate visualization, instead of feeling the warmth of the flame, visualize yourself absorbing the light the flame casts and absorb the energy that way.

You can also channel this energy into objects or spaces as necessary. Visualize one hand absorbing the energy of the spiritual hearth and extend your other hand toward the object or area you wish to fill or empower with the energy of the spiritual hearth. This goal or target may be physically located in the real world with you or elsewhere, or it may be something intangible, such as a situation. With this method, you are acting as a conduit: the hearth’s energy passes through you and into the target.

Cauldron and Water Energy at the Spiritual Hearth

Usually the energy of the spiritual hearth is referred to in terms of light and heat. This is a direct result of the primary connection between the hearth and sacred fire. However, if working with fire energy is uncomfortable for you, simply replace the visualization of a flame with a cauldron of cool water imbued with healing, comfort, and serenity. For example, in the previous visualization, you can imagine placing your hands in the cauldron of water to draw the coolness of the energy up, or simply cup your hands around the cool cauldron and absorb the energy that way. (The cauldron as a symbol is explored in Chapter 4.) Experiment with both the fire and cauldron visualizations, get to know how your personal energy reacts with each symbol and kind of energy, and use them in different situations.