To Establish a Spiritual Hearth in Your Home

In Hagstone Witchery (along with many other paths of traditional magic), the hearth is a symbol that absolutely transcends the physical shape of the fireplace. For our ancestors, the hearth was life. It was where they made their food. It was where they warmed themselves after coming home from fishing. It was the light source they performed their nighttime chores around. Nowadays, it’s less common to have a fireplace in the average home. It’s even less common for the average family to have a fireplace that they cook on and use as their sole source of warmth. Houses that once consisted of a single room built around a central hearth are coveted relics—but most houses simply aren’t built that way anymore. But the hearth endures as a symbol of domestic life.

In traditional and folkloric witchcraft, there are many concepts (places of power, social figures, magical/household tools) which were once commonplace, physical presences that have now taken up a more symbolic place in our lives. The crossroads, the stranger’s burial, the hearth, the birthing beam, and so on are all places that exist in much greater rarity than they did for our ancestors. They still exist physically, yes, but it is somewhat less common to have such unfettered access to them. In cases where it is not possible to access these places of power, witches can create, conjure and cultivate them instead.

A spiritual hearth does not need to be a fireplace. It does not need to be a mantle. It doesn’t even need to be a stove. A spiritual hearth is something that one cultivates, either on their own or in cooperation with their housemates (physical, spiritual, or both). It can be any place that represents the heart of a witch’s domestic life and their partnership with their house spirits; it is the hub of one’s hearthcraft/hearthkeeping.

Setting up a Spiritual Hearth
The primary method the Hagstone Tradition uses to create and cultivate a spiritual hearth in is enchantment by repeated exposure to magic. Traditional and folk witches often use the Law of Contagion in to transform the energy of a particular object or space just by putting it into contact with a particular type of magic as often as possible. This can be carried out as simply as determining where you want your spiritual hearth to be and doing all of your hearthcraft (protective magic, home blessing, house spirit work, etc.) in that space.

Setting up a Hearth Altar is not strictly necessary, but it helps both because it allows the practitioner to have access to all of their hearthkeeping tools and paraphernalia in a handy place, and because it creates a focal point for all of the time and energy that is put into one’s hearthcraft. This space becomes separate from other altars and workspaces, completely dedicated to domestic life and one’s relationship with the house/hearth spirits, with my ancestors, and the hearth-centered elements of craft.

A Hearth Altar should be a shrine to the protection, blessing, and betterment of your home life and should include whatever you need to feel in tune with your spiritual hearth. One’s Hearth Altar can vary in size and content. It can be as simple as a candle lit daily to symbolize the hearthfire or as complex as a shelf full of various shrines and tools. It can be placed on a mantle or tucked onto a windowsill. What goes onto a Hearth Altar matters only because it is a representation of a witch’s collaborative relationship with their home and hearthcraft. A few suggestions for simple items one might incorporate into a Hearth Altar include:

• A candle to represent hearthfire

• Bowls for herbs, salts and powders that are used to bless, cleanse and reinforce wards

• Iron nails, keys or scribes used for various protective and grounding tasks

• Family photos

• A mirror used to repel or reflect unwanted forces

• Cinnamon sticks for warmth, happiness, and prosperity

• Statuary of any house gods or hearth deities you want to incorporate

• Gargoyles and other statues tasked with protection

• Brooms and whisks for cleansing

• Protective/cleansing candles (I exclusively use beeswax for this)

• Anything that symbolizes the epitome of home

Ritually Establishing a Spiritual Hearth
If you prefer to use a ritual to establish and awaken your spiritual hearth, you can do so with a very simple working. If you are setting up an altar, gather all of the items you want to incorporate into your Hearth Altar along with a candle to represent the light and warmth of the hearth. If you’re not setting up an altar, all you need is the candle. Dust, clean and cleanse the area you plan to use, saying:

As you dust: Dust, gone! Cobwebs, gone! Let only what shines remain.

As you clean (with soap): Grime, gone! Pests, gone! Let only what warms remain.

As you cleanse (in your preferred way): Phantoms, gone! Wraiths, gone! Let only what is good remain!

Place the hearth candle on what is to be your altar or in the middle of the space you wish to make your spiritual hearth. Light it, saying:

Hearth warm, hearth bright.
Awaken now with fire’s light.
I reignite the Hearth of old,
To warm the halls and stave off cold.

Hearth of spirit, not of stone.
I wake you now from memory’s bones.
To gather the spirits, to hold the threads,
To guard the door and keep out dread.

Ancient hearth, awake again,
To bless the kith and bless the kin.
I conjure now this Witch’s Hearth—
A blessed space, a house’s heart.

Keep strong our wards, keep safe our fates.
Bless the stove and bless the grates.
Keep out the vermin, ward the door.
O, Blessed Hearth, alight once more.

From here, you can give an offering to the spirit of the hearth or call on a specific spirit you wish to task with helping to keep your hearth and make an offering to them. If you are setting up an altar, place all the items in the way you prefer. Allow the candle to burn for a few moments before putting it out, saying: Though this candle be snuffed, the hearth remains warm.