House Blessing Ritual
“This is a full-length, multi-step ritual to bless your home. It’s basic and uses the four physical elements of earth, water, air, and fire to purify and bless the structure and the space. If you like, you may follow this house blessing with the Threshold Protection Ritual.”
Personal Note: I think this would be an ideal follow up to a hearth sanctification ritual. The same candle could be used in both. I don’t think rubbing honey or fat on a door-frame is practical; I would use sweet almond oil blended with essential oils of rose, oud, and frankincense, if I didn’t have time to infuse an oil for a month or so. Sandalwood, citrus, rosemary, or lavender would be good too.
Materials:
• Cleaning supplies
• Purification incense
• Censer or heatproof bowl with sand
• Charcoal tablet (if using loose incense)
• Matches or lighter
• Candle and candleholder (color your choice)
• Small cup water
• Pinch salt
- Repair whatever needs to be repaired in your house. Thoroughly clean walls, floors, windows, cupboards, stairs, and so forth. As you do, move counterclockwise through your house, finishing by sweeping dirt out the back door and shaking dust rags and emptying wash water out the back door as well.
- Beginning at the physical analogue of your spiritual hearth, light purification incense. Something like frankincense, sandalwood, or cedar would work well too if you prefer to use a purchased stick or cone.
- Carry the incense clockwise through the house, going through each room. Don’t forget to waft the smoke into cupboards and behind doors as well. As you do, say:
With fire and air I bless this home.
- Return to the hearth with the incense and replace it there.
- Light the candle. Carry it clockwise through each room of the house as well, saying:
With light and flame I bless this house.
- Return the candle to the hearth.
- Take the cup of water and add the salt to it. Carry it clockwise through each room of the house again. Dip your finger in the salt water and touch the outside of each door-frame, then the inside, and the frame of each window and cupboard, saying:
With water and salt I bless this house.
If you prefer, rather than simply touching your finger to the frame or door, you can draw a simple symbol that represents blessing to you. Return the water to the hearth.
- Stand at your hearth and say:
Fire, water, air, and earth, bless my home and all those who dwell in it.
“Homes have sunk into anonymity; building rituals have almost entirely disappeared…The individual no longer has any attachment to a house that has been passed down for generations. In losing all of this, we have lost a piece of ourselves, one of our most solid anchors, and like dead leaves carried by the wind, we settle one day here, and the next day there, driven by the whims of our professions, but we no longer bring the embers from our hearths with us, and the surviving spirits weep in abandoned houses.”
Refs:
- The House Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock
- The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices by Claude Lecouteux
