What is a Hearth Witch?
A Hearth Witch is a home-centered Witch who focuses their energies on creating sacred space and weaving the magickal into the mundane. They do not usually feel the need to equip themselves with fancy tools or do elaborate rituals and like to get creative with what they have in their own kitchen or garden.
They like to craft things for the home, such as candles, sewing projects, witchy home décor, protective amulets or anything that enhances daily living or serves to create sacred space.
Many think Hearth Witches need to live in a little cottage in the country, but you can be a Hearth Witch anywhere, including the big city. Urban Hearthwitches have to contend with the energetic challenges of scarce wilderness, noise, construction and many humans in close vicinity. For us urban witches, our craft is a little different than countryside witches, but no less powerful.
Hearth Witches share some qualities with Kitchen Witches, Green Witches and Hedge Witches, and these can sometimes overlap within the same witch. Their practices all carry an earthy, folky quality, including a love of using herbs in cooking or medicine making.
Hedge Witch is a term sometimes used interchangeably with Hearth Witch, although Hedge Witch can also refer to a Witch who spends their time ‘flying the hedge’, or walking in the liminal realm, traveling in spirit. They can do this through entering a trance-like meditative state, seeking guidance from the spirits, and bringing back those messages to the earthly realm.
I personally identify as both a Hearth Witch and a Hedge Witch, as I spend a lot of energy on keeping my home and garden with spiritual intent and sensitivity, as well as journeying into the liminal realm to gain insight on my spiritual path.
For me, being a Hearth Witch is also a path of embodying and radiating a sense of being at home within oneself and tending one’s inner flame of spirit, which I call the Hearth Flame within. For me, Hearth Witchery involves developing the ability to create a sense of home wherever I am and share that with others.
This means that I not only prioritise keeping my home in a sacred way, but I tend to my body and spirit with a similar reverence. My path involves embodying the divine feminine, an energy of inner groundedness and radiance that comes from tending my Hearth Flame within and without.
How did I become a Hearth Witch?
My path to Hearthcraft was a reluctant one, at first. In my early twenties I started to identify as a Witch but wasn’t quite sure what type of Witch I was yet, as this takes time and experimentation to discover. I never would have thought at the time that being a Hearth Witch would appeal to me, as I wasn’t the most domestic person, nor did it sound very exciting!
I joined covens and read a ton of books, learning about all kinds of witchy perspectives and paths. I felt like I could go in several different directions, but soon I got pregnant and became a mother, which narrowed my options.
As anyone who’s had a baby knows, life gets suddenly quite mundane. Housekeeping becomes everything. Besides caring for an infant, there’s constant laundry, cooking, cleaning, and endless chores to stay afloat.
I felt as though my magickal practice was slipping away, as it seemed I never had time for rituals or anything more than the odd prayer before passing out, exhausted. Thankfully a witch friend at the time introduced me to the book ‘The Way of the Hedge Witch’, which gave me hope that I could still lead my life in a way that was a realistic blend of my beliefs and my new home-based lifestyle.
The book revived my spirit and grounded me in a way of living that became habitual over the years, especially since I have been working from home all this time. I still recommend this book for anyone interested in Hearth Witchery, as it will not only help you bring magick into your housekeeping chores but also feel more deeply nourished and revitalised when you’re at home.
Creating Sacred Space & Weaving Magick into the Mundane
Firstly, I feel that the word chores can bring up really bleh feelings, so why don’t we change them to housekeeping rituals?
In our housekeeping rituals, we keep in mind our goal- To create a sanctuary, a sacred space, a dwelling for the divine- which nourishes us and our loved ones.
So, our housekeeping rituals become an act of service- in my case, to the Goddess in her many guises, as well as to my spiritual well-being.
The Greek goddess Hestia or Roman Vesta is a goddess specifically of the Hearth, and she was honoured in many ways, including by the Vestal Virgins who tended her flame in ancient temples. But, you don’t have to honour any specific deity to be a Hearth Witch.
Housekeeping rituals can be a service to your own soul as well as whatever you feel is divinity. It is about creating a space that allows the divine energy of the universe to flow through it. It is about grounding the sacred into one’s abode.
I have taught a Hearth Magick Workshop on how to make your home a sacred space and weave magick into the mundane. I am thinking of offering it again in the near future, so if you are interested, let me know!
Here are 10 ways to bring more magick into your home:
–Start the day with a land-honouring grounding practice. I do a smoke cleansing ritual to the spirits of the land I live on, the Indigenous peoples of this land, my ancestors, and give thanks for being able to make my home here. You may wish to acknowledge the 4 elements, or create a daily ritual that grounds you into the place you live, its history and people.
–Sanctify the hearth of your home and spend time there daily to replenish. The hearth of your home is the sacred power spot or energy centre of the home. It is different for each dwelling, but it is the place that you feel most relaxed, nourished and grounded. Often, if you have people over to visit, they naturally gravitate to this area. Once you have located this area, sanctify it by cleansing and blessing it, creating a altar there, decorating it in a way that honours its spiritual essence and tend it with love. Spend more time there, doing things that nourish your soul or make you feel good.
–Surround yourself with colours and textures that speak to your soul rather than the latest fashions. Use natural fabrics and items in your décor, like found rocks, homegrown herbs, art you’ve made or creations that hold meaning for you. A Hearth Witch’s home is soul-nourishing and meaningful, and that may or may not follow the decorating trends of the moment.
–Set up a kitchen altar. Regardless of whether the kitchen is the hearth of your home or not, you are likely going to be spending significant time there. Having an altar with beautiful, inspiring objects, seasonal flowers, candles and other items that speak to your soul will help take the edge off those long hours cooking and cleaning. It will serve as a reminder of the sacredness of the work you are doing, and infuse it with positive energy.
–Keep a balance of elements in each room. Earth, air, fire and water are best balanced in harmony in each room. You can represent each element through the colours you use, such as warm colours for fire, light colours for air, blues for water and earth tones for earth. Represent the elements with items such as candles, incense, feathers, bowls, flowers, shells, etc. Each room will have a unique elemental requirement based on its purpose, but that is a whole other topic, so just try to have a general elemental balance.
–Listen to the house itself and honour it like a living being. My house’s personality is like a classy elderly woman with low tolerance for clutter and a need for quiet. She is discerning as to who she will let in, isn’t fond of parties, loud noise, or chaos. She is over 100 years old and the floors are very creaky, full of dents and character, but charming. Her and I get along quite well, except I find her standards for cleanliness a tad oppressive. She reminds me that she has only lived this long because of her high standards and she rewards our hard work with her safety and comfort. She also encourages spiritual work and attunement to higher frequencies, but she won’t let us get too ungrounded. The garden has made her very happy. Your house has a personality too! Every house has its unique vibe and will encourage its stewards to live a certain way. If you work in harmony with your house, it will take care of you. Take time to get to know them and what their needs are.
–Think of clutter as negative energy. Because it is. It can create stagnation, clutter in the psyche and hamper the energy flow in your home. As much as decluttering can be annoying or exhausting, your home and psyche will be much freer and healthier when de-cluttered. That isn’t to say its a problem to keep meaningful, beautiful things around you, and you don’t need to be a minimalist! Keep whatever serves your happiness, but get rid of anything that is never used, collecting dust, broken, or saps your energy.
–As you are cooking, try saying a little prayer or giving thanks to all the people who made it possible for each ingredient to make it to your table. Try stirring or frying loving intentions and wishes into your food. When I am stirring a pot, I stir clockwise to put out a wish or intention into the food. I don’t necessarily have a rhyming charm to say, I just speak from the heart, often silently, sending my love into the food.
–Think of the more thankless chores as nurturing actions. Things like doing the dishes, folding laundry and picking up after kids can be really thankless, as the results are only experienced for mere seconds sometimes. Remember that every dish washed is in service of nourishing someone with food, every shirt folded is to keep someone warm, and every toy picked up is both an accident prevented and an example/teaching to your kids for the future. Life really is in the details and I believe the little things DO matter- especially when we see them as the building blocks of the goal and the big picture.
–Make your workspace a sanctuary. Whether you work from home or at an office, it can be very beneficial to bring some good vibes to your desk and workspace. Crystals, candles, aromatherapy sprays and inspiring images can all help boost your mood and productivity. One of my fave ways to absorb negative vibes and keep a nice workspace in a non-obtrusive way is through using salt bowls. They not only help cleanse the energy but also represent earth and water. Add to your desk a tealight candle and a little feather or cute image of a bird, and you’ve got all the 4 elements covered!
Take time to enjoy your space! Commune with the divine regularly. Let it be your temple. My current home is a bit high maintenance, so sometimes when I am feeling exhausted, I realise it’s because I forgot to actually enjoy the sanctuary I’ve created and take some time to simply BE in it, and let it serve its purpose.
What do you do to create a feeling of sanctuary or soul-nourishment in your home?
How do you feel about cleaning and other housework?
If your current home was a person, what would they be like?
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As a Witch who makes her home and practice in Tkaronto (Toronto) Ontario, I deeply thank the original stewards of this land: The Mississaugas of the Credit, Mississaugas of Scugog, Alderville, Hiawatha & Curve Lake; The Chippewas of Beausoleil, Rama & Georgina island, the Haudenosaunee and Wendat nations. I acknowledge the resilience of the First Nation, Inuit and Metis people who live and work here in the present, in a system of inequity and oppression. I am working on uncolonising my own practice, amplifying Indigenous voices and supporting Indigenous communities in whatever way I can.