WiccaCraft for Families

Chapter 4

THE MAGIC OF HOME

    Home. Just the very word conjures up for us many images, many feelings.

   Home is where the heart is. Where is the heart? And what is the heart? What is the connection between Heart and Hearth?

   Our hearts are the center of our being. On a physical level the heart is the centralized pump responsible for circulating blood throughout our bodies. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients. Thus our heart enables these lifegiving substances to reach their faraway destinations within our bodies. On an energetic level the heart has to do with our ability to give and receive love - lifeblood of another sort.

   We may use the word "heartstrings" to refer to our loving connections to others. "Heartstrings" are the energetic equivalent of the circulation system; they allow us to both give out and receive the life-giving substance of love - circulating all of this energy through the constant movement of the heart chakra.

   Similarly, a hearth is the center of a home. Traditionally homes have included a fireplace of some sort, large or small, where meals were cooked and the family gathered for warmth, light and companionship during the darkness and cold. From this hearthplace of nurturance the members of the family were enabled to go forth again into the world and to their daily tasks.

   We frequently use analogies of fire when referring to our emotions, particularly love. The "fires of passion", hearts "aflame with love", are examples that spring to mind.

   Both heart and hearth are central sources of warmth and life.

   Though this modern era of central heating may have rendered the family fireplace obsolete in many instances, our homes (with or without fireplaces) are still our heart/hearth centers of warmth, light and life. They are our base of operations, our "center", our safe haven and refuge. They are places where we seek and find sustenance, both physically and metaphorically. They are not only places where we hang our hat, find a full pantry and have a warm bed, but places where we LIVE - have experiences good and bad that feed us by causing us to grow; come to lick the wounds inflicted on us by the outside world; come to refresh ourselves and venture outward again. In this way, they make our lives in the outer world possible.

   "There's no place like home" sighed a heartfelt Dorothy upon returning to her Kansas farm from Oz; and there wasn't a person watching the movie who did not know exactly what she meant.