Home is where the heart is.

How I create a magical home

There are so many elements that need to weave together in order for me to feel like my house is a home. As an Aboriginal woman as well as a witch, the natural world around me forms the basis of my spirituality and my craft. Here is Australia we are blessed with an amazing array of unique flora, flora and landscapes which I believe hold the spirits of our ancestors. It is their power, strength and wisdom that I connect with each day when I wake early in the morning to watch the sun rise or bid good evening to it again as it falls behind the mountains at dusk.

I have spent the majority of my life in the Bellinger Valley, here on Mid North coast of NSW. The local flora and flora around my home are not only my neighbours by they are my kin. They have held me and advised me since I was old enough to consult with them for answers and I love nothing more than spending time listening to them. There are certain animals that when they visit my home, I know it is time to put some extra effort into create a place of comfort, security and stability. Carpet snake symbology is one I have always connected with a safe and happy home. If we look at how a carpet snake lives, he enjoys nothing more that finding somewhere warm and safe, with available food and shelter and here he is most content to remain as long as he needs to.

Goanna is another animal messenger that I look for around my home. He is a protector, an ancient connection to the land and my ancestors. If he staking out the boundaries to my home, I too will look at my house protection and take measures to make sure that my home is secure and safe from anything or anyone who may not have the best of intentions.

My house is full of little nature altars, that are scattered with river rocks, shells, leaves, twigs, bark, moss, hand made candles, raw crystals, seed pods, beetle shells, butterfly wings, feathers, bones, dried and fresh flowers, photos of loved ones and family that have passed on, I like to bring in elements of the seasons and allow the inside of my home to reflect the colours and energy of the world outside. Colours, imagery and natural objects found by me or my children form the basis of these very special spaces in our home.

As well as combining the outside seasons throughout my home through my altars I also work with the seasonal cycles inside the home . Winter with its cooler temperatures and shorter days are often spent inside while during summer with its long hot days of endless sun are more likely spent at the river. Rather than use the calendar to judge the seasonal changes, I look for signs in nature for what season we are moving into, this week there is gold wattle flowering all over the valley, Black cockatoos fly in large family groups, calling across the valley, while my jasmine buds with the deep magenta that indicates flowers are not too far away. These are my indications that a blossom filled August is not too far away.

When people talk about magical homes I used to wonder what they meant. I had grand visions of a Hogwart style mansions or cottages filled with magical books, tools and paraphernalia, and of course the abundant cobwebs dancing in the corners. There would be herbs drying from the rafters and the scent of potions and spells wafting through the air and in the middle a large cauldron filled with something unidentifiable

What I discovered over the last decade is creating a magical home can be as simple as cleaning your space with intent, incorporating spell crafting into your cooking and house decorating and using your craft to create an environment that's is healing, welcoming, comforting and truly encompasses the ideas of a Home or safe space where you can grow, be yourself, nurture your family or your friends, and indeed live a life of ritual and magic.

Until September last year, I have always lived in suburbia. In the mornings when I woke before the dawn to do my meaning ritual which involves watching the sun rise and connect to the animal messengers that visit my home. I was also aware of sounds that accompany the choir is of birds that would sit in the big redwood that grew behind our old house. I often heard the garage doors opening, garbage trucks rumbling past, bins being dragged back inside, the newspaper hitting the front porch.

Inside the house though, my children wake to the gentle waft of incense and the smell of breakfast being crafted in the kitchen.One of the easiest ways I have found to weave magic into my home is through cooking. I love to create with fresh local produce, lots of herbs and even better things we have grown ourselves with love and ritual. As a woman who has been cooking since I was 9, It come as a bit of a surprise later in life when I discover something as simple as my basil pesto created with the intention of encouraging happiness and good fortune served when life is looking a little stormy can really change the whole energy of a meal. My Midnight Choc Chip cookies which are ritually made, well late at night with my children, when life just gets too hard and are served hot, straight from the oven with a hot chocolate or cup of tea and a shoulder to cry on as well as a sympathetic ear. Comfort food for a broken heart or spirit.

I also use herbs for simply remedies. I have a very simple and natural Calendula Salve for rashes and dried lips or skin. Simple Calendula salve made from dried or fresh calendula soaked in olive oil and then thickened slightly with beeswax which I try to keep a ready stock of in the house

A tea of rosemary, thyme, lemon, mint, ginger and honey for colds and flu like weather. I usually always have a variety of herbs I grow in pots or the garden for remedies just like this

In order to protect my home I integrate crystals, intention and magical oils to anoint, charge and protect the doorways and window frames. I like to place smoky quarts above all doors and do a simply anointing of door frames and window sills when I move into a new house with the intention that only those who wish us no harm may enter. One of my favourite witchy tools is a simple straw broom. I love nothing more than to sweep my entire home from one end to the other, and then pick up the dust and scatter it outside. This is best done on a windy day as watching the dust and the stale energies it carries with it, dissipate in the wind, has a wonderful feeling of letting things go and moving forward. One thing I do not like to do is cobweb, I love my cob webbed corners and the daddy long legs that eat the mosquitoes and gnats that would otherwise be bothering us. When i do need to do my annual wall wash, I have a very serious conversation with the spiders and explain my plans and promise them the can back once the walls are washed and we have have finished cleansing the entire space for another year.

Do you have any magical rituals you use in your home?

Maybe you have some magical recipes you like to prepare for your family and friends?

I would love to hear about your magical home.