As some folks may know based on other writings of mine, my partner and I have been working to find a House Faery (specifically, a Hob) willing to form a compact of employment with us. This pact would essentially entail the faery in question watching over us and helping with our domestic affairs—from minding the garden, to protecting the hens. This relationship essentially falls into the category of a Tutelary Deity, in that, a particular entity would be propitiated in exchange for its guardianship and domestic services. However, while many people in the occult community acknowledge and work with beings of this kind, I think something which is overlooked all too often by practitioners is the Spirit of the house itself; an animistic personification of the interwoven virtues that make up a house. This is, essentially, a variety of Genius Loci, and over the course of getting to know our home, we have come to call this specific form of animistic presence the Genius Domi (ie. ‘Nature of the Home’.) Maintaining and getting to know this spirit can prove highly useful, since any workings that involves the house are more easily undertaken with the cooperation of the house itself, but what’s more, I believe that a Genius Domi has the power to subtly effect the wellbeing of its inhabitants. If it goes neglected for long enough, or if it’s exposed to ongoing unhappiness and/or acute trauma, it can be energetically changed in ways that will eventually begin to negatively impact those who dwell therein. In fact, I think it quite likely that many hauntings are merely the result of a Genius Domi “gone bad,” which leads to feelings of fear, insecurity, sadness, anger, and/or paranoia for the inhabitants. As such, caring for the spirit of your house can have further reaching consequences than many would think
What I share here is the hearthside altar we use to engage with that presence —which we subtly adjust throughout the year, following the seasonal progressions. It is called the Nidus(meaning ‘Nest’) and it serves to honor and empower the unique and living conglomeration of Spirament that forms the Genius Domi of our home, and it acts as a focal point of interaction between us and any Domestic Wights we may collaborate with in the course of our work. It draws on our connection to the Land, the Ancestors, and the Gloaming Folk, in order to underlie and secure our relationship to the Spirit of our home.
The top tier of the altar represents prosperity. It houses a potentFamily Talisman of Luck, passed down to us by my partner’s father when we moved into the house, crossed with small boughs collected from a young White Oak that is growing by our Front Gate. A selection of Oak galls resides at the forefront—gifts of fortune granted us by a number of different Oaken Wights who we’ve tended and fed in honor of the Wild One.
The second tier of the altar represents protection. It houses another family talisman, passed down to us by my mother when we left our place next-door to hers and moved across the country; a Robin’s Nest that once resided in a birch tree outside my old house, which was continuously inhabited by generations of robins for nearly ten years, before a particularly bad storm finally dislodged it one day. Thereafter, it was incorporated in the Domestic Altar of my old home, until it passed to me. Within the nest rests a large Snail Shell—a powerful symbol of both home and protection—while several spiny, storm-blown boughs from a nearby Hawthorn form a protective cradle that watches over them both.
The third tier of the altar represents the land we live on, and the innumerable forces and entities who pervade its forests, hills, and rivers. With the Faerie Faith playing such a central role in both of our lives, it acts as the lens through which this natural synergy is perceived and, accordingly, accessed. While we maintain a shrine in the nearby forest where we meet with and appease the Gloaming Folk, this part of the altar manages to serve as a window, of sorts, into that power and connection, which helps to underlie and support our relationship with both our Genius Domi, and the vaster Genius Loci of our land.
Along with our maintenance of the Nidus, we have also nurtured and built rapport with the Spirit of our home by learning its name, reverently cleaning and repairing it, and feeding a part of every meal we make to Hearth—the central, burning heart of the Genius Domi. In doing these things, not only have we contributed to the long-term welfare of our house, but we taught this domicile to recognize, protect, and care for us. And that domestic love and respect has absolutely come back to aid us in times of strife.
I love this so much. Wondering what to put on my top shelf.
