These are just suggestions. Adapt to your own personal needs.
Knit, sew, crochet, weave or quilt - Learn, take lessons, create, or teach
Check fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors
Clean your home
Volunteer/offer to help a new mother or the elderly to clean their home
Learn and cook a new recipe
Read or write cook books
Cook for guests
Create a kitchen altar
Donate clothes and food
Volunteer at food banks and soup kitchens
Create and keep a household notebook: meal planning, budgeting, recipes, what appliances need checking etc.
Hosting
Create a savings account for a future home
Volunteer with domestic abuse victims
Books for research: - ‘The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine’ by Rozsika Parker - ‘A Note on the Division of Labor by Sex’ by Judith K. Brown - ‘Women’s Work: The First 20,00 Years – Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times’ by Elizabeth Wayland Barbet - ‘The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History’ by Kassia St Clair - ‘Hearth: A Global Conversation on Identity, Community, and Place’ by Annick Smith and Susan O'Connor - ‘Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging’ by Sebastian Junger - ‘The Yellow House: A Memoir’ by Sarah M. Broom
Simmer pots are my favorite low-energy spell. They’re easy to set up and maintain, they’re short-term spells with a long-term effect, and they smell so darn good. Plus, sometimes you can drink from the pot if you use only edible ingredients - bonus points if it tastes really good!
What is a simmer pot spell, you ask? It’s a spell that you simmer on the stove! Grab your favorite pot and fill it with a liquid of your choice - this could be moon or sun water, apple cider, or just regular old tap water, for a few examples - and add ingredients that match your goals. Set it on the stove, bring it to a simmer, and let it fill your kitchen and home with fragrant steam. You could easily keep a simmer pot going all day long if you keep adding liquid to it.
My “Welcome Home” Simmer Pot Spell is intended to do exactly what it sounds like. It clears out stagnant air and ushers in calm and inviting energy. It’s perfect for preparing for parties, cleansing a new home or apartment, and other homecomings. This pot also makes a satisfying apple-lemon beverage!
Ingredients (the amounts vary based on the size of your pot and your personal preferences; feel free to experiment!):
Water (you can use sun or moon water, if you like)
Apples
Lemon
Cinnamon (powder or sticks)
Cloves
Nutmeg
Ginger
Honey
Instructions:
In your pot of choice, add enough water to fill it about halfway. You can use any kind of water, but be sure you’re using safe, sanitary water if you plan on drinking this.
Slice your apples. I recommend slicing them into rounds - apples have a star-shaped hollow in the middle that holds their seeds, so it’s perfect for the aesthetic. Be sure to remove any seed pieces.
Slice your lemon into rounds.
Add your ingredients to the pot. You should have enough room at the top for the mixture to bubble slightly but not end up all over your stove.
Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer and enjoy the aroma! Stir occasionally to ensure nothing is sticking. If you notice your water getting low, you can either add more water to keep simmering or discard the ingredients and end the spell.
If you plan on drinking this, let it simmer for a while to infuse all the flavors. I usually let it go for at least 20 to 30 minutes before partaking for optimal flavor.
Optional magic you could include:
If you have difficulty getting “into the headspace” for casting spells (like me), consider this: The pot is your cauldron. The spoon is your wand. The stovetop is your hearth. Everything around you is magic; it’s just waiting for you to begin. Keep this in mind and everything else will come naturally.
Apples, to me, represent so many things. They represent the harvest, love, and harmony. They can be sweet or sour, soft or crisp. Every apple variety brings something special to the pot. My favorites to use are honeycrisp for their sweet-tart crunch and fabulous aroma, but you should use your favorite variety. The apples are the foundation of this spell, stating that all who are welcomed home are loved.
Lemons, that spell ingredient favorite. In this spell, lemons are cleansing and purifying. Anyone who steps into the fragrant mist filling your home will be free to shed any negativity or unpleasantness, and the lemon will wash it right out the door.
The combination of spices in this spell, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and ginger, are a powerhouse of love, protection, and positivity. As you add each to the pot, give them a task - speak or think the ingredient’s goal as you hold it, and when you’re ready, add it to the pot. For example, I would give cinnamon the task of energizing the other ingredients, ginger the task of imparting good health and longevity, nutmeg the task of bringing warmth, etc.
If lemons are the purification and the spices are the protection, then the honey is the glue holding everything together, reminding the other ingredients of their real purpose. Honey sweetens the spell, bringing elements of love and happiness.
In spells like this, I often consider honey to be a sort of protective ingredient; not in the way of wards of steel and walls of stone, but in a gentler way. Like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket with a warm cup of something on a cold, snowy afternoon after spending the morning playing in the snow. It wraps you in the sweetness of home and gives the other ingredients a softer vibe.
If the goal is to create a welcoming atmosphere, I like to verbally say “welcome.” While stirring, I say welcome to myself, my cat, my house spirits, and each of my friends and family who I would like to feel welcome and at ease in my home. Allow yourself to feel the love you have for everyone you are welcoming from head to toe. Be humbled and grateful for them - it’s this gratitude that makes you want to give them the gift of homecoming.
If you decide to drink some of the mixture, I believe it’s best to share if you can. You can share with someone you love, offer it to a deity, give a cup to your house spirits, or even “pour one out” for nature. Interact with this potion with gratitude and humility. It takes more than just occupying a space to make it a home, and you receive only as much as you give.
As a bonus, here’s how versatile simmer pots are: Remove the honey, use badly bruised apples, and add a splash of vinegar to create a banishing spell that’s especially effective against abusive ex-partners.
If you use this spell, please let me know how you like it!
Cap the lid tightly. At this point you can seal the bottle with candle wax if you choose. Add symbols of protection, your family seal, or anything you feel compelled to draw on the lid or the jar itself. When you’re finished, take another few minutes to sit quietly and add your intentions to the jar, then bury it as close as you can to your front door.
What you need :
A jar
1/3 cup of salt
3 sewing needles (or other related pins)
3 iron nails (as big as will fit in the jar)
9 tines from your broom
3 tablespoons of protective herbs
A teaspoon of dirt from your yard
Red wine (or even your own urine)
Pour the salt into the jar and say: Salt for purification.
Add the sewing needles, saying: As I myself sew the threads of my family life, may these needles sew safety around me and mine.
Place the nails into the jar and say, As the nails in our home pierce the wood to hold our home strong, may these nails pierce all negativity and hold it safely away from us.
Place the broom straw into the jar and repeat: As the broom in my home sweeps away dirt, so may these straws sweep negativity away from this home and its inhabitants.
Add the herb and say: (Name of herb/herbs) strengthens this protection charm.
With the addition of the dirt from your yard say: This soil binds this jar to my home and property.
Pour in the liquid until the jar is almost completely filled, and it’s covered all of your ingredients. Hold the jar, concentrating on your feelings of protection toward your family, pets, and property, and say: Let this wine (urine) drown all evil that would seek to touch me and mine.
Cap the lid tightly. At this point you can seal the bottle with candle wax if you choose. Add symbols of protection, your family seal, or anything you feel compelled to draw on the lid or the jar itself. When you’re finished, take another few minutes to sit quietly and add your intentions to the jar, then bury it as close as you can to your front door.
*Credit to original author as I found this on pinterest.
Hebridean blackhouse (taigh-dubh), Baile an Truiseil, Leòdhas, Western Isles.
This blackhouse was built between 1852 and 1895, and was the home of a crofting family and their animals until 1965, when they moved out. It is still fully furnished and preserved almost as the last family left it.
Blackhouses were very different from modern homes, as they housed animals as well as people, had rounded corners, had no chimney or windows. Sharing with animals made the house warmer and meant fewer buildings were needed.
The blackhouse has a central door. Inside is an aig an teine (‘living room’) and a bathaich (‘cattle byre’), with a parallel sabhal (‘barn’). A peat fire burns in the open hearth with the smoke filteeing thrlugh the roof. It is in the centre of the living room and it was the heart of family life, never allowed to go out. Smoke from the peat fire killed insects, and the smoke-laden thatch, which was replaced every so often, made excellent fertiliser for the fields. (Arnol, Eilean Siar, United Kingdom)
Editorial illustrations for Oprah magazine February issue based on the article titled “The Heart is a Lady Part” Simply being female can increase your risk for cardiovascular issues. Here’s what you need to know. Art direction: Alex Mooney @oprahmagazine . . . #hearth #health #oprah #illustration #conceptual #woman #magazine #lifestyle #editorial #pills #blister #swimmer #cardio #sport #tennis https://www.instagram.com/p/BtL_VAJFQSP/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=77zozr64i35y
A little something I made for the awesome @artstew52 ! Please check out their amazing community, it’s an awesome place for creative people. ❤️ . . #illustration #artstew #artstew52 #procreate #drawing #gif #video #animation #cozy #cozyhome #fireplace #hearth #pot #creativepeople #creativity #ladieswhodesign #warmandcozy https://www.instagram.com/p/B7M0yfKqbaO/?igshid=t1ue6jgdjque
