Entryway / Welcome & Protection
The threshold is one of the most spiritually significant parts of your home. Out in the world, you can’t control what you come across. Negative and positive energy, people who need you or want you, and worldly obligations come your way.
Inside your home, though, you have more control. You have some control over what energies, ideas, people, and obligations come across your threshold—your spiritual and literal barrier to the outside world.
The spells in this chapter, therefore, have dual purposes. First, they are protective. This is your safe space, your home. You should feel comfortable and secure inside. Your comfort and security are important considerations as you do healing, growth, and magick.
We will focus on helping your home become a protected, sacred space. Within your walls, you will be able to learn and grow and bloom in peace and support. Then you can take your gifts to the world.
We will also focus on what—who—you choose to invite in. The threshold signifies welcome to the lucky guests whom you invite across it. While they stay, your guests will feel part of your home and community. You will create joy and community together. The moment you welcome them into your home is the beginning.
It’s a balance. You can be like Rapunzel in her tower, so protected she eventually has to break out. With boundaries that are too firm, you can miss out on the community and relationships that will serve your highest good. Sure, negative energy will stay out too, but eventually you will be stifled. Don’t be afraid to invite in the energy and people you want and need.
On the other hand, too permissive a threshold can lead to problems too, such as a house guest overstaying their reluctant welcome—you know who we’re talking about. Even a dinner guest you normally love might come in bearing too much frustrated energy.
Now, take care of your loved ones when they need you, of course. Life is full of ups and downs, and your guests won’t always arrive with just the ups. But truly caring for someone when they need you, even if it’s just with tea and a listening ear, is a holy act. Help your friends through their downs.
But if your friend just had a bad day at work? With the right protections, you can help them vent and let go. And you won’t have to spend the next two days energetically cleaning your entire house.
Threshold Essentials
For each room or area discussed in this book, the first step is to think about how the space supports you and your life goals. Are the things you need where you need them? Does the space accommodate what you want to do in it? Then we think about how you can support your room (and your goals) in return.
The practicalities vary depending on your life and your goals, so we won’t get too detailed in every chapter. But let’s practice on the threshold! Here goes.
Your entryway is not only a metaphorical boundary, it’s a physical boundary. Let’s think about what you will literally be leaving at the door, and what other practical considerations you may want to think about for your entrance.
· Hooks. If you have a coat closet, that’s wonderful. If you have the space to place an armoire for coats, that’s wonderful too. The rest of us will have to make do with a hat stand or a row of hooks for our coats, scarves, handbags, dog leash, and shopping bags.
· Baskets. Come up with some storage options for the items that don’t hang easily.
· A shoe rack. Taking your shoes off when you enter the house keeps dirt and germs from getting tracked all over. Even if this is not your household’s rule, you will certainly want to use it on rainy or snowy days. Think about shoe storage that fits your needs.
· Somewhere to sit. If you do take your shoes off on your way in, it might be nice to have a bench or chair if you have the space.
· Umbrella stand. It may seem old-fashioned, but your umbrella (or walking stick) will be right there when you need it.
· A mirror. When you’re running out the door, it’s nice to be able to quickly check your appearance in a mirror.
· Inbox. This is tricky. It can be helpful to have a container or small table near the door for your incoming and outgoing mail and suchlike; it keeps the rest of your house from becoming covered with small piles of paper. The trick is not to let anything stay in it for long.
· Trash can. A small trash can also helps keep clutter from making it into the house.
What else do you leave at the door? Carefully select what needs a home at the entryway and what needs to live somewhere else. Try not to let your entrance get too cluttered or overwhelming; after all, it’s the first thing you see when you walk in the door, and it should welcome you home with calm.
Circe: Goddess-Witch of Aeaea
You may have met an ancient Greek witch named Circe if you have ever read The Odyssey. The Odyssey, an epic poem attributed to Homer, is the story of the hero Odysseus’s journey home from the Trojan War. Unfortunately, because Odysseus has angered the god of the sea, Poseidon, his journey back home takes ten years—quite a bit longer than it should.
During their travels, Odysseus and his crew land on the island of Aeaea. Odysseus stays with the ship while the others disembark. When they do, they discover a forested island with docile animals and a trail leading to a mansion. There they find someone surprising: Circe sits outside, singing and weaving on a loom.
Let’s pause to consider the loom she works on. A woman with a loom creates art, or she creates something practical, or she creates something beautiful. Or, sometimes, she creates something magickal.
Throughout mythology, we meet powerful women who are known for spinning and weaving. The Roman Fates and the Norse Norns are each three sisters who rule the fate of men with their twining and cutting of threads. The Greek goddess Athena and the mortal Arachne compete with their looms, telling stories of the gods in the detailed images they create. Is it any wonder that by the Middle Ages, European fairy tales associate witches with looms? Just think of the power in the spindle that pricks Aurora’s finger and transforms her into Sleeping Beauty. Or look at the folklore tradition of knot magic that survives even to today; with it, intentions are set and spells are worked by the act of tying knots. There’s something about weaving threads that has power in it.
Despite the loom foreshadowing power, all that Odysseus’s boorish sailors see is a beautiful woman all by herself. They don’t see a threat. And Circe could not be more welcoming! She offers them wine and a banquet of their favorite foods, and all but one of them sit down to feast.
The last man suspects something might be wrong and runs to warn Odysseus. Apparently, Circe regularly uses one of her potions to turn wayward sailors into animals. This is especially true when boorish sailors realize she appears to be a wealthy woman alone on an island, putting her in a vulnerable situation. She is welcoming, but she is not unprotected.
And indeed, when Odysseus makes it up the lovely, forested path to the house, his sailors have been turned into pigs and goats. Odysseus confronts Circe. She is intrigued by his audacity, so she invites him to bed for the night. Conveniently forgetting that he’s married, Odysseus accepts on the condition that his sailors be turned human again and that Circe plot no more against them. She agrees.
One night turns into a year, and Odysseus’s sailors point out to him that they might like to go home someday. So he gathers his courage and broaches the subject with Circe. Now, classical Greek mythology is full of lovestruck women and jealous women, and Circe even has a reputation for falling in love too easily and too hard. (She once turned a king who rejected her into a woodpecker. That kind of rumor gets around.) But not only does she let him go, she helps him.
Circe tells Odysseus that to get home, he must go to the Underworld and find out how to appease the gods. That’s not a typical journey for a mortal! She supplies him with protections and the tools he will need to communicate with the dead. If Odysseus didn’t realize just how much power his lover was wielding, that must have been a sobering moment.
The Witch of Transformation
In Circe, we find a divine enchantress transforming men into beasts and advising mortals on getting into and out of the Underworld. That involves a lot of power.
And that power is actually how Circe ended up on Aeaea in the first place. The Olympians are not notoriously keen on witches. Zeus was afraid of the power that Circe might wield, so he banished her to a faraway island. After that, he tried not to think about her. It wasn’t the best plan, but you don’t want to anger a witch.
At her most powerful, Circe goes so far as to change a mortal into an immortal—something that usually doesn’t happen. Once the Fates have decided how long a person is to live, that decree is usually sacrosanct. The Olympians don’t interfere with it. But Circe can and does.
Ultimately, maybe it’s the power of transformation that makes Circe so intriguing. What can possibly frighten a powerful god like Zeus . . . perhaps the idea that he might be transformed into something else, something not quite so powerful, maybe even mortal? If Circe can turn a mortal into an immortal, what can she do to a god?
Welcome & Protection
Circe’s island is fertile, beautiful, and full of every comfort she needs. It can be a restorative resting spot for storm-tossed sailors in desperate need. She is the ultimate hostess, welcoming friends and strangers with emotional and physical sustenance. They find joy and comfort in her halls as well—so much so that it’s easy for a night’s refuge on her island to turn into a year.
But that welcome goes hand in hand with protecting herself. No one harms Circe on her own island. Her defenses, from the protections around her borders to her reputation with the Olympians, are healthy and strong. She protects herself first, which means she can extend herself to helping others and welcoming others from a place of confidence and strength.
Journal Your Entryway
Make yourself a comfortable place to sit in view of your entryway. Clear some space in your schedule and make yourself a cup of tea. Set the scene in a way that makes you calm—perhaps soothing music or a lit candle. Then respond to the following prompts in your journal.
Your entryway now:
· How do you feel when you see your entrance from the outside when you return home after a long time away? When you return home from running errands or after work?
· What do you see, feel, hear, and smell when you first come into your house?
· How does the entrance to your home, both outside and inside, support you as you arrive home?
· How do you feel as you prepare to leave your home and accomplish your day in the outside world? As you prepare to leave for a couple days or more?
· What do you see, feel, hear, and smell when you step outside?
· How does the entrance to your home, both inside and outside, support you as you prepare to leave your home and accomplish your day in the outside world?
· Imagine that you are a friend coming to visit you. What do the outside and inside of your entryway say? How would your friend feel on their arrival?
Your ideal entryway:
· How would you like to feel upon arriving home? Close your eyes and visualize yourself walking up to your home, opening the door, and entering. What would you like to see, feel, hear, and smell?
· How would you to like feel as you prepare to leave home? Close your eyes and visualize yourself walking to your door, preparing to leave, opening the door, and exiting. What would you like to see, feel, hear, and smell?
· How would you like the entrance to your home, both outside and inside, to support you as you arrive home? This can be practically, emotionally, or in any other way.
· How would you like the entrance to your home, both inside and outside, to support you as you prepare to leave your home and accomplish your day in the outside world? This can be practically, emotionally, or in any other way.
· How would you like your friends to feel when they step inside? Close your eyes and visualize coming into your home through someone else’s eyes.
· How would you like the entryway to your home to offer protection?
· How would you like your entryway to offer welcome?
Your steps forward:
· What are the practical ways you can make your entryway closer to your ideal?
· Consider the emotions and intentions you want to feel, or you want guests to feel, walking across your doorstop. What symbolizes those things to you? It could be a color, a scent, a physical symbol, or an earth element like a feather or flower.
· How can you incorporate the symbols that are meaningful to you into your entryway, both inside and outside?
Selenite: Peace & Light
Selenite serves the threshold’s double purpose of protection and welcome with its calm nature. It’s known for aiding mental clarity and peace—the breath of relief and relaxation you may be looking for when you walk in the door of your home. Place a selenite stone near your entryway to promote a peaceful atmosphere for yourself and guests.
It can also form a cleansing barrier against negativity, especially negative beliefs about yourself. Hang a small piece of selenite above each upper corner of the inside of your front door. On your way through the door, imagine the crystals connecting to form a curtain of white light that clears your mind and burns off any unhelpful negative thoughts about yourself. Then go forth into the world with confidence or further into your home with clear peace.
The selenite on your doorframe will also guard your home against negative outside influences. It’s a powerful protective and emotionally stabilizing stone. It prohibits malicious intent and ideas from coming further into your safe, calm home, where they are not wanted.
Selenite is a variety of the mineral gypsum. It is very soft (a 2 on the Mohs scale) and is found all over the world. It has a long history of captivating people with its luster; the ancient Egyptians decorated with gypsum, and the ancient Greeks loved selenite for its shine. The selenite variety of gypsum was named in 1747 after the Greek goddess Selene, goddess of the moon (and Circe’s aunt). You can easily imagine the moon’s calm light when you look at a piece of selenite.
Selenite is known for being white to colorless, even translucent depending on the thickness, with some ribbing, and it comes in all sizes. But in addition to white, it also comes in a few other colors, which have their own additional metaphysical qualities.
Angel’s wing selenite: Potent emotional stabilizer, in addition to connecting with angelic energy. It can defuse tension and bring calm.
Blue selenite: Used in meditation, it helps to quiet and focus the mind for a session.
Desert rose selenite: Helps identify and replace longstanding negative self-talk and negative beliefs about the self.
Green selenite: Brings one good feelings about oneself and helps to focus on a higher good.
Orange-brown selenite: Helps one connect with earth energy.
Note: Selenite can dissolve if it gets wet, so be careful when placing it and using it. It can also lose some of its luster if it’s exposed to prolonged sunlight, so place it accordingly. Dust it with a soft cloth and let it sit on a windowsill in moonlight to cleanse it; don’t use water. If you have any selenite jewelry, make sure to store it carefully in a fabric-lined case where it cannot be jostled against other jewelry; it is soft enough to scratch. Keep that in mind when wearing it, too.
Spells & Recipes for Your Entryway
Use any of the following spells and recipes on their own or combined with your personal spiritual practices.
Protection Salts
This simple but effective spell can help protect your home from negativity.
You will need:
· White candle
· Stick of incense
· Mortar and pestle
· Black salt for protection (or substitute white sea salt)
· Fresh or dried rosemary for protection
· Bay leaf for protection
Use your preferred method for preparing for spellwork. Or: Take a few deep breaths and center yourself. When your energy is calm, continue to concentrate on your breathing, feeling your power rise. Light a white candle. Light a stick of incense of your choice and slowly draw a circle around yourself and your working space.
Meditate on the idea of protection for several moments. Think about your intention for your home and those who enter it to be protected, and what that means to you.
Hold your mortar and pestle in your hands, imbuing it with your vision. Add a pinch of salt, a few rosemary leaves, and a bay leaf to the mortar. While you grind them, concentrate on your intention to protect your home. Imagine a white ball of light slowly growing from the mixture to encompass your home.
When you are ready, thank the universe for assisting you. Spin slowly in the opposite direction of the incense and blow out the candle. Carefully sprinkle a line of salt across your threshold.
Entryway Hanging Sachet
This charm pairs protection with welcome, in the dual spirit of Circe.
You will need:
· White candle
· Stick of incense
· Small white bag for dispelling negativity
· Black salt for protection (or substitute white sea salt)
· Selenite
· Sunflower seeds for welcome
· Fresh or dried rosemary for protection
· Rose essential oil for peace, gentleness, and protection
Use your preferred method for preparing for spellwork. Or: Take a few deep breaths and center yourself. When your energy is calm, continue to concentrate on your breathing, feeling your power rise. Light a white candle. Light a stick of incense of your choice and slowly draw a circle around yourself and your working space.
Meditate on the idea of welcome and protection for several moments. Think about your intention for your home and those who enter it to be welcomed and protected, and what that means to you.
Hold the small white bag in your hands, imbuing it with your vision. Add a pinch of salt, a selenite, a few sunflower seeds, a few rosemary leaves, and a couple drops of rose essential oil to the bag. Close the bag and hold it while you concentrate on your intention to protect your home and to welcome your loved ones.
When you are ready, thank the universe for assisting you. Spin slowly in the opposite direction of the incense and blow out the candle. Hang the bag above your front door.
Threshold Plant
Plants are a hedge witch’s friends, so use your intuition to choose the right one for your home. You will need an indoor or outdoor location for it in view of your door. A peace lily represents calmness and luck, sunflowers mean welcome, aloe means protection, and roses can symbolize both protection and happiness.
You will need:
· White candle
· Stick of incense
· Plant of your choice
· Rose essential oil for peace, gentleness, and protection
Use your preferred method for preparing for spellwork. Or: Take a few deep breaths and center yourself. When your energy is calm, continue to concentrate on your breathing, feeling your power rise. Light a white candle. Light a stick of incense of your choice and slowly draw a circle around yourself and your working space.
Meditate on the idea of protection and/or welcome for several moments. Think about your intention for your home and those who enter it to be protected and/or welcomed, and what that means to you.
Hold the plant in your hands, imbuing it with your vision. Carefully spread a drop or two of rose essential oil around the rim of the pot (or nearby the plant, if it is planted in the ground). Focus on the plant while you concentrate on your intention to protect your home and to welcome your loved ones.
When you are ready, thank the universe for assisting you. Spin slowly in the opposite direction of the incense and blow out the candle. Plant the plant outside or arrange it indoors in view of the door.
Doorway Guardian
This is a protection charm for your home, and for it you will need someone special: a guardian. Find a small (or large, if you want to make a statement!) decorative statue that will stand up to the elements if it lives outdoors. Find something that means protection to you, whether it is a goddess, a cat or dog, a dragon, a knight, or the like.
You will need:
· White candle
· Stick of incense
· Guardian statue of your choice
· Salt for protection
· Selenite (multiple stones, if you have them)
· Clary sage essential oil
Use your preferred method for preparing for spellwork. Or: Take a few deep breaths and center yourself. When your energy is calm, continue to concentrate on your breathing, feeling your power rise. Light a white candle. Light a stick of incense of your choice and slowly draw a circle around yourself and your working space.
Meditate on the idea of protection for several moments. Think about your intention for your home and those who enter it to be protected, and what that means to you.
Hold the guardian in your hands, imbuing it with your vision. Set it in your workspace and use salt and selenite to make a circle around it. Carefully anoint it with essential oil. Concentrate on your intention to protect your home and to welcome your loved ones.
When you are ready, thank the universe for assisting you. Spin slowly in the opposite direction of the incense and blow out the candle. Find the guardian a place where it can guard you and your home.
