INTRODUCTION

I firmly believe that every home has a spirit, a soul. Whether you live in a large grand house or a single room, it possesses a singular spirit that can nurture and protect you. As we approach the next millennium our homes are becoming ever more important to us - in an increasingly uncertain world they need to be places of sanctuary, a haven and refuge from the outside world.

Our ancestors honored the home as a sacred space which provided protection and peace. We too can awaken this sense of spirit in our homes, and turn them into sanctuaries which can heal the body, calm the mind and soothe the soul.

By taking the time to get to know your home, you can transform your entire life.

Statistics show that homes are very much on our minds nowadays - more and more emphasis is being put on them. More of us in the West own our homes than ever before. We spend more money on fixing our homes and one of the most popular hobbies is home improvement. Whereas in the past we might boast of going on exotic holidays or buying flashy cars, now we impress our friends with our new sofa, with a fresh coat of paint, with a new alarm system. It seems that now, maybe more than ever before, we need to feel the security of our homes. It's not hard to see why. Our working lives are becoming ever less secure - few people nowadays can count on a job for life. With divorce rates soaring there is little certainty in our relationships. And as our knowledge of space and the cosmos deepens, we can no longer rely on being at the centre of a gentle, embracing universe. Life is becoming psychologically very frightening. Someone once asked Einstein "What is the most important question you can ask in life?" He replied, "Is the universe a friendly place or not?" In the past we trusted that the universe was friendly: at the very least we saw ourselves as an important and large part of the universe. But now we are less certain. Space is almost utterly unknown. We may be alone in infinity which is frightening enough. Even more scary is the thought that we might not be alone and that our fellow inhabitants might not be gentle, evolved ET beings.

A home is a symbol of the world, our own mini-world, our own Mother Earth. When we feel safe and comfortable in our homes then we feel more able to deal with the often frightening outside world. When we start to consciously remember this link and honor our homes in the manner they deserve, which befits such a powerful protective force, we will change our relationship, not only with our homes but with our wider home, the planet herself. We don't have to deny our desire for the sky, the heavens and the sun - nobody would want to stay always earthbound. But a home can be the meeting point between earth and sky.

THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS

Does your house have spirits of its own? In most cultures there are folk tales and beliefs about household spirits, gods and goddesses who inhabit the home and can watch over us and help us. Let's look at ways to welcome them into our homes.

· In ancient Rome food that fell to the floor was at once considered to belong to the household spirits. Don't sweep it up at once but give the spirits of the dead at least a while to take their fill before sweeping it up. Of course, if you have a dog (your very own Cerberus, mythological guard-dog of the underworld) you probably won't have to clean up at all.

· If you like the idea of having your own brownie or spirit helper follow the age-old rules: leave out a saucer of milk or cream and maybe a couple of cookies (we still retain this custom at Christmas, leaving mince pies and a glass of sherry out for St Nicholas, Father Christmas).

· Find your own images to represent the Roman household gods, the lares and penates. Find a figure or image you like and tuck it away somewhere it can look out over the house. I have a small cat figure I made which acts as the head lar of my house - because the creature I "see" out of the corner of my eye is always a cat. It could be an angel, or a Hindu god or a good luck piskie.

· Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty and love - evoke her blessing but making your house as beautiful as possible. Indulge her with fresh flowers (she is also goddess of flowers), a sumptuous cushion or sweet-smelling herb pillow; sweet scents and objects which please the eye.

· Indulge Artemis, goddess of the wild, by throwing open all the windows of your house when the fresh breezes of spring blow. She loves the open air and the call of the wild. She too will love flowers - particularly armfuls of blossom and wild flowers, even weeds. If you have an exercise bike or step, remember Artemis as you start your workout - she is the lean fleet goddess who can add a spring to your step.

· Remember your ancestors. Sarah Shurety, a friend of mine who is also a very experienced feng shui consultant, says that in the West we do precisely the opposite to the East. While Oriental people venerate their ancestors; we almost entirely forget them. Find photos of your ancestors if you can, as far back as you can. Frame them and display them in your house. You could follow the Chinese custom and set up an altar, with incense and a candle.

· Read the old folk tales and fairy stories and become familiar with the spirits of your culture and land. Better still, sit around the fire and read the stories out loud to your family or a group of friends. Share stories about your supernatural experiences and find out just how common they are. Everyone seems to know someone who's seen a ghost or "felt" something strange.

· Become sensitive to spots in your house which feel as if they might be home to the spirits. As we've seen, the threshold, the hearth, the larder, the bathroom, the cellar and attic are favourite spots. I have a tricky spot on my stairs which I am convinced is the home of a mischievous spirit. I often almost trip on it and keep meaning to find a way to pacify it.

· Dogs were often considered guardian spirits of the threshold. If you can't have your own living guard dog you might like to put a pair of guardian stone dogs, (or lions or dragons) either side of your front door or in the inner hallway.

THE SCENTED HOME

Often the very first thing you will notice about a house is its scent. Not how it looks; not how fashionable the furniture is but how it smells. Our noses are incredibly sensitive and how we feel about a place will undoubtedly be affected by how our sense of smell perceives it.

So what greets you as you walk into your abode? Does the place smell warm and inviting with perhaps the light scent of lavender floor polish, a hint of pot pourri and the wafting pleasure of a vase of heady roses? Or maybe it smells clean and fresh, with the merest accent of pine needles or the brisk energy of a citrus tang? Then again, perhaps it smells musty and dusty (hopefully not after all that cleaning!) or gives off the rather pungent scent of old trainers and sports kit? Or are you greeted by stale cooking smells - the lingering scent of chicken or cabbage?

The ancient Greeks believed that beautiful scents were a means of contacting the gods. They possessed an entire language of perfumery in which flowery scents were chosen to invoke peace, joy or even pure sensuality. So, if you really want to make your home into a truly delicious haven for the senses, indulge your nostrils. Filling your home with carefully chosen scents can uplift the emotions, fill your body with energy or repose and seduce your soul with sheer delight. Scent is a powerful but also infinitely subtle way of shifting the atmosphere in your home. Get it right and you can regulate, not just your own mood, but that of your family, friends and any casual visitors. Now that's tantamount to magic.

There are a host of simple ways to bring delicious scents into every room of the house. But whatever you do, please don't race out and stock up on a bunch of synthetic air fresheners, odor eaters and fake scent-inducers. First of all synthetic smells will always smell synthetic. There is something faintly sickly and unreal about them. Secondly many people find they are allergic to synthetic perfumes - they are the most common cause of allergic reactions and will undoubtedly cause problems for anyone prone to asthma, eczema, hayfever and so on. Thirdly aerosols pollute the environment by damaging the ozone layer and can damage our own health by irritating the lungs and mucous membranes. Hopefully those are enough reasons to give them a wide berth.

Instead turn to natural fragrances - flowers, herbs, aromatherapy oils, fruit. These are the tools of the goddess Aphrodite who reigns over the scents, not just of love, but of pleasure, happiness and delight. It's well worth paying her a little homage in this sweet-scented way.

Our ancestors certainly venerated Aphrodite by keeping the home smelling sweet naturally - sweet-smelling herbs such as lavender and woodruff were strewn on the floors or under mats to release their perfume as guests walked over them; nosegays of oranges and spices hung in kitchens; herbs were used to keep laundry smelling fresh and to deter moths and bugs.

Here are some tips to turn your home into a smellgood place…….

· Ask any real estate agent what helps to sell a house and they will all say the same: freshly baked bread or cakes and freshly ground coffee beans. You don't need to be selling your home to benefit. Baking bread is therapy in its own right and knocks the spots off any shop-bought loaf. Now bread machines make it so easy there's no excuse. Set the timer before you go to bed and wake up to the delicious scent of a home bakery - and fresh warm rolls for breakfast.

· Flowers are the most subtle and absolutely the most beautiful way to introduce scent into the home. Work out which flowery scents you particularly like (everyone is different) and then fill your home with the aroma of carnations, freesias, gardenias, hyacinths, jasmine, lilac, lilies, lily of the valley, mimosa, narcissi, primroses, roses (of course), scented geraniums, stocks, sweet peas, tuberose and violets.

· Plant sweet-smelling plants close to your windows so the scent wafts through: lilac, jasmine, honeysuckle, roses, night-scented stocks, wallflowers, lavender, mignonette, mock orange, heliotrope and so on.

· Herbs are sweet-smelling too: fill a window-box with them or have pots around the house. The following give off the nicest scents: bergamot, lavender, lemon balm, lemon verbena, mint, rosemary, sage, southernwood, sweet woodruff and thyme.

· Use natural wood and allow its resinous scent to permeate the house. If your wood is old and long past its resinous days, give it a helping hand with a few drops of essential oil - cedarwood, cypress, sandalwood, pine or rosewood rubbed under a table or chair will give a soft, subtle sense of well-being.

· Those woody oils can also add a delicious scent to logs if you have an open fire. Rub a few drops onto your logs before burning and be wafted to the exotic East or a far Northern pine forest. Don't throw out old dry herbs either - toss them onto the embers and they will scent your whole room.

· In the summer, you can spread delicious scents around the whole garden by finishing off your barbecue by throwing on bunches of dried or fresh herbs - old lavender smells gorgeous and will add to the mellow feel of garden parties.

· Make your own smudge sticks by drying lavender, sage and sweetgrass and then binding them tightly together with brightly colored cotton or thin strips of hide. Light the end and fan to get up a good smolder; then waft around your whole home. Smudge sticks are used for space clearing by Native Americans and are very effective.

· Incense is not to everyone's taste (or rather smell) but it's worth experimenting to find one you like. Heavy scents like patchouli and musk can be a bit overpowering and some flowered scents smell very sickly and synthetic. Vanilla however can be a success and sandalwood works well too. If you can find hand-blended incenses - the kind you burn on a block of charcoal rather than the sticks - they can be far more intense and interesting. Some mystical shops sell incenses which promise everything bar doing the cleaning: from summoning wealth to calling up spirits! Tibetan, Chinese and ayurvedic incenses, if you can find them, often have healing properties and can help balance the elements in your body. Try them out.

· Cheer yourself up as you do the washing-up by adding a few drops of your favorite essential oil to your usual liquid. Aromatherapist Valerie-Ann Worwood suggests adding 5 drops of lime, 3 drops of bergamot, 2 drops of lavender and 1 drop of orange. Shake it all up, wash and go. The bergamot is cheering, the citrus fruits uplifting and the lavender calming.

· Come Winter, a lovely way to perfume a room is to drape garlands of scented pine cones over radiators to release their delicious scents. Tie your cones in a line with dark colored cotton and then soak overnight in around 150ml of water to which you have added 25-30 drops of essential oil. Cheering winter scents might include cedarwood, cinnamon, ginger, clove and geranium. Add a few bright ribbons and place on the radiator. You will need to re-soak them every week or two if you want to keep the scent topped up. If you'd like something more subtle just pop a cotton wool ball or tissue scented with around six drops of oil behind a radiator.

· Make your own scented drawer liners by spraying simple lining paper with your plant mister oil spray. Try cedarwood, lavender, geranium, vetiver or lemon. Put the scented side down and fill with clothes. Top up every few months.

· Pretty lavender bags (made from old-fashioned lace or crisp gingham) look lovely in an airing cupboard and give a sweet fresh scent to your clothes and linens. Make sure you store clean bedding with lavender bags - your guests will never want to leave.

· Valerie Ann Worwood suggests using essential oils in the laundry room - not just to scent your clothes but to let the perfume waft right through the house. Add 3-5 drops of oil to the softener compartment of the washing machine: lavender, orange blossom and chamomile are great for bedlinen or bedclothes; ylang-ylang is pretty exotic and sensual; if there is a cold or flu going around, choose eucalyptus, pine or rosemary. You can tumble clothes with scent by putting two drops of oil onto a handkerchief-sized piece of fabric and adding it to the load: lavender, rosemary, geranium, rosewood, jasmine and ylang-ylang all work well.

· Pick bunches of fresh herbs from the garden and hang in bunches over the kitchen table to dry - the scent is subtle, they look delightful and they keep away the bugs into the bargain.

 

For more information on how to turn your home into a healing sanctuary, check out The Spirit of the Home…. it will tell you how to:

· arrange your home to help you attract love, success, energy and wealth

· use color, sound and light for health and harmony

· use feng shui to improve the quality of your life

· clear clutter - painlessly - and simplify your space

· fine a "space of your own" in which to relax and be renewed.

Rituals for Sacred Living can also help…