The Sacred Home From MoonWeb This ritual is a version of a ritual found in most Pagan Books of Shadows: The house blessing. Security at home is as important as its construction and the environment of the dwelling itself. Here we draw on Greek mythology to help create a sense of well being and protection in our homes. The historian Herodotus wrote that a huge serpent lived in the foundation of the Acropolis in Athens. This serpent represented the protection of the goddess Athena and was fed a sacred honey-cake by the priestesses of Athena once each month. When Xerxes lead the Persian army close to Athens, the priestesses noted in dismay that the honey-cake remained uneaten. The snake had forsaken the Acropolis and the city. When the people heard this news, they abandoned Athens to the invading Persian hordes. For this reason and to combat mice and rats, many Greek homes encouraged the residence of snakes and treated them with reverence and awe. Here we summon the image of the giant serpent of the Acropolis to enter our homes and provide protection and blessings on all that dwell therein. The pathwork encourages practitioners to explore the psychic framework of their own dwellings to pay close attention to where the building materials came from, how they are heated and cooled, and what interactions occur with the natural environment. Ritual: A House Blessing For your altar you will need to bring a cake of soap, a broom, a bowl of water and a bowl of salt. Consecrate these materials by means familiar to you. Find that spot in your home that is its center. When you are comfortable, ground and center according to personal practice. Take up the broom and ritually sweep through each room of the house, visualizing a serpentine ribbon of energy encircling your dwelling. You may also now cast a formal circle if it is your tradition. Take a moment to find east and invoke the four Watchtowers using these runes, or runes of your own devising: Beginning in the East, open all the windows in your home that you can, visualizing fresh, cleansing winds blowing through them as you do so, and say: From the East, the breezes blow.
Banish sorrow, banish woe. Beginning in the South, see sunshine streaming in the window, warming your home, brightening every corner. As you do so, say: From the South, the sun's light streams.
Banish evil thoughts and dreams. Beginning in the West, sprinkle water throughout your home, asperging every nook and cranny. As you do so, say: From the West, the waters pour.
Banish hatred and despair. Beginning in the North, sprinkle salt throughout the home, saying as you do so: From the North, let earth's caress
Banish illness, banish stress. After invoking the Quarters, take the soap and, if you wish, meditate on the guardian power of the Erekthion, the sacred serpent of the Acropolis. See the serpent power uncoiling from the very foundation of your home to surround and protect it. When you are ready, go to each window and doorway and inscribe a coil or spiral on it saying this rune or one of your choosing: Each coil I draw, your power calls.
Guard all that dwell within these walls. When each door and window has been inscribed, return to the center. You may take this opportunity to continue meditation, or you may choose to celebrate with a sacred meal. When you are finished, thank the watchtowers and close the circle. Pathwork: Dream Home Ground and center according to your tradition. When you feel centered, close your eyes and concentrate on the sounds around you. Gradually narrow your attention to sounds closer to yourself until the only sound left is your own heartbeat. As you listen, you become aware of a separate cadence, also a heartbeat, but not your own. Open your eyes and see that you are in a room, bare except for some carpets and drapery. The beat you hear is a pulse coming from the walls of a house. The feeling inside the house is warm and welcoming, and you know no harm will come to you here. You are in a front room, sunny and well lit. Reach out to touch the wall beside you. The paint lifts away as colored dust. The wall itself is thin bark over soil. As you watch, twigs sprout from the walls, pushing outward until leafy branches crisscross the ceiling. You realize that these are branches of the trees used in the supporting structure of the wall. The baseboards, doors, and window frames all are sprouting branches of their respective woods. The wooden floor has become a system of gnarled roots; the wool carpets now are piles of loose fleece.* Walk to the window, where you notice that the panes of glass held by the blossoming woodwork are crumbling to sand and falling away. Next to you the drapes disintegrate in the breeze. Their fibers have become unspun, unwoven cotton and drift off as tufts of seed silk. Look outside; you see earth and stone where brickwork should be, and a cement porch is now a patch of sand. An electric snap draws your attention inside. All around the periphery of the room, small arcs of lightning make quick circuits where the wiring is. Small streams of water wind their way through the walls and floorboards. Follow one stream until you find yourself in the bathroom. The porcelain has become unbaked clay, while the steel fixtures in it have become iron ore. The stream you followed wells up as a series of springs and then flows away. Other streams running through the house are hot; some very hot. These hot streams run to the back of the house; follow one until you find a red-hot pillar of iron ore. Streams of water run to and from it, making circuits through the house. Take as much time as you wish to explore other rooms in the house. In some rooms there may be pieces of furniture; in other rooms, memories. If you wish, the hallways of this transformed house can lead you into the rooms of your own home, similarly transformed, or into rooms of places you've lived before. Take as much time as you need to explore before returning to the starting point of your visit to this dream home. Remember that no harm will come to you here, now or at any point you choose to return. Before you leave, thank the house for the time you've had there, and remember all that you've seen and heard. Close your eyes and concentrate on the sound of your heartbeat. When you are ready, return to waking reality. * Those of us with more artificial ingredients in our homes can remember the petrochemicals that went into them came originally from ancient forests. This ritual is from MoonWeb, an occasional publication of Circle Cithaeron, a scholar's circle and teaching collective following an Eldrytch Tradition of work with wild nature. MoonWeb is free for the cost of postage at the rate of two U.S. first-class stamps per issue (or their equivalent in international postal coupons). MoonWeb is free from copyright, and permission is enthusiastically granted to photocopy, publish, digitize, or telepathically transmit the contents, in whole or in part, as long as its parentage is acknowledged. For more information, please write Circle Cithaeron, PO Box 15461, Washington, DC 20003. MOONWEB 18 HABITAT FOR HUMANITY Moonrise of the Full Moon, Saturday, June 1, 1996 MOONWEB 18 is timed to coincide with the United Nations HABITAT Il conference, a major international meeting aimed at addressing issues of housing for the estimated one-third of the world' s people who do not have adequate shelter. For the first time, the UN also is explicitly addressing not just whether people have a place to get out of the weather, but also the environmental quality of housing and the social impact that kinds of shelter have on the human psyche. More information about the HABITAT II conference is attached; we hope you will keep its goal of shelter for all people in mind as you work MOONWEB 18. Habitat II Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements The Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, commonly known as Habitat II, will be held from June 3 - 14, 1996 in Istanbul, Turkey. It is planned that until then, CEDAR, supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry for the Environment will be hosting all data provided by the Secretariat of Habitat II. Furthermore, online discussion concerning Habitat II wiU be supported by a dedicated subscription list, Habitat2@cedar.univie.ac.at . It is also planned that, during the conference itself, new and updated documents will be placed and made available on these WWW and gopher servers. The Secretariat of Habitat II can be reached with the e-mail address Habitat2@unep.no. For additional information on this particular host and on the setup of this WWW server in general you can drop the systems administrator, Bernhard Lorenz, a short comment. WHY A UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ? The grave deterioration of living conditions due to rapid urbanization has prompted governments to call upon United Nations to hold Habitat II. At the beginning of this century only 14% of people lived in cities; by the year 2000 more than half of the world's population wiU be city dwellers. 90% of global population growth occurs in cities. In the last 5 years the world's urban area grew by 320 million people, the equivalent of 18 cities the size of New York. One extreme example is Lagos, the capital of Nigeria, which now has a population of nearly 8 million, growing from just 288,000 inhabitants in 1950. Following this trend, by century's end 13.5 million will live there; in 2010 it will have 21 million. Other cities are experiencing similar meteoric growth. Sao Paulo, Brazil, with 18 million now, swells by half a million residents each year. By 2025 the urban population will be 5.2 billion of whom 77% will live in less developed countries. The Conference will confront this emerging urban crisis and initiate urgent worldwide action to improve shelter and living environments | 
