House
A home blessing
For a new room, a recovered room, or a room that has only ever been rented. Renters are fully housed, spiritually.
Do not bury jars in someone else’s walls, and do not hammer nails into a rental as a spiritual personality. A blessing can live in a drawer and still count.
Timing. Moving day, or any morning you choose to stay more kindly.
Materials
- Your key or a stand-in if you have no key, such as a doorstop you use.
- Water.
- Bread or any food you will eat.
- A cloth.
- A note.
Steps
- 1Wipe the threshold.
- 2Set the key on the cloth.
- 3Walk one loop of the space you actually control. Skip housemates’ closed doors.
- 4At the table, eat a bite of the food. Hospitality includes the host.
- 5Write: “For the time I am here, I will keep this place as safe as I can for myself and for anyone I invite.”
- 6Speak the words.
- 7Put the note in a book or a drawer. Wash the cup.
House, or room, or corner, I will not pretend you are a castle. I will not trash you. For as long as the key is mine, I am a careful animal in you.
Close. When you move out, take the note with you and leave the place broom-clean. That is the uncasting.
The practical action, which is not optional if you want the rite to be honest. Fix or report one small thing: a bulb, a drip, a fire-alarm battery.