Green needles, watch over this house

Our living room fireplace is a portal to the sky. Just as a chimney allows smoke to leave a house it can also enable uninvited energies and entities to enter. Many magickal writings deal with protecting this door to your home. This afternoon I began a ritual to protect and purify our hearth.

First, I swept the winter ashes from the fireplace. Then I cut a few branches from the Christmas pine that watched over our living room through December, repeating the words I whispered to the tree when it was felled a few weeks back. I plucked needles from these branches and scattered them over the grill. The pine leaves will protect this magical entrance until I arrange a more permanent measure.