Houses and Homes, More than buildings

[whimsicalwarlock]

Ahhhh yes, although the Dragon motifs is expected but the two Dragons facing each other is even more interesting. Chinese restaurants and business do have a notoriety for decking their places of business like temples, for better or for worse (some restaurants admittingly overdo it). From my experience, within the elder generation, those Chinese who migrated here during the 60s, it carries real nuance and spiritual practice since those folks retained spiritual practices, whereas thanks to the "Cultural" Revolution in China, much of it died, or was watered down. Many of these folks actually have personal altars in their homes.

For later waves of migration, it became more a cultural gimmick (no different than an Atheist putting up a Christmas tree), and many will just give you a generic answer like, "Oh it's for good luck".

When I was in Taiwan, there was a festival when they literally set up altars with offerings in front of their homes, businesses, etc., to appease the Gods, ward off malignant energies from entering their dwellings/businesses, even sleek modern businesses like banks, high rises and corporate offices were doing it.

Its interesting that you say that because I do get how generations tend to lose the "spirituality" of a practice and things seem to take a sense of formality rather than real spiritual meaning but when I went to ask the staff for something I did get this sense of "do not cross this line, we are watching" sense and thats when i looked up and saw the dragons. it was interesting, I actually smiled to myself because It was like they "spoke" to me. It wasn't threatening or anything but it did feel very authoritative, like it demanded and expected respect.

 

[tiger's eye]

I've heard of Guardian entities before in eastern traditions. I recall seeing something about two statues or carvings facing one another over a doorway and that the two would protect against thieves, intruders and the like, and I think i remember seeing one in person in a "chinese" restaurant once; two eastern style dragons facing each other over the doorway going back to where the employees worked/register/safe. I definitely noticed it and i remembered seeing that tradition online somewhere. I wish I had asked them about it but i wasn't sure if it would've been considered rude or intrusive so I just stayed quiet.
Thank you for your response.

That's right! According to statistics, a significant number of early Chinese immigrants came from the coastal regions of southern China (such as Guangdong and Fujian). In these two regions, traditional auspicious motifs such as dragons and phoenixes are extremely common—they can be found almost everywhere, even on washbasins… When they immigrated overseas, they brought these customs with them. To be honest, however, “door gods” are more commonly used for protective purposes; the two dragons you described are not traditionally focused on this effect (though they can serve that purpose as well). More often than not, they are displayed at doorways to symbolize good fortune (especially in commercial establishments). Since the dragon soars through the heavens as a divine beast representing auspiciousness, we interpret this as signifying “飞鸿腾达soaring success”—essentially expressing the hope that one’s life and business will proceed smoothly and grow increasingly prosperous.

 

[Grayhoss]

On the original topic, as animists, Indigenous Medicineworkers believe the home has its own spirit.
This definitely doesn't prevent us from calling upon spirit Allies AND setting wards to protect the home, especially the areas we leave our physical bodies, when we seek the vision road.

 

[SeydaNeen]

Very recently, I used fragrant smoke for a simple house-wide banishing. This gave me the clarity I needed to properly clean my fish tank and remove other physical barriers I'd been putting off, which improved the home's health, flow of energy, and has brought some much needed momentum to the post-equinox cleaning endeavor. Wards can sometimes have a blocking/stagnating effect in physical terms (consider the guardian statue colliding with the shoe rack and gathering dust - not to say it isn't worth it), so banishing may also ameliorate this drawback.

 

[blankindexcard]

I don't do much for my home, but I do clean it regularly and put out nice smelling incenses as an offering to whatever may be here (I have no sensitivity to spirits unfortunately).

I am fascinated by every thing I have read in this thread so far though.

 

[Cleric]

So in my time learning and taking in information on various magickal subjects, I came across a video online somewhere (most likely tiktok) and this video was of a woman talking about "rejuvenating" "refreshing" your wards and protections and such on your home. I thought nothing of it and scrolled.

Again this same video comes back up, but this time with someone "stitching it" (adding their own video to it afterwards as a response for those who don't know) and in this "stitch" a different woman came up with this sort of perplexed curiosity in her eyes. After a brief pause she says something alone the lines of this. "Do you guys not know about your home being a living breathing magickal being? Like do you not know about forming a magickal relationship with it?" I had obviously always heard of witchy homes having a "mind of their own" like in the legend of baba yaga and such, but this intrigued me so I kept listening.

She basically goes on to talk about houses and homes as something you can honor and build a relationship with; an entity that you can treat with respect by cleaning and such, and that doing so builds a sort of "magickal programming" into the home, and when this is done, you'll gain a sort of partnership with the home and it will sort of act as a magickal ally whose interest align with your own because you are the "keeper" or "caretaker" of the home. The woman who stitched the original video also said it was actually more effective than words or protections because its a continuous stream of magick that acts as a sort of consciousness that "actively" works in line with your wants/needs. As much as I've heard about stuff like this, I don't know that I've ever met someone who actually did this or at least that i know of.

So this train of thought brings up multiple questions for me.

Do any of you practice in this way; treating your home as a "living, breathing" magickal ally like a familiar spirit?

If you do, do you actually find that it is more powerful or more effective than things like baneful or protection wards?

If you do practice in this way, how do you practice this? Do you have a certain book or books that have guided you on doing this or do you do it in your own way?

And lastly, If you do practice this, has there ever been a time that you tried to do this and it just didn't work or even worse backfired? Or possibly worked more effectively or differently than you expected?

Thank you for your time reading this!

You should take interest in Basque traditional craft and Basque culture in general. In their world-view, a house is much more then just a dwelling; it is an entity on and in itself. It is viewed as an benevolent kind of spiritus locii, if you will, because the building itself is viewed as having roots in the ground, sprouted in the moment the building was finished constructing and the family moved in.
There are similar views all across Europe, vide sacrificing something and putting it in the foundations/walls of the building. Also the beliefs regarding the hearth, the place where the fire is lit and never allowed to go out.
With that in mind, it should be clear how important it is to keep your dwelling nice, clean and tidy, in every sense of the words. No one likes to live in dirty places.

Edit: personally, for cleansing purposes, I use a concoction of various local herbs drenched in virgin olive oil, and also fumigate with frankincense, once a day, preferably before going to sleep.