Do folks relate to their household spirits and if so how? Do you see them?
Do they manifest in other ways?
Do you honour them - ie an altar, offerings etc?

Just wondering as 3 months into new house and feel want to develop this aspect of my spirituality.

Ed

Well, I have a wee altar for the Lares and the Penates - the spirits of the ancestors and the household

I have a small altar in my kitchen (which she seems to favour). I have a small figurine of a horse, as she seems to be a horsey spirit - though not a horse as such. I tried the usual offerings of choc cake/biscuits/muffins and cream and she didn't seem impressed (no, I can't explain - just a feeling!) and we finally refined it to apples, cider and calvados. Not surprising with something inclined to horses, I suppose.

I always suggest keeping the same place, and the same dishes - different to other household dishes - so the wight knows "it's mine". It might just be a dish and nothing else - or s/he might nudge you for other things to be kept in that area.

And remember - this is two way. if s/he does something you don't agree with, you have the right to negotiate that.

I don't see her, and she doesn't come upstairs - she thinks this is a stable and no one keeps horses upstairs. If people sleep downstairs she may give them dreams. If she's upset or annoyed, she breaks glasses. Irritatingly, she also breaks our kitchen sink (as now) which involves me with hefty negotiations with IKEA. Thankfully, as a company they don't understand about wights.

We keep the hearth clean and tidy (most of the time!) for the housewights where we leave offerings for them - porridge and beer (not in the same container I hasten to add!)

Not a Wight as such, but I have had the odd visit from a black cat. Turns out a previous householder had him for about fourteen years.

Moynagh did have summat nasty in her room, but I soon sent It packing!

Other than that, I have my altar and stuff. Flowers/plant, candle, incense. The house seems to approve. If I get forgetfull and dusty, Things happen.

Porridge and beer? Isn't that how the scots make haggis?

We have house spirits here, there are 3 of them, one is a child and 2 are adult females one of which is incredibly old. The older ones love anything to do with cooking, when we first moved in one of them used to turn the gas down on my old cooker, sometimes dinner could be hours late. Anyway with some seriuos negotiations , I managed to stop this, and it hasn't happened with the new cooker etc. (Just wish They would use there energy to do the washing up instead ). They also helped choose the colour paint for the front of the house, But that story is in anather post on here somewhere.

Anyway, I leave food out for them once a day, and the all seem to be happy with this. The Smallest one has a habit of moveing things like pens etc. We have a room at the back of the house which hasn't been renovated and keep finding small piles of things hidden in the stone holes in the walls. This is an old custom here, if you had anything to keep safe put it in these holes. Salt and candles, beeswax and eggs being most common as these were so expensive.

I have a horse shoe at the back of the cooker which they seem to like there, and we leave a small egg cup of salt in one of the holes in the wall in the un renovated room. But I do draw a line at the idea of eggs going in these holes, which was something else that they traditionally kept in them. With some more negotiation the eggs now stay either with the chickens outside or in the egg basket in the kitchen. Candles i don't min so we keep the spare ones there. Along with the saddle sopa and bee's wax, which we use for harness and sadlery repairs.

We know that it's deffinatly the house spirits who have been move these things about as our children are to young to be able to do any of this. We have no neighbours and some of my OH's items from the hay barn , tool shed ect have also ended up in these holes in the wall. The back part of the property where this room is dates to the early 17th century. The part that we use and live in is 150- at most 200 years old. In the celler there is an old well taht has been filled in, but not caped under the boiler. We have a new well that was dug in the last 50 years outside. The actuall celler walls are about as old as the back part of the property and built in the same style.

We do know that the back part of the property was used as a stable / dairy for many years, as the stone holes not only indicate this but the wall had the tie rings for the animals etc still there. The youngest house spirit / ghost looks after this area, and we keep the horses tack and rugs that we don't use all the time in here. As long as we keep a few things in one in perticular of the wall holes this little spirit seems very happy.

We all just happily respect and get along with one anather.

Siksika

My sink cracked after I'd dusted the house (and altars!) and the OH had cleaned the kitchen.

I am now engaged in a battle with IKEA.

Having said that, I apologised to our housewight for missing her out in the round of offerings following the house cleaning and told her I do not expect cracked sinks as a result , and I'd like it if she made amends. What's the point in having a pwca instead of the usual brownie for a housewight if she can't do something? She got some special cider and I sallied forth into the usual argument with the Contact Centre.

They, apparently, had no record of my call on Wednesday, which is why no one rang me on Thursday. The first call received was my one at 13.30 yesterday. By my third call I was asking for a manager and - wonder of wonders! - one came to the phone immediately. Even stranger, although neither she nor the advisor could help, though both were very sympathetic, half an hour after I'd put the phone down and resigned myself to the situation, the advisor rang me back. My case had troubled her and she'd put in time to do a bit of detective work and found my call of Wednesday misfiled under the wrong name. She is now going to find out why I didn't get a call back and will ring me today when she gets into work.

Blow me down with a feather! I've never, ever had that happen before. Maybe I'll get some more of that cider for Madge.

Oh, and Siksika's post reminded me that I had to put a horseshoe up in the house, as Madge is still convinced the downstairs is a stable.

Not quite dear - it's how we RECOVER from Haggis!

This is a Victorian terrace house so I believe there have always been friendly spirits here since we moved here some yars ago. There's always been a nice atmosphere here.
Now, these past two years, I've certainly felt my late hubby's presence, bless him. In fact it was two years ago yesterday that he was called to the Summerlands. As long as the kettle gets put on regularly and there's always a supply of tea bags in the house, he's happy.