At the stroke of midnight, when the house is one held breath and the hearth has gone to embers, a sealed jar becomes a keeping-place for good. What you shut inside at the turning of the day stays turned toward you.
This jar-keep is a slow blessing laid over a home and all who dwell in it, gathering warmth, plenty, and peace into a single sealed vessel. Bedded away in the dark, it works quietly for years, a blessing you set down once and never need speak again.
The Working
- At midnight, mix in a bowl the herbs of hearth and home with a measure of salt and low, murmured words of what you would keep.
- Layer the mixture into a clean jar, pressing each handful down firm with your thumb.
- Bed a small crystal in the very centre as the heart of the keep.
- Over the open mouth of the jar, name aloud every soul who lives beneath your roof.
- Seal the lid, then turn the jar three times widdershins and three times sunwise to lock the blessing in.
- Speak the verse with both hands laid flat upon the lid.
- Set the jar in a dark, still place, a cupboard, a hearthstone, the good earth, and leave it undisturbed.
The Incantation
At midnight’s hinge I seal this keep,
while all the house lies gone to sleep.
Salt to hold and herb to bless,
crystal heart of quietness.
Warmth and plenty, peace and rest,
locked within and lidded fast,
turn the world, the blessing last.
Turned against the day and sealed beneath both hands, the blessing is shut in to work in the dark. It is released only if the jar is broken, so let it never be.