ThriftWitch: Home From Home Charm

As a Cancerian, the concept of 'home' is very important to me. I am a home-loving person, and as I have mentioned before, my natural inclination is to put down roots. However, my idea of 'home' isn't confined to mere bricks and mortar, or that place I lay my head at night. Nor is it merely somewhere 'everybody knows your name' – although it can be all or none of these. I think for me, home is very definitely where the heart is.

I have been lucky enough to live in several different parts of the world, all of which remain dear to me in different ways. There are other places I love that have never physically been home to me. But I feel 'at home' whenever I am there.

This precious feeling of being in a place where you feel you truly belong is at the heart of feeling grounded and centred. The ability to ground and centre yourself is of course a very important basic magical skill, the starting point for everything else. To do effective magic, to enact ritual or ceremony, to move energy, you need to feel sure of yourself, certain of where you are and where you intend to go. This is why you need to know how to ground and centre yourself. The feeling of being grounded and centred is the same feeling you get when you are in your true home - as I said earlier, not necessarily that place of bricks and mortar, but that place where you feel relaxed, centred in yourself and where you can fully and truly be your authentic self. 

The Home From Home Charm is a way of condensing down the essence of the place(s) that you call home and being able to carry that essence with you wherever you go. Your charm can be used as a short-cut way of grounding and centring yourself, or it can be a magical item you carry with you when you are away from home yet want to keep its essence with you. You could also make Home From Home Charms as gifts for loved ones – while they are away in hospital, travelling, or studying. It would be a lovely gift to go in the backpack of a child as a comforter on their first day of school.

As with all ThriftWitch projects it requires little expenditure - just a bit of forethought and planning! You need a container for the charm - a little cork-stoppered glass jar or bottle is cute and looks good on a portable altar. If there's a chance it might get a bit of a batterin g while you're travelling it might be better to use a small plastic bottle or container (with lid), or a fabric, felt or leather/suede pouch. If you're really travelling light you could use a Ziploc bag.

What you put into your charm is entirely up to you, as what means 'home' will be different for everyone. But here are some suggestions to get you started:

• A tiny pinch of soil from your garden or special place.
• A tiny scrap of fabric snipped from the furnishings of a favourite room (curtains, duvet, quilt, cushion). You only need a tiny bit and should be able to find a suitable seam or hem to take a teeny bit from without ruining the item in question!
• Some dried flowers or herbs from your garden (a pinch only)
• Is there a particular smell that means home to you? You could add a spritz of your loved one's cologne or perfume on a scrap of fabric to your container; a chip of scented candle wax; a small piece of joss stick or incense; a chip of cinnamon or vanilla pod; a drip of essential oil or even a spritz of furniture polish on a piece of cotton wool...
• A lock of hair or snippet of fur from your loved one(s) and/or pet(s)
• A piece of twig or bark from a beloved tree
• A small shell or pebble from 'your' beach
• Small photos of a place or loved ones
• Any symbols that mean 'home' to you - either small symbolic objects or sigils or runes inscribed on paper
• A button from a loved one's shirt

These are just ideas to get you started. Only you can know what will be meaningful to you, and bring a smile to your face when you look at your charm. As this is intended to be a small, portable magical item suitable for travelling with, be careful not to get too carried away and add large items/too much. Travelling light is always the best idea! In all cases, if you're travelling internationally, tailor the contents of your charm carefully to avoid attracting the wrath of customs officials - many countries will not allow soil, vegetable or animal matter to be imported.

The only thing that I suggest you definitely include in your charm is a small snail shell, which is a perfect symbol for the ability to carry your home with you wherever you go! You can either put this in your container with all the other items, or glue it to the lid or perhaps thread it on a piece of yarn or ribbon and tie it round the neck of the container.

Once assembled, either start using your charm straight away or consecrate it first in your preferred manner.  

With a little tweaking and some appropriate magic, the Home From Home Charm could easily be adapted into a protective amulet for those beings and places you love.