The Seat by the Fireside
An Ancestral Hearth Ritual
🪄 The Celtic Creatives Toolkit is your monthly creative tool or ritual to unlock the magic of your Celtic soul. You can access your growing portfolio of tools here.
A Chairde, Friends,
This ritual has been circling around me for the past couple of months. I know I have mentioned that I will be sharing a ritual of the hearth; rituals often prescribe their own timeline, and today, the time has arrived. It feels synchronistic as I deepen into ancestral narratives as part of the research and training course I am a student in, ‘Ecologies of Imagination’, and so, the ancestors feel but a veil away at this time.
What I share with you today is a traditional Irish Samhain practice usually performed around OÃche Shamhna (Halloween), but Samhain is a season which exists within nature and within us, so know that even if you’re experiencing an inner-Samhain in the height of summer, you can always return here. I feel as we descend now towards the winter solstice, the apex of Samhain time, the longest night of the year and the dreaming time, this ritual will be in service to your creative soul.
The Hearth
In Irish homes, the hearth has always been more than just a source of warmth for damp bodies; it was the beating heart of the homestead. Through the long, cold, black evenings, families would draw their chairs close or settle on the floor nearest the fire, flames dancing in eyes to pierce the winter’s chill. The most coveted place was the chair closest to the fire, a toasty throne, which visitors would have the honour of resting their bones on, or from which the seanchaà (‘bearer of old lore’) would regale great tales. Some homes even had a Cailleach or hag’s bed tucked beside the hearth, reserved for the old woman of the house.
Welcoming the Ancestors Home
Samhain is a time of ancestral return in Ireland, when the soul’s of loved ones past, would visit the family home if just for a short while. As the chair closest to the fire was the most treasured, people would reserve these seats for returning ancestors. Before bedtime, extra fuel would be placed on the fire to keep the chairs warm, and offerings of food laid out. The folk of the house would drift off to sleep into the dreamtime, and the ancestors return while they slept.
There is a strong connection in Irish folk tradition between dreaming and death; for example, if you wish to avoid dreaming of someone after they’ve passed, you must not touch their body at a wake, if you do, touch away and the dream bond is formed. The dreamtime, death and the Otherworld are deeply interwoven in the Irish psyche.