Encountering Hestia

House ordering is my prayer, and when I have finished my prayer is answered. And bending, stooping, scrubbing, purifies my body as prayer doesn't.


-JESSAMYN WEST

You clean a cluttered closet, slowly sorting through clothing, considering what is to be saved, stored, or shared with others. She is there. You gather together the fruits of the earth on the altar of your kitchen counter, baking not a blackberry pie but a benediction, invoking an unspoken blessing for those who will partake of your love offering. She is there. You ready the guest room to welcome friends to your home, dressing the bed with your best linens, laying fluffy towels on the chair, arranging a bouquet of flow¬ers next to the reading lamp along with a few of your favorite books. She is there. You polish the silver, fold the laundry, iron the tablecloth, wash the dishes, replace the candles. She is there. Hestia, the venerable domestic spirit. We may not have known her name, but we have felt her move through us when we experience pleasure in our daily round.


Three thousand years ago in ancient Greece, Hestia was the goddess of the hearth, guardian of family life and the temple. It was to Hestia that women turned for protection and inspiration so that they might, as an act of worship, transform their dwelling places into homes of beauty and com¬fort. Hestia was one of the twelve Olympians in classical Greek mythology. But she is the least known of all the deities, and there are no legends about her, even though Zeus bestowed on her the privilege of sitting in the center of their celestial home so that she might receive the best offerings from mortals. While the other gods and goddesses were personified in sculpture and paintings, Hestia was not rendered in human form. Instead, her spiritual presence was honored as an eternal flame burning on a round hearth. Jungian analyst and author Jean Shinola Bolen tells us in her book, Goddess in Everywoman, that Hestia's sacred fire prov_d illumination, warmth, and the heat necessary for food. Despite her anonymity through the ages, "The goddess Hestia's presence in house and temple was central to everyday life" in ancient Greece.


Today, as in ancient times, reflecting on Hestia "focuses attention inward, to the spiritual center of a woman's personality," according to Dr. Bolen, enabling us to tap into an inner harmony as we go about our daily round. Hestia is not frazzled, hanging on by a thread. Instead, Hestia is "grounded in the midst of outer chaos, disorder, or ordinary, everyday bustle." Everything that needs to get done in the home is accomplished with ease and grace. By knowingly seeking encounters with Hestia in our daily life, by letting her quiet, calm, orderly presence influence our behavior, we can come to the awakening that there is sacred Mystery in the mundane.


And just how do we do this? Sometimes I'll invoke Hestia's help as I work around my home. Or I'll ask myself, is this how Hestia would approach this task? Of course, if I have to ask that question, I know it's not, but the question brings my awareness back to the contemplative nature of homecaring.


Most of all, Ifutia gently reminds me, as Dr. Bolen points out, "tending to household details is a centering activity equivalent to meditation," if we want to make it so. If you feel you have no time to sit down to meditate, that you have a valid excuse for not seeking communion with Spirit because the floor has to be swept, realize that if you approach your tasks with reverence, it won't only be your home that will be transformed. The Goddess knows what it takes to run a household and She has deemed it holy. So should you.