The hearth is the center of your home. It may be a fireplace, a woodstove, a central furnace, or even your kitchen range. Wherever it is, it deserves a blessing.

Begin by cleaning your hearth—a gesture of care and respect. Perhaps your fireplace or woodstove needs the chimney or flue swept and cleaned, and the floor in front of it swept or polished. A furnace may need its filter changed or vents vacuumed out, while your range might need to be cleaned and polished. Some of these are safety measures as well.

As you work, speak words of thanks to the hearth for its gifts of service and protection. Next, offer a blessing to your hearth. Purify it by flicking salt water in each corner as you say:

Sacred fire, center of warmth,
Service given consistently,
Serving me through sun and storm,
Blessing made, so mote it be.