Wardell Pottery and Metalwork

Spirit Houses

Hearing an ethnobotanist discuss Spirit Houses in the Amazon fertilized the seeds planted by Mary Stewart and her writings of Merlin. Man has always made or found places for spirits to dwell - spirits meant to protect the forest, the traveler or the sacred well. Traditionally, they are places to leave offerings for the spirits, offerings which seek to nourish or please.

There are traditions in many cultures, from medieval England and Europe to modern Indonesia and Thailand, that provide a place for spirits to dwell near our homes or in special and sacred places. The ancient Greeks built their incredible temples as an enticement for the gods to come and stay so they would be attentive to the prayers offered at the temple. Pre-Christian Europeans provided niches carved in stone or wood for the gods in a sacred grove or those protecting the crossroads to dwell in. No home or building in modern Thailand is without a spirit house, the placement of which is
decided even before construction of the building begins. All of these traditions seek to acknowledge the place that spirits and spirituality have in enriching our lives. By providing a home for the spirits, we provide a tangible acknowledgment of the more ethereal aspects of our lives.

These Spirit Houses provide a place for modern spirits to dwell, in the same sense that our bodies provide physical shelter for our souls. The creation of these houses is a metaphorical acknowledgment that there is more to our lives than the visible.

In an interview with Bill Moyers, the noted scholar Joseph Campbell said this about the need for sacred places in our modern lives.

"This is an absolute necessity for anybody today. You must have a room, or a certain hour of the day, where you don't know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don't know who your friends are, you don't know what you owe anybody, you don't know what anybody owes you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen."

You can use your Spirit House to help make a sacred place in your life, to remind you that our lives and our time together is sacred - a treasure to be cherished and shared.

All our Spirit Houses are one of a kind, and about 4-7" high. They can be ordered in any of our colors, and are $40 including shipping, UPS Ground.