Household gods
“... we must be very careful not to offend the gods. There are things we cannot do, words we cannot say.”
The household gods observe, protect, and influence all that happens within the home.
The gods are treated as members of the family and their presence and blessing are required at all important family occassions. In addition to the formal offerings of food and drink that are their due, any food that falls to the floor is theirs.
Every home has inexplicable events: creaks, knocks, thuds or things that go missing. It is human to look for a cause, possibly to infer agency and intent. It is worrying to imagine malignant sprites and hobs, so we have gods to protect us, a pantheon of household deities, that we can placate. Their invention makes them no less real. Once adopted, we must persist in honouring them to keep them on our side.
Household gods are found in times ancient and modern, and in cultures across the globe.In times of national crisis when wider society appears beyond control or influence, these domestic deities become even more prevalent. As people look inward, to the
home and family, for their security and identity, their anxieties and aspirations are projected onto deities they can relate to. This personification of hopes and fears gives a scale that can be related to and give meaning on a chaotic wider world.
