When you hear the words “doll house”, chances are that it will bring forth images of a small child playing with a little house, moving dolls about within it and so on. You will not be incorrect at this set of imagery, as indeed, this is generally what doll houses or miniature houses are used for – either for children to play with, or for collectors to assemble and…well…collect. Yet, this is not the only use for such miniature houses, as you will soon come to know.
In folklore and various beliefs, having an exact miniature replica of a house (such as a doll house) and placing the miniature house within the house it is intended to resemble is regarded as extremely bad and taboo in fact…as it is believed that this will lead to great misfortunes, and that the miniature house will serve as a beacon for Spirits, inviting them to inhabit the miniature house, and thus, the house it resembles as well.
Although this sounds like nothing but superstition, for once, this belief actually carries validity with it…and the roots thereof lies deep within not just magickal practices, but even religious beliefs from various cultures around the world.
Chances are that during your time researching various paths, paradigms and practices, you have encountered various mentions of Spirit Houses – although the traditions, cultures and terms may differ – the concept remains the same: a vessel intended for a Spirit or Spirits to inhabit. In many systems, the most common form of such Spirit Houses are effigies representing the Spirit, Entity etc that it is intended to house – however, there is another form of Spirit House, which, although many people do not know about them, in certain cultures they are far more used than effigies – actual miniature “houses” or shrines representing houses or buildings that are intended to house Spirits.
Most often, these literal “Spirit Houses” are intended to house Land Spirits, Deities, Guardians or even the Spirit of the house or building it is intended to represent (such as a Lare)…however, these Spirit Houses can also represent the house or building itself…almost as a living entity.
Now, previously we have discussed how something can take on a life of its own (so to speak), so this is not a new concept…however, let the above information sink in for a moment…
On a physical and mundane perspective, a miniature house is just that – a miniature house, nothing more, nothing less. Just as on a physical and mundane perspective a door or doorway is simply a door or doorway, nothing more, nothing less. However, this is where the physical and spiritual laws digress from each other.
A physical door may only be a physical door in mundane terms…however, spiritually, a door or doorway represents a door or doorway and all that it entails – a portal, a place that divides one place from another, a border, a place-between – hence the reason why so many protective workings call for you to anoint, mark or perform a spell over a door or doorway. It’s not what it physically is, but what it spiritually represents. The laws governing the spiritual differs greatly from that which governs the physical.
This concept has nothing to do with your personal perception or belief – it simply is whether you believe it to be so or not.
The same goes for miniature houses. If left unused, it is regarded as “unoccupied”…and unoccupied and thus desolate places attract Spirits naturally. Not just any Spirits, mind you – as no desolate and abandoned place attracts benefic Spirits…they tend to attract that which is malicious in nature. We are currently writing a new book which in a chapter we discuss places of desolation and abandonment and their relationship to Spirits, so we will not speak more of it here – but suffice it to say that places unoccupied, abandoned and so on attract the malicious due to energetic reasons. Not just actual houses and buildings…but also that which resemble houses and buildings.
If, as an example, you have a miniature house within your house and you simply leave it be – it is unoccupied and unused, and emits a certain type of energy, which in turn acts as a beacon to Spirits to move right on in. This will then serve as an anchor-point for them, and since the little house they are now attached to is within your house, they will inhabit your house as well.
Thus, Spirit Houses are constructed with this in mind, and a specific Spirit or Deity is purposefully invited to reside within it – where the individual or individuals then tend to the Spirit or Deity within the Spirit House…usually via offerings and the like in exchange for blessings, protection and so on.
Now, although we can make this a long discussion about Spirit Houses as per various religious beliefs, we are Occultists first and foremost – so we will instead mention another use of Miniature Houses – apart from actively linking a specific Spirit to it: using it as a poppet.
We can positively hear some of you being rather confused at this – “but a poppet usually represents a person!” True, that is usually what they represent…but this is a very limiting perception on the subject of poppets. By its base definition, a poppet is something that is intended to represent something else, which you use to perform your chosen Spellwork upon (the poppet) so that it may reflect upon that which it represents. This can be a person, an animal, a Spirit (yes, even Spirits can be represented with poppets) or even things more “abstract” such as houses, buildings (including all that resides within) as well as intangible concepts.
This means that you can create a “doll house” intended to represent your actual house and then use the “doll house” to perform a wide variety of workings which are not always feasible or possible to perform over your actual house. The acts performed need not always be “good” or positive either, as this same concept can be applied to cause great ruin and disaster instead.
Its funny how the small, overlooked things tend to be that which is the most powerful.
We hope that this has proved a bit informative to you, and perhaps this has opened a few new avenues to you in your practices. If there is an interest in how exactly to go about doing the abovementioned, we will write a small course on the matter…so if you are interested in instructions and further details, let us know.
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As soon as I read this, all I could think of was using the versatility of the poppet with the beginner spellcraft in Hexagrammaton. People yes, but homes, businesses, neighborhoods, institutions...anything really. Never would of thought of that. Already logged this in my journal.