A Farewell to Ara: Moving Day

 

How does one say “goodbye” to a stream? How does one say “farewell” to Lares, the household spirits of this place? It is moving day, and I am at a loss.

 

I had first met my Lares upon moving into my apartment, 15 months ago. I have already blogged about how that happened, so I won’t go back into the details, but I feel that I have a really good relationship with the Lares and I hate to leave them behind. Do they want to stay? Do they want to come along? When the time comes for me to walk out that door for the last time, I am going to ask them. That begs an even bigger question: are the Lares the Spirits of the Place as Nature Spirits or as entities within the structure of the building and/or apartment in which I lived?

 

I spent some time developing a relationship with Silver Creek, my local waterway. I meditated next to it, it gave it offering, I watched it, I had many experiences and insights which would suggest that a) this stream was sentient in the way that streams are or may be, and b) its name was Ara, like the constellation Ara, the Altar.

 

 

I cannot even begin to say how much time I have spent with the stream nor how my energy, intent, and comfort I have given to and found in my relationship with the Lares. I am not sure if they are singular or numerous. I feel that they watch out for me, my familiars, my family, and my things. I have already moved their altar to my new home and I continue my offerings to them in that place. While I honour the spirits of my new home, the spirits of the old place are still vital and present and attached to me – or perhaps, better yet, I am attached to them.

 

As I awake every morning, the first thing I do in my Lares Devotionals is to wash my hands and enter into my exchange with the Lares clean and purified. I think this is ultimately important and necessarily polite. I have a stone that I use to make the offerings. I call this a Huwasi stone in the manner of the ancient Hittites, members of the Indo-European family, originally from Anatolia, now known as Asia Minor, or modern day Turkey. It was used as a replacement for the image of a divinity or for a temple. Next to this stone, I have a small, ceramic cup full of water. I dip my clean fingers into the cup every morning and offer the following prayer:

 

“I welcome, to you, my Lares

 

“I welcome, to you, my Lares

 

“To another day of friendship and peace.”