Heartha, Goddess of Hearth and home

[Celestite]

I have a Kitchen Altar dedicated to the Goddess Heartha, whilst I quite often find information on Hestia (who is a similar deity) I rarely find anything specially aimed at Heartha.

If anyone knows of any interesting sites or places of further information, could they be kind enought to email me please.

Blessings

[Mairwen]

Am familiar with Herdda. We honor her at the Spring Equinox. :O) And you're right. It's difficult to find any information about her at all.

[BrightStar]

Hi all!
In Greek,Hestia means hearth.That's all I could find,also.
Peace and Love
Rain brightstar

[Lilu]

I've never heard of Heartha, I have a kitchen altar dedicated to Hestia, but I have not run across Heartha before, what pantheon is she from?

Lilu

[Mairwen]

Going out on a limb to assume that we're meaning the same thing by Heartha and Herdda (as Herdda does mean "The Earth") ... Herdda is a Welsh Goddess.

[Celestite]

As far as I can tell, she is an ancient Anglo-Saxon Goddess, possibly germanic in origin.

[PaganBoyNC]

The only reference I have seen about Hertha was in a book called Mastering Witchcraft by Paul Huson. His book focusses on some of the darker aspects of Witchcraft and is often found to be distasteful by some. He appears to take a more Ceremonial and Kaballistic approach to things and uses many medieval folklore references.

He depicts Hertha as goddess of hearth and home and as a motherly figure and also seems to attribute protection to her. He does not make it clear what pantheon she is from although her name seems to suggest that she is Germanic (heath or hearth meaning earth) in origin. His book has a bibliography, though I have not done much cross referencing from it so I cannot be sure, but this may be one place to look.

Good luck on your search :).

[Celestite]

Thanks Justin, that's really helpful, do you happen to know the ISBN number by any chance?

Blessings

[Mairwen]

Her day is Spring Equinox ~ Lady's Day or Herdda's Day.

Tarvos, the Golden One, is born on Herdda's Day. The word Earth is derived from Herdda's name, as she acts as Mother to Tarvos and symbolizes the land itself.

[PaganBoyNC]

The ISBN for the book is 0-399-50442-7

She is discussed on the chapter about Protection and Countermagic which begins on page 136 and there is a brief invocation of her on page 233.

It is also briefly mentiond that Hertha is related to Habondia as mother/daughter in a way similar to Demeter and Persephone in the Greek mythology.

[Mairwen]

> It is also briefly mentiond that Hertha is related to
> Habondia as mother/daughter in a way similar to
> Demeter and Persephone in the Greek mythology.

First I'd heard anything like that.

[Kaylara]

Same here.

Kaylara