Up: [[Hestia]] Created: 2023-09-10 As goddess of the hearth, with a hearth considered the centre of every home, it’s no surprise that Hestia is considered the goddess of hearth and home, the goddess of domesticity (a title she shares with her younger sister, Hera, who is goddess of family and home). That sounded rather boring to me, until I dug further and found that Hestia’s vision was of a house as a true home, a place where body and spirit are restored after time in the outside world. That vision extended to guests who would be warmed and inspired simply by being in Hestia’s presence. It was considered an offence against Hestia to turn a stranger away. So, archetypally, Hestia is charitable and a protector, but her warmth with strangers is best described as **compassionate disinterest**, a phrase I first read in Pat Allen’s book *Art is a Spiritual Practice* as a definition of [[witness]]. It means that she doesn’t try to fix people, doesn’t try to make things better for people, and she doesn’t engage in gossip. This disinterest can become a shadow side of Hestia if she’s too calm, too emotionally impersonal and detached.