The House, in the Traditional Roman Religion, has a strong symbolic meaning and an important sacred value. This is a very complex issue, difficult to be discussed here. Nonetheless I will briefly cite some relevant topics.
It is thus rather difficult to describe all the religious implications linked to the house. Yet it's important just to mention that the house is the site where a family lives. A family is sacred and ritually linked to Vesta: consequently the house is sacred to Vesta.
All the sacred sites to Vesta (templum) are named "houses" having always a circular shape: the houses of Vesta are not-oriented sites where the shape and figure of a circle is the Cosmos description, the Universe. From these first conclusions is already quite evident that the house is simbolically linked to the Universe, to Cosmos in opposition to Chaos. The House is thus a protection from Chaos.
The House is also a sacred private space of the private familiy rites and cults: from libatio to the meals, etc. The house is the place where the Lares Domestici are placed.
As already mentioned, the house has some complex sacred values because it has to be considered a structured sacred space where the family is in constant contact and communicate with the Deities. The house is a sacred space structured around a "centre": the house, like the "house of Vesta" whose centre is a sacred fire, is the representation of Cosmos. House and Cosmos are thus the same.
For this reason, like the Cosmos has an ideal centre, an immobile Pillar around which the Universe rotates (the relation stability-movement: simbology of the Wheel and the Tree), similarly the house has its own Centre. The poet Homer describes that the House of Ulysses has been built around a great tree: the pillar of the House-Cosmos.
In a house, according to the Traditional Roman Religion, the centre is represented by the altar of the Gods Penates. The Penates (Poenus) are the Gods of the Centre and their place is the Centre of the House.
A traditional house must also have an upper opening in order to make possible the communication and the passage to the superior dimension (Sky-Earth-Man/Woman). If we look at the Pantheon in Rome, which is a summa of the entire ancient symbology, we can see that this upper opening is well represented by the Pantheon's Eye.
Our houses sumbolically communicate with the superior dimension through the "smoke path" or the chimney.
The Ancient roman houses (domus) are an important representation of the sacred function of communication and passage in a traditional house. These houses were characterized by the so called "broken roof": the house was closed towards the outside but it was completely open towards the sky through a great central opening in the roof. In a profane sense, this opening could be used to collect the rain into the impluvium, but it had a ritual role to allow a direct contact with the Superior Dimension connecting the house to the Universe, the Transcendence.
The modern houses, as anything else, cannot transmit any religious experience. They have no symbolic openings towards the Universe. The modern house is finally deprived of its sacred function and reduced to a mere structural expression.
It's up to us to reverse such a condition.
It is thus rather difficult to describe all the religious implications linked to the house. Yet it's important just to mention that the house is the site where a family lives. A family is sacred and ritually linked to Vesta: consequently the house is sacred to Vesta.
All the sacred sites to Vesta (templum) are named "houses" having always a circular shape: the houses of Vesta are not-oriented sites where the shape and figure of a circle is the Cosmos description, the Universe. From these first conclusions is already quite evident that the house is simbolically linked to the Universe, to Cosmos in opposition to Chaos. The House is thus a protection from Chaos.
The House is also a sacred private space of the private familiy rites and cults: from libatio to the meals, etc. The house is the place where the Lares Domestici are placed.
As already mentioned, the house has some complex sacred values because it has to be considered a structured sacred space where the family is in constant contact and communicate with the Deities. The house is a sacred space structured around a "centre": the house, like the "house of Vesta" whose centre is a sacred fire, is the representation of Cosmos. House and Cosmos are thus the same.
For this reason, like the Cosmos has an ideal centre, an immobile Pillar around which the Universe rotates (the relation stability-movement: simbology of the Wheel and the Tree), similarly the house has its own Centre. The poet Homer describes that the House of Ulysses has been built around a great tree: the pillar of the House-Cosmos.
In a house, according to the Traditional Roman Religion, the centre is represented by the altar of the Gods Penates. The Penates (Poenus) are the Gods of the Centre and their place is the Centre of the House.
A traditional house must also have an upper opening in order to make possible the communication and the passage to the superior dimension (Sky-Earth-Man/Woman). If we look at the Pantheon in Rome, which is a summa of the entire ancient symbology, we can see that this upper opening is well represented by the Pantheon's Eye.
Our houses sumbolically communicate with the superior dimension through the "smoke path" or the chimney.
The Ancient roman houses (domus) are an important representation of the sacred function of communication and passage in a traditional house. These houses were characterized by the so called "broken roof": the house was closed towards the outside but it was completely open towards the sky through a great central opening in the roof. In a profane sense, this opening could be used to collect the rain into the impluvium, but it had a ritual role to allow a direct contact with the Superior Dimension connecting the house to the Universe, the Transcendence.
The modern houses, as anything else, cannot transmit any religious experience. They have no symbolic openings towards the Universe. The modern house is finally deprived of its sacred function and reduced to a mere structural expression.
It's up to us to reverse such a condition.
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