MacMorrighan
May 11th, 2006, 03:18 AM
_handclapp
Hi! I'm new to Wicca and all, and I want to make my self an altar, and I looked at some of your guys's pictures of altars, and I'm still not sure wut kinds of thing i should put on it, or wut not to put on it and what not. So I hoping for some help on what to put on it. I was also wondering, do u have to have a wand or athames or those kinds of things on it? Thanks! (21 August, 2002)
:broomride Hey guys, I caught this rather belated post (from my vantage point), so I thought I;d devote a thread in aiding and encouraging anyone in erecting their own Altar and Temple. (I have also attached a few sporadic, and poor, web cam pictures of my Altar and some Tools of the Art.)
Well, one should really have a very basic structure in mind, first (a neccesity if, like me, one's very analytical). What sort of cultural Path do you follow, or feel most comfortable with (for example Reconstructionism)? That might have a drastic effect upon your choice-possibilities! (Hellenistic Recon. is a very different animal than Kemetic [Egyptian] Recon.) Are you an ecclectic Witch" or actually "Wiccan" , or simply "Pagan"? Oh, and befiore I forget, a great bit of advise: Learn all the "rules" before you can break them or form your own Tradition or way of doing things-- in other words, seek out what "structure" makes sense to do, and stick with it! But, a word of caution, not everything labled "Wicca" or "Wiccan" is actually "Wiccan"! Silver RavenWolf's material is a prime example of this! But, I digress...
What will be the purpose of your Altar? Worship of the Gods, the Great Work of Magick, or both? Have you been chosen to serve a specific God and/or Boddess? If not, how would you idolitrously represent Him/Her/Them? Aniconically or with an arbitrarily generic idol? (In most paleo-pagan and current Siberian shamanistic cultures the idol is the "reliquary" that houses he God in question when It comes to Earth for Their worshippers upon being Invoked.)
Now, as for my Altar (though my pix don't wholey exemplify this, [I]senso stricto, while some are not captured in these specific images), I prefer a system of placement based in binary opposition. My Idl of theGoddess (in this case An Morrighan) takes centre stage; with a black candle on the right, and a white cadle on the left (black to draw in nergy as it does te frequencies on the light-wave spectrum, and white to send that enbergy forth from my Altar; they also represent the respective "Natures" of the Goddess and the God, respectively); my chalice is usually on the right to represent the "receptive" nature of theGoddess, with my Athame [which must have a black hilt!] on the right to represent the "projective" nature of the God (this also has some Western Qaballistic influences, as well); an Altar pentacle (if you fancy yourself a Witch); a censer, a Cauldron, a ritual blackthorne wand (the substance its mde from, of course, may vary!), home made ritual incenses and anointing oils, as well as taper candles and candle holders. (These were just the bare bones.) I also recommend that one invest in purchasing matching sets, to a degree. For some reason-- due to my personal sense of asthtics-- it's always bugged me to see some photos of Altars oin which they appear either cluttered or have several different styles of candle holders in several different sizes and made from various substances. This is why I, personally, emphasize hat one really look around and put some serious thought into what you want on your Altar when you serve the Gods, but also consider what obne can afford. Also, a good rule of thumb is to save up, because some items can be expensive, like an Athame, idol, or Cauldron, for example, and they'll be far more preacous to one, IMHO, than if one picks something up just because it was super cheap and out of neccessity.
I hope this helps-- anyon else have anything to add?
Hi! I'm new to Wicca and all, and I want to make my self an altar, and I looked at some of your guys's pictures of altars, and I'm still not sure wut kinds of thing i should put on it, or wut not to put on it and what not. So I hoping for some help on what to put on it. I was also wondering, do u have to have a wand or athames or those kinds of things on it? Thanks! (21 August, 2002)
:broomride Hey guys, I caught this rather belated post (from my vantage point), so I thought I;d devote a thread in aiding and encouraging anyone in erecting their own Altar and Temple. (I have also attached a few sporadic, and poor, web cam pictures of my Altar and some Tools of the Art.)
Well, one should really have a very basic structure in mind, first (a neccesity if, like me, one's very analytical). What sort of cultural Path do you follow, or feel most comfortable with (for example Reconstructionism)? That might have a drastic effect upon your choice-possibilities! (Hellenistic Recon. is a very different animal than Kemetic [Egyptian] Recon.) Are you an ecclectic Witch" or actually "Wiccan" , or simply "Pagan"? Oh, and befiore I forget, a great bit of advise: Learn all the "rules" before you can break them or form your own Tradition or way of doing things-- in other words, seek out what "structure" makes sense to do, and stick with it! But, a word of caution, not everything labled "Wicca" or "Wiccan" is actually "Wiccan"! Silver RavenWolf's material is a prime example of this! But, I digress...
What will be the purpose of your Altar? Worship of the Gods, the Great Work of Magick, or both? Have you been chosen to serve a specific God and/or Boddess? If not, how would you idolitrously represent Him/Her/Them? Aniconically or with an arbitrarily generic idol? (In most paleo-pagan and current Siberian shamanistic cultures the idol is the "reliquary" that houses he God in question when It comes to Earth for Their worshippers upon being Invoked.)
Now, as for my Altar (though my pix don't wholey exemplify this, [I]senso stricto, while some are not captured in these specific images), I prefer a system of placement based in binary opposition. My Idl of theGoddess (in this case An Morrighan) takes centre stage; with a black candle on the right, and a white cadle on the left (black to draw in nergy as it does te frequencies on the light-wave spectrum, and white to send that enbergy forth from my Altar; they also represent the respective "Natures" of the Goddess and the God, respectively); my chalice is usually on the right to represent the "receptive" nature of theGoddess, with my Athame [which must have a black hilt!] on the right to represent the "projective" nature of the God (this also has some Western Qaballistic influences, as well); an Altar pentacle (if you fancy yourself a Witch); a censer, a Cauldron, a ritual blackthorne wand (the substance its mde from, of course, may vary!), home made ritual incenses and anointing oils, as well as taper candles and candle holders. (These were just the bare bones.) I also recommend that one invest in purchasing matching sets, to a degree. For some reason-- due to my personal sense of asthtics-- it's always bugged me to see some photos of Altars oin which they appear either cluttered or have several different styles of candle holders in several different sizes and made from various substances. This is why I, personally, emphasize hat one really look around and put some serious thought into what you want on your Altar when you serve the Gods, but also consider what obne can afford. Also, a good rule of thumb is to save up, because some items can be expensive, like an Athame, idol, or Cauldron, for example, and they'll be far more preacous to one, IMHO, than if one picks something up just because it was super cheap and out of neccessity.
I hope this helps-- anyon else have anything to add?