Share your best Pagan thrift store finds!

[scorpio7]

I had some time before work today, so I decided to stop by Goodwill on my way. I've been wanting to set up an altar and I love to find inexpensive things that are Pagan-ish or that I can use for rituals there. I was looking for offering bowls, a new chalice, maybe some candle holders. I want to set up an altar on my bookshelf, but my mom is the only one I'm semi-open with about being Pagan, so it has to be fairly inconspicuous.

MAN, DID I LUCK OUT!

I had two specific deities in mind and I wanted whatever bowls and things I chose to remind me of how I picture those deities in my head. I ended up buying two really pretty baskets, a set of shallow brown bowls, some really beautiful pottery that can be used as just about anything, including holders for larger pillar candles, a ceramic mug that's made to look like it's wooden, a pretty brass-looking tealight holder with a leaf pattern around the edges. I saw even more stuff I wanted, but I ran out of time and I didn't get a chance to look for a chalice. I miss the one I found there a few years ago. It was just a clear wine glass, but it had gold stars all around the outside. I knocked it over and broke it ages ago while I was cleaning. :(

I've also found really cool glass bowls at Goodwill, and they sell nice furniture (end tables, etc.) CHEAP that would make excellent altars when I move out and have more room.

I have read lots of threads about finding Pagan supplies inexpensively at thrift stores, antique stores, and the like.

What were your best finds?

[MidnightFire]

I found three of my tools in a thrift store. A small cauldron for $5. Its about 5 inches diameter and 4 inches deep. My mortar and pestle for $10 and lastly is my silver candle holder that I got for $8. It's really fun. It has two holders for candles, one on each side of a small silver bowl that I use for offerings. Have to see if I can get a picture of it posted.

[scorpio7]

Please do! It sounds really cool!

[TheWomanMonster]

My favourites:
a red ceramic star shaped dish.
an amateur painting of ravens done in red and black.

[Glowy]

Hmm.. I found a goddess statue for the garden and some celtic onaments

[Élistariel]

I found my ring at a flea market.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c203/Ataralasse_Manveri/101_2124.jpg

I found my claddagh at the same flea market a while before. - I'm sure I'm wearing it wrong in this photo.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c203/Ataralasse_Manveri/fb896278.jpg

[brymble]

I recently scored a gorgeous silver-plated chalice with grape vines twining up the stem, and a pair of silver candlesticks. Once I found a complete set of runes with a hardcover book at a Goodwill. In Ithaca I found one of the Sacred Source Brigid Pillar Goddess statues at a Salvation Army store. Probably the most interesting find, though, was at the Salvation Army in New Paltz, where I found a amateur, hand-made weird purple ceramic jar, inscribed all over in Theban Script, which surprised me because I'm one of two Pagans I know around here who can read it without looking up every letter. I don't remember what it said exactly, but it was clearly labeled with someone's magickal name and an incantation blessing or empowering the contents of the jar. The craftsmanship was shoddy, like someone's high school crafts project, so I didn't buy it (I have some serious professional potters in the family so it made me wince a little) although I'm kicking myself just a little bit now.

[Heart of All]

Several things on my altars came from thrift shops. My statue of Freyja is a converted angel that someone had broken the head off of. I also have a pair of wings on her altar that were broken off an angel, but that remind me of her falcon wings. I have a necklace on Sjofn's altar that I bought at a thrift store--it's a dragonfly and an algiz rune. The offering bowl on Freyja's altar came from the thrift store.

[bellamandu]

i love thrift store, especially thrift store dumpsters. sounds yucky, and you wanna be sure of the laws in your city before you dive in.. but i think ive found more beautiful things for my altar and my house in general out of dumpsters than i have actually purchased. its crazy and almost a bit sickening how much wonderful stuff they throw away at those places.

[brymble]

I think dumpster diving should be an Olympic sport.

[Astara Seague]

Im a thrift store junkie..
I have found anything from tarot decks to jewerly
recently I found a few more books
and an aphrodite statue

[Windsmith]

In our area, we are all about Ax-Man (http://www.ax-man.com/). I found the most delightful nautilus-shaped brass box that I've set on my altar and am waiting to find the thing that goes in it. Ax-Man is also where my wife gets all of her small vials, which she uses for various spells.