What do you put on your altar?

[David19]

I just wanted to ask people, what they have on their altars?, for myself, I don't have one at the moment, but, I've been thinking of maybe putting something similar, for, I guess, several reasons, like, I want to be able to create something that reflects my spiritual interests, I think it might be a good focus for meditation, and maybe just a reminder of my spirituality.

As I don't worship any Gods (at the moment anyway), it won't be used to worship anything, but, I'm thinking of maybe including things and people that mean something to me, like, maybe, photos or drawings of people or beings I admire (e.g. Martin Luther King Jr., Buddha, Mani (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mani_(prophet)), and various other people, maybe even pop cultural, or fictional, beings, like Buffy (I've been reading this book 'What Would Buffy Do?: The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide' by Jana Riess (http://www.amazon.com/What-Would-Buffy-Do-Spiritual/dp/0787969222), and really like a lot of the spirituality, symbols, metaphors, etc that can be found in the show)).

I also thought about maybe including paintings that I could do, of various things that have a spiritual meaning for myself.

Anyway, those are just some of my ideas that I'd like to do for any altar, but, what about you?, if you have an altar, what do you keep on it?, whether it's for a God(s) or just for your own personal spirituality.

[Erebos]

I have more shrines than altars. I keep a white candle to represent Hestia, and I have shrines to certain gods with statues, incense stick holders, candles and items that represent the deities (like a peacock feather for Hera, and shells and roses for Aphrodite).

[Lupabitch]

My main altar has statues of the four directional totems, a clay vessel I made in high school, and various other important items in my spirituality. I also have an altar apiece to Grey Wolf and Brown Bear with various effects and ritual tools for them.

[Sakurako]

My altar has statues of Gaia, Moon Goddess and the Horned One. Representations of the four elements - air, fire, earth, water, with Gaia also representing the fifth element - spirit. I have a sunstone sphere and ocean fossil sphere representing the Sun and the Moon. Anything else placed on there serves either a practical purpose or is seasonal decoration :)

[patch]

The staples on my main altar consist of 3 pillar candles to represent Hestia, incense burners (one for oil, one for sticks and cones), an offering bowl, and a small candle to represent the Olympians.
In additon to this I have various offerings to different deities placed there.

My shrines consist of representations of the gods they belong to, and some votive offerings to them.

[aluokaloo]

lots of figurines four of them are animals that represent the elements, two of them represent my Totems Dog and Boar, and one represents one of my spirit guides, though i'd like another, i have a purple buddha that a friend gave me, and a golden pig, because that's my sign. i have a pretty piece of tye-died cloth done in peacock tones, stones, sometimes i put up pictures of the Gods that i found on the net and now i have a lovely multi-tiered, sculptured waterfall piece that i got as a birthday present from my aunt. which i hope to post pics of very soon.

[SilentDreams]

For so long I opted not to have an altar/shrine/anything because I told myself I didn't have the space for it.

So I re-organized my entire room and took up a little chunk of my very large dresser. I put a candle holder that holds 4 tealights. One to represent Mother Persephone and one for Father Eros. The other 2 to represent various elemental spirits each time I burn them. I also have a little jar to discard my used matches until I've buried them. And two decorative glasses to hold my old candles until I have the time to discard them respectfully as well.

In front of the candle holder I have 2 silk rose buds. Off to the side I have a white feather in a little vase.

Occasionally I add sprinkle around some leaves or other feathers I find or rocks etc. Things I feel I need at the moment for various special days or just when the idea catches me.

In the future I will be able to get rid of some items that I've had to store in my room for space reasons (such as a whole other bed propped up against one wall...don't even ask lol). At that point I'd love to add some small vases and put fresh flowers everyday. I hate cutting down flowers (which is why I generally go with fake flowers to represent real ones) but my roommate has a small garden and discards the extra ones frequently and I'd rather give them a nice home for a while rather than just chuck them in a waste bin.

[Gaudior]

When I get around to setting one up, probably an offering bowl, mala beads, a prayer wheel, a gong, a singing bowl, and a few candles here and there. I have a soapstone statue of Lord Ganesha, but he sits on my bookshelf right now, keeping watch over my books. He seems quite content to stay there at the moment, so that's where he will remain for now.

[Thunder]

Hearts plucked from the bodies of the people I kill.

[David19]

For so long I opted not to have an altar/shrine/anything because I told myself I didn't have the space for it.

So I re-organized my entire room and took up a little chunk of my very large dresser. I put a candle holder that holds 4 tealights. One to represent Mother Persephone and one for Father Eros. The other 2 to represent various elemental spirits each time I burn them. I also have a little jar to discard my used matches until I've buried them. And two decorative glasses to hold my old candles until I have the time to discard them respectfully as well.

In front of the candle holder I have 2 silk rose buds. Off to the side I have a white feather in a little vase.

Occasionally I add sprinkle around some leaves or other feathers I find or rocks etc. Things I feel I need at the moment for various special days or just when the idea catches me.

In the future I will be able to get rid of some items that I've had to store in my room for space reasons (such as a whole other bed propped up against one wall...don't even ask lol). At that point I'd love to add some small vases and put fresh flowers everyday. I hate cutting down flowers (which is why I generally go with fake flowers to represent real ones) but my roommate has a small garden and discards the extra ones frequently and I'd rather give them a nice home for a while rather than just chuck them in a waste bin.

That actually sounds like a very cool altar, so far, and, I'd also like to include some flowers (not for any deities, but, I guess, just symbolic, make it look good, maybe try and find one that has some kind of personal meaning to me).

Also, everyone that posted, all your altars, or shrines, sound really good :).


Hearts plucked from the bodies of the people I kill.

:lol:.

[Saphirelover]

My altar is on the shelf on my desk;
In the back left corner I have a little wooden box with my moonstone, bloodstone, rose quartz, and hematite (I'm planning on adding amethyst and a few others soon). Then I have a red chandelier candle holder which is in the back right corner (a picture of Aphrodite is between the wooden box and the chandelier). A drawing of the eye of Ra (or eye of Horus) next to that. In the middle I have incense and incense holders (one for stick incense and the other for cones), a skull candle holder which has "see no evil" "hear no evil" and "speak no evil" on it, a dolphin statue, like five seashells, a mirror, rose petals which are scattered around randomly, and three heart shaped candles. A shallow bowl with my fortunes in it (I save all the ones I get from fortune cookies XD) is in the front left corner and a buddha statue in the front right corner.

Underneath the shelf I have an abalone shell I use for incense, four more candles, potpouri, and during rituals I have bowls for libations (but they only stay there until I can get rid of the stuff properly).
I also have another cabinet thing on my desk, and that's where I store my essential oils, extra incense, bags of tealight candles, herbs, my pendulum, etc.
So basically my entire desk is slowly being taken over :bigredgri

[LoversLullaby]

I have on my altar four candles that represent the elements, my wand I carved myself, a variety of crystals and stones given to me by my grandma, a candle in the middle, and a reed diffuser. I've been meaning to clean it up though and rearrange some stuff.

[Spica]

Candles, dried herbs & crystals. Next to my altar on a shelf I have my cauldron, witchy books, more herbs, oils and so on. Im looking to make a black figure candle to represent Lilith to put on my altar, but I haven't come by the perfect candle for it yet.

[LoversLullaby]

After reorganizing my altar, I now have a dolphin figurine, angel figurine, 5 candles representing the 4 elements and spirit, a reed diffuser, my wand, various stones and crystals, and a seashell and a sand dollar. My altar surface is covered with a blue silky fabric. I'm feeling an attraction to the element water lately, which is reflected by my altar.

[BloodRose]

On my altar I have two white candles to represent the goddess and the god; a small bowl for salt or dirt and another small bowl for water; a small cauldron; a gargoyle candle for protection and to watch over things; a chunk of rose quartz and one of amethyst; a hawk feather; an abalone shell I burn sage in; my athame; my wand; an oil burner; a blue candle I recently made; an incense burner; a couple of sea shells; a black candle for a working i'm doing; and a candle for the Virgin of Guadalupe.

[TheLittleWitchy]

I used to follow what books told me to put on my altar, now I just go with what feels good to me. I usually keep representations of the elements - red candle for fire, seashells for water (I collected from a beach in Donegal), a mini besom for air, a rose quartz gemstone tree for earth, and a mini buddha figure to represent spirit...what other better way to represent it than a laughing buddha? :hahugh: I also keep a smudge stick, my ceramic cauldron, mortar and pestle, and a moonstone on the left for the female energy and a sunstone on the right for male energy. I also have a candle holder and a little pot which I sometimes put herbs, spells, wishes etc into. I change the altar cloth for each season (as I don't follow the wheel of the year). I have a green man one for spring, a yellow one with daisys on it for summer, a leafy one for autumn and a dark red one for winter. :boing:

[WillowBrooke]

I never used to have an altar until recently. I lived in my parents house and had the smallest room in the house, there was just no room for an altar. Now I have got my own place i've finally got the space. In fact, I have the entire spare room dedicated to Wicca.

On my altar I have two candles, one black and one white to represent the Goddess and God, and polarity. I have a large seashell that i've had for years, I love it, to represent water, a few crystals to represent earth, my athame for fire and incense for air. In the middle is a little wooden pentacle. Oh and I keep my tarot cards on there too. I want a proper altar cloth when payday comes (at the minute i'm using a black dress with white stars on to cover it!) I would like more candles on there and want to put pictures around it. Not sure what of though.

[Fairywolf]

I don't have an alter. I have never felt the need to have one. I have things scattered all over the house in odd places. I have a Bast statue in one room, a Shiva statue in another, several Buddas, fairys, crystals, stones, and candles are everywhere. Just not in plain sight for the most part. No reason why they aren't, just happened that way :D

I may get a wild hair up my bum one day and get everything organized but I doubt if that will happen. I kinda like things scattered about.

Hummm does that make my whole place an alter then??? :lol:

[WolfyJames]

On my altar (bedside table) I have a Cernunnos and a Moon Goddess statue. I have a candlestick (fire), a small frog statue to represent my power animal, my athame, a small cauldron, a blue feather (air), a shell (water), a big rock (earth), four images of animals representing each a different element (from the Druid Animal Oracle). Since I don't have a wand, I also have a small card representing a black cat with a wand, the Ace of Wands from the All Hallows Tarot.

[WildThing]

My current altar is in a bit of disarray, because...well, I'm not in my room much anymore because I can't stand to be "home" much. That said, since discovering Inanna, I've switched out some of the statuettes that I placed there when other Goddesses had taken interest in me with a painting I created of Inanna. As well as a new offering plate, a roll of my ritual supplies, incense holder, as well as my other standard stuff. Drama mask, geisha figurines, a small picture with a nature background with words describing faith, and a small glass green lamp made for tea light candles.

It's been my first altar I've been able to have in all four of my years on this pagan path. It's changed alot in the year I've had it. I'm not sure if I'll be able to have one where I'm living by the end of August.

[onyxkatze]

my alter is pretty simple: a pretty alter cloth, a yellow candle for east and air, a green candle for north and earth, a blue candle for west and water, a red candle for south and fire, and a little ceramic oil burner for center and spirit. since i mostly identify as an agnostic pagan, i don't have representations of particular deities. instead, i consider the central oil burner to represent the spiritual energy of the earth, creative and destructive, and the dissemination of all its beauty and complexity.

i just started keeping it on this little rectangular side table that i usually keep visible but out of the way, but can be pulled into the middle of the room during rituals. it works pretty well! i also like that table because there's room for my book (my journal, compilation of writings, or what some might call a book of shadows), which is really helpful to me.

[Kraheera]

My altar has a statue of Hekate (thank you RedLion), the wand a friend made me, my chalice/bowl set made out of black and white marble, and a plate for my elemental candles. It also has a sphere of fractured quartz for air, a sphere of labradorite for earth, a prism of hematite for fire, and a pillar of fluorite for water.

I also have an Athame and my cards on the altar. Other things come and go, but that's the basics.

[Phoenix_Falls]

I have several shrines/altars at the moment, but the one I spend the most time at is just a small table with a white cloth. I have a bronze statue of Yinepu/Anubis, a statue of Bast, a picture I drew and a poem I wrote for Sekhmet-Hethert since I can never find a representation of Her that "looks like" Her to me, a small incense tower, a shot glass (Yinepu likes rum offerings lol), a bowl for liquid offerings, a bowl for dry/food offerings, a few candles and some things I made/bought for Them as offerings. It's quite cluttered, but I tried to put everything in different spots, to have more room and it wasn't received well lol.

[Annyka]

The top of my Shrine serves as my Altar:

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i219/Iait/Kemet/P1050840.jpg

Beneath this I have my offering shelf, Akhu shrine (shrine for my ancestors) and my storage shelf, with my tools/books/ritual whites etc

[Phoenix_Falls]

The top of my Shrine serves as my Altar:

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i219/Iait/Kemet/P1050840.jpg

Beneath this I have my offering shelf, Akhu shrine (shrine for my ancestors) and my storage shelf, with my tools/books/ritual whites etc
Is that an oil burner on the left? That is a crazy cool looking contraption! Where'd you get it?

[Annyka]

Is that an oil burner on the left? That is a crazy cool looking contraption! Where'd you get it?

Yes, it's an oil burner. It's a handblown glass one made in Egypt. I bought it whilst there on my honeymoon.

[MsMollimizz]

...has changed over time.
Then my Lady Isis made herself known to me so I've got a statue of her on a small platform in the middle of
the top shelf of a desk. Well look below
Gentle Light
MsMollimizz
88224

[Phoenix_Falls]

Yes, it's an oil burner. It's a handblown glass one made in Egypt. I bought it whilst there on my honeymoon.

That is very cool. Does it take a while for it to heat up? The oil holder looks high up. The design is really interesting, I haven't seen an oil burner like that before.

[MoonChild78]

I seem to have little alters/shines/whatnot's all over my home. I prefer it that way. They all tend to change though either for the seasons or just becuase something in me said to go and change it or becuase I found something new that "just has to be out somewhere" and then it becomes a week long process to find the right spot!!

Right now, these are the ones I have set up:

The first is my house blessing alter. It sits in the living room with a red candle from my friend (fire), a silver bell from my aunts 50th wedding anniversary (air), an amythst from my mom (earth) and a underwater glass paper wieght also from my mom (water). There is also a mini purple Buddha for spirit, currently a bowed sprig of three wheat kennerls to represent birth, life and death as well as the Goddess and the plant as I am most in touch with the element of Earth (and it was also a gift from my SO's fraternity -- it's their flower).

The second one is my "family" alter. My brother and sister are not related to me in anyway but have been in my life over 15 years and I pay homage to them and since they are Pagans as well (both are different paths) I like to keep an alter to them as well. I also have four candle for each element, one for spirit which is higher, my incnese smuger in the middle and a paper mache sun and moon on either side for the God/Goddess... Light/dark.... day/night.

I have a few more around the house but no pictures yet.

[Annyka]

That is very cool. Does it take a while for it to heat up? The oil holder looks high up. The design is really interesting, I haven't seen an oil burner like that before.

No it doesn't take long to work. In fact I can almost instantly smell the aroma of the essential oil I have in the oil bowl above the candle.

[David19]

The top of my Shrine serves as my Altar:

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i219/Iait/Kemet/P1050840.jpg

Beneath this I have my offering shelf, Akhu shrine (shrine for my ancestors) and my storage shelf, with my tools/books/ritual whites etc

That is a very cool altar, you've definitely put a lot of thought into it :).


...has changed over time.
Then my Lady Isis made herself known to me so I've got a statue of her on a small platform in the middle of
the top shelf of a desk. Well look below
Gentle Light
MsMollimizz
88224

The picture didn't seem to load.


I seem to have little alters/shines/whatnot's all over my home. I prefer it that way. They all tend to change though either for the seasons or just becuase something in me said to go and change it or becuase I found something new that "just has to be out somewhere" and then it becomes a week long process to find the right spot!!

Right now, these are the ones I have set up:

The first is my house blessing alter. It sits in the living room with a red candle from my friend (fire), a silver bell from my aunts 50th wedding anniversary (air), an amythst from my mom (earth) and a underwater glass paper wieght also from my mom (water). There is also a mini purple Buddha for spirit, currently a bowed sprig of three wheat kennerls to represent birth, life and death as well as the Goddess and the plant as I am most in touch with the element of Earth (and it was also a gift from my SO's fraternity -- it's their flower).

The second one is my "family" alter. My brother and sister are not related to me in anyway but have been in my life over 15 years and I pay homage to them and since they are Pagans as well (both are different paths) I like to keep an alter to them as well. I also have four candle for each element, one for spirit which is higher, my incnese smuger in the middle and a paper mache sun and moon on either side for the God/Goddess... Light/dark.... day/night.

I have a few more around the house but no pictures yet.

Quite a cool arangement :).

[AthenaCrowns]

I just wanted to ask people, what they have on their altars?, for myself, I don't have one at the moment, but, I've been thinking of maybe putting something similar, for, I guess, several reasons, like, I want to be able to create something that reflects my spiritual interests, I think it might be a good focus for meditation, and maybe just a reminder of my spirituality.

As I don't worship any Gods (at the moment anyway), it won't be used to worship anything, but, I'm thinking of maybe including things and people that mean something to me, like, maybe, photos or drawings of people or beings I admire (e.g. Martin Luther King Jr., Buddha, Mani (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mani_(prophet)), and various other people, maybe even pop cultural, or fictional, beings, like Buffy (I've been reading this book 'What Would Buffy Do?: The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide' by Jana Riess (http://www.amazon.com/What-Would-Buffy-Do-Spiritual/dp/0787969222), and really like a lot of the spirituality, symbols, metaphors, etc that can be found in the show)).

I also thought about maybe including paintings that I could do, of various things that have a spiritual meaning for myself.

Anyway, those are just some of my ideas that I'd like to do for any altar, but, what about you?, if you have an altar, what do you keep on it?, whether it's for a God(s) or just for your own personal spirituality.


I think those are really good ideas. If those things are what have the most spiritual meaning to you, what reason should you have to not put them on an altar?

Personally, I have a Sun figure with a yellow candle on the left and a large, peach colored candle with three wicks (Mother, Maiden, and Crone) that I like because as you use it, the middle sinks in and makes the candle look like the inside of a Conch shell, which I love. I also have a working candle in the center with two pointed crystals faced at it along with my wand, scent sticks, any offerings, holy water, lighter (got to keep it handy), and whatever working tools I need. Also, I put season things like flowers, leaves, and shells on there, too.


Good luck and have fun with it! Your altar is a reflection of you and if the traditional way isn't a good representative of your spiritual beliefs, who says you can't make it one? :hahugh:

[MsMollimizz]

Sorry you had trouble with the pic...

[Tavthe]

For me, things are scattered a bit. The shrine houses a candle and a musical statue of Mary that I use to symbolize Brigid.

The altar has a rock, shell, oil burner, and one of those red statues of dragons you can find in asian gift shops, with a decorative brass vase towards the back(for dried flowers), flanked by a small glass of oil and a 2-3" cauldron (large enough for burning tealights), and the tile is covered in bits of wax i've scraped up from the surface.

And that's all for now. Though I may create a third space in the coming months.

[Arinya]

A coaster. Glass of boxed wine. Comic books. A novel. NDS, with my game box under it. Cell phone. Oh, and my favorite lamp.

[Dragonfly Spirit]

Can someone explain to me what the difference is between an Altar and a Shrine?

I have set up what I call a shrine in my garden, this is a large green coloured temple statue I've place inbetween the bamboos in my garden, which I've dedicated to the nature spirits in my garden and I can place offerings in front of this.
I would also like to set up a couple in the house. I have a shelf dedicated to my ancestors but I'd like to do more to that also I'd like to set up somewhere in honor of the house spirits and the goddess. I have to admit though that at the moment I don't do rituals as such, I just talk to them or say hello as I'm passing as though they are members of the family, if that makes sense.

[Simply Iris]

My altar is on my headboard above my bed.

It has two wooden statues of the God and Goddess that my grandfather carved for me, two white candles, and some red and green candles as well.

I also have an incense burner and a feather for the element of Air, chalice for Water, a box of gems and other things that are special to me for Earth, candles for Fire, plus a ceramic faerie to represent the presence of Nature spirits.

Above that, I have a shelf with most of my herbs, incense, and other stuff that generally needs to be kept out of curious 3-year-old's reach.

[Simply Iris]

Can someone explain to me what the difference is between an Altar and a Shrine?

I have set up what I call a shrine in my garden, this is a large green coloured temple statue I've place inbetween the bamboos in my garden, which I've dedicated to the nature spirits in my garden and I can place offerings in front of this.
I would also like to set up a couple in the house. I have a shelf dedicated to my ancestors but I'd like to do more to that also I'd like to set up somewhere in honor of the house spirits and the goddess. I have to admit though that at the moment I don't do rituals as such, I just talk to them or say hello as I'm passing as though they are members of the family, if that makes sense.
I think that sounds lovely. :)

[Airia]

At the moment, all I have on my altar is two pink candles in holders, two fake light pink roses, some white feathers, a wishing stone, a small 'guardian angel' doll with my birth stone in its chest, and a scented oil incense burner. Mainly, it's just symbolic of the season Australia is currently in (Candlemas).

[Nox_Mortus]

White candle, black candle, pentacle, censer, athame, white handled knife, lidded bowl of salt, iron chalice, wand, scourge, a book, and a sculpture of a skull made from smoky quarts. Other things are placed there as needed.

[Brearley Arn]

I'll use a small indoor altar, for when the outdoors is inconvenient to use(terrible weather or company) as altars aren't necessary for my tradition.

My future plan is to create a stone circle in my own grove, and have a large herb garden.

The making of my grove is one of the big tasks I have to finish before I'll take the title of Druid. Others include, creating my own staff, Crane Bag, Ritual Clothes, Tattoos, and 10 years of study.

[Brearley Arn]

@Dragonfly Spirit An altar is a work space, a Shrine is a place of worship.