About Your Alter

[Adam Of Avalon]

I've chosen to put my alter to the west wall, and as I live on the east coast and I am an air sign, I thought this was appropriate. What exactly are laters used for, what do you put on them? How would I go about using it? Tell me all about it!!

[Lilu]

You can put an altar anywhere you want, whatever suits you. Some traditions have specific places they want you to put them - like facing North, but I think you should go with what's convenient and what feels most comfortable with you. I've found that I like my altars facing East personally.

As for what they are, some are temporary, set up for a specific ritual, some are shrines to specific gods or goddesses, some are permanent altars for worship - to pray, do spellwork, or any other religious activity at. I personally use mine to pray at, meditate at, do spellwork, do readings, to hold my magickal tools, or to just sit in front of to collect my thoughts.

Altars are not necessary in order to practice Wicca, Witchcraft or any other kind of religion, but I like having one to focus my thoughts at, and they remind me of the divine in my life. I would recommend checking out some of the links in the "links for newbies" thread at the top of the New Pagans forum. Read read read! It's one of the best ways to learn :)

BB
Lilu

[Dagda Moon~Lily]

I'm agree, Lilu!

My alter faces east, right out my living room window with a nice view of the a field, a river and the sun/moon rise.

Mostly, I conscrate tools to the Goddess, cast spellwork, and meditate.

On my alter, I have a quarter to represent the Goddess, a small crystal to phallically represent the God, 2 white candles (one for Goddess and one for God); Green, Yellow, Red and Blue candles for the elements, a censure and inscence, my Wand and Athame, a small decorative dish of water, and one of salt....a lighter, candle snuffer, my miniture broom, my tarot cards and string for some knot magic. :D Okay....so my alter is a Sofa Table! ....nice and long! :D

[Lilu]

I have a HUGE altar too Dagda! It's like 6x4feet! hahaha

I have gold and silver candles for god and goddess, an isis statue, a kuan yin statue, more candles, a bowl of water with lotus floating candles, another candle with a lotus on it (personal power symbol), incense burner, anointing oil, candle snuffer, ritual knife, a quartz cluster candle burner, my oracles, assorted crystals and things. And a large picture of Isis over the altar on the wall. I am still looking to add a few statues of my other patron gods and goddesses.

BB
Lilu

[Firestorm]

right now i have a small rack that holds all my little things

i have a bit of wood-work to do before my altar shapes up yet
it is a two-inch thick piece of PINE cut into a 18-inch circle
i centered a dinner plate on it and traced the "inner circle" --
i hope to chisel out along the pencil lines and work on drawing
a pentacle to fit within the inner circle.
inbetween the inner circle's rim and the larger circle, i hope to
drill 12 little "pocket holes" in the positions found on a clockface;
in these pocket holes, i'll set my most-used votive candles.

i have plans to carve out the sections of the pentacle/pentagram i will put in the center -- hopefully, i can work some different wood scraps (like veneers) into the sections ... so i will have a bit of all the great woods in it... some birch, oak, elm, etc, etc, etc

a bit of painting will be involved too; the edge borders will be painted to correspond with the elemental colours of Earth/north, Fire/South, Water/West and Air/East (deepest apologies if i got the west/east elementals backwards).

i have to be careful where i leave my altar stuff, 5 kids and a curious wife tend to touch as well as look ;)

[Emy]

I haven't got a permanent altar, but more like small sacred spots or corners in our apartment. These places all look a little different but for example one of them consists of a large plant (an ivy that climbs around the little window there) and some candles, a crystal, and sometimes one of my tarot decks, and also different symbols for the season, right now there is some rye laying there and there are also some dried roses hanging off the curtain rod that the ivy is climbing on... everything at my sacred little spots are there for a symbolic reason, I have a large bowl of water at an other place in our apartment, and almost everywhere there are candles. However I think I would like to set up a permanent altar, only problem is that I don't know exactly where I'd like to place it... :)

Blessings

[random]

mine is facing east with a lot of candles, pentagram, wand, etc.

actually, i need to get some more candles... im running low... heh.

[loopy]

I have no idea what direction my altar is in-- I lost my pretty little compass a while ago. :( But it feels comfy, wherever it is. It's actually my vanity dresser that I converted to my altar-- it's got a big mirror in the back, a square of glass in between two wooden sides, and drawers to keep incense and candles and Tarot in.

There's also a smaller shelf on bottom which is kind of my working altar, and the big top of it is just prettied up. :) It's got candles and a little fountain I got as a Christmas present and incense, faery statues, and butterflies, etc. :) And I use my working altar for rituals and spells. It helps me focus.

[Lilu]

Emy - when I lived on my own it was as if my whole APARTMENT was my altar, I had altars all over the place, plus my big semi-permanent one in the livingroom. I say semi-permanent because I had it set up so that part of it could be moved. I had a large side-table which was the "permanent" part - it had seasonal decorations and candles and incense and such on it. And in front of it I had a small coffee table which was my "working altar" and I could move it to wherever I wanted to do my working - be it out in the back yard, in the middle of the livingroom, the bedroom - whatever! I really loved this set up, I wish I had those tables with my now, I haven't been able to find anything quite like them since :( Oh well!

Firestorm, your altar-in-the-works sounds very cool! I wish I was more handy with my hands, but I dislike working with wood, papier mache might be the closest I'd come ;) You'll have to post a photo of it in the "pics of your altar" thread in Magick&Rituals Forum when you're done.

BB
Lilu

[Saeryn]

Hmmm...

My altar is a small one since I keep it in the bedroom--small, but nice and it works for me since DH & I live in small one bedroom apartment. When we get a house, though--look out! :)

My altar is a small wooden, fold up table--kinda like a TV tray end table. I have a nice cotton altar cloth draped on it that I bought during a visit to Montreal. It's black with a white celtic knotwork design--the black and white seem appropriate to me energy-wise. It's folded because it's a bit big, but that's fine with me because it'll still be useful if I ever get a larger altar. :)

I have a silver candle to represent the Goddess with a little shell in front of it with three small stones in it--a moonstone, and amethyst, and a rose quartz. There is a gold one for the God with a cool rust orange rock in front of it surrounded by a garnet, a carnelian, and a red agate--all little stones, natch.

There's a little cast iron cauldron with a lid, a small silver athame (letter opener size) with a pentacle on the handle, a pewter colored pentacle altar tile , a mini silver goblet with a brass stem, and a brass censer used for both stick and cone incense. I also have a small pewter and crystal wand that's about 5-1/2" and I keep 2 small crystal points, a bloodstone, an amber, and a hematite on my altar most of the time.

Most of the candles in rituals I use are the small 1/2" diameter ones with small holders to accomodate them--the perfect size for a little altar!

Hanging on a hook nearby where I keep my brass candle snuffer and sage smudge stick handy. I keep my stock of incense, candles, oils, salt, etc. in a wooden box underneath.

ACK, I NEED MORE ROOM!!

~~Saeryn

[WiccanGoddess]

My alter contains the following:
Some cloths
2 bowls
A pocket knife
2 bottles, one with water, one with water and salt
One chalice/cup thing
My stones/gems
My coins
My three BOS
My two first ever Wiccan books: Complete Idiot's Guide and Charmed's BOS
My divination stones/pendalum
My two decks of tarot.

That's all I can remember. The only thing I don't have are candles and incense. I can't. Stupid house rules.
But I have everything on a East wall facing West, cuz that felt right. I think.

[indigo rain]

i'm getting a camera today so i will post a pic on the altar pics thread as promised hopefully very soon. mine's been redone recently, it's now in the middle of my bedroom, as kind of a coffee table in front of my daybed. it has a figuring with two monkeys kissing holding a leaf over their heads like a bowl. it reminds me of nature and the source of humanity. (i believe in guided evolution) and it reminds me of the union of the god and goddess, also of eden, though it's mainly a christian concept, it's important to me. i have a statue of Sekhmet, Horus, and a cat for Bast. a smoking bottle incense burner, a cracked glass candle holder that i use to hold incense sticks, a quartz, an amethyst pendulum, a miniature cauldron to burn incense in and small papers in, my bos, a candle snuffer, and candles for god and goddess. and i'm working on an altar cloth for it.