• About
  • Herbal
    • Angelica
    • Calendula
    • Carrier Oils
    • Chamomile
    • Dandelion
    • Elderberry
    • Ginger
    • Greener Cleaning
    • Herbal Infusions and Preparations
    • Herbs for Yule
    • Infusing oils…
    • Lavender
    • Lemon Balm
    • Lemongrass
    • Luffa
    • Peppermint
    • Poppy
    • Rose
    • Sage
    • The Herbal Code
    • This Kitchen Witch’s Library
    • Valerian
    • Yarrow
    • The First Thing You Need (an article)
  • Magic & Ritual
    • Chakras 101
    • Defining Magic
    • Defining Witchcraft
    • Sacred Time (article)
    • Spellwork (article)
  • Paganism
    • A Book List for Contemporary Paganism
    • Defining Paganism
    • Hellenismos (article)
    • Nature Religion for Real, an article by Chas S. Clifton
    • Pagan Apologetics (article)
    • Pagan views of deity
    • Paganism’s Traditions and Paths
    • The Delphic Maxims
    • The Druid Path(s)
    • Walking With Your God
    • Wheel of the Year
      • Tales for the Longest Night
  • Parenting
    • A Book List for Pagan Families
    • A Children’s Herbal
      • Bee Careful (tips for parents and kids)
    • A Pagan Student in Your School
    • Baby Sling Types
    • Crafts & Projects for Kids
      • Alphabet Book
      • Mermaid Wrap Skirt
      • Sleepy Spell Bear
      • Underwater View-finder
      • Yarn Dolls
    • Mealtime Prayers for Pagan Families
    • Nature Prayers for Families
    • Nightey-Night: Bedtime Prayers for Pagan Babies
    • Our Afterschooling
      • Copywork & Recitation
        • PreK-1st Copywork and Recitiation
    • Pagan Pregnancy Correspondences
    • Raising Pagan Children (article)
    • Reading Myths with Kids
    • Ritual ideas for small children
    • The Sabbat Faeries
  • About me

bay witch musings

~ thoughts on parenting, paganism, science, books, witchcraft, nature, feminism, unitarian universalism, herbalism, cooking, conservation, crafting, the state of humanity, and life by the sea

bay witch musings

Tag Archives: altars

Altar’d

07 Tuesday Jun 2011

Posted by thalassa in pagan

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

altars

I have had many altars and shrines in my 18 years of practicing Paganism.  Altars in boxes for storability or in a roll-out knitting carry case for portablity, shrines in wall-niches and in bowls, and both on tables and shelves, inside and out.  I can say that nearly every room in our home has had an altar, including the bathroom and excepting the closets.

In the bedroom, there is usually a  blessing bowl that functions as an altar on our dresser, in the kitchen is my personal altar, the family altar changes with the seasons, an outdoor shrine hangs in the corner of the balcony, and there is even a shrine in the bathroom.  I happen to think that while all space is sacred, having a sacred space for meditative moments and as a reminder of that space’s purpose helps keep the energy in that space anchored in a way to maintain the good vibes necessary for peaceful living.

Many Pagan 101 type books and websites will offer instructions of what an altar should look like and what tools one should place on it and where they should be put.  For new comers, something like this is probably helpful, but outside of specific paths, unnecessary.  My first altar was pretty standard–straight out of Buckland’s Big Blue with the god on the left and goddess on the right, athame, bell, etc.  18 years later our household altars are fairly well deconstructed to whatever the heck inspires us.  Either way, it really doesn’t matter as long as it suits its user–at the end of the day, an altar can be anything from a place to store your stuff to the place that anchors the sacred in your space…and just about anything you need it to be inbetween.

Some ideas:

  • The best place to get altar tools are thrift stores, yard sales, flea markets, etc.  Also nature is a great place to find things, as is the Dollar Store and craft stores for DIY projects.
  • An excellent resource for making/recognizing one’s kitchen as a sacred space is  Cooking Like a Goddess: Bringing Seasonal Magic into the Kitchen, by Cait Johnson,  which also discusses the ways to have that space, and the food you prepare reflect the seasons.
  • Seasonal (holiday) shrines can be made out of blank wreaths for the door, decorated appropriately (the dollar store has some AWESOME supplies), and placed on a wall.  A few Ostaras ago, I took a  wicker wreath, wrapped it with sphagnum moss and soaked it with water, and then planted it with grass seed (which sprouted) and decorated it with eggs…we recycled or gave to a friends compost pile all of it when we were done.
  • Unconventional containers make cool shrines.  An antique (or modern reproduction) pitcher and basin set (used in the days before people had personal bathrooms to wash up in) makes a great elemental shrine for water, and a terrarium can be turned into an awesome earth shrine, with just a big jar, a garden trowel and some outdoor exploration.
  • Craft stores like Michael’s and JoAnn’s have $10 wooden slat crates which can be nailed or screwed directly into the studs in the wall for the perfect wall nook for an altar (also good stuffed animal shelves for kids)…or you might be able to find one at a thrift store or flea market.
  • Don’t be confined to “traditional” altar items–feel free to DIY, or just step completely off the beaten path and find something else.  A couple of  weeping willow branches can be bent and woven into a beautiful pentacle, leaves or flowers can be sewn into garland (both can be seen in the above pic), wax from old candles can be recycled into new ones, etc.

Share me with your friends!

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...
None is as free as one born on the wave, Born on the wave to the song of the sea; None can be brave until they are free, Free of all, but the call of the sea.

Month By Month

topics

About me

*Just an FYI: If you are wondering why there's not been a new post recently, new posts have been a bit slowed down by the new job...*

I am a (occasionally doting) wife, a damn proud momma of two adorable and brilliant children, a veteran of the United States Navy, beach addict, (American) Civil War reenactor and Victorian natural history aficionado, lover of steampunk, canoeing fanatic, science professional (and amateur in my preferred field), graduate student, and semi-erratic blogger.

If you have found this blog, you have also figured out that we are a Pagan family.  More aptly, I would describe my theological belief as a pragmatic sort of pantheism with a polytheistic practice and my religion as Unitarian Universalist Pagan.  I practice a bioregional witchery and herbalism (foraging ftw!), mainly working with domestic and elemental magics, and I have a thing for sea deities. For the most part, my blog covers a bit of all of these things, with a bit of randomness tossed in from time to time.

I enjoy playing with my kids, chillin with the hubster, swimming, being nerdy, the great outdoors, NCIS re-runs, chai tea--iced or hot, yoga, trashy romance novels, singing off key, kitchen experiments (of the culinary and non types), surfing the internet and painting.  I also like long walks on the beach and NPR's Science Friday and Neil deGrasse Tyson.  I love to read, sleep in on the weekend, and make the Halloween costumes for my kids every year. I am passionate about watershed ecology and local conservation efforts and vehemently anti-disposable plastics. But most of all...I'm just trying to take extravagant pleasure in the act of being alive.

Follow Musings on Facebook!

Follow Musings on Facebook!

Tweeting Randomness

  • The best reminder... twitter.com/chelseakenna/s… 6 days ago
  • RT @carlhannah: @GrantGinder Via @stormygailart https://t.co/PcLNoWwEfz 1 week ago
  • Brendan Fraser was a favorite actor of mine...finding this out (a few years ago? Idk exactly when) was such a shock. twitter.com/ask_aubry/stat… 1 week ago
  • Good to know... twitter.com/kallmemeg/stat… 1 week ago
  • RT @RachelBitecofer: Americans who wondered "why did regular Germans go along with it" are getting a live lesson. 2 weeks ago

RSS Feed

Goodreads

Pagan Devotionals--seeking inspiration everywhere
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • bay witch musings
    • Join 1,624 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • bay witch musings
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: