Friday, January 6, 2012

What the altar means for me.


So, I decided to start with the Altar as my first writing. Let me first say that I am a solitary witch, although I have attended Open Moon ceremonies with the local coven here. I found them exhilarating.

I had an altar set up on the property my ex-husband and I owned. It was actually a round ornate cast iron grate which I had found on the property. I set it up on a tree stump beneath the trees in the far right corner of the property. I usually would meditate and pray at night, as I was unsure how my neighbors would react. It doubled as a wonderful plant stand during the spring and summer months. It was a comfortable area, one that I had to myself for 6 years, until last year when I was selling the house per the divorce decree. There had been a rash of robberies in my area. They were stealing mostly scrap metal to sell. I was unable to mow my lawn and the grass was tall, hiding the tree stump, but my altar top was taken anyway, which led me to believe that it was someone who knew it was there. I was devastated. I performed my first ritual on that altar. Thinking about it now, it still angers me.

Now that I am in a very small apartment, (which I still haven’t fully organized and unpacked yet) I am trying to figure out where I wanted to set up a new altar. Do I set it up in my kitchen, which is the first room you see when you walk in from the outside? Do I set it up in the living room, which is off of the kitchen? The bedroom? 

As I began my research, I discovered that I had some of the needed elements and tools, and lacked others. I started reading more, and now I think I have a definite idea of what I want (need?) for my altar space. I am very pleased to learn that all altars are not the same. 

For instance, they can be a shrine of sorts for ancestors. I have decided that I want to have a couple types of altars, one of them being a shrine. 

Sadly, at this writing, my mother is in the hospital and is not expected to live. It is her wish that she not be treated aggressively. So, at this time I am going to end this writing and continue the same subject for next week.

6 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about your mother (and the loss of your first altar). Sending you healing and strength vibes from my end. I hope your new altar soon makes up for the loss of you old one.

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  2. Thank you for your kind words Okifolki. My heart is heavy but at the same time I am happy that she will soon be at peace. It was she who allowed us to seek our own paths in life, and for that I am truly grateful.

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  3. I'm so sorry about your mother. It's good that you can find comfort that she will be at peace. I look forward to reading more from you in the coming weeks :)

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  4. I am also struggling with finding place for my alter at our house. I am in a process of purging our home this year as a resolution and that should give me some place to work with.

    Sending healing and comforting thoughts for your family and mother.

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  5. Currently I have a small corner shelf that has a few items on it. Enough to make it functional and feel like an altar and not just a shelf. However, my cat decided it was also a nice place to perch and brought it all crashing down one morning and I lost many glass items. So... I'm currently working on reconstruction and redefining of my altar space. I'm kind of in the same place you are!

    Kourtney
    http://paganpagesbloghop.blogspot.com/

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  6. Sorry to hear about your mother. My grandmother is currently very ill and not expected to last much longer too.

    My parents had a VCR cabinet that they stopped using years ago (DVDs took that by storm). When I started practicing, I decided that the VCR cabinet would work better than the shoebox I was using. I use this to store my magickal tools, and I use the top as an altar. I don't have an altar set up all the time, instead I use mine on a needed basis (I have very little room as well!).

    Thank you for sharing your post and I look forward to reading more posts from you this year!

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