My Altar Changes.

I am in a group on tumblr that does weekly focus questions and this weeks focus was Altars.  loved the concept and decided that this is something I not only wanted to participate in, but also, something I could add to my book of shadows for information for myself, as well as information for whoever gets my Book in the future. I hope to do this once a year, giving me an idea of how I change from year to year.

What does it contain? Here is a bird’s eye view of my current altar, which is set up for Litha. I will only talk about the permanent Altar items.

• In the North I have a Deer skull and rib bone, and the skull and a few teeth of my cat and familiar, Faelynn, who I lost nearly a year ago.
• In the East I have a frosted bird candle holder which holds feathers of many sizes.
• In the South, I have two red candles, one apple cinnamon scented candle, one Candle from and elemental set with the words Fire and a small Asian coin/token; as well as one reddish orange inspiration candle, and a small snakeskin.
• In the North I have a large seashell, a smaller seashell, and a very small snail shell. It also holds a teeny tiny wooden bead and a large glass and metal tankard that is missing it’s lid.

Why have you chosen those items? There are quite a few reasons for what I have put up, put simply, because they represent the elements to me. The long answer, nothing goes on my altar without feeling right, no matter the reasons, for instance, before I put the deer rib on the altar, I had a few hip and vertebrae as well as leg bones. I decided on the rib for similar reasons for the skull. To me the skull represents earth (deer), as well as strong thought (Earth = body/strength, Skull = thought), the rib, to me signifies not only earth, but also body love (Earth = body/strength, rib = heart), which is something I have struggled with most of my life. Everything has some form of symbolism for me, as well as it’s regular symbolism. 

Do you change your shrine to reflect your workings/the seasons?

Yes, my altar is changed for every season. For my Litha Altar, seasonal items are rose petals, lavender, a Gaia goddess statue, a silver sun, the gemstones, a glass of lemonade mead, Litha incense, and a yellow and orange candle holder/luminary that was made by a friend.

Think about how you would improve your altar and brainstorm some suggestions.

My altar is actually an old apothecary style table which is AWESOME. Unfortunately, the drawer is facing the right, which is where I store a lot of my studio stuff, making the drawer somewhat inconvenient. One of the things I plan to do is either get a larger apothecary table or cabinet to use as an altar, or, (much more likely) turn my altar so that it’s tall, rather than wide. I would also really like to get more altar cloths that correspond to the sabbats.

What challenges have you faced as you develop your altar?

I think the only challenges that have been faced came from one of my first altars which for some reason, people kept using as a table, sitting trash, food, or drinks on it, even after they were asked and even TOLD not to do so.

How has your shrine changed since you first set it up, if at all?

My altar has changed greatly not only since my first altar (which had a small glowing star, a stone, a feather, a dandle, and a small dish of water), but also my first altar in this house, which is when I began adding things that are less typical items and more things which hold some form of symbolism as well.

The Litha 2012 Altar

I had a lovely time putting together my altar for Litha, as well as putting a few permanent pieces on the altar. Here are some photos!

The Altar from the front and the top. I particularly like the view from the top because you can see nearly all of the different elements.

The four corners:

North/Earth – Earth holds a deer skull that was found in the forest. A deer rib which was found in the different area of the same forest. A cat skull from my cat who was killed by a cougar, in my backyard as wel as some of her teeth. These are the permanent pieces for this corner. I also have a blue flower dish which holds Litha Incense.

East/Air – Holds a small frosted glass votive candle in the shape of a bird, which holds all of my feathers. A small blue and white dish which we use to burn loose or cone incense, both of which are permanent. There would have been a stick incense holder as well, with a faerie on the end, but, that one is out of commission and I was unable to glue it back together. It will be up there soon enough.

South/Fire – Is permanent home to a red cinnamon apple candle, a red inspiration candle, as well as a red fire element candle which is not pictured.  The Candle holder in the back glows a lovely yellow when used, which I thought would be a fantastic way to signify the sun.

West/Water – Has three shells, one large white one (in the back), one small one (in the front), and one much smaller snail shell in the front, as well as a small wooden bead. I’m not sure where it came from, but it still evokes water in my mind. I also keep a large glass and metal tankard which holds an offering of water. For Litha, I wanted another type of libation, so I poured a glass of lemonade and mixed it with mint mead.

Center/Spirit – This is where I keep most of the seasonal goodies. In the center I have roses, and lavender, surrounded by rose petals, which is in turn surrounded by stones such as Agate, Fire Opal (my daughter’s ring), Citrine (my ring), Amber, Tiger’s Eye and others. I also have two cars from The Heart of Faerie Oracle deck. On the left is The Green Lady and on the right, The Green Man. In front of the flowers I have a small hand sculpted and painted Green and Blue Goddess statuette, which has a small silver sun propped up against her pregnant belly. None of these are permanent additions.