Altar

written Monday, April 6th, 2015

Altar n. " a table used in religious service."

Wow, such a bland, life-less, uninspiring definition there.

For me, my altar is my creative play space.  it is my space to make my spiritual hopes a reality.  It is a place for me to come to my Deity, my Spirits, my Ancestors, my Totems, my Self and to express myself.

On my altar -- simply the top of a small bookshelf given to me by an old neighbor and good friend -- I usually choose an altar cloth color appropriate to what I am celebrating.  Or sometimes, a particular cloth just calls out to be used and I just go with that gut instinct.  This  tends to serve me well.

I love the fact that when it comes to personal altars, nothing is set in stone.  It is 100% up to me, my requirements, and my inspiration in the moment.

In the broadest of generalities, there is an altar cloth, a statue (or three) of Sekhmet, a candle (or more), and my wand and/or athame (ritual blade).  The wand and/or athame choice depends on what I'm doing.  Generally, if I'm just honoring Sekhmet, I use the athame, as the blade is linked to the warrior energy.  If it's a less-aggressive ritual/ceremony, I'll go with the wand.

Every thing else on my altar is based on the circumstance.  There may be gemstones, crystals. flowers, feathers, seeds, stones, bones, fur, claws, incense, and photos....or there may be none of those.  Some of my favorite altars were the most simple.  A candle, a statue and feather found in Nature.

I love looking at other people's altars.  It's a tiny peek in on how they relate and honor the Deities they associate with.  I love seeing how the Divine speaks to them -- especially what different Deities request to be on their altars -- and how the people, in turn, speak to their Deities.  Besides, I am a thieving sort.  I am not above borrowing another's idea and tweaking it to fit my own tastes. 

The only true deity I've ever made an altar to is Sekhmet.  I made altars to "The God" and "The Goddess", but I don't really count those.  Those were learning altars -- I was copy the altars 100% what the various authors detailed as "proper" Wiccan altars for whatever ritual I was copying at the time -- word-for-word.

Honestly, I shouldn't be so hard on myself about those first altars.  I was brand-spanking-new to the whole idea of being something other than Christian.  not to mention that I was delving into Witchcraft -- which wasn't easy, given what I was taught about Witchcraft.  So I was really playing it safe, testing out those new waters very slowly.

So once I started really learning the ropes and really started figuring out what makes me tick spiritually, I started flexing my creative muscles.  I started testing my wings.  And better yet -- I started trusting my wings.  Love that.  Gods, I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world.

Oh, and there was one other altar that I made that wasn't dedicated to Sekhmet, even after I was dedicated to Her.  It was the altar I made for my Vision Quest in 2006.  That was a very basic, natural altar made for the day and a half I spent in my Vision Quest.  It was two "Y" shaped sticks set in the earth.  A red altar cloth with a hawk's feather attached to the center was draped between the two forks.  I still have that altar cloth, folded up so nicely in my cedar chest.  I have dreams of using it for my next Vision Quest.  Whenever that may be.