Some scholars think that the first altars were actually tombs of the dead where offerings were made to a deified ancestor. Others believe that the idea of the altar came from the Pagan belief that the newly deceased were gathered on the borders of the sky, under the constellation called Ara, meaning “the altar.”1 Ara lies in the Milky Way, south of Scorpius, and is well to the south of the celestial equator. The ancient Greeks visualized it as the altar on which their gods swore an oath of allegiance before challenging the Titans for control of the universe.2 The word “altar” comes from a Latin word that translates to “on high.” We could put a variety of meanings to this terminology—from a physically high place, to a seat in the stars, to the more esoteric meaning of consecrating a sacred area that sits between the worlds of human and deity, enabling the human to work with deity on the deity’s level from where the Witch physically stands. Ancient altars were often made of stone or, if constructed of wood, held some type of stone surface in the center. Many were carved or painted with symbols of animals and deities. It was during the various Inquisitions that the Witch altar took on a more lurid, negative role —an inappropriate and inaccurate representation of the Craft altar—that was reflected in many horror movies from the 1940s through the 70s, feeding the inaccurate, sensationalist information to the general public. During a few modern Craft ceremonies, a person’s body may become the altar for a few moments to meld them with the elemental and divine energies so that in the future they may work easily through space and time; however, sacrifices and rampant sexual excursions, as shown in the movies, are not part of Wiccan dogma.
Altar Designs
For as many magickal people as there are in the world, there are an equal number of altar designs. A magickal altar is normally a flat surface that becomes the focus of spells, rituals, and daily devotional activities. The altar is a place of power; over time, it will collect all the positive energy that manifests while doing magickal work. An altar can be made out of any material, and quite a few magickal people use the furniture they already have in their homes rather than buy or build a new altar (especially when they are first learning). Your altar can be the top of your bedroom dresser, a coffee table, or nightstand. A home entertainment center with compartments of various sizes and moveable shelves is an excellent choice, as long as you remember to watch burning candles. You need at least three feet of air space from any flame to the next shelf. If not, you can scorch the wood and set the furniture on fire. You may choose to use a portable altar instead, something that can be packed away when not in use, such as the top of a trunk, a flat board, or a piece of flagstone that you can push under your bed.
Altars can be decorated in a variety of ways, including the use of an altar cloth to cover the surface, special candle holders, statues of gods and goddesses, or your favorite totem animal. Depending on your personality, you may wish to keep your altar bare and only use it when you have a special working in mind. How you place items on your altar is called an altar setup. Those Witches who belong to a coven or larger group are taught to set up their altar a traditional way common to the training of the group.
Your primary concern should be that the altar is fire safe, as most magickal people work often with candles, oils, and flame. You may wish to keep a fire extinguisher close to the altar surface. I know I do. I’ve never had the occasion to use it, but my entire family has had accidents and, although they are amusing now, they weren’t when the flames were jutting up to the ceiling! I literally blew up my dining room table because I wasn’t careful with a bag of Vesta powder (a special effect for cauldron flame), and once a glass seven-day candle exploded all over my altar and the flames began to crawl up my dining room curtains. Luckily, several members of the family were in the room, so disaster was averted. Had no one been present, my whole house would have gone up. You can never be too careful with fire.
Before activating your altar, you should clean the surface of any dirt or grime, then perform a cleansing ceremony, followed by an empowering and blessing ceremony, to activate the magnetic properties of the altar. Once activated, the altar surface should contain only those things relating to your religion and magick—no dirty socks, tennis balls, soda bottles, car keys, or wads of chewing gum. Anything that doesn’t belong there clutters the pure, positive energy that you have created.
Magickal Things You Need
to Know About Your Altar
• Your altar becomes a focus of positive power once activated—yours and that of Spirit.
• The altar was originally designed to request the presence of deity.
• Where you put your altar isn’t as important as how you use it.
• The shape of your altar is a personal choice.
• You can have more than one altar.
• Having an altar for spiritual reflection isn’t against any religious dogma.
• Before use, your altar should be sprinkled with holy water and salt, infused with incense smoke, blessed with holy oil, and empowered in the name of Spirit (see Altar Cleansing).
Altar Ideas
• Dresser, nightstand, or bureau in your room.
• A flat piece of stone that is portable.
• A skateboard.
• Empty closet.
• Desk drawer (not recommended for burning candles).
• Cinderblocks.
• Steppingstone (can be purchased at a garden store, or you can make one yourself from materials purchased at a craft store).
• Bookshelf (not recommended for burning candles—even though you think the flame is far enough away from the next shelf, it will warp and eventually burn the shelf above. I almost lost my dining room hutch that way when someone placed a candle on a shelf.)
• Top of a filing cabinet.
• A large mirror.
• A cookie sheet.
• A serving tray.
• A camping tripod, sold in most camping sections of large department stores. (Be careful, these can wobble.)
• An old steamer trunk or other trunk with shelves from an antique store or flea market. (Be careful of open candle flames and take appropriate precautions.)
• A window sill (however, don’t put burning candles there).
• In your imagination. Some people scoff at this, but there are people who are not permitted to have altars for a variety of reasons. Perhaps your parents or guardians are afraid that you’re religiously going down the tubes and have put their foot down on the issue of an altar. College students, due to living conditions, may not be allowed to have an altar. Individuals in the military service at boot camp can’t have one either. Maybe you are visiting Grandma for the summer and you know that she’ll find the idea of an altar offensive. If your family goes on an extended vacation, where luggage is a factor, Mom and Dad might not be too happy if you bring a twenty-ton suitcase with all your altar stuff, even though they don’t mind your altar at home. Learning to build an altar in your imagination helps you to enhance your visualization skills. You really never know when you might need those mental powers. When people complain to me that they can’t have an altar, I tell them they are lucky. Not having one forces you to train your mind, where you might have been lazy before.
Altar Placement
Now that you have chosen your altar, where should you put it? Is there a “right place”? Um, no. Just as there are various ways to cleanse and consecrate an altar, there is no one right place for the altar to go. Some magickal people prefer the altar to sit in the east, corresponding to the dawn, intelligence, and the rising sun. Others like the north, considering this direction to be the energy of manifestation into the physical world (“everything comes from the north”). A third grouping places their altar in the center of the magick circle, where they can walk around it. This is a wise move if you have a big altar. Reaching across a vast surface is an accident waiting to happen. Finally, there are a few magickal people that move their altars with the movement of the seasons (see Part 1, Wheel of the Year), matching a compass-point direction (north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest) to the eight High Holy Days.
Don’t worry if you can’t move your altar. For example, I know one woman that keeps her altar in the top drawer of her desk—in fact, her altar is the top drawer of her desk. When she isn’t using it, she simply closes the desk drawer. There are a few drawbacks to this type of altar. First, she can’t put anything too heavy on the drawer because the weight would pull out the drawer. Secondly, she has to be careful that she doesn’t close the drawer by mistake while working with lit candles! This idea, however, does allow her the privacy she desires and keeps the dust off her magickal tools.
Altar Setup
I’m a big supporter of Keep It Simple. Altar setups that are overflowing with magickal goodies seem to collect a ton of dust, and dust is a magnet for negativity. If you’re a busy person, with friends staying over, siblings or children running through your room, and the cat jumping on and off your altar surface at will, collecting a bunch of stuff to set on your altar may not be such a good idea. If you are in college, especially in a dorm room, there’s no telling what might happen to your magickal items. We tend to form an attachment to our magickal tools, and a missing wand or cauldron can send anyone into a tizzy. If a magickal tool of yours should decide to “walk off,” don’t despair. If the item does not return, abide by the old magickal adage If it’s gone, it’s supposed to be gone. Sometimes magickal things leave us for a good reason. Perhaps something better is coming your way.
In the last few years, the idea of having a personal altar has gained popularity outside of the Craft environment. However, often what people are calling “altars” are actually shrines dedicated to a deity or a particular energy the person would like to bring into the home. The altar, for a Crafter, is a working magickal surface, where a shrine is more of a representation of your spirituality and a place for daily, weekly, or monthly offerings. In some Craft traditions the shrine is called the high altar, and the separate, working surface is called the low altar. Where prayers and petitions are given at the high altar, the messy work (such as grinding herbs, working with wax, or spellwork that requires you to make and then put together a particular object) is done on the low altar.
A basic altar setup requires only the four elements. The beginning Craft altar adds a statue of deity; two illuminator candles (one for the God and one for the Goddess); a flat centerpiece for focus (usually a geometric symbol: pentacle, hexagram, lunar crescent, the zodiac ring, and so on); the wand; and, if your family environment supports it, the athame (see Athame).
If you have more space and plenty of privacy, you may wish to use the traditional altar setup3 used by most Wiccan students when they first learn about the tools of the Craft of the Wise.4
Example of an altar setup. Clockwise from top center: (1) statue of deity, (2) illuminator candle, (3) incense, (4) wand, (5) fire candle, (6) cakes, (7) sword, (8) anointing oils, (9) water bowl, (10) salt cup, (11) BOS, (12) illuminator candle, and (13) chalice. A broom rests on the altar’s eastern quarter.
Supplies: Holy water; scented oil; incense; miniature broom (you can find these at craft stores); salt; two bowls (one for the salt and one for the water—any small, waterproof container is acceptable, many teens like to use seashells); red candle (taper or votive); candle holder; inspirational music. Note: If you are not permitted to burn candles or use a lighter, it is okay to think of something else that represents fire to you. For example, you may use a picture of a candle, an electric candle (which are sold around Halloween and Christmas), or a combination of red, yellow, and orange tissue paper fashioned into your idea of fire. You could even wrap colored tissue paper over the head of a flashlight to help you visualize that fiery glow. I wholeheartedly agree that nothing beats the real thing, but if your parents say no, then no it is and we need to use our imaginations to think of something that will be acceptable to them.
timing: Full moon or new moon.
Instructions: The most important aspect of any magick or ritual is that you take your time, and perform the working without interruption. If your brother keeps knocking on your bedroom door, or your aunt insists on repeatedly walking through the room while you are working, you will most likely become frustrated and lose your concentration. As focus is a major part of magick, you need to choose a time when you will not be disturbed, especially for the very serious things, like cleansing and consecrating your altar.
Place your supplies on a tray or on the floor by your altar. Before you begin, take three deep breaths. As you breathe out, release any negativity or unhappiness you may feel. Now close your eyes and rub your hands lightly together. The deep breathing helps you relax and the friction you create with your hands activates the chakra points (energy fields) in your palms. Closing your eyes helps you to ground and center, and prepare for a magickal working. Say:
I feel the power of Spirit in and around me.
So mote it be.
Open your eyes. Hold the red candle in your hand, and say:
May you be cleansed, consecrated, and blessed in the name of Spirit
(or “in the name of the Lord and Lady”).
Light the candle, then hold the candle out in front of you, over the altar, saying:
From the black and formless void, light blossomed into existence. By igniting this candlewick,
I bring the grace of Spirit (or “our Mother”)
into my life and into my altar. Element of fire, work your will by my desire.
Pass the flame three times in a counterclockwise (widdershins) direction over the altar, saying:
I banish all negativity from this (wood, stone). Nothing evil or nasty, real or imagined, can ever abide here.
Set the burning candle safely to the side. You will be using it again.
Hold your hands over the incense, and say:
Element of air, may you be cleansed, consecrated, and blessed in the name of Spirit.
Light the incense from the candle flame. Pass the incense smoke over the surface of the altar three times in a counterclockwise direction, saying:
Element of air, work your will by my desire.
I banish all negativity from this (wood, stone). Nothing evil or nasty, real or imagined,
can ever abide here.
Set the burning incense safely to the side. You will be using it again.
Hold your hands over the salt, and say:
Element of earth, may you be cleansed,
consecrated, and blessed in the name of Spirit.
When your palms begin to tingle or grow warm, sprinkle the salt lightly over the top of the altar surface. Just a little will do. Say:
I cleanse this altar with the salt of the earth.
Element of earth, work your will by my desire.
I banish all negativity from this (wood, stone). Nothing evil or nasty, real or imagined,
can ever abide here.
Set the bowl aside. Pick up the bowl of water, and say:
Element of water, may you be cleansed,
consecrated, and blessed in the name of Spirit.
Place the bowl of water in the center of the altar. Add three pinches of salt, stirring clockwise with your finger after each addition to the water. Imagine the water glowing with a soft blue or white light. Pick up the small broom and sprinkle with both salt and water, saying:
Besom (means “broom”), may you be cleansed, consecrated, and blessed in the name
of Spirit. Work the magick by my desire.
Dip the broom into the consecrated water, and begin sprinkling tiny drops of the liquid onto the altar in counterclockwise (widdershins) circles, saying:
I banish all negativity from this (wood, stone). Nothing evil or nasty, real or imagined,
can ever abide here. So mote it be!
Altar Blessing and Empowerment
(to follow altar cleansing)
Supplies: In addition to those used above, scented oil or perfume.
Instructions: Pass the four elements (red candle, incense, salt, and water) over the altar three times in a clockwise direction. Imagine that you are stirring positive energies into action. Once this is done, place the incense in the east, the fire in the south, the water in the west, and the salt in the north. Dab the scented oil on each corner of the altar, and then in the middle, saying:
I bless and consecrate thee, O sacred altar, in the name of Spirit. May you repel negative energy and collect positive energy from this day forward until the end of time. So mote it be.
Draw an equal-armed cross in the air over the altar surface to seal the positive energies to the stone/wood. Tap the edge of the altar four times, once for each direction. Then say:
As above, so below. This altar is sealed.
So mote it be!
You are now ready to work any kind of magick!