Tag: Altar

Meditation to Meet Your Water Guide

Meditation to Meet Your Water Guide

 

 

Create a simple altar with a bowl of water and floating blue candles. Use a rain-scented incense. You may keep a chalice filled with wine or a favorite herbal tea on the altar. Take several deep, cleansing breaths. Cast your personal circle. Close your eyes. Visualize the gateway to the elemental realm of water. What does it look like? How does it open? Focus on your breath. Keep your breathing deep, slow and steady. See the gate open, and walk through it. Amazingly, you find yourself walking across the bottom of the sea, yet you can still breathe easily, encased in your own personal bubble. The sand is firm under your feet. Around you are bright coral shells, starfish, sea horses, and dolphins. Schools of brightly colored fish swim by. Walk slowly toward the figure you see in the distance. Focus on your breath. You are calm, relaxed and happy. Greet your elemental guide for the realm of water, and listen to what he has to say. When you have heard all you wish, thank him. Begin to walk back toward the gateway. Stay focused on your breath as you take on last look at the beautiful world beneath the waves. Walk through the gateway and see it close. Take several deep breaths and then open your eyes slowly. Write down what you learned in your journal. Close your circle.

Meditation to Meet Your Air Guide

Meditation to Meet Your Air Guide

 

 

Create a simple altar with a yellow cloth, a blue candle, and an air type of incense. (Lavender, or mint work very well.) You may wish to place feathers or a bell on the altar. Cast your personal circle. Take several deep, cleansing breaths. Close your eyes. Visualize the elemental gateway to the realm of air. Make the gate as elaborate as you wish. How does the gate open? Relax and focus on your breath. See the gate open, and walk through it. Before you is a pathway woven together out of fluffy white clouds. Begin to walk down the path. Take a few moments to observe the world around you. You can see clear skies to your right; they are a beautiful crystal blue. To your left you can see rumbling storm clouds in the distance, and lightning flashes inside of them. Continue on your way. In the distance you see a figure inside of them. Continue on your way. In the distance you see a figure. It is your guide for the elemental realm of air. Walk to him. Focus on your breath. Greet your guide and listen to what he has to say. When you have heard all you wish, thank your guide. Begin to walk back to the gateway. Focus on your breath. Walk through the gateway and see it close. Take a few deep breaths and then open your eyes. Write down what you learned in your journal, and close your personal circle.

What’s All This About “And Harm None”?

What’s All This About “And Harm None”?

article

by Freya Ray

“Do what you will, and harm none.” What does that mean, exactly? Why on earth would any community hamstring itself with a fundamental motto so basically impossible to live up to? When you think about it, it’s crazy, right?

The Jains, those intensely wacked-out Hindu-type people who believe all life is sacred — and I mean all life — they try. They go barefoot so they don’t inadvertently crush any little critters. They eat no animals. They wear a cloth across their mouth so they don’t inhale a bug. Now that’s devotion to a creed.

Does it work for them? If you play it out logically, any food they eat is taking food from the mouths of other creatures. In India, this equation is even more apparent than here, the land of the surplus. I’m sure Jains roll over during the night and squish caterpillars, brush gnats out of their ears with a little too much force and kill them dead, dead, dead or eat some rice with little cooked rice-eating bugs in it. Not to mention the damage that is inflicted to all the tiny dandruff-eating mites that inhabit our bodies with every belly scratch. You can run it up the food chain, too. The rice that the devout Jain eats is grown on land that is therefore not used to grow hay, and he could be causing the death of a cow through his own feeding.

Please indulge me, and allow me to run through a similarly ludicrous examination of a good little witchy person trying earnestly to do no harm. Say she wants to draw love into her life. She does a nice little ritual to draw a mate to her, being terribly careful not to make any specific requests about any particular individual, so as to not infringe on anyone’s free will. She disposes of any leftover ritual props in sharps containers or recycle bins and dumps nothing into a storm drain. She just wants to be happy, after all, and thinks she needs a mate in her life to be happier, although of course she’s fully aware that true happiness comes from being full in yourself and wouldn’t ever dream of needing to be rescued from her loneliness, although it might be nice to have sex again before she dies.

You with me? Now what happens? Anything. She’s altered the energetic balance of the universe, moving energy and intent toward a specific purpose. She’s shaken things up, sending out a “Now!” signal into the void. She might get someone, but not a very good someone but only what was available at the moment. She might get the letter of what she asked for but not the intent, because the deities are crafty bastards. She might run around after the ritual radiating sexual readiness in such an overtly enticing way she provokes a normally faithful partner to start hitting on her, causing his girlfriend to dump him. Any of these scenarios are possible, and any of them can result in heartbreak and angst for all of the players involved. Or worse, she might get what she wants, be deliriously happy, pissing off her bitter single girlfriends and losing all her pals.

Go on, play this game yourself. Ask yourself, when did I do ritual asking for something? How did it go wrong, in ways I might have anticipated but didn’t? If you’ve been playing with fire, you’ve been burned, unless you’re perfect, and then why are you reading me?

Then there’s ritual for other specific purposes. You might do a ritual of protection for yourself after a bad relationship, a woo-woo restraining order. A year later you realize you haven’t had sex since the circle went up, and guess why? Think of the untold harm this has brought all your potential sex partners during that period of time! The heartbreak!

You do a healing circle. After the circle, one participant has a nervous breakdown, another ends a long-term relationship, another quits his job and becomes an artist. Harm, or not? The nervous breakdown might lead to breakthrough healing, but then it might be the frying caused by too much energy running through a system unprepared for it. The end of the relationship might be good and long overdue, or it might be the result of someone high from endorphins released by letting go of old baggage who decides she’s too good for the partner who stood by her through carrying all the baggage, and if she stuck around another six weeks they’d have been happy together forever. The artist — following his dream or caught up in a Bohemian fantasy? Living his path or abandoning his responsibility to pay child support every month?

How on earth is one to tell?

Spirit can probably keep track of all the ramifications of individual events, but humans can’t. As to judging whether individual results are boon or bane, I’m not entirely convinced Spirit keeps score that way. When we do, it only makes for extensive confusion, and worse.

“And harm none” is a great idea for keeping Fluffbunny Artemis Moonriver from casting a spell to bring Peter Trent, the boy next door and man of her dreams, to her bed, despite his complete and utter lack of interest in giggling little Artemis. It’s a good motto to try and dissuade High Priestess Arachne Wolfspawn from casting a curse unto the seventh generation on the landlord who wouldn’t refund her security deposit because of the teensy little cigarette burns in the carpet. It’s a fine thing to attempt to keep Lord Wizard Aleister SexGod of the Ninth Circle from “initiating” all his “novices” with mushrooms and “tantric sex magick.” I’m not sure it works, but it’s a nice idea, and well worth repeating.

What effect does it have on those with both a conscience and a brain, though? You work to learn responsible magical practices. You sweat the language for your rituals, trying to envision all the possible consequences. You set up support groups and phone trees for helping people who crash after ritual. You do giveaway work more often than you ask for anything for yourself; you try not to offend people in the supermarket.

Good for you.

After a while, you realize you’ve PC’d yourself into a little box, and you can’t really remember why this whole Wiccan thing was so appealing in the first place. Wasn’t there some original moment of power and glory when you touched all of creation, throbbed with majestic spiritual strength, knew your divinity? Wasn’t there some seminal idea about living without compromising yourself to your dominant culture; following your own heart, creating your own reality?

Screw it, then. I mean, assuming you’ve got a conscience and a brain. If you don’t, then you don’t need my words as an excuse to bungle things up wildly all around you all the time.

I let that idea, harm none, lead me away from the place where I radiated power all the time. I got tired of people (only some of them, some of the time, but still … harm none) jumping back out of a hug as if they’d been shocked. I got tired of people calling me after a two-hour first date to tell me their stuff was suddenly all up in their face and they were in no way ready for a relationship. I got tired of people shrinking from eye contact as if I were overwhelming their circuits by beaming lasers from my eyes.

I mean, it’s not like I’m Guru Mai, right? I’m not offering shaktiput, elevating the consciousness of devotees with a glance, touch or hug. I’m not part of some grand tradition where running current at a zippy frequency is celebrated.

No, I was making people uncomfortable. I was doing too much meditation, too much energy work, too many readings, too much talking to God, too much teaching and ritual. Too much. I was too much.

So I stopped. I watched a lot of TV, I stopped meditating, I turned my attention to writing rather than all the other stuff that required my being terribly amped up. Readings I can still do, even when I’m not crackling with juice. Energy work, no. But it was fine, really.

Until I realized consciously what I had done. In seeking to harm none through least common denominator thinking, I had removed a significant portion of my light from the world. I wasn’t making people uncomfortable anymore, but neither was I challenging them to grow and giving them a little nudge with catalytic energy. I wasn’t radiating at the highest frequency possible for me, the one that brings me the most joy.

It’s a lot more fun being all amped up. If I thought about it, I could list the harm I brought the world by damping my energy down, but the other kind of harm was much more in my face. It’s a Wonderful Life, and all that.

That’s my point, then. Screw `em. Do what you reasonably can to act ethically and responsibly, but don’t sweat it, trying to find the perfectly harm-free path. It can’t be done. Harm happens. Every action you take, every word you speak, is going to have consequences, more of them unforeseen than foreseen. That’s life!

Take a deep breath and do what you are moved to do. If you expand the first part of the creed to “Do what you will, as guided by spirit, your intuition, your wisdom and your conscience,” you’re probably going to be fine.

There will be consequences. You’ll deal with them when they happen. But don’t let the fear of them stop you from charging yourself up, radiating light, learning energy work or asking for what you want. I’ve got the army slogan running through my head now: “Be all that you can be!” Whatever. So it’s hokey. Do it anyway.

Screw it. Do what you will, as best you can.

Your Candle Altar

Your Candle Altar

Your Altar:
You may use anything that has a flat top.. I use an old trunk with a piece of plywood on it. Be creative.. As for a cover I use white because of it’s kind of a multipurpose color. Although some magic specifies a color then what ever color is specified should be used. Again, be creative… Keep in mind that candle magic is usually done in condensed areas so keep things as simplistic as you can, especially your candlesticks and censors.

Incense:
There are some who believe that incense is unimportant in candle magic. I cannot imagine performing candle magic without the incense. The type that you use may be specified in a specific spell, if that is the case by all means use that. Generally, I use three kings incense as well as vervain. Vervain gives the spell working a little umph. But then again nothing is set in stone.. Be creative.
Incense symbolizes Air… as the smoke rises our thoughts are carried up into the universe.

Preparing of the Practitioner:
Prior to your spell working prepare yourself a nice relaxing bath. Add a hand full of sea salt to get your charges set where they need to be. Light a few candles, turn off the light and relax. Clear your mind of the junk you have picked up through out the day. Visualize the water washing all the negativity away from you. It is very important that your mind be at ease and clear prior to any spell working.

Types of candles:
Any type of candle can be used for candle magic as long as it has been cleansed and consecrated prior to use. Although beeswax candles are higher in price than store bought candles, they are more powerful because they are produced from nature. As with any other tool, the candle made by the practitioner for a specific purpose captures the energy of the practitioner. Many experienced Witches will use only candles they have crafted themselves because of this.

ALTARS (Misc. Thoughts)

ALTARS (Misc. Thoughts)
Chris Olmstead

As for Altar set ups…

1. I once read Crowley’s remarks on how he contrived his stuff while he was out
wandering the world or climbing mountains. He found ways to just use the
simple things from his kit…cook knife became Athame, tin cup became the
Cup…etc.

This sort of ‘kitchen witch’ working is accepted by lots of folks. You can set an
altar up and take it down as fast as you can set a table.

2. I also have noted the “Porto-Pagan” set-ups at some of the Pagan Fests I’ve
attended. Carry the stuff in a cardboard box that can be up-ended for an altar, or
even placed on it’s side for a rain-proof ‘shrine’. Close and carry off at the end of
the visit with a minimum of re-wrapping to protect the fragiles. Some just contrive
one with the natural objects at hand…a rock, a stick, a lantern or candle, etc.

3. Some folks (including myself) have a small duffle into which I’ve placed a
second set of “traveling” working tools. I have the great good-fortune of having
friends who give me cool things. The coolest stay on my Altar, the second-
coolest hang out in the sac, and sometimes I shift the goodies around.

4. I have a buncha books that offer arrangements I find a bit Over-whelming, but
I can certainly post them, if you really need them. If you want me to fetch out
Official Altar diagrams from some of the slick commercial works I have on the
shelf, RSVP.

5. For “public” Altar, in my home, I ‘clutter’ a shelf, a mantle, or a small window
sill. It sounds to me as though, since all your stuff is packed andyour space is
totally compressed, that the “window sill” Altar is a good solution for you. I put a
little origami pinwheel up on an Eastern sill, a small shell on a Western one, a
tiny oil lamp on a Southern one, and a pretty rock on a Northern one. The whole
House is the Altar “Table”.

To clear my space I have been known to light a stick of incense, scaling it
upward in my mind until I am swinging a huge flaming brand before the various
Darks I’m dispelling, and run through the house screaming and raving aloud until
they back off. A joss stick lasts about 20 minutes. I can almost guarantee that if
you summon your Ki and Incant over a flaming brand for 15 minutes, most
Shadows _will_ go elsewhere. I haven’t had to do it in THIS house more than
twice in 3 years

The Censer

The Censer
 

The censer is one of the basical elements in arranging the altar for ritual. Whether we use our incense in sticks, cones or grain, we must have a vessel to hold the ashes and isolates the altar from the heat of the burning incense.

If we’re using sticks, the best will be to have a shallow, wide mouth recipient (like a soup bowl), full of sand, where we’ll nail the sticks to consume. The same if we’re using cones. If we want to use grains, the censer must be heat-proof, for the burning coals will release extreme heat. This last type is the most advisable, since it gives us the freedom of making our own mixes from scratch, using a few basic elements and adding herbs or even flowers if wanting to.

In every case, it’s better if the recipient has some kind of handle, or chains like the old Church censers, to handle it without getting nasty burns. We must keep in mind that in some cases we’ll have to walk around with it, for instance, if we’re doing a house cleansing. The better materials are clay, ceramic or bronce, being the former the cheaper but more fragile, and the later the most expensive.

The censer and the coals slowly consuming, represent the elements of Fire and Air in the rituals, both masculine. Generally, the censer will be placed on the right of the altar, needing a case similar to the one we ought to have with lit candles.

The Hedge Witch’s Home (Or A Guide to Practical Paganism)

The Hedge Witch’s Home (Or A Guide to Practical Paganism)

Author: Aethelbera

For most of us Pagans, the altar can be seen as a spiritual or peaceful refuge in our own special corner away from the mundane and away from the rest of the world. For others of us, we may prefer to meditate and still others would like nothing more than a peaceful walk in a forest. But our homes can be places of spiritual refuge as well, from the front door to the bedroom at the furthest end of the house. In fact, the home should be a refuge, a Pagan one. It goes without saying that most of us want to feel Pagan and live Pagan but for some of us this can be difficult.

Some of us live in must urban settings or very small dwellings with little room. Maybe you’re renting an apartment with strict rules such as no holes in the walls. But it’s anything but hopeless. We can “Pagan” up our houses in the simplest of ways. It is possible even if we live in tiny, cramped apartments or dorm rooms where lighting candles and incense isn’t practical and is prohibited by post-secondary institutions.

Kitchen Witches make much use of their kitchens. Their altars are their counters and their ritual tools are the big wooden spoons and saucepans by the stove. Green Witches have their gardens and hedge witches have the tinted jars of sundry herbs lined upon the shelves.

There are a few simple steps a Pagan can take to make their home really their home. Setting up a modest altar in a preferred room is one way, perhaps with a smudge stick or perhaps with images of ancestors lining the edges. This is really very simple, a nicely framed picture of Grandma and Grandpa on a side table will most surely do! My altar has a calendar set up neatly on the left side. You can decorate your altar according to your path’s holidays and decorate your house with seasonal sprigs or seasonal emblems.

One can also make use of many readily available herbs to feel close to nature such as creating sachets, herbal rinses, soaps, incenses, teas or any variety of delicious culinary dishes. I have only a few words of advice and those are: DO NOT OVERPICK. And be sure to pick ethically as many plants are endangered or becoming endangered just as animals do. And do not pick anything out in the wild without thoroughly making sure you know what it is and use it to the best of its abilities If you can’t be sure, leave it or consult someone who knows. That being said, the practical Pagan may want to get rosehips from the roses in his garden and they appear when the blooms die for any number of practical purposes from teas to desserts.

These and many other herbs can also be found at a local loose-leaf teashop, or if you’re lucky enough, your local herb shop or Pagan shop. There are many practical ways to utilize these small charms as well. A kitchen Witch might go to the supermarket and buy some thyme or ginger to cook with and saturate it with his or her witchy knack for cooking. If you live in the city, and want to feel more “naturey”, set up a windowsill spice garden and be sure to get a few potted plants.

When friends come over, the hedge Witch can brew a mean tea from those same rosehips, which are high in vitamin C and thus helpful with colds. If you’re looking for a sleeping potion and warm milk just isn’t doing the trick, try some chamomile. As a mild sedative, it does wonders to help you, or your active children get to sleep.

To make your home feel like being home and feel more Pagan, you could tie an herb sachet by the bathtub and the scent will be released with the steam. You could collect your favorite Pagan authors and place them on a bookshelf in the living room. You could keep a diary, dream journal or recipe book by your bed stand.

For the more spiritual, you could buy a nice broom and decorate it to your tastes and use cleaning the home as a ritual or if you’re Heathen, place a blót horn or ancestor image on the mantel. Mine is only big enough for a single shot so if you’re space is cramped you can still aim small. You do not have to feel like you are trapped in a cramped, mundane and utterly unPagan apartment.

You can imbue almost anything with a spiritual significance. Even if you are a teenager in a strict nonPagan home you can try your hand at cooking or placing a broom in your room to clean with and of course you can buy little figurines for your bedroom that have special significance to you.

Last but not least, you could try your creative hand and add a very personal element. If you can write, write a prayer for your bedroom wall. If you can paint, paint an image of your patron God. If you can carve, carve an image of your totem. If you can work with wood, well, you get the idea.

It is very easy to be the Practical Pagan without cheapening the experience or overdoing it dramatically. After all, no one really need a big witch hat and a cast iron cauldron sitting dead centre in the front foyer for all to see to have a Pagan home and neither do you need to set up a mini Stonehenge in the backyard (a small altar by a tree or birdfeeder may do just fine) .

If space is an issue, aim small. If disapproving eyes are an issue, aim for subtle and above all, aim for modest and something which will complement your personality!

Make your home really feel like yours and let it be inspired by your Pagan path.

Happy (Pagan) interior decorating!


Footnotes:
N/A

Incense of the Day for 4/6 is Consecration Incense

Consecration Incense

2 parts Wood Aloe

1 part Mace

1 part Storax (or Gum Arabic)

1 part Benzoin

When purifying or consecrating magickal tools, jewelry, quartz crystals and other stones, smolder this incense and pass the tool through its smoke several times. Do this while visualizing the fumes purifying the tool.

Altar Setup

Altar Setup

I’m a big supporter of Keep It Simple. Altar setups that are overflowing with magical 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 magical items. We tend to form an attachment to our magical tools, and a missing wand or cauldron can send anyone into a tizzy. If a magical tool of yours could decide to “walk off,” don’t despair. If it’s gone, it’s suppose to be gone. Sometimes magical 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 magical surface, where a shrine is more of 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 spell work that required 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.

If you have more space and plenty of privacy, you may wish to use the traditional altar setup use by most Wiccan practitioners when they first learn about the tools of the Craft of the Wise.

Altar Cleansing

Altar Cleansing

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 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 you can’t, then just use your imagination to think of something that will be acceptable for you and your environment.

Timing: Full Moon or New Moon

Instructions: The most important aspect of any magic or ritual is that you take your time, and perform the working without interruption. If someone knocks on your door, or 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 magic, you will 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 hand 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 magical 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 you 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 palm, 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 or 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, may you be cleansed, consecrated and blessed in the name of Spirit. Work the magic 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

Altar Blessing and Empowerment

Supplies: Scented oils or perfumes (ingredients you hold sacred to yourself).

Instructions: Pass the four elements (red candle, incense, salt and water) over the altar three times in a clockwise direction. Imagine that you are sitting 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 these, 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. Tip 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 magic.

Ideas for the Witch’s Altar

Ideas for the Witch’s Altar
 
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 material 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.)
 
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. It should be noted that 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 precautious.)
 
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 spouse are aftaid that you’re religiously going down the tubes and have put their foot down on the issue of an altar. College students, due tol iving conditions, may not be allowed to have an altar. Individuals in the military service at boot campe can’t have on either Maybe you are visiting Grandma for the summer and you know that she’ll find the idea an altar offensive. If your family goes on an exxtended vacation, where luggage is a factor. Mon and DAy 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 enhances your visualization sklls. You really never know when you might need those mental powers.

The Witch’s Altar

The Witch’s Altar
 
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 call Ara, meaning “the altar.” 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. 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 unaccurate 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.