Pagan Witches Altar

An Altar is an Elevated place where ceremonies are conducted and where offerings are made to a deity or deities.

The altar has ancient associations with the Goddess and Mother Earth, who rule the wheel of birth-death-rebirth.

In Witchcraft and Paganism, the altar is placed within a magic circle.

It usually faces either east or north, depending on the tradition and practices of the coven.

There are no set rules in the Craft for the construction of the altar.

If the ceremonies take place out of doors, rocks or tree stumps may be used.

Indoors, the altar may be a table, a wooden box or a board placed on boxes or bricks.

Whatever the form or materials, the altar should not contain conductive metals such as iron or steel, since they could interfere with the energy of the ritual tools made of iron or steel.

Since many covens meet in homes or apartments where space is at a premium, the altar may not be permanent but erected only during ceremonies.

The objects of ritual and worship placed on the altar vary, depending upon the practices of the coven and the rituals to be performed.

They may include an athame, a white-handled knife, a sword, a wand, candles, a cup or goblet of wine, anointing oils, dishes for Salt and water, a necklace without beginning or end, a censer, bells, scourges, dishes for offering food and drink to the deities and images of the deities, such as figurines, wax statues or drawings.

If a broom and cauldron are needed in rituals, they are placed on either side of the altar.

Ancestor Altars

The Samhain season is a wonderful time to create an ancestor altar in your home.

This can be a permanent dedicated space to honor your Beloved Dead year-round, or a temporary set-up for use during Samhain.

To create an ancestor altar you will need:

  • A skull (this can be a ceramic imitation skull, a candle in the shape of a skull, a drawing of a skull, or any other representation). Search the stores for Halloween decorations and you should find something suitable.
  • A covering for the skull. This can be a handkerchief, a hat, sunglasses, or any item that suits you.
  • Photos of deceased loved ones and ancestors.
  • Items you associate with your Beloved Dead. These may include antiques, gifts from your loved ones, or inherited items.
  • An offering area, such as a small plate on which to burn incense and spirit money, or to leave offerings of food, liquor, ghost water or other items.

During the Samhain season lay a compass and cast a calm with yourself and your ancestor skull within.

Ask you’re the Mighty Ones to send forth your Beloved Dead to inhabit your skull for the season of Samhain, that you may honor your ancestors and share in their wisdom.

After the rite is complete, take the skull to your ancestor’s altar and cover it.

When you wish to speak with your Beloved Dead remove the covering and make your offerings to the spirits.

Here is a recipe for Ghost Water, which is a traditional potent offering to the spirits of the dead.

At midnight on the night of the full moon (the full moon before Samhain is ideal) go to a graveyard with a glass container of spring water.  Leave the spring water on one of the graves in the cemetery, making sure that the light of the full moon falls on the spring water.  Remove the water after midnight but before daybreak.  Bottle and label the water, and use it as an offering on your ancestor altar.  Some witches like to add a splash of anisette liquor to the Ghost Water when making the offering.  Good anisette will produce a milky cloud in the water, like unto a spirit manifesting.

Graveyard dirt is another ideal offering to the dead.

Powdered mullein or patchouli are often labeled “graveyard dust”, and these too make a nice offering, either with or without actual graveyard dirt.

Other offerings to the dead include incense (a Samhain blend or an ancestor blend will work well) and spirit money.

Spirit money is imitation money, such as can be found in children’s playsets.

It is burned with prayers that the Beloved Dead have all they need in the world beyond this one.

Keep your ancestor altar clean and make offerings regularly, disposing of any old offerings in living water or at a crossroads.

Your ancestors deserve your respect and remembrance.

Samhain is the ideal time to create an ancestor altar for seasonal use, or as a permanent place in your home and in your life.

Magical Ways, The Altar

In basics, an altar is known as a  spell table or a magical work table.

A great deal of magic does not need the presence of an altar, however certain rites and rituals may be further empowered with the help of an altar.

If you perform magick in the comfort of your own home, an altar can be a worthy tool to cast spells.

An altar can also be used as a work table, where herbs are enchanted, sachets composed, and where, in general, all magical work is done.

An altar may be any flat surface on which you can place candles, an incense burner, herbs, and any other materials needed for a spell.

It can be the top of a coffee table or dresser or a section of the floor.

Wherever you can find a place is sufficient.

Some people, who wish to acknowledge their spiritual beliefs, place symbols of their beliefs on the altar.

Statues of their particular gods and goddesses may be common.

However, any objects with which you feel comfortable may be placed on the altar.

These can include lucky charms, fossils, rocks, shells, and so on. Such natural objects may actually empower your magic further.

Where possible it may be good to take your magickal practices into the great outdoors.

However Indoor spells will always work just as well as Outdoor spells A lot of people may have to substitute a living room or bedroom for a forest clearing or lonely beach.

Outdoor altars, may not always be necessary, to perform magick However when you feel an outdoor Altar is necessary, it can consist of something as simple as a cleared section of ground, a flat rock, or a tree stump.

Remember, ingenuity can aid the Magician here, and it is your choice alone, how you perform your magick Bear in mind, the altar is simply a place to perform magick and is limited only by your imagination.

Basic Tools for an Altar

First of all, it is important to remember that tools, herbs, candles, crystals and so on are not actually necessary to work magic.

Your own energy and the power of your mind, as well as the blessings of the deities and spirits, are the important things.

However, these extra ingredients may make it easier to work spells, as well as being nice to have at your disposal.

An Athame.

An athame is a ritual knife, used to direct magical energy,

An athame, is usually a handled two-edged knife, meaning the blade is sharp on both sides.

However, it may be dull rather than sharp, as an athame is not a cutting tool.

This knife may be made of wood, stone, horn, or metal.

An athame can also be a regular knife if visualized as the ritual tool.

An athame maybe a letter opener, pocketknife so long as it is seen as a ritual tool.

The handle color may also vary, but black is traditional.

A Bell.

An altar bell, maybe a tiny bell with a delicate chime, or a larger bell, used during rituals such as one to call upon the Faerie Folk.

An Altar bell may be made of brass, ceramic, crystal, or silver

A Boline.

A Boline is a cutting tool used in magical work to inscribe candles, cut herbs, cut thread, or any other such use.

Traditionally a two-edged blade, with a white handle, but any tool designated as the working tool may be used.

Bowls.

Altar bowls in general are used in the following way. one for salt, one for water, and one for the libation.

Broom or Besom.

A ritual broom or besom is not used for housework, but for clearing the ritual space during circle casting and for spell work.

Candle Holder.

Candleholders can be individual, candelabra, votive holders,  but in theory, there should be one for the Goddess and one for the God, as well as one for magical work.

Cauldron.

A Cauldron is a metal pot for magical work.

When burning a candle inside it, you might want to put a layer of clean sand on the bottom of the pot.

It is a good idea, for your cauldron to be large enough, to hold melted wax, and to burn twigs or incense inside, without creating a hazard.

A Lidded cauldron may be the best idea, but if not possible, get a separate lid for covering when ready to put out any fire within.

Censer.

A censer is a container for incense that can be carried around the Circle or set on the Altar.

The censer may be of brass, a shell, wood, or any other suitable material.

It may be a good idea that the container should be partially filled with clean sand to hold the incense and prevent burns.

Cingulum.

A Cingulum is a nine-foot-long cord of red silk, wool, or cotton that is knotted at Initiation and worn with the Robe, kept on the Altar, or wrapped around the top of a Staff.

Crystal Ball.

The Crystal Ball is a smooth sphere without facets, although it may contain bubbles and other markings within.

Clear Crystal balls and ones of natural quartz are very expensive.

However manufactured lead crystal also works.

Chalice.

A Chalice is used for the beverage of Cakes and wine, Esbats, Rituals .

May be of pottery, silver, brass, crystal,or wood.

Incense Burner.

Incense burners are used to hold incenses whilst being burnt.

The incense burner itself may be a stick holder, corn holder, or resin holder.

The incense burner may be made of wood, earthenware, ceramic, glass, brass, shell.

Pentacle.

A pentacle is a flat disk with a five-pointed star in a circle engraved or painted on it.

The altar pentacle could be made of wood, ceramic, clay, wax, brass, silver, gold, or simply drawn on a piece of paper.

Plate.

An altar plate is normally used to hold the bread or other such food blessed in the Cakes and Wine Ritual.

Robes.

You may choose a variety of colored robes, depending on the type of ritual or spell work involved, or a basic white or black robe.

The cingulum, cord, may be used with the robe to tie it around the waist

Staff.

A staff is used as a long wand, may be decorated, and carried as an indication of Craft association, or simply for walking in the woods.

Tarot Cards.

Choose a deck that draws you, and use for divination; you may acquire a variety of decks over time.

Wand.

Wands are normally the length of the forearm to the fingertip, about 12 to 16 inches.

The wand itself, maybe made of, oak, willow, hazel, apple, elder , and so on For the influence of those woods, it may be good to select one from nature.

Failing that, buy one, but choose one that appeals to you. After all the tool most associated with witchcraft is the wand

Kitchen Altar

Kitchen witches spend much of their time in the kitchen, combining magic and cooking to create sacred food, spells and herbal remedies.

The kitchen is therefore an ideal place to set up an altar, both for kitchen magic and honoring the goddess of hearth and home.

Making a Kitchen Altar

Depending on the size of the kitchen, an altar can be anything from the corner of a shelf, to a dedicated table.

The ideal spot for a focal point also needs to be practical and safe.

A witch does not want an altar where spillages or accidents can occur, but at the same time needs it to be within easy reach and view.

The altar can either be a space already in existence, such as the shelf of a dresser or a small table, or a newly created shelf, cupboard or shrine.

Many kitchen witches are creative craftspeople, so might wish to carve something to house the altar items themselves.

Alternatively, it is possible to ask a friend to make one or buy one made from sustainable wood.

Even shop-bought shelves can be personalized and made special by decorating them.

The shelf can be painted a suitable color, perhaps one sacred to a particular hearth goddess, and also embellished with rhinestones, shells, ribbons, and other trinkets.

Honoring the Kitchen Goddess

Most kitchen witches will work with several goddesses, but also have a dedicated goddess of hearth and home.

Choosing a kitchen goddess to work with provides a mentor and protector when weaving magic in the kitchen, be it cooking up successful, healthy meals or brewing medicinal potions.

The kitchen altar should recognize the chosen goddess, perhaps with a figurine or picture, or with a selection of items that represent them, such as symbolic charms, certain foods, or candles and ribbons in associated colors. There are many sources offering statues and artwork to buy, but crafty witches might like to make their own representation of the goddess, by sculpting her from salt dough or polymer clay.   Once baked, the clay statue can be painted and embellished accordingly.

Tips on using your Altar

To set up an altar, you will need some kind of large flat surface.

A table or a cupboard will do.

You can use the drawers for storage and cover it with a cloth.

It does not really matter what shape the surface is.

Circles and squares are both sacred shapes.

Any shape is easy to divide into quadrants, for the four elements, Earth, Air, Fire and Water, that are central to traditional magic, and play a part even in informal rituals.

A round altar, the shape of the sacred circle, works especially well.

If you do not have a suitable piece of furniture, a piece of uncut stone or unpolished wood, such as hazel, ash, rowan or oak supported on stones or bricks will do.

Ensure that it is high enough so that you are not constantly stopping.

In good weather, if you have a sheltered private place in your garden or back yard, you can adopt a tree stump or tall, flat rock as your workspace.

But perhaps the best altars of all,are those impromptu ones you make.

These could be such as, the top of a standing stone ,with a circle of your favourite crystals.

Or on a rock on the beach, with a circle of seaweed, and shells to mark the directions.

The altar need not be large. but you will need to have room,to move all the way around it.

Many rituals demand that you move in a circle with the altar in the centre.

Although in some places, the altar will be placed the North of the circle, whilst you stand to the South, facing North.

At the end of the day though, how you have your altar is, your choice.

The central position of the altar or circle represents the realm of Spirit or Akasha.

Akasha is the name given to the fifth element, formed by the combination of the four ancient elements of Earth, Fire, Air and Water.

These four elements were considered, in classical times,to be the components of all life and matter.

In formal magic, artefacts, and lighted candles, are kept on an altar but this is not vital.

It is quite possible, even if you are using a communal room, in an apartment or house, to leave your altar partly prepared.

Although items such as, salt and water,are best added immediately before a ritual, so they will be fresh.

A garden altar can be set with an outdoor candle or torch and stone figurines, perhaps shaded by bushes.

It may be an idea to keep living plants, on your indoor altar, when it is not in use, so as to keep the energies fresh and moving.

If the plant feels stagnant, sprinkle an infusion of lemon or peppermint widdershins.

This may, in turn, remove the negativity, that has come in from the activities of the day, and then deosil, to charge it with power.

You can also cleanse it with incense, creating a protective circle of pine or myrrh, again widdershins and then deosil.

Each night, or whenever you have time, you can explore your inner psychic powers at your altar.

For example, you can gaze into a candle, or scry into a bowl of water ,on the surface of which you have dripped coloured inks.

Try holding the different crystals that you place on your altar, and allow impressions to pass through your fingertips, manifest as images, sounds or feelings.

This psychic art is called psychometry and is one that will emerge spontaneously.

You may, however, have a more specific aim in mind.

For example, to improve your finances, place a pot of basil herbs, surrounded by golden coloured coins ,and light a green or golden prosperity candle, while visualising golden coins showering upon you.

If you have a friend who is sick and wish to send healing thoughts to them, place a photograph of them on the altar, and surround it with pink flowers, pink rose quartz crystals and a circle of tiny pink candles.

Send your message of healing or visualised golden light, then blow out the candles deosil, sending the energies to where they are needed.

When you are not carrying out formal magick, keep on the altar any crystals that are of personal significance to you.

You might wish to have a clear crystal quartz for pure energy, a blue lapis lazuli flecked with gold for wisdom, purple amethyst and rose quartz for healing and harmony, or a gleaming, golden-brown tiger’s eye for grounding.

You can also keep different herbs there according to your current focus.