What is an altar?
Altars are the points on earth where the physical and spiritual meet, where the metaphysical and the concrete are united in a tangible space. Searching across the internet and the wide array of books available points to many possible items that could grace your altar – from athames, to god and goddess statues, candles, pentagrams and many other items – and these are great, but for many of us, space is not as readily available, the budget isn’t unlimited, our lifestyles don’t accommodate due to travel or other requirements, among many other circumstances. For example, for some people it is simply not possible to have a full altar on display because of living conditions – family and roommates certainly complicate things! Whatever your reason, know that altars don’t need to be elaborate or costly to be effective. Altars can be your main places of worship, meditative and reflective corners, creative outlets, places to communicate with and honor deities, or just places you visit to connect with nature or even yourself. Altars are, in a sense, magical points that allow us to communicate with the world beyond that which we see in our day to day lives. As with all magical endeavors, the more personalized and specific the elements on your altar, the more you can hope to get out of it.