Blog
HOW TO BUILD AN ALTAR
Mar
Building an altar is easier and less complicated than some folks would have you believe. The word “occult” means “hidden”, not “unknowable”.
All you really need for an altar is your own heart and mind; you must decide what is really important to you, what it is you MUST have as an altar.
It can be as simple as a tabletop or as complex as an entire chamber-full of stuff. What is really important is to build an altar that means something to you.
One suggestion is to place a table at the far end of the chamber, with two candles, one on each side, or a central candle if you prefer. Here are some other items that you might want on your altar:
Incense Burner
Incense Holder
Book of Shadows
Athame
Cup or Goblet
Talisman
Wand
Pentacle
Box of Keeping
Warding Amulet
Figurine or Statuette
Altarpiece or Fountain
Of course you can place any other items there as you please; you might want to consider not overcrowding your Altar, in which case, you may decide to have a shelf or drawer below the topware section.
You may want an altarcloth; some use them, some don’t. If you have a lot of flame on your altar, which I do, you might prefer to place them on ceramic plates or tiles, or do away with the cloth entirely, relying instead on ceramic tiles for the scribing effect.
The idea of an altar is to FOCUS the attention, to root it and to gather the energy, not to decorate. Leave the decoration concept in the living room, den or office, and use the altar as a point of energy — a centrum for the vortex you will invoke. As in all things well-conceived, Keep It Simple is the rule. Don’t put anything on the altar that doesn’t really need to be there.
