(I know these are a little late, but I'm getting caught up anyway ^_^)
I love having an altar whenever I can. I prefer to have a permanent altar setup, but
having 3 young children that just LOVE to get into everything makes
it…..difficult. They like to get into my
stuff, mess with my electronics, and though it hadn’t happened for quite a
while, they managed to grab ahold of my favorite purple journal (which I hadn’t
even really gotten to use yet) and scribble on several of the pages and rip out
just as many. They went digging through my backpack for that one. Ooooooh, that pissed me off! Seriously, it made me cry. I was THAT mad.
Soooo, yeah.
Permanent altars are kind of out of the picture right now. *sigh*
My altars aren’t fancy and I like them that way. ‘Course, since I moved, I ended up having to
leave behind what wasn’t quite as sentimental and could be replaced. I don’t have any fancy god or goddess statues
or symbols. Those are usually symbolized
by a horse that my older brother gave me for Christmas many years ago. And my goddess symbol is a faery that one of
my best friends gave me for my birthday several years back. I would love to have a statuette of my matron
goddess, Brighid someday, but that’s going to have to wait. And that’s alright. I hope to have a statuette of her for when
I’m able to set up a shrine to Her.
I had a small boot knife-style athame at one point, but it
carried some bitter ties to the past that I did not want or need, so I sold
it. I am hoping to replace it soon. Not quite sure with what kind of athame, but
I’ll know it when I see it.
I have a small cauldron that I absolutely adore. It too was a gift from a good friend. And I saw a large rusty cast iron cauldron
sitting outside my grandmother’s house that I’m REALLY tempted to ask if they’re
going to do anything with. ‘Cause if I
could do away with the rust on it? It’d be a thing of beauty! :-D
It’s the kind of cauldron that would be perfect sitting in or near a
fireplace.
Currently, I have no chalice or even a place to set up an
altar even if I did have all my tools and representations. When my family is once again in a place of
our own, I will have to start replenishing my collection again. Pretty much everything is going to have to be
replaced.
I have several daydreams about my perfect altar. If I were to try to have a permanent altar at
this point, I’d want it to be something that I could have up on a wall, like
some hanging decorative shelves or something.
I’m not really sure if I’d want it in a centralized location like the living
room or if I’d want it cloistered off in my bedroom.
I think it’d even be cool to have a kitchen altar.
I know I’d want my shrine to Brighid in a centralized
location where I could pass it often and be reminded of Her presence in my
life. I’m not quite sure what all I’d
want on it, but I know I’d want to have things that are representative of Her
or are sacred to Her. There’s this
painting of her by Jessica Galbreth that I would LOOOOOOOOOVE to have on that
shrine.
That is my absolute most favorite picture of Her and I plan
on someday buying the print of it.
There’s even a little statuette rendering of this that I have been
absolutely salivating over. There’s also
another statuette that I once saw in this metaphysical shop I used to love to
frequent that showed Brighid in her Triple Goddess form and that’s the one that
I would love to have as my goddess representation on my main altar. I’ll have to save up for it, though. When I last saw it, it was $179. But oh, it’s so worth every penny!
Before this year is over, I hope to have my altar things
replenished again. I would SO love to go
scouring the thrift stores, garage/yard sales, and flea markets (ESPECIALLY the
Mile High Flea Market; I’ve never been there, but it’s always been one of
Colorado’s highlights) as well as the local metaphysical shops.
Lastly, as for altar surfaces, I’ve never needed a fancy
altar table (not that I’d object to having one). My last altar was a two-level end table that,
even as beat up as it was, I absolutely loved it. I like just having something simple and
workable. I like multi-surfaced altar
tables (as in more surfaces to it than just the main working space). I saw a picture that one of my good friends
had posted of her altar and it was placed on this multi-surfaced entertainment
center that one could get from Wal-Mart at the time. I recognized it because I used to have an
entertainment center that looked just like it.
It was a simple plastic easily-assembled surface. While I know that it’s preferable to have
one’s table made from wood, I also know that there’s no sin in practicality and
I personally don’t think that having a surface like that for my altar would
hinder anything.
I would even love to have an outdoor altar if I could manage
it. My grandmother has this tree stump
in her yard with this big board laid over it that makes a table that I’ve badly
wanted to use as an outdoor altar. But
seeing as that stump/table is in full view of heavily-used areas of the house,
I don’t think that would work or be very appreciated (my family here is very
Christian and, while I think that they know of my being Pagan, it’s sort of
like the Pink Elephant; it’s not brought up and I try not to flaunt it). However, it would be so awesome if I had
something like that outside whenever Druid and I manage to get into our own
place. ^_^ But even if that’s not the
case, I’m sure I can work out something where we could have a place to set up
an outdoor altar for when we want to do rituals outside.
Tala
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