Day 16: Do you use an altar or a special location for your practice?

This post is part of a 31 Days of Secular Witchcraft series in which I answer questions about my own personal views about magic and witchcraft.  I urge you to answer the same questions, found here, on your own blog.

Altar is such a loaded word.  I'm inclined to say "yes," though I'd call mine "working shrines" to be more accurate. I love having dedicated spaces to my spiritual practice.

I recently moved my main shrine space to a larger drawer top.  In the top drawer, I keep my supplies: candles, incense, salt, a coffee cup that I use as a cauldron as needed, a pentacle a friend recently gave me, a handful of stones acquired at a UU group meeting, my abalone shell, glass beads, and so forth.  I use the rest of the drawers for clothing.



I drape the dresser with a cloth.  Right now, it has a black cloth with baby blue crescent moons, white pentagram-like stars, and brown cats on it for autumn, and I just removed a little white novelty hand towel with a broomsticking witch in the center for Halloween/Samhain fun.  In the summer, I used bright pink and purple scarves that I no longer wear.  I have a runner with a reindeer, sled, and snowflakes that I got at a garage sale that I will use in the winter.

On top of the cloth, I place various items.  This summer, I had an element-themed collection of colored beads in a flat, circular dish, my abalone shell, some old pearls (from my non-vegetarian phase), and some small candles.  Now I have a tabletop fountain my spouse got for me at a garage sale filled with holy water.  I only run the motor when I pray or meditate to conserve power.  I have a bottle of holy water for refills.  I have a stick incense holder, a feather I found at a park, two candles in mercury glass bottles (one silver for goddesses and one bronze for gods), a corn bundle charm, and any working spell items.  Right now, I am also continuously burning a tall jar candle for my grandfather's passing.  I have a three card spread that I am trying to understand better in the center, and I have a gorgeous, fairly hefty quartz crystal.

I consider it a working shrine because I mostly go there to pray and meditate.  Most nights, if I don't fall asleep by accident, I go to my shrine.  I set an alarm for 20 minutes.  I light the candle in the silver cup.  I say, "I honor the Divine Feminine, honored as the great goddesses of many cultures.  Be you one or be you many, I honor you."  I do the same with the bronze for masculine deities, saying something about how gods and goddesses can transcend gender, too.  I light incense and give thanks to the air and the fire for the blessings of the day, then I turn on the fountain and give thanks to the water and the earth for the blessings of the day.  I bless myself and my jewelry, removing my 2 rings (my wedding ring and my spiral ring), leaving them on the shrine overnight.  Then I pray extemporaneously to Inanna, Brigid, and/or the Earth Mother.  I then sit and meditate for the remainder of my 20 minutes.

My dresser is against the wall, and it is not portable, so if I want to do some spellwork beyond small blessings and charms, I take the items I need off my working shrine and place them on the ground or on a temporary altar made of a plant stand and a picture frame.  I like to cast a circle, chant, sing, dance, and generally move about during spellwork, so a dresser pushed against a wall doesn't really work for that.  If there is any "after work" (letting a candle burn out, charging an item, and so forth), I will place that on the working shrine.


I recently added a five candle holder as an ancestral shrine in the living room.  I call on the genetic lineage of each of my grandparents in turn (always blessing and praying for a long life for the one grandmama that I am still blessed and honored to have in my life on this plane), and then for the fifth candle, I call on spiritual and creative ancestors (writers, musicians, painters, and others who have fed my soul.)  I have a potted plant from my grandfather's funeral that I have named "Bud" that I care for in honor of my ancestors.  It's across the room from the ancestral shrine so that it can get sunshine from the window.

I also set up holiday villages for Halloween and the winter holiday season.  I consider these altars; I pray over them when I set them up and when I take them down.  I also created an altar de muertos with an ofrenda in public Dia de los muertos celebration this year.  I have a tree at a park where I sometimes leave offerings.  When I run, I dedicate my body as a living altar to Inanna.  Still, I think the world is sacred,so an altar can be anywhere, and magic can happen anywhere.  In my opinion, you don't need a Super Obviously Witchy Altar (TM) to practice witchcraft.  I am blessed with a supportive muggle husband who finds my witchy ways charming, so I can do whatever I want however I want.  I know that many witches and pagans don't have that option, and I suggest you create a sacred space for yourself with less obvious items if necessary.