Altars

Altars and shrines are extremely personal creations and vary wildly from person to person. I first considered building an altar of my own after reading The Red Book by Sera Beak. I was raised in the Baptist church in a small southern town, making altars a thing of extreme mystery and taboo.

Once I realized that even churches have altars and shrines, however, it only made sense to have one in my home. For purposes of keeping this entry short I'm only going into what it takes to build an altar. (Shrines and altars are different, in my opinion, so I am keeping them separate for that reason.)

I wanted my altar to honor the divine in my life: both the feminine and the masculine. I had a multitude of trinkets and gifts from all over the world that I sifted through. I spent time with each item, deciding what sacred meaning it held for me. Discarding the ones that I still had attachments to, but didn't feel right for whatever reason. And keeping the ones that I knew belonged.

Some of the items I used included: my Vasalisa doll, turquoise necklace, panda statue, purple amethyst, and turquoise stone all from Nana; a purple buddha statue and white elephant from a trip to Chinatown, New York; Rose quartz from my Great-Gran; one of my paint palettes and old paintbrush; my hand wraps (reminding me to stand up for myself!); a satchel of rose petals from a rose my parents gave me on Valentine's; A Russian nesting doll from North Carolina; an otter from a friend, and a ceramic charm of an intertwined couple made in Spain and given to me by a college friend. All of these went into a beautiful and well-loved jewelry box from another Great-Grandmother. I used some orange and red silk as a table runner. Beside the box I placed my tarot cards and also my abalone shell and smudge stick.

Originally I kept the altar on the mantle piece in my bedroom. Then I inherited a beautiful marble top table from my Nana and it only felt right to move the altar to that and put it facing the East.

I love having the altar in my bedroom and that it's one of the first things that I see in the morning when I wake up. It helps me center myself before I get up and get ready to greet the day.

When I re-examined the process I took in order to construct this I realized how many of the items were gifts from other women in my life that I loved and admired. I believe what I had been feeling when picking out the pieces was the love and magic inherited in each of them. Looking at this I can see how loved and blessed I am by the women in my life.

While I used a more intuitive guide for this, I know some people would use a more logical approach.  The basic thing to remember when making your altar is to do what feels right and natural to you. Choose items that speak to you, but don't focus too much on why. If something seems out of place, take it off and see how that resonates within you. It might feel odd to combine different things from different cultures, but the culmination of them will make sense in the end. I didn't think combining things from Native American/ Russian/ Spanish/ Chinese and American backgrounds would lend itself to something spiritually cohesive. Yet it turned out to be a perfect reflection of who I am, where I am from, and what I believe.

And it's absolutely beautiful.