Hello! I am *somewhat* new to the practice, although I have been Wiccan for about three or four years now. I'm trying to rebuild my altar and my "witchy" collection, and I'm taking any suggestions people may have. What are your go-to items and must-haves for your witchy collection! Thank you!
Re: Your Must-Have Items? By: Weatherwax / Knowledgeable
Post # 2 Sep 29, 2017
You'll find that a lot of us don't generally buy overly 'Witchy' items because most of the time you're buying cheap breakable equipment that won't last very long - like those nice Dragon Chalices? I broke one three times in the space of a week trying to use it.
Most of us attend Craft Fairs (As in Artisan crafts - leatherworking, soft doll making, arts and crafts - not Witchcraft) to buy a lot of our equipment or we go to specific artists and request - or we make do with a Bread Knife for an Athame and our 'Monday Sucks' mug for a chalice.
My must haves are pretty simple and what you can buy from any Dollar store
cheap candles
cheap notebook
cheap scraps of fabric
Cheap candles are the best, what I dislike is one brand aggravated my allergies which has never happened before.
It's just always good to have a stock of candles because they go quick.
Salt. I've used salt piles for makeshift etc candle holders.
Inscence is amazing if simply for the smell sense and memory being so highly connected, which could be useful during spell writing etc.
Crystals, but only natural ones (not dyed or something else).
Herbs, tea etc - for health and for bath rituals.
To me it really depends on what you feel is important for your practice. I imagine the best place to start would be in getting the tools together that you expect to use regularly such as a chalice, athame, wand, some salt, a quartz and obsidian (or other grounding) crystal, etc.
My own collection has been slowly growing for years, but the first thing I got was a small quartz generator that I carried around with me. It was great to have because I could practice what little I knew at the time in energy working by programming and re-programming the crystal with different intents.
I guess as far as the bare minimum musts for a usable altar, my opinion would be;
-An item of protection like a grounding stone, pentacle, quartz crystal, etc.
-An item of will, like a dagger, wand, sword, or staff.
-An item of reflection/introspection, like a scrying mirror, scrying stone, tingsha, singing bowl, or drum. Anything that can be used to help in meditation and inward-seeking thought.
-And an item of spirit. Like a personal symbol of the higher self, a reminder of your spiritual nature, or an icon image or statue of a deity (or deities) you honor.
-A sturdy book that can be used as a journal/book of shadows to keep your thoughts, ideas, experiences, and discoveries together. I usually suggest a binder because they are easy to expand, reorganize and otherwise adjust whenever you want.
Those five pieces could be applied in some way to just about any working you could want to involve yourself in. And from there it's easy to expand into cheap and easy to get everyday supplies to keep in a drawer or small box at your altar like taper candles, tea lights, coarse salt, a variety of personally appealing incenses, sage sweetgrass or cedar leaves, a bound journal that you can transcribe your more important or meaningful information into from your active book of shadows, coins and other small things for offerings, feathers, crystals, and any other bits and bods you happen to collect along the way.
