If you feel comfortable sharing let me know how you have yours set up. Do you have specific parts for working with certain deities/spirits and does it differ from your witchy work space? What kind of tools do you have on your altar? What is that one thing you just obsessively hoard a lot of? Would you mind sharing with the class the symbolism behind any of it and any neat stories attached to it? What are some things you don't have for your altar that are at the top of your priority list? Pic drops are not necessary but would be totally appreciated! You can post links here or in the skype to share your sacred space, but only if you feel comfortable. <3
Re: ToTM: Altars By: TempestQueen
Post # 2 Feb 01, 2017
Yay! Altars! So I have an altar To Maa Kali (Mother Kali) in my house. For now it is the only altar I have. I do make space in my room for my more witchy things and my workings, but it is in a different room than the altar. Not that I see the two things as independent of each other, I think they are very much intertwined for me, that is just how it works out as I spend more time in my room than the room the altar is in.
I keep it in a room where our cats do not go (for one I fear they would mess with the altar, and the other reason is that it is customary to do so within Hinduism). It is also in a room where I do not sleep, eat or drink, or get intimate in as is customary in Hinduism as well.
My altar is on the North wall of our house so that Maa faces South and I face North to meditate or do prayers or just talk to Her. It is normal to have a Hindu altar to Kali either be on the north or east wall. On the altar is a red altar cloth, as red is a favorite color of Kali's.
So on my altar I have 3 images of Kali.
~One is Mahakali (The Great Kali) standing on a prostrated Shiva to symbolize the "Dance of Destruction" ending. It symbolizes also the fierce transformative nature of Kali. Her image is ferocious in that particular statue, and as I have found. it is the most common statue to Kali for altars
~Another image of Kali I have is a Kali yantra I drew with care and a nice painting pen :)
"Yantra is the Sanskrit word for a mystical diagram, especially diagrams from the Tantric traditions of the Indian religions. They are used for worship of deities in temples or at home; as an aid in meditation; used for the benefits given by their supposed occult powers based on Hindu astrology and tantric texts. In Classical Sanskrit, the generic meaning of yantra is "instrument, contrivance, apparatus"."*(b)
"The Kali Yantra, then, contains within it the transformative energy of change"." *(a)
~The last image of Kali is another one I made with reverence on a disc slice of birch wood that I was inspired to create a picture of Kali's face on.
Offerings In General
For the offerings I have on Her altar, I try to make sure there are always 6 items there. Sometimes I will find something neat and add it, but I tend to at least have the 6 items at all times as 6 is a major number for me, and it makes the total number of items on my altar (including the 3 images of Maa) at the least to be a constant amount of 9 items , which is a number associated with the Kali Yuga (the last of the stages the world goes through). I am big into numbers and their various associations and symbolisms.
My offerings on Her altar include :
1&2 - Two kukri knives from Nepal, which are the knives used by the Gorkha soldier, many of who were devotees to Kali Herself.
3 - A set of large rudraksha seed beaded mala. A mala is normally made of 108 beads often used along with mantras and chanting, while the rudraksha seeds, or "("Rudra's [Shiva's] Teardrops"), is a seed traditionally used for prayer beads in Hinduism. The seed is produced by several species of large evergreen broad-leaved tree in the genus Elaeocarpus, with Elaeocarpus ganitrus being the principal species used in the making of organic jewellery or mala."*(c ) I actually wore this particular mala to the Kali Mandir by me and meditated with them on at the foot of Kali and asked Her to bless them for Her alter at my house.
4 - I also keep a nice silver handled mirror (not a scrying mirror) on my altar that I got at a little puja (ritualistic offerings) store, where I also got other items for the altar at as well. The mirror symbolizes to me a place of reflection (see what I did there?) and is also supposed to be an amplifier for energies, and as it was pretty and I thought Maa would like it :)
5&6 - Then I have a nice yellow dish for offerings of uncooked rice and a matching yellow cup that I give Her offerings of fresh water in. I change the water and rice out every other day, normally at night.
Oftentimes when I can, I will put out sweets that Maa would like on the offering dish :) As far as daily offerings this is a list of things appropriate for a Kali altar that I got from my local Kali Mandir (temple or shrine): "flowers, fruit, sweets, ghee, sesame oil, perfume, incense and new jewelry or new saris. All offerings must not contain any meat, eggs, gelatin, onion or garlic."*(d)
7(my extra offering) - When I can I put a fresh flower, oftentimes a rose from our only rosebush. Sometimes flowers I have bought, or that were given to me from my husband as well will get placed on there too. Kali's favorite flower is the Red Hibiscus, but those are difficult to come by at this time of year, so instead I will find other flowers that are red and sometimes yellow instead.
The thing I want to find most for an offering on the altar would be to find a Red Hibiscus perfume to place on the altar and maybe get one for myself to wear to the temple or when doing spiritual stuff. Another thing I want to do with my altar is learn to perform proper pujas at home to Her, which are ritualistic offerings . I was recently given a conch shell by my husband, and have found that not only is the conch shell associated with Kali, but that there is a puja specific to offering a conch shell to Her. That is the one I am most interested in for now. Pujas are performed daily at Kali temples, and they are beautiful to watch and to hear the chanting is so calming, but they are not something you muddle through. You really need to know what you are doing when you perform a puja to not be disrespectful in my eyes, so I want to learn it all correctly out of love and respect to Maa.
I see my altar as a place of reflection, of stillness of the mind, and of love and joy. It is where I can visually see my devotion to Kali in my home. It is where I bring my spiritual heart to bare for Her. I am so happy to have it up and running again. I haven't had it set up for a number of years, until recently (like a month ago) because for a while I fell from my practices spiritually and magickally. Now having it back up I feel like my home is blessed again with Her presence and protection. It feels as though my home is more of a home with it.
To start off I have some altar pictures in my photo album on here which is public. I will post some in the Skype before the month is up. I have one third of the left most half of my altar set up as a shrine space for Ares. In this half I have glass roses for him, three butterfly vases for him I put fresh flowers in, a poupree Eros dish with a pink rose plate layed in it. I have a little red six sided dice with the number three face up, I also have a second pink rose plate with his wolf libation cup. I currently have a cherry lollipop there from my last offerings. I also have an Erotes candle holder with a red taper candle in it. Oh! I also have a wolf incense burner with a thing that catches the ashes. I will add some links to some of the purchases I have made for those it might interest. The right portion I have cubby holes where I keep my tools. I have a drawer in the front where I keep a lot of my candles and down below I have a space where I keep more stuff too big or too tall to fit into the cubbords.
Okay so those are some of the exact products I have bought. The bay leaves I use for cleansing miasma before prayer and I specifically had to have that one because of the metal lid and glass jar for reusability. I keep my altar in my living room next to my balcony adjacent to a small bed I meditate, sleep, and cloud scry on. The clod scrying is made easy for me as I have three sky light windows right above the bed when I lay down I get a perfect view. I also have a small two layer table I keep my plants on which I place in front of my sliding glass door which leads to the balcony so that they can get enough sun light. So it's a pretty neat set up. To clarify for my altar it is a coffee table with an entertainment center stacked up on the right and a small pedistool put on the left. Then I threw over three cloths. A red on on the pedistool where I present libation to Enyalius. The green one underneath on that side where I put the flowers.
Oh and I also have two flower pictures hanging above that side for him!! Why so many flowers? Because he is an agricultiural deity and because of his immaculate conception story which many tend to either forget or not know. I don't believe Zeus is his actual father but rather his step father. The red cloth because of his warrior side, passionate nature, firey temper, etc. The green for the agricultural side. On my work space right side I have a purple cloth covering my cubby holes. Why purple? Because it is the color his priests wore.
Now I don't consider myself a priest/priestess of his because that gets into the argument of how much is serving the god, how much is doing things for your community in their name, etc. I hate most people so I'm like nah bro, I'ma stick to just chilling with you and helping people you want me to here and there. Too many people in the Hellenic community give themselves fancy titles like, "Priest of Hermes" is one I have heard. Dude was an arrogant dick who thought he knew everything, his way is right, everyone else is wrong. Point is, that title is not something to take lightly. That and your boss...which IS your god is the one that hires you, you don't hire yourself...At least that is what I believe. But the purple cloth is more because I am proud to recieve his word if that makes more sense.
I have so many candles, two boxes on incense being Frankincense and White Sage. I would like to get some rose and lavander as well. Oh and I would like to work with loose incense and get more into essential oils. For essential oils I would really like lemon and cyprus. I love getting little candles in jars so that when I use them all up I can melt crayons in it and make more. I know how to since crayons are wax and then sent them with essential oils I just never got around to it. I also have a scrying mirror I want to paint black. To the left of my Aphneius shrine I have been slowly trying to build one for Bellona. For Enyo I have a gold vase held by three Erotes and a vase with flowers I am setting up. I really want an orange altar cloth for him but have yet to find one at the usual store I shop for them at.
I actually use scarves I find at a dollar store because the patterns are simply beautiful and I am working on a massive budget so most of my stuff is thrifted, dollar store, Walmart, given to me, etc. I mean I could save up to buy a more expensive altar cloth but a lot of the ones marketed that way are too Wiccan centric and I don't want one with a pentagram on it because I am simply not Wiccan. I could get some fabric and sew my own later on when these ones wear out. I will sew a Spartan helmet patch into one hehe. I took a sewing class back in high school plus what my mother taught me as a while so I know how to work a sewing machine and use a needle and thread so it should be no trouble when finances stop being so choke hold tight.
Re: ToTM: Altars By: Jorune
Post # 5 Feb 10, 2017
I've been so damn lazy with altars. It's something I have legit considered dumping a lot of money into (because of aesthetic materials that are harder to come by or how things simply are expensive such as crystals and well-crafted things... which have led me to make my own things but I still get terrible impulse buys lmao)
When I was in Cali, for some reason I collected literally a hundred sand dollars. They were all the ones I found on the beach. It sort of disturbs me how sea shells are also literally sea-bones and skeletons.... and what's hard for me is that I'm very eclectic and I just want to focus on one thing.
I also love the energy of Santa Muerte and other death related things and necromancy. I also have a soft spot for Draconic energy.... I need some water dragon statues too. And a Santa Muerte statue xD And mermaid incense holders.... I'm basically a dragon myself with all these things that I'm going to hoard tbh.
I don't have a altar. Maybe I should think about it ...
Re: ToTM: Altars By: SilentSyren
Post # 7 Mar 01, 2017
Erika, if you would like any tips or suggestions depending on the religion OR practice frame work you center your work space/shrine around I can try to assist you by giving you some ideas. If I am unable to help I can probably direct you to someone who can better assist you on the coven.
My alter fits inside one of those large popcorn tins, you know, the ones you can get all that fancy popcorn in. Im not really sure how it's supposed to look however. I have a goblet and candles (I focus on candle magic) and a wand I made with candle wax....not sure if that's the right day to do it though.
