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.
*(a)From <http://towardstillness.com/resources/articles/the-kali-yantra/>
*(b)From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yantra>
*(c )From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudraksha>
*(d)From <https://www.kalimandir.org/visiting/>
