Welcome to my very first installment of #MagicMondays! Every Monday, I will post an article exploring All Things Witch. I often receive texts about witchy practices and answer emails about symbols and talk ritual over shared meals. I decided to compile all that knowledge in one place and share the hell out of it. We are all capable of magic because magic is within us! Now let’s get to work!
I use altars in my work, like many witches do, because they are excellent ways to direct energy for a particular purpose. Altars are focused ritual space designed for any kind of purpose. No purpose is too big or small – anything is enough as long as it is for your highest good. Some folks build altars at the start of each month, or on the new moon or full moon to channel those energies. We make altars together with the sharing of meals at potlucks and family dinners. Coming soon, many of us will craft Día de los Muertos altars with handmade adornments and gifts of food to honor our ancestors and friends who have passed on to Spirit realms. During Samhain at the end of the month, traditionally Halloween October 31, we’ll see altars on porch steps or windowsills when Jack-o-Lanterns are lit and seasonal foods harvested.
I make A LOT of altars. I have one on my desk for whatever work I am manifesting there; I build plant and animal altars in my bathroom windowsill. I set a small altar to the ocean near my bed. The altar in my room is really where my magic happens. When I was a child, my mother gave me a “Hope Chest.” It sat at the end of my bed and then in front of my window for the entirety of my adolescence. A hope chest is also called a dowry chest, cedar chest, or glory box (yes, please!). It’s given to women so they can fill them with linens and household items in anticipation of married life. “Hope.” For real. WELL clearly I reclaimed that bullshit. I use my hope chest, –nestled beneath my window at my current apartment, to store all of my life’s journals, artworks, and sacred things! My hope chest is my very own Wesley Flash Archive! Atop the chest, I create special altars as often as possible. Though each altar is a fresh site for new magic, I do like to keep a few things constant: I use a candle because I’m a fire sign, something alive like a plant and something dead like bones, and some crystals. There’s often water or salt (for cleansing and protection) and most definitely you’ll find a Tarot card or two.
In Tarot, some figures on the cards are depicted with altars. The most notable card is The Magician, 1 in the Major Arcana. The magician is the alchemist. He is Merlin. She is the witch, believed to possess supernatural powers but who really just invites us to discover the natural power available within and among all of us. In the card, the magician stands at a table (read: her altar). All around her are roses and lilies; the roses indicate creation and love while the lilies are for spirituality and clarity. The magician holds a wand raised upward to show strength and to command our highest good while the opposite hand points downward, to the Underworld of shadow or negative energy. On the altar there are 4 things. These things represent the symbolic elements aligned with the 4 suits in tarot. In the case of the Rider Waite, we see a wand, a cup, a sword and a pentacle. The wand is the fire suit, the cup for water, the sword represents air, and the pentacle is the earth suit. The magician (read: you) uses these elements and what they represent in Tarot to tell the unfolding narrative of you. This work can help explain your circumstances and direct your best course. Altars do a similar thing, really — to direct energy which will push you along the path of your life. The infinity symbol above the Magician’s head represents two things: 1) that energy cannot be created or destroyed — it just is, and 2) the magician understands that his thoughts guide his life and lead to infinite consequence. Every action has a reaction. What re / actions are you going to invite as you build beautiful altars to you!?
Some Altar basics. Be creative!
Candles (dressed with oils or in certain colors for different things), Sage, Sea Salt, crystals, pictures, wishes, special objects, seasonal plants (including foods!), honey, water (with or without salt), a sword or a knife, notecards, coins (pentacles), dead things, plants, gifts of food, Tarot cards