Replaced Altar - Update

It's been a bit since I updated about my altar, and my reintegration into my practices. I still feel some of my practices are to be left on the back burner because I STILL have a small toddler to care for, so I can't regularly engage in my practice as often as I like (but that's ok)

I thought I'd update though on the progress I've made so far. When we last saw my altar, it looked like this:

I had a table that I was going to use with some shelves underneath. Here's what it looks like now:

You will notice I'm not using the same table as in the first picture. I've decided to go back to my "box". I'm hooked on the thing lol. But the reasoning being is that I found some cool wire shelves from the dollar store that fit perfectly inside my box allowing for more room to store my items (but, unfortunately not all of it). 

If you look close enough, you can see the wire shelves. Re-stocking my box led to the startling discovery that....I have a lot of crap lol. But it's useful crap lol. I have my bottles that I plan to use when I do bottle spells (both large, small and teeny bottles lol) I have three decks of tarot, two sets of "Witch" Runes, a set of Elder Futhark, my cauldron, spells in progress box, wands, athames, small bottles of herbs for portable workings, etc. There are a few items that I couldn't find places for in my box, that are now in the night stand (which is to the right of the picture, out of frame). My main bottles of herbs are also in my night stand...which I cleaned out for this very purpose (that and I had a lot of junk I didn't need in there). If you're wondering how my box works, the door is on a hinge, so it swings open to the right, and when it closes it has two latches on which I can hook locks (I did at one point) and keep out prying eyes.

But back to the altar itself. I've since added items to it.

click to enlarge

While I still have my abalone shell and a braid of sweetgrass (that were given to me by my mother), I have since added the two turtles she gave me with the shell and sweetgrass. I've also re-adorned "Hecate" with her willow ring, I've added a silver key, a dark feather (that was purchased from a craft store), stones associated with Hecate, my prosperty charm and my representation for Ostara (I haven't done a ritual yet...and probably won't). The Ostara representation has a bottle that is filled with butterflies on wires (so they sit in the bottle like flowers), the High Priestess tarot card, and the Elder Futhark rune Berkana

I'm happier now that my altar is back in my room and my items are too. Makes things a bit easier on me when I want to do workings and I don't have to go trapesing around the house to get what I want done. 

Re-energizing Spirituality

A new year means attempting to re-energize my spirituality. I've noticed lately that my spirituality has waned...immensely. The only thing that really kept me going is answering questions with stale answers, and looking up ideas for my BoS. I've really become stagnant in my spirituality to the point I don't feel like doing anything in it. I've even felt like my spells have been effected to the point of IN-effectiveness.

With today being the start of Imbolc, and having some time to myself later on in the evening (after my kids go to bed, and my husband goes to work for the night) I plan on setting up an altar/shrine in my room, seeing as my baby has now transitioned into his own room and I have my space again. I spent the afternoon clearing out drawers in my night stand to accommodate some of my tools and necessities. I also bought a small plastic basket to place some "immediate use" items in (to see if it will work as storage...I'll post a pic of what I mean later).

My plan is to slowly re-integrate my spirituality into my life. It might be difficult, but if spirituality were meant to be easy everyone would do it (and I mean EVERYONE). After setting up my altar, and implementing a representation for Imbolc (inspiration from HERE...lovin' this blog), my plan is...when I have some spare time...to light a candle (will have to be an electric candle for now), say my prayer of Faith (something I searched long and hard for in my old, enormous BoS), maybe say a prayer of thanks, maybe a bit of meditation, and continue with my day. But it's a time of year where I wish my husband wasn't working shift work so I could do these things when I wake up...usually when I wake up, he's coming home and crawling into bed.

Anyway, after a bit of TMI lol, I'm really hoping this will boost my spirituality. I've even took back up reading my Thea Sabin book "Wicca for Beginners" (another something I lost and found (it had a book jacket on so I couldn't see the cover).

New year, new beginnings.






For anyone interested in the "Faith" prayer I talked about above, here it is in an excerpt from Patricia Telesco's book "Exploring Candle Magic: Candle Spells, Charms, Rituals and Divinations". I've found it's helped me in the past and hope it will again.

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**UPDATE**

Here's a picture of my altar so far. Remember, I'm re-energizing my spirituality so it's a work in progress.

Click to Enlarge

1) My Goddess statue. It's my representation of Hecate. Around her neck is a key on purple string. Around her on the table is a Willow branch wrapped in a ring.

2) My black pillar candle. My mother, decluttering her home, gave me some candles and within these candles was this beautiful black pillar candle. I always say that I get what I need when I am supposed to, so I need to enact patience. It's happened with my pentacle ring, and it's happened now with this candle. I think it's blackberry scented lol.

3) My representation for Imbolc. Inspired by "Witchy Words"...a blogspot blog I filled a bowl with salt, to represent snow, spring, purity, renewal, etc. Bay leaves are leaves of Imbolc, and represent protection, success and wishes. I have a lot of wishes for protection and success this coming year. Below the dish is the Tarot card "The Star" indicating inspiration and hope and the Rune stone "Isa" or "ice", representing the wait for what is to come.

4) My abalone shell given to me by my mother. Because Hecate is also seen as a Goddess of the sea, a shell makes sense to be on an altar with her. It also can represent the West for Water (even though it's not in the Western quarter of the table...again, this is a work in progress and not all of my items are brought back into my room). On top of the shell are braids of sweetgrass. Sweetgrass is used to purify a space and cleanse an area. Another gift from my mother.

5) The book I'm reading. Thea Sabin's "Wicca for Beginners". I've learned a lot from this book, even though I don't remember reading as much as I seem to have lol. My book mark was sitting in the middle of the book, but flipping through, I remember small snippets lol. Anyways, I learned how to properly introduce myself to my deity, something I never actually did. I will incorporate and adapt what I learned to approach the Goddess.

6) My storage area. Currently there is my box (to the top left of the picture) that contains my stones. On top of it is a piece of bathroom tissue...it's catching the water that will drain out of the bottle I was using to hold blessed water. I need to make some new stuff. To the right is a book of random information I need to add to my BoS. I have a lot of information I need to put in there. It's a slow start. Below that, to the left is my small cupboard that hold some small vials of herbs and some miscellaneous items. In the middle (behind the watermark) is my Tarot box. It holds my Tarot cards. Beside that is my mesh pouch of various runes, both Witch and Elder Futhark (I haven't made individual pouches for them yet). Beside THAT...is my two wooden boxes. They both contain empty corked bottles, but I believe there is also some random wire crafts that I threw in there to clean my living room a bit.

This is my work in progress. I have a LOT more stuff to bring back into my room.