Altar Pictures

Just some pretty altar pictures to go along with this weeks submission for the Pagan Blog Project... most of these are from the Coven of the Twilight Moon, but a few are mine.

A is for Altar

I’m participating in the 2012 Pagan Blog Project. For more information, go to this URL- http://onewitchsway.com/pbp2012/


The premise of the Pagan Blog Project is that each week, myself and other Pagan bloggers will write about at least one thing related to our spirituality, practice, or Pagan way of life. These posts will always be released on Friday. This week, the prompt is that we start with the letter A. Pretty fitting, for the beginning of the year. New beginnings and all that. I’ve chosen to write about altars.

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One thing that has always been important in my home is my altar. No matter how my space has changed, I always have had some sort of altar up. My very first altar was a TV stand that I purchased at Walmart, with just a few carefully chosen tools on it. When I first started practicing, I shared a room with my little sister, but everyone was supportive of my path…. or at least not outwardly uncomfortable with it. I have film photos (before digital cameras were developed) of many of my seasonal altars as a beginner. Not much Work was done at these altars, as I was just getting comfortable with my practice, and rarely did full circles or spellwork while I was getting used to the basics. During my subsequent home moves, my altars changed in many ways, and now I have a pretty large altar.


One common thread that bound together all of these altars is that of careful creation. When putting together an altar, each item chosen is for a reason. Some reasons are practical- “I need a bowl placed here to pour my water into,” and some are spiritual- “the seeds represent new beginnings.” Altars are a place to do the Work, whether it’s spellwork, ritual or other spiritual work, and so will naturally be a blend of practicality and spirituality. Some believe that altars hold more energy that other places, because of the energy work done at the altar.

My current altar is all dressed up for Imbolc. I practice a Wiccan tradition, so in addition to the seasonal touches on my altar, I have my bottles of water and salt, along with dishes for them, my candle, and my incense, collectively representing the four elements. My God and Goddess candles are easy to pick out, elevated above the rest of the altar. My altar cloth is red, and I have my Brighid’s cross out, as well as my statuettes of a sheep and a cardinal. In the center of my altar, you’ll see the offering bowl, and my pentacle. Offerings go in the offering bowl, and the pentacle charges any items that lay upon it. My practice includes healing work, so I have my Brighid healing candle as part of my altar, as well as three smaller candles that I charge, write symbols upon and use for distance healing.

My altar is my focus during ritual, but when I’m crafting together oils, etc. I usually craft them elsewhere and bring them back to the altar for consecration or charging. When I feel energetically “stuck,” I find that the act of creating the altar helps to get the spiritual energy flowing. It’s a big part of my spiritual life- just looking at my altar can bring my attention back to being mindful. Altars can inspire, as well as be a powerful tool in power raising and ritual work.

Winter Solstice Altar 2011

This shot is not the best light. On the right is my Yule Log candleholder, the center is the offering dish... Wiccan stuff and my Brighid healing candle on the left. Three healing candles in the front. Green stuff is my green onion experiment- put white rooty parts in my skull shot glass with water. I already posted this on my FB, but wanted to post it here so I could find it next year!

Samhain Altar

Here's a photo of my Samhain-season altar. It doesn't have the photos of my ancestors up on it yet, as I'm still getting that together for next weekends coven rite, but you can see my little pumpkins, as well as a few healing candles I burned this week for others, and my three re-dedication candles that are still there, waiting for my personal re-dedication (post-Samhain). These three candles are the candles that I originally dedicated with over a decade ago.

My Latest Harvest Altar

Here are a few photos of my latest altar, and Aphrodite shrine. We're talking about them a lot in the SoCalSisterWitches yahoogroup, and so I fixed mine up. It's been up, but I added a few touches to it.

The first photo is my main altar. The left side has my goddess candle, one of my singing bowls, my holy water in the blue bottle, a few small dishes, a candle and my ceramic water cauldron. Right now, the coven's Artemis candle is there too. In the center is an offering dish and a few Lughnasadh things. The right side holds my clay pentacle, crystals, my scrying mirror and my salt in the brown bottle. My fairy incense holder and chalice are over there, too. In two weeks, it will be completely different, so wanted to post a photo now. Also posting my shrine. :)

Ostara Altar

Just realized I didn't have a photo of my Ostara altar up on my bloggity.

July Altar 2010

Just a little slideshow of my personal altar this month. I haven't had an altar up since April, really, so this is a nice change. I've had some mess going on in my back Craft room, so it wasn't possible until this weekend!

Samhain!

Samhain night was wonderful! Here are a few photos of our altar!

And what Sabbat blog post would be complete without a recipe! And as Samhain is the third harvest festival, the meat harvest, a traditional food to eat is pork. Below is my recipe for Pork pastries.

Pork Empanada/Pasty Things
Makes 16-20

Ingredients:
1 pound ground pork
pork chop seasoning packet
small can of sliced new potatos
dried chopped onions
garlic powder
salt/ pepper to taste
olive oil
Package of 2 refrigerated pie shells

Directions:
1. Take out the pie shells to thaw a bit.

2. Get out a medium sized skillet with raised sides. Drizzle the bottom with olive oil, and turn the burner on medium heat. Put the ground pork in the skillet, and break up with a spoon or spatula. Brown the pork, about halfway through sprinkle half the seasoning packet over the meat, as well as some of the dried chopped onion (to your taste).

3. Open the can of potatoes and dice them. Once the pork is pretty much cooked through, add the potatoes, and shake some garlic powder over the whole pan, stir lightly to get everything seasoned. If it looks a little dry, add more olive oil. Turn off heat.

4. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

5. Roll out a pie crust on parchment paper. Use a wide mouth glass or circle cookie cutter to cut circles (at least 4") out of the pie crust. Repeat with other pie crust. Ball up the rest of it, and roll out to get as many circles as you can.

6. Take each circle and use a rolling pin to flatten into an oval. Spoon a bit of the pork mixture onto the pastry and fold over. Crimp edges with a fork.

7. Place on a baking sheet and cook for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.

This is good for potlucks, just refridgerate afterwards, and then warm up in an oven before serving.

Current Personal Altar (Summer 2009)

My altar isn't especially decked out for the season this sabbat. Partially because we're still adapting to our new surroundings, and partially because I've just been exhausted, lately. I moved it in front of the window, where it should have been all along. This evening, I put an offering dish of water up on it, and kitty went directly to the bowl and drank. When I replace it with alcohol tomorrow, I hope she won't repeat that. Originally, I took a right side shot and a left side shot and planned on explaining everything, but you can see everything from a full frontal shot. ;) It sits on top of white cubes that hold some craft (not Craft) supplies. :)

Here it is:

And we must have a candlelit shot.

And a close-up of my maiden goddess statue.

And one of the corn dolly I made at Lammas. I know, its a Brighid's cross, but that's about the only wheatweaving I can do.

If you have any questions about what the objects are, or what they symbolize, leave a comment, or hit me up on twitter- @ivyartemisia.

The New Altar. Or Lack of One Altogether.

So, I've decided that its time to put together an altar in here here room. However, there isn't room for the kind I like. So, it will have to be the top of a bookcase... but I'm gonna be cool with that. I'm trying to decide if its going to be shriny, or Wiccan altary. So I want to include my trad altar, or just make it a shrine? Or both.

See, before, I had shelves and sconces, etc., but they would look silly in this room. I have been so ridiculously stressed out at work (I know, I need to call the EAP) that I feel that I should be doing daily devotions. I just a) need to create a sacred space and b) need to figure out my daily devotional prayer.

I got beads to make prayer beads (and came up with a kick ass goddess string) and that might be helpful... lighting candles seem to be silly cause Id have to a) leave them unattended, or b) have to put them out right away. So I need to find some other way. I was thinking of creating a tree from branches and tying a ribbon on the branches each day. I have TONS of ribbon. Like TONS. My altar is a complete blank slate now, a flat wooden shelf with my coven's working book of shadows at one end. I'll post a photo of course, once its done.

Sorry if it offends you conservative facebookers (since the blog is fed to facebook). Okay, I'm not really SORRY sorry- but you can unfriend me if you really want to. I wouldn't like that- but you hafta do whatcha hafta do. :)

Blessed be!

My "Studio" Space

One of the cool things about living here, is the fact that I get my own C/craft room. This room is for my crafts, and will also be used as a temple room. I got to choose the paint color (a nice moss/pea green), and got to move all of my stuff in here. All of my work clothes are also in here, as our closet is TINY. All my casual clothes are in our room. It was a little challenging, trying to find places for my stuff around my in-laws stuff. My bookcases from our living room, and the armoire from the hallway is in here, too, so it was a little difficult, at times figuring where everything was going to go. My one plan was to find more table space. Here are a few photos from a couple days after we moved in.




(All of the bottles are from the herbs I had to dig through to make the incense for Litha! LOL!)

And so, I got a few things put away...

And then I had to find places for my in-laws' stuff so I could use the space, too.



and so I did!

In the photo below, you'll see our linens. We had to find space for them. My ILs said we could use their towels, but I really like ours. And ours match our bathroom and stuff. Things like that make me feel relaxed.


So, now that almost everything is put away- just have a few things to hang up and some trash to throw away... here it is... TADA! I am typing away at the desk right now on my mini and feel SO comfortable in it!

Here is as "Ivy pose" shot. See, it comes in handy for more than just myspace and facebook! I tried to get most of the room so you can kinda see it. See the pretty green?


Here's my comfy papasan chair (great for meditation and reading), two witchy cabinets stacked on one another (I need to bind the top one to the wall), and my white cubes from Target with my big paper trimmer and my Xyron PCS.


And here is my witchy armoire with my hand drums and other meditative things. Sorry its blurry. Those pink blobs are cute candle holders from Ikea. Like I needed more candle holders, right?


Below are my bookcases. On the left there is my open working BOS that we use in my coven. In the center is an upside down candle holder where I will be hanging my finished jewelry pieces before I photograph them. The painting is one I want to get framed. It looks better than it seems. But I'm no painter! On the right are two nesting tables, perfect to drag out for altars or shrines!



Here is my spare table and shelf for visiting crafters! Below are floor cushions for classes or meditations, and four wrought iron candle holders for quarter candles- I only use them sometimes.


I know it looks a cluttery mess, but it looks better in real life. On top are all my scrapbooks (including empty mini ones in the basket), then I have prima flowers and embellishments (sorted by color in the tackle boxes, and others in the easily ported purple boxes). Then on the table I have my ribbon scrap jars, assorted odds and ends, my basket of adhesives, my tool bag, a spaghetti jar of ribbon spools, my 8x8 stuff, jewelry tools, and drawers of stamping stuff.


My herb jars, candle and incense holders and statuary. And other randomness.


On top are my notes, BOS's (coven and personal) and my coven scrapbook. Ask me, I'll show it to you. And if you know where to get a 8.5 x 11 ringed album to hold lots o pages, please share.



Here is my armoire of randomness. Its mostly just the things we use most in circle, as well as some momentos, like my floral crown from Beltane, and other things like that. I know its a mess, but I'll have time to sort it out, now that everything is IN there. :)


And thats my new Studio!

Spring is here... finally.

Last night, I finally felt a little bit inspired. I finally put together my spring altar. I had to put some of my spring things away, because I didn’t want it to look like Spring threw up on my altar. I added my new chalice, and my new wand (from Kentucky). I need a new bottle to hold my water, as my blue one has chipped at the mouth of the bottle. That’s a bummer. I also got my salt dish out of the cupboard, and returned it to its happy rightful place. :)






I also had a chance to meditate last night, and was able to see Brid in a very different way- a way that I might more easily relate to her. Pretty cool, though I wish I was an artist and could sketch Her as she came to me last night.

I’m planning on meditating more often- especially since I have my iPod of twinkleritual music, now. My husband is awesome about leaving me alone for meditation time. Also, I’m trying to trade away my Medieval Scapini tarot deck- it’s just not my thing, and I’d love to play with a new deck.

Tired, sick, but the Gods don't take a sick day.

On the heels of my return to Kentucky, we celebrated Ostara. I'm lucky because my BFF facilitated this circle, so I didn't have to take care of anything, since I hadn't even been back an entire day. Hopefully, the seed of my will will grow, as it is planted deep within a flower bulb. I'm really looking forward to Beltane. As we now have an even number of people, maybe we could pull off a maypole. That would be awesome.

My plan to fix up my altar before I left didn't happen. Once I did come back, I got out much of my springy altar things, and put away my Brighid's cross. But its not together yet. It will be, though, and I'll take a picture and post! I still can't hear out of my ears, as they are both clogged, but I think I feel well enough to put it together today. You'll also see my new chalice. Its pinkish and the perfect size!

I've been meditating more often since my return from Kentucky. It's been easy to focus on a sound... the constant ring in my ears. It's been helpful, and I feel like I'm making the most of being sick. :)