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How To Set Up An Altar

Setting up an altar space in your home, office, garden, or as a mini travel kit is a wonderful way to connect to Spirit, your Well Ancestors, the seasons, deities, the Planets, yourself, and anything else you wish to honour and venerate.

They can be as simple or elaborate as you wish, read on for some tips on how to set up an altar:

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How To Create A Spiritual Altar

Most cultures across the world have some form of spiritual altar, they can vary in their purpose, design, and location, but ultimately for thousands of years humans have looked to these focal points as anchors in their spiritual practices.

Setting up an altar is also a lovely way to connect to yourself and own inner spirit. In taking the time out to honour something in this way, bringing a visual representation to act as beacon of our spirituality and ground our energy into, we can access the magic in the mundane.

Many people like to create ancestral altars including photos of their beloved dead and relics from their culture. Some like to use them to connect Astrologically to the Planets or Fixed Stars. Others like to create altars to honour the deities (such as Nordic ones, Hekate, Aphrodite/Venus, Ishtar, these are just some of the many examples). Or you can create an altar as a way to connect to the seasons and honour the passage of time (learn more in our Zodiac Workbooks)!

Some people like to create altars for specific intentions such as love or money. Ultimately, anything in which you wish to create an altar for, you can do so.

While the possibilities for your altar are endless, there are some key staples that are generally included:

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Suggested Altar Items

Candle(s) - you can select the colour of your candles based on your intention, such as red for love or power, green for wealth and health etc.; or inscribe it with a sigil, rune stone, or other appropriate symbol or word. You can also anoint it with oil
Glass of water as an offering
Alcohol - this can also be related to your intention, such as sweet liquors for Venus and Jupiter or dark bitters for Saturn
Food - such as sweet things for Venus and bitter things for Saturn, or a cultural tradition
Incense - if you are practicing Astrological magic, there are specific resins and incense you can use
Crystals - you can choose these based on your intention, black stones for protection for example
Relevant objects - such as coins or notes for a money altar, statues/figurines, mementos/souvenirs, photos, jewellery for Venus, pine cones/seeds/shells/bones for Autumn/Spring/Summer/Winter etc.

You can also add plants, herbs, spices, and flowers that call to you or are relevant (such as roses for Venus or your beloved’s favourites). Writing down your intentions is also beneficial and you can keep appropriate books here or your journal, written spells, or prayers. Cigarettes also often feature strongly, especially for ancestral altars or for Mars/Saturn. Some people like to use this sacred space as a repository for all their divination tools (such as pendulums, Tarot cards, oracle cards etc.) and will use it as a space in which to enact their rituals.

Often a special fabric is also laid down for the altar, which can again be chosen using colour magic, but this is not necessary.

How To Assemble an Altar

You can create your altar on top of a surface, shelf, or window sill, or dedicate a whole table or corner of a room to it, whatever feels most aligned for you and makes sense in the context of your intention. For example, you might like to make a money altar in your office, or a Venus altar in the bedroom. Perhaps an ancestral altar can be near your dining area, many people like to leave a space at the table for their ancestors or hold a “dumb supper” for them. I also like to create a mini travel altar that fits into a small box to carry with me (as do many others), including the basics of candle, incense, crystal, lighter, and any related object to my intentions at the time.

Ultimately, you can assemble your altar in anyway that appeals and makes sense to you. You can follow patterns such as choosing objects in multiples of 3 for Saturn, for example, or placing things in a grid for stability, in pairs for love etc. Often, symmetry is taken into consideration.

Cleaning and energetically cleansing your space beforehand is also recommended (sprinkling salt and wiping it down, opening the windows and smoke cleansing, ringing bells etc.), you can also keep bells and other cleansing instruments permanently on your altar (or musical instruments).

If you are creating an altar to connect to the seasons, you can assemble it on the Equinoxes and Solstices. If you are creating it to call in the benevolence of the Planets, you can assemble it on their Planetary Day and during their Planetary hour (dressed in colour and style relevant to them if you want to go the extra mile)! Or take it a step further and elect it Astrologically. If ancestral, you can build your altar on or around Samhain.

Some people like their altar to face a specific cardinal direction (north for guidance, east for new beginnings, south for grounding, or west for wisdom etc). Many like to include something to represent all four elements (such as feathers/incense/bells for Air, candle for Fire, shells/water for Water, and plants/crystals for Earth).

The first time you set up your altar it can be nice to light the candle and incense right away (“suffumigating" and consecrating your space) and take a moment to sit in stillness, silence, and with gratitude as you make your food and liquid offerings. You can then set an intention and meditate on the purpose of your altar as you create it.

You can refresh your altar as often as you like, I would suggest at least daily or weekly for the water, and then however long is relevant to it (such as seasonally). Care for it and it will care for you. Over time, it can build into a really profound, nourishing, grounding, and connecting ritual for you.

You can connect with your altar as much and as often as you like. Many people might take at least a moment every day to pause and offer their respects, then perhaps you can perform a slightly more elaborate ritual weekly or monthly, perhaps syncing with the New Moon + Full Moon. Some people like to use it as a focal point for meditation, gratitude, and affirmations, journalling, or Tarot pulling, you can place a meditation cushion in front of it or a yoga mat to invite you to connect more.

Follow your intuition and allow this wonderful practice to connect you to yourself, Spirit, and your intended energies. Taking the time to mindfully honour and connect in this practice is a wonderful way to slow down and bring magic into your life.

So that’s a brief tutorial on how to set up an altar, I hope it’s useful for you! Let me know in the comments section below if you have anything else to add or any other questions.

If you would like connect your personal cosmos, book in a 1:1 Astrology session with me! To uncover the secrets of the cosmos yourself, enrol in my Traditional Astrology 101 course! Or to self-study, get our Beginner’s Astrology Guidebook. For more monthly ritual magic- join me in the Spirit Subscription ✨