Where is your altar?

Do you have a personal altar? Where do you have it set up?

The altar is where we honour Deity, where we show our respect to Spirit, or where we make an appeal to Ancestors.

It can also be where we focus our intention and attention for spellcrafting.

My personal altar sits in my lounge/bedroom. It holds the tools and symbols I like to use for my religous practice and my healing work.

Household Altar

This is not, however, a working altar. Those I set up as they are needed, using whatever tools need to be used at the time. I may take bits from the household altar for these impromptu altars, or I may need nothing more than some sage or palo santo.

If I am doing deep healing work I will bless the area around me with white sage or palo santo and sit in the centre. My altar is not a physical object thing at this time, but my Sacred Garden between this world and the Otherworlds. Here I am able to do amulet readings and give and receive healing. I can also just sit and commune with those OtherWorld creatures and beings who have chosen to come share this space with me.

Like the hidden room in the Harry Potter books, this Sacred Garden has everything I need for the work I need to do at that time. Lately, this has been a warm pool with lots of squidgy mud for sinking in. Other times it may have a small pool with lots of soft grass all around, or boulders, or a waterfall, or a cave. If I am there to give or receive healing, a healing table appears. If I am there to speak with the Amulets, they are both here in real time where I am drawing them from their bag, and there in Sacred Space where I am listening to their messages.

Since I do a lot of my healing work in the client’s home, I have put together a simple portable altar that I can bring with me – within it I have battery candles (it’s not always possible or wise to have a real flame), sage and palo santa for cleansing (if I am able to light it, otherwise I have blessed water), essential oils, and other bits n bobs that I may need. The whole thing is kept in a small toolkit bought for £5 at an arts and crafts store.

What about your altar? Do you have one? Can you have one where you are, or does it need to be hidden? Does it exist in physical space, or only in your mind? Do you see it every day. or is it tucked in a corner where you hardly ever look? Is it where you do your magical, healing, or religious work, or do you have a different altar for that?

What can you tell the world about your altar?

Here are some other posts that I have written about altars.

• Where is your altar?
• Working Tools of a Modern Witch
• The Altar

 

 

I am Inspired

I’ve got a question for you – what really inspires you?

I’m not looking for the world peace, happy butterflies, kind of answers. I’m looking for the nitty gritty, deep down – what really inspires you?

I’ve been thinking about my answer to this question over the past day or so.

What has inspired me in the past? What would I like to be my inspirations in the future?

During the troubles of 2012, my biggest inspiration really was my kids. They were the reason why I got up each morning, the reason why I left the house, and the reason why I kept on fighting to get them home. Even when I would go to bed each night thinking, “I’m tired of fighting, I can’t do this any more.” But, I got up the next day and I kept trudging forward, one step at a time, for 18 months, until they were home.

That is one kind of inspiration. But what about the every day, mundane, get things done kind of inspiration?

Upon thinking about it, I realised that going through life, my biggest and most effective source of inspiration has been  deadlines.

That’s right, having a deadline. Having a set point where I have to get things done by, whether it be writing an article for Pagan Pages, or writing a blog post, or getting something done around the house, does more to spur me towards getting it done than anything.

This is why I like doing projects like The Pagan Experience, because it gives me a set point for needing to get a blog post written each week.

As I look forwards into 2016, I am asking myself, do I want this to be my main point of inspiration, this looming deadline, oh my Gods panic!

No, not really. I want to find new ways of inspiring myself.

I want new things to be inspired by.

Some possiblilities spring to mind –

• The inspiration that comes from helping others.
• The inspiration that comes from successfully completing a task.
• The inspiration that comes from facing a fear and conquering it.

And ways of doing each of these things are also coming to me.

For instance, I recently completed a knitting project that I had been working on since last January. This has inspired me to do more knitting projects, and to try to figure out how to crochet.

In 2012, I faced my fears of losing my children and of being alone, and I got through it all and got my children back again.

Since then, I have been gradually facing my fears of allowing someone new into my life (sort that one out). And recently, out of nowhere, my inner voice said to me – you know what, you could go out on dates again, if you wanted to. Am I ready to go out on a bona fide date? I don’t know. But, I am open to the possibility of it happening. Which is more than I was able to say 6 months ago.

I think going forward, I am most excited about the work I am meant to be doing as a healer. I started up Sacred Visions in 2015 as a way of reaching out to women who are ready to start creating their own possibilities in life.

Soon after, I began hosting a monthly global cone of healing where anyone can contribute their own healing energies, prayers, thoughts, and wishes and anyone can sit in the cone and receive healing for themselves. Interest has gradually been increasing each month.

In 2016, I will take the next scary step and begin hosting invitation only women’s healing circles at home. These will be small groups of 4 – 6 women and together, we will create healing possibilities for each other.

Of course, I am also continuing my training in Soul Midwifery, and I am hoping to complete the final modules in 2016. Once that has been completed, I will begin offering that service as well to women who are transitioning from life into death, helping them to create their own possibilities for a good death.

What is inspiring you in 2016?