How to Build an Altar

Howtoaltar

 

Hello Moonbabies,

You do not need to be Christian, Wiccan, or part of a Mayan sacrifice to enjoy an altar. Altars are timeless, mystical focus points that allow us to channel our energy in a purposeful way. I really wanted to shoot some pictures of my altars for his article but was tight for time. I collected these beautiful pictures a while ago and am not sure exactly where they are from. If they are yours please message me and I will credit you.

Why build and altar? 

Altars hold your intentions and focus. They allow you to put your attention elsewhere while still holding space for what you desire in life. Perhaps you build a peace altar, a health altar, or a spiritual opening altar. Simply putting your time and attention into a physical space with charged objects allows an etheric space to be held for you. It can become a steady, pure energy source that is funneled to you, which you can refer to at anytime to re-focus and re-align. This can help you greatly in your manifestation process.

Keep in mind that you can have an altar of any size, anywhere. You can have personal altars that are large and contain many different ideas and intentions. Or, you can have a small, focused altar if you are trying to integrate specific qualities into your life. You may also have a professional altar. These are altars that hold your energy and focus as you work. These are most common with healers and intuitives, as the energetic landscape around them is important and it can often help to have a centre point.

Personal. 

A personal altar works greatly in a room or space that you feel is your own, a sanctuary. This is created using basic elements you feel you need to bring balance or inspiration into your life.

Altars work wonders when you use them to hold space for specific frequencies as opposed to actual events that you want to happen. For example, if you want to transition into a career that is more aligned with your heart, you will want to bring heart energy first and foremost into your altar. Once that is in place add a little accoutrement that is more specific. Try holding the rose quartz to your heart while you feel your life purpose (to charge it) and then place it on the altar. If you feel you need clarity, try adding a piece of clear quartz or selenite. Perhaps you would like to have angelic help to release fears about fully expressing yourself; in that case perhaps add a representation of an angel or guide. This may be in the form of a figurine, oracle card, or even a picture of a spiritual teacher that you resonate with. If you feel a strong desire to incorporate a specific detail of what you would like to manifest find an item that represents that. If you feel it is your purpose to write then perhaps including a pen, pencil or book would benefit you.  Know that you can add, subtract, or change your altar anytime you choose. Check in with it each morning and night to make sure that each piece represents an aspect of something you would like to integrate.

Professional.

A professional altar is an altar used by healers or people who use spiritual energy to work with others. What this altar does is hold a specific energy during your session. This means that your focus can journey and dive deep into your work but still be anchored in an intention and powerful base energy. Altars can hold energy and intentions for you to pull from and keep you grounded.

As an intuitive, my professional alter is obviously pretty amazing. It begins on a silver-serving tray. I find them in thrift stores and at yard sales, as I like them to look a bit antique. Silver naturally represents the moon, gold represents the sun, and wood is representative of earth. As you have probably noticed, building an altar is very symbolic; you will feel naturally drawn to certain items or certain ways to place things. Trust your gut.

Now that I have my moon tray I like to bring in representations of my guides. For the most part they are cosmic so I have a piece of meteor (space rock), a blue and white flecked crystal that feels like the Pleiades, an opal, and a few other accoutrements that hold space for my guides. Lastly I have a black soapstone owl (one of my totems), a most prized possession indeed. From there I add candles, stones, feathers, pink Himalayan salt chunks, flowers, plants, and whatever else calls to me. I don’t think about it, it is not a mental process— it is purely an intuitive process.

Constructing your altar.

Elements.

Traditionally, we place symbolic representations of the elements to incorporate all aspects of self and therefore all working elements of the external world.  Having all the elements represents the world around you, which means you are taking into account all avenues and all expressions of creation. The elements become the foundation of your altar.

It is possible to pull in one element strongly and exclude others, but this is most likely used for a short period of time with a specific purpose. Your altar can be a physical vision board where you infuse the items with your desires and then meditate on the altar each day to reinforce and expand these desires and concepts into your life.

Earth:

Soil or sand in a bag or container

Stones

Salt

Air:

Feathers

Dried herbs/flowers

Fire:

Candles

Incense

Water:

Cup of water

Seashell (item from the sea)

 

Customizing your details.

Now that you have your elemental foundation you can get creative and add specific items.

Totem animals:

Invite your totem animals to communicate and connect with you by adding a figurine or image of them.

Cards:

Add Oracle cards that represent a specific energy you wish to integrate.

Deities:

Place statues, drawings, or other representations of specific beings you would like to connect with or draw inspiration from.

Plants:

Plants represent growth and renewal. Plants can also bring specific energies through that are similar to crystals.

Crystals:

Crystals are physicalized divine frequency and rays. Each crystal has a different meaning and power. They are especially powerful on altars as they can be very specific in their meanings and very direct and pure in their connection to the divine.

Pictures:

Images of nature, places that inspire you or bring you peace can help set the tone of your altar.

Altar Tips.

Try putting your altar on a silver-serving tray or wood board. This allows you to move it around if you need and helps keep the energy contained.

Clean your altar regularly. Move it in front of the window so the sun, moon, and stars can be absorbed by it. Sage it. Wipe it with a cloth. Energy can stagnate, especially if you have a lot of little bits and bobs on your altar. You want to have an active and purposeful focus point, not a forgotten pile of crystals and dust.

Keep your altar private. It may be visible to others but allow it to be a sacred item that holds your energy. It can be very clarifying and grounding to have one little (or big) place that is just for you.

To nurture or charge your altar, leave a bowl of water in the moonlight during a full moon. Sprinkle this water gently on and around it. This can be done with the sun as well.

What do you place on your altar? Do you have any altar tips? Do tell! Leave a comment!

 

10 Comments

  1. Daena says:

    My altar has my little travel mementos, tarot/oracle cards, a little toy from my nephew, things I randomly found in the backyard that I like (twigs, some seashells) fur in a jar of my furry baby dog (he’s still alive) and old stuff of pets that have passed on (with little notes telling how much I miss them), dried flowers I bought in a shop abroad with my brother (it makes me feel like being around him when I smell them, it makes me happy), Ganesh idols, some gems (a mix of gifts and stuff I bought), Frida Kahlo’s biographical book (a gift by my cousin because she knew I admire her a lot), a sleeping Jesus idol (a reminder that my space is a place to rest, my sanctuary and that anybody deserves to rest), photos of memorable times of family and of me as a child (a time when my brother can still ride a bike like any average children, a time when I was a nerdy seven year old girl bombarding my mother with all kinds of strange questions), handwritten notes of words I like at the moment.

    1. Levi says:

      Espontâneo, genuíno e portanto lindo. ????????

  2. Gee says:

    Hi I just went and saw a phychic & I paid her for my reading 40mins ($125), it was tarot & 2 palm readings. She looked at my hand once & said I would have a long life. And then focused on the tarot cards. My Mom passed a few years ago & she said there is something stoping her from getting to the other side & that if I paid her (the phychic) another $260 she could build me an alter to set my Mom free … I felt guilty and obligated to do it, but I simply cannot afford it right now, my husband has been off work for 7 months …. I said I would go away & think about it. Since I don’t live in the town where she was, another country in fact, she said we could do it over the phone…. is this a normal practice, by reading your article above, I can simply build my own alter and put my energy & positive thoughts into it, would this not work? Thanks for your advice & thoughts 🙂

    1. gigi-young says:

      Hello Gee!

      That is a scam. You do not need to build an altar for your Mother. We are responsible for our own energy. You can absolutely build an alter out of love for your mother but it is not necessary to “assist” her. When we pass on we have a lot of help from higher beings.

    2. Tisa says:

      What a scam artist. Did you know that Houdini went to court many times saying that these fortune tellers were fakes. He even trolled them posthumously by leaving a large $’amount to any psychic who could predict the word he had written down. Look the story up, it’s hilarious really. If you pray for your mother speaking directly to Jesus, that’s all it ever takes. When things are too complicated and expensive, there’s your sign that they are fake.

  3. My brother moved to Okinawa and left me his masterwork katana. After a couple years, the closet didn’t seem a fitting place for such a beautifully crafted object so I put it on display in my living room. It immediately felt imbalanced, elementally speaking, up there on a shelf by itself and was soon joined by a hawk’s primary wing feather; its shape matching the sword’s perfectly. As I found it near a hawk’s nest with three babies it provides a softer counterpart to the hardened steel (both swords/air).

    Then I added a piece of wood that looks like a dragon (wands/fire), shells from different parts of the world (cups/water), a bag of coins from various countries (pentacles/earth)… so on and so forth. Without planning to, I ended up with a sort of altar reflecting my interests and current events dominating my life.

    Unfortunately, it’s not very accessible, to prevent little one’s from stabbing each other… and as with other such arrangements I’ve made, after awhile I’ve forgotten it’s there. Your advice for tending your altar is – really key – if you want to benefit the most.

    Even so, a dusty altar can have numinous import when you get back around to it, like finding the shrine of a forgotten god cloaked in vines.

  4. Cineris says:

    I really enjoy creating box altars, or some call them travel altars. I have boxes filled with items for certain specifications and I open the one I really need that time. I spruce them up with recharged crystals and incence and leave them out for a week or however long. I find this to be helpful because I live in a small apartment and creating a whole space for a larger altar is just too much at the moment.

    Thanks for sharing this blog post! I really enjoy your insights.

  5. PauL says:

    I recently had one, done without thinkin about it it.
    But now it turned into another pile of books…
    but precisely has even some things up on the books,
    so maybe it is even present here.

    Ciao

    P.X.: do you think that in space there are altars? do you know what they use if yes? if there is some fixed modes…like on Pleiads for example…

    don’t know,
    I feel a little embarassed to write to you
    anyway

    ciao

    1. gigi-young says:

      I feel like there are many altars in space, not unlike our own. As above so below.

      1. moonlight says:

        hi, i am a 15 year old girl. i was hoping you could help me? i am a Taurus and i desperately want to have psychic powers like telekinesis and teleportation. please can you tell me if i have powers?

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