Here’s a neat little project for your weekend!
You don’t need bags of room to create your own personal altar.
If like me you live in a small space, or if you move around a lot, or if having a full-sized altar in your home just doesn’t feel right for you, how about making a teeny tiny pocket altar which you can carry around with you and set up anywhere you please?
To get started you will need:
- A sweet tin (like the rectangular kind with a hinged lid, you can often pick these up in junk shops)
- A tea light
- Something lovely to line your tin, to keep your items safe and stop them from rattling around
Different people use altars in different ways, so what you place in your tin will totally depend on your approach. Personally, I like to honour the seasons and the shifting elements of the year, changing my altar as the seasons change, so right now, my tin holds an acorn to represent autumn, a shell to represent water and intuition, and other personal things that feel important to me right now as the nights draw in and I welcome in a period of introspection.
The cotton bobbin is a reminder of my creativity, the rose quartz is for self love, and the broken piece of porcelain was found by Em on the beach – it reminds me of her. All of these things feel sacred to me right now, and collecting them together helps me to mark the significance of right now.
Other things you can put in your tiny altar:
- Signs of the seasons, such as nuts, acorns, flower heads…
- Symbols of the four elements, such as shells, pebbles, feathers or matches
- Charms, pendants or jewellery
- Small crystals or gemstones
- Miniature tarot cards
- Photographs, drawings, tickets, all kinds of mementos
- Locks of hair
- Fortune cookie legends
- Handwritten notes to yourself
- Names of loved ones, goddesses or deities
…and anything else that means something special to you!
Now, wherever you are, you can pull out your altar, light your candle, and take a moment to ground, pray, perform a ritual or spell, read tarot, meditate, have a moment of reflection or whatever feels right to you.
What will you put in yours?
I’m a 30-something writer, artist, tarot reader, and perpetual explorer of the space between thought, feeling, and action.
I believe that spirituality and ritual are for everybody. I’m about the journey, in all of its messy, non-linear, chaotic iterations. I am excited by anticapitalist business and living with my whole entire self present. I use tarot cards to bring forth hidden truth, and ritual to affirm my commitment, over and over, to my ever-shifting path.
BETH I LOVE THIS. i’ve got tiny little altars all over my house, but i love the idea of making a little travel one too!!
Witchy ladies such as yourself cannot have too many altars. xx
That is a fabulous idea, thank you!
Umm, I love this! I don’t have a space of my own anyways since I live with my dad and two of my sisters (my “room” is the living room and my “bed” is the couch, lol) so it doesn’t leave a whole lot of privacy for an altar.
I need to see about some mini tarot cards 🙂
Great, great post!