A Witches Altar: How To Do A Basic Altar Set Up

I've had some questions posed to me about altars and so I am going to do a three part blog post or a series of posts on a witches altar because it is such a vital part of the practice.

To begin, your altar is your center. You will use it every day and every time you do a ritual. You'll spend as much time with your altar as you will your book of shadows. Where you place your altar, what it looks like physically and its contents are going to be the three things you will focus on initially. Once you have your altar initially set up the hardest part will be over because everything else changes quite often.

Where you place your altar can be tricky. It should be in an area where you can practice freely and someplace you enjoy being often. You can put it in your room, outside, in your living room, in a chest under your bed (portable altars are all the rage now), ect. There are a few things you'll want to take into consideration when it comes to placement. For an altar that is outside you'll want to take weather into consideration. Can it survive the elements? Another thing to consider is people or animals, will it be bothered by animals or will people stumble upon it? Although, the same could be said about animals and people inside as well.

If you place it in room where there are a lot of people are the people coming in going to be respectful or are you hesitant to share your craft with others? I, myself, have my altar in my bedroom but I still like to disguise some of the things on my altar (you'll see in pictures below) so that if someone should visit and they go poking around they won't know what they are looking at unless they are "in the know."

You may also want to be able to pack it up and take it with you if you aren't at home a lot. Some people have work altars or altars in their car. I have a chest in which I can pack up almost all of my altar and take it with me if I need to for some reason.

So once you have a place for it the next thing is actually making it and this can be the hardest, but for me this was the funnest part of making my altar and it took me years before I got it "perfect" and if something were to happen to my altar I would be absolutely annihilated.

Here is what mine looks like:

I used an old kitchen cart I got a thrift store; sanded it, used a wood burning tool to engrave it then stained it.

This is what the top of my altar currently looks like. My grams trimmed her roses and I took petals from the "massacre" and am drying some of them on my altar for Mabon.

I use the "middle" shelf for storing my book of shadows, which I wrap so that if someone visits they cannot see what's there unless they snoop.
Below that on the bottom shelf is where I store miscellaneous things, usually in a wicker basket but since I just moved things are not quite set up as the typically are. Right now it is the box to my wand, my book stand and some black tea.

Close up of the wood burning I did - of course it's Ivy vines. You can also see a close up of my wand as well.

I have a wire rack that stores herbs, books and other things I like to keep close to my altar but not on my altar.
Typically on the top is where I store the chest I use for my traveling altar however there is just enough space on the wall to put it on the floor next to my altar and I can use the rack space for other things like more herbs and books.

My first altar was a set up ontop of my dresser. I had a black altar cloth with gold stars and crescent moons on it. I didn't have a cauldron, a mortor and pestle or a want until a few years ago. I used the first drawer of my dresser to house my book of shadows and other tools and supplies that did not go on top of my altar and I used this set up for years.

As I said in the caption, I found that kitchen cart at a thrift store - I think I paid $30 for it. It barely fit into my backseat but when I saw that table I knew I had to have it. It took me three days to sand down the table. I found a pattern of ivy online and used carbon paper to trace that border along the lip of the whole table. It took me about 3 hours, going as slow as I possibly could to make sure I did the best job I could burning the ivy onto that table. It was only my second time using the wood burning tool - I bought a test piece of wood and used that to practice and get the feel of using the tool. I.E how much pressure was too much pressure, how would I know if I was making it too dark, not dark enough, ect. Then I picked out a "cherry walnut" wood stain and I stained it with three coats, plus a sealing coat and that up-cycled kitchen cart is my pride and joy.

My mother had used a dresser as well, an old library table that has been in the family for a years and most recently a very short but round coffee table. I had to help her wood burn a pentacle into it and it is now in our living room being used yet again as a coffee table. Go figure. We're on the hunt for something she can use that fits into our smaller apartment. We went from having an extra room in a 3 bedroom house that we turned into an altar/herb/worship room into having a 2 bd room apartment that is 1000 sq ft of no-room. LOL. Gotta cram stuff everywhere basically.

The following are examples of other people's altars and the various things you can use (you'll probably already have things you'll use and then collect more as you go like I did). Here we have a very simple altar, most likely using a bookshelf they already owned:

This beautiful Altar is from Recbecca/MagicMaker. I love the bookstand! If you visit her blog and scroll all the way down to the bottom you can find it's home as well as other useful information on her blog.

An outdoor altar by the sea, perfect for the sea witch!

This is a portable altar that can actually be purchased on Etsy for $60 USD

Here is another breath taking portable altar - this one is actually inspiring me to organize my chest like this!

Here are links to others who have shared their altars to give you an idea:
http://www.geocities.ws/m_summerwind/altar.html
http://www.rollanet.org/~mdoc/pagan/altar.html
http://pendencrystals.blogspot.com/2011/02/wiccan-altar.html
http://www.jesterbear.com/Wicca/OutdoorWiccanAltar.html


I also found a place that will hold your hand and give you a step-by-step guide with options to purchase all of the things you will need if you are just starting out on your path: Create a Wiccan Altar.

If you don't need someone to hold your hand and you want to make your own altar piece by piece with either things you already have or if you want to go out and purchase stuff (try thrift stores first and get the other stuff at metaphysical shops and it will save you tons of money) then here is a few diagrams to help you set up the things you'll actually want to place on your altar.

Basic Altar Supplies almost all of a which are optional:

• 1 White God Candle
• 1 Black Goddess Candle
• Statues/pictures/representation of deities
• Athame
• Wand
•  
• Bell (optional)
• Incense burner with incense (optional)
• Boline (optional)
• Bowl of Salt (optional)*
• Bowl of Water (optional)*
• Pentacle (optional)
• Cup or Chalice (optional)**
• Altar Cloth in appropriate color (optional)***
• Mortar & Pestle (Optional)
• Cauldron (Optional)**
• Various Crystals or gemstones (optional)

*I wait until I am doing a ritual to put these things out as they could be knocked over in daily life. Most likely it would be one of my crazy cats but they are pretty good about staying off the top of my altar - the shelves are a different matter.
** You can put your water in your cup and eliminate the need for one of the bowls - you could also put the sand in the cauldron and eliminate using a bowl there as well.
***I will cover this in the next post so if you're scratching your head hang on, I'll go over it.

This is one example of how to set up the various things on your altar. This is a guide, not a requirement.
Set up your altar with whatever you'd like in whatever place you'd like. It's your altar!

Some people add things to represent the elements on their altars.

To some, even the direction you/your altar faces matter.
If you're into Feng Shu don't let this throw off your chi - do whatever you want, there's no set in stone rules.

So that covers the 3 main components of your altar: placement, physical construction and content. In the next blog, A Witches Altar Part Two, I will cover decorating your altar for each holiday and for special occasions because yes, they are different for each one. No, you do not HAVE to change your whole set up but sometimes it is fun to do something like that and I'll go over how. Stay tuned!