Altars? Do I have altars?? Not as such, no.
I’ve never really been one for a lot of pageantry in my path. I meditate anywhere I can be alone for a few minutes. With two kids under 5, a lot of times that means in the shower.
I have few tools. I spent my twenties moving nearly as many times as there were years. You end up with a lot less stuff that way.
I do have a little set up on my desk at the moment. It isn’t much, but it gets my stuff out of storage. Despite the fact that we will probably be moving in a year, I have reached the limit of my tolerance for ‘living on hold’. I want my house to look like a home — even if that means that I have more packing to do when the time comes.
Left to right: a multi-purpose white candle (try to ignore the monitor glare). Sometimes for purposeful work, sometimes just because I like to have a candle burning while I write.
My wand that I made when I was in my early twenties from a stick that I had found when I was about ten, and had kept for all those years because it looked like a wand. It needs a little repair work. The moonstone base fell off a few years back and was lost, so I need to source a new cabochon that will fit.
Under that is my pentacle that was made for me by my good friend Mattie. It’s one of my most favourite pieces. If you can’t read it, the inscription reads: “Thee I invoke by the moonlit sea by the standing stone and the twisted tree.”
Next is a spiral sun cut into a branch circle necklace. It’s a pendant that I bought from an artisan shop on Granville Island in Vancouver. It reminds me of all the times we used to go down there just to window shop, or to visit the little pagan store that was down on the waterfront. I think I bought one of my tarot decks from there. And a pendulum. Can’t remember which ones, though.
Then there is a fairly large chunk of amethyst. Amethyst is my birthstone. This was originally my brother’s. I don’t remember if he gave it to me or if I helped myself to it, but it’s mine now. Haha. Siblings, eh?
The little bowl in the back is my ceramic cauldron bowl that I bought just a few months back from Chapters. It was on sale, and adorable so I grabbed it.
Inside it is my little writing companion — a little pink owl stuffie. My son found it in the parking lot of the grocery store last year, I think. After it had found its way to the bottom of the toy box, I rescued it. The kids still play with it off and on because it’s “Mommy’s Hootie”. Thus, when they are playing pets and I don’t have one, they go and find him for me.
Hootie is sitting on a bit of sari silk that came in the most recent package I got from India. The pieces are small, but I am sure I will think of something to use it for. It’s just too pretty to throw away.
Inside the cauldron bowl are mostly pendulums. Amethyst, quartz, carnelian, and a seashell one that was a gift from another friend during a craft swap. There is an Ohio quarter that I found on the floor of my office one day. At the bottom are a couple polished stones: amethyst, rose quartz, smokey quartz, and orange calcite. There is also a pendant (my most recent purchase from India) of labradorite.
And then beside that is a little cone incense burner that I bought way back in the day from a little pagan shop that is in what used to be a 19th century prison in, I think, Coquitlam. I don’t really use cone incense because the smell is way too strong for me, but I am hoping to be able to rig it up to use it as a charcoal warmer for dried herbs.
That’s all that I have right now. My chalice in the process of being repaired. Once I am finished with that I will probably bring it up here.
I do want to set up an ancestor altar. I will need a floating shelf for the wall first, but I have an idea of how to set it up. I am also in the process of building a travel altar as part of a craft along with a handful of friends from Facebook. That will be a fun one to unpack when I am finished with it.
If I have my tripod by then, I will probably make a video of it. We can test my video making abilities.
Until next week, folks – I believe the next question up is about the Wheel of the Year.
A Less Travelled Path 