Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for All ... - reading...

32 Creating Circles & Ceremonies
Glory and I lived in a school bus (1975-’79), our Altar was a little cabinet with a mirror in the
back and a door hinged on the bottom and held horizontal by small chains. It could be folded
down for use, and folded up to be put away when we were driving.
Household Altars are not usually the focus of group rituals, but rather of personal and
family observances, prayers, and devotions. The most important thing is to keep them clean
and fresh—don’t let them get covered with dust and cobwebs!
Central Altar
In the HOME Tradition, we almost always have a central Altar, right in the middle of the
Circle. Pretty much the only exceptions are when we have a fire or a Maypole there instead. This
Altar is the main focus area around which the entire rite revolves.
We prefer it to be round, like the Earth Herself.
Around 18” tall and about 2-3’ in diameter is a good size.
Perfectly fine low, round end tables or coffee tables of appropriate
dimensions may be found readily at used furniture
stores. Or make a collapsible Altar by cutting a circle
out of plywood and affixing it to a base (see right).
Traditionally, a central Altar is set up to be viewed from the South, just as if it were a map.
It should be covered with an Altar Cloth of color and material appropriate to the occasion.
Square silk scarves are very popular as Altar Cloths, but other materials may serve as well, as
long as they complement the theme of the ritual. Velvets are beautiful, but thick fabric makes it
difficult for objects to stand upright. (And we don’t recommend paisley prints, checkerboards,
or pictures of Mickey Mouse.) Block-printed, tie-dyed, or batik cloths are often available through
the magickal marketplace, or you may make your own, painting anything from a simple Pentacle
to a full Magick Circle Mandala. You can buy fabric paints at fabric stores or craft shops. As
many rituals have seasonal themes, seasonally appropriate colors are always a good idea: red
and green for Yule, red for Brigit, gold for Harvest, orange and black for Samhain, and green for
SAMPLE ALTAR ARRANGEMENT
1. Symbol of that to which the rite is
dedicated (God/dess, effigy, mirror).
2. Candles (Fire).
3. Thurible (incense burner) (Air).
4. Chalice (Water).
5. Pantacle, or cup of salt (Earth).
6. Sword, Athame, and/or Wand.
7. Annointing oil.
8. Incense or herbs.
9. Other relevant items: divination tools,
spell items, Book of Shadows, etc.
10. Seasonal paraphrenalia: flowers,
fruit, deer antlers, pictures, totems...
PORTABLE
ALTAR
(Top)
(Base 1)
(Base 2)
almost anything else.
In the middle of our
Central Altar we usually
place figurines of the God
and Goddess we wish to invite
into the Circle for the
ritual (I have created an entire
line of these over the
years; others may be purchased
at stores, online, or
even at flea markets). If we
wish to reflect and call
forth the Deity within each
participant, sometimes we use a mirror instead. We usually place two taper candles to either
side of these statues, the colors depending on the season and/or purpose of the rite. In the
absence of figures, these candles alone may represent the God and Goddess. In fact, candles
in the form of male and female figures are available in most occult shops. Candleholders may
be made of metal, glass, or pottery in symbolic shapes. You can get glass candle guards to
keep the wax from dripping on your Altar cloths.
Magickal tools or symbols of the four Elements should be placed at the cardinal sides of
the Altar. A Thurible (incense burner) at the East is very common (be sure to put a layer of
sand in your Thurible under the charcoal blocks!), though the magickal tool for Air in the
HOME Tradition is a Wand. Or you may have a feather, a burning sage bundle, a bird’s wing,
a bell—anything to symbolize Air.