Altars
Misc Thoughts
Chris Olmstead
As for Altar set ups...
- I once read Crowley's remarks on how he contrived his stuff while he was out wandering the world or climbing mountains. He found ways to just use the simple things from his kit...cook knife became Athame, tin cup became the Cup...etc.
This sort of 'kitchen witch' working is accepted by lots of folks. You can set an altar up and take it down as fast as you can set a table.
- I also have noted the "Porto-Pagan" set-ups at some of the Pagan Fests I've attended. Carry the stuff in a cardboard box that can be up-ended for an altar, or even placed on it's side for a rain-proof 'shrine'. Close and carry off at the end of the visit with a minimum of re-wrapping to protect the fragiles. Some just contrive one with the natural objects at hand...a rock, a stick, a lantern or candle, etc.
- Some folks (including myself) have a small duffel into which I've placed a second set of "traveling" working tools. I have the great good-fortune of having friends who give me cool things. The coolest stay on my Altar, the second-coolest hang out in the sac, and sometimes I shift the goodies around.
- I have a bunch of books that offer arrangements I find a bit Overwhelming, but I can certainly post them, if you really need them. If you want me to fetch out Official Altar diagrams from some of the slick commercial works I have on the shelf, RSVP.
- For "public" Altar, in my home, I 'clutter' a shelf, a mantle, or a small window sill. It sounds to me as though, since all your stuff is packed and your space is totally compressed, that the "window sill" Altar is a good solution for you. I put a little origami pinwheel up on an Eastern sill, a small shell on a Western one, a tiny oil lamp on a Southern one, and a pretty rock on a Northern one. The whole House is the Altar "Table".
To clear my space I have been known to light a stick of incense, scaling it upward in my mind until I am swinging a huge flaming brand before the various Darks I'm dispelling, and run through the house screaming and raving aloud until they back off. A joss stick lasts about 20 minutes. I can almost guarantee that if you summon your Ki and Incant over a flaming brand for 15 minutes, most Shadows will go elsewhere. I haven't had to do it in THIS house more than twice in 3 years.
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