Making an Altar

My Hades Altar

What is an Altar?

An altar is a space dedicated to performing spells, experiments, making offerings to deities/ Gods/ Godesses if you believe in them, and honoring the elements. An altar is a powerful tool in witchcraft and one of the best ways to get started. If you want to hide your altar or be subtle, I would suggest a small elemental altar in your closet or drawer. There are many different types of altars for various deities and types of spells/ rituals/ ceremonies, and I'll name a few below. The altars I will be going into depth about are the elemental altar and the classic wiccan altar. You can also mix these altars together which is something that I've done with my own. I have most tools of the classic wiccan altar and something to show each of the elements in their respective places.

Examples of Types of Altars:

Elemental Altar
Classic Wiccan Altar
Norse Pagan Altar
Mother Goddess Altar
Dark Goddess Altar
Hades/ Underworld Altar

The elements of the pentagram and their symbols.

Elemental Altar: The items you'll need will include a table cloth of meaning to you to place everything on top of, one or more candles of any size or color, and each of the four elements represented by the four cardinal directions. In the North, place your representation of the Earth element (this can be a jar of soil, herbs, or stones). In the East, place your representation of the Air element (this can be feathers, anything representing wings, or incense). In the South, place your representation of the fire element (this can be burnt ashes of wood, herbs, incense, etc.). Finally, in the West, place a small dish or jar of water.

If you want, here is a blog that goes into more detail about elements and what they do in witchcraft: By Land, Sea and Sky Blog

An example of a Wiccan altar.

Classic Wiccan Altar: The items you'll need will include a table cloth of any color that has personal meaning to you, couldron or chalice/ bowl, one candle for the Mother Goddess (silver, white or green pillar candle), one candle for the God or Horned God (Gold, red, or yellow pillar candle), and a spirit candle, incense, an Athame (A small spear-pointed knife/ blade/ dagger), a wand, a pentacle, and a small dish or jar of salt.

If you want, here is a page that goes more into detail about what the tools mean on an altar: Wicca Spirituality Altar Tools