Witchcraft 101: Preparing An Altar Pt. 2

Welcome to part two of my Witchcraft 101: Preparing An Altar series! In our last article, we went over a few of the absolute basics of designing your altar. Things like altar cloths, how colors might be used in your rituals and spellwork, as well as several other things. I would highly advise you to go back and take a brief moment to go over the information from my previous article before continuing with this one.

So we have discussed having an altar in a nice quiet section of your home, but I would also like to add a bit about sacred spaces in nature. Sometimes this might be a better option for you if there is no way to obtain a fair amount of privacy indoors. An outdoor space is ideal to me, simply because you are surrounded by raw energy for use in magic. You also have a great deal of options for ways to build up your enviornment, such as gardening. Direct acces to your own herb garden makes this all the better, allowing you to use ingredients straight from the source, still brimming with the power of Mother Nature. There are a few downsides to this option however, as there are some things which may impair your ability to perform magic outdoors. This might be due to weather conditions, or pesky neighbors snooping in your business. That being said, a privacy hedge is always a good option!

With that out of the way, let us move on to some more fine details of using your altar. For starters, you absolutely should not allow others to handle your tools. I actually prefer to not even show others my altar at all, as I believe it can be a detriment to my rituals, allowing this individuals energy to muck up my own. Ultimately, it is up to you to determine the appropriate action for this. If you are including someone else in one of your rituals, you may allow them use of several tools for the occasion. Generally speaking, I would advise against it. They should bring their own instruments to the ritual.

If you find yourself in a situation where someone has handled things they shouldn't have, this doesn't mean it's the end of the world. You can usually cleanse whatever item has been compromised. This is why privacy is so important, if you are living with family (or anyone else) and you practice in secret, you do not want them stumbling upon your altar while cleaning, then moving things around!

A simple shelf holding some of my ingredients.

Something I like to have handy next to my altar, is a shelf containing much of my bottled ingredients for spells & products carried in the Magika Mystika store. This gives me immediate access to something I made need during a ritual in case I forget! Besides the necessities, decorating your space would be the next logical step. There is no need for expensive trinkets if you would rather not go down that road. Some of my favorite altar pieces were made from things I found in nature. One such was a small Fairy house I crafted from sticks and branches, linking them together with a hot glue gun. I crafted small chairs for the house from small pieces of bark, with an Aquamarine gem as the seat. There is nothing wrong with using what you have available to you, even if all that is are sticks. I actually prefer items from nature, since these compliment the raw form of magic quite nicely. The way you decorate your sacred space will entriely depend upon what you have to work with, so here you will simply need to use your own judgement.

Anointing Your Ritual Tools

For this section, we will discuss a bit about how to anoint your sacred tools, or even yourself. It is a fairly simple and straightforward process, yet important nonetheless. Let us first talk a bit about when you will need to anoint yourself for a ritual. There are a couple different ways to do this, one would be to anoint yourself with sacred oil or spell water before beginning the ritual. The other, is to do so as the spell calls for it. If you are to recite sacred text and then anoint yourself, do so. Pay close attention to what the spell says to do if performing a premade ritual. Otherwise, you may do this as you see fit.

Consider what type of spell you are working, if it is a love spell, you may choose to anoint yourself with Rose Oil or some other type of attraction oil.

If you simply wish to bless your tools or yourself for a ceremony, consider our Blessing Oil which is a multipurpose ceremonial oil, useful for any occasion. This is fantastic for Full Moon rituals of any kind. I prefer to apply this as I chant my incantations, but you may choose to use it before your spellwork.

If you are still unsure of anything involving establishing your altar, I would highly recommend reading some of SIlver Ravenwolf's work, such as her book "To Ride A Silver Broomstick". Her teachings are beginner friendly, and quite in depth as well. She also provides a nice selection of books to help you progress through your mastery of the craft. Of course, there are plenty of other authors to look into. But this book details the creation & use of an altar or sacred space perfectly in my opinion.

Eventually I will be comprising a reading list of some fantastic practitioners, so keep an eye out for that! For now, I will be bringing this to a close. In the next article I will be discussing one of our special products we carry here at Magika Mystika, which is our own creation, Phoenix Oil . I will cover some history behind this unique Ritual Oil, as well as a few tricks for coming up with your own!