Altared Homes

By Pip

(Written for Spellcraft Magazine Winter 2009)

Hearths and altars have been linked together through generations and various religions. Both have a huge importance in expressing ones personality into physicality through meaningful decorations, bringing about various psychological effects upon observing and working with it. It also allows one to feel safe in their own little space, usually internally as well as externally. Lighting the hearth fire would make the shelter feel like a home.

The hearth, before a huge technological upheaval, has traditionally been the centre of a home. Important daily tasks were performed in front or with it. Today people still find charms and trinkets buried amongst the brickwork of old fireplaces. Many sabbats were celebrated in front of it; some even included the hearth, such as Yule and Imbolc.

Many Pagans now treat their altar how many peasants would have treated their hearth, decorating it up with meaningful trinkets, coming around it at gatherings and in groups for celebrations, and finding a private, safe space for themselves with it. Brendan Hancock has a beautiful Green Man personal altar set up in his bedroom, where it is most convenient. Despite it being noticeable when you walk into his room, it is defiantly not a focal point for the bedroom. He was going for a more natural feeling with the set up – shells, bark and feathers; wood, glass and stone. No metal as “metal is very man made.” “I like it. Every piece has a meaning behind it”, he commented. Brendan changes his altar when ever the mood suddenly strikes him. “I find something to put on there and something [usually] comes off, switching and changing depending on what happens.” Altars do not stay the same as when you first set them up. Just as we change and evolve constantly, your altar will as well.

Kitchen Witchery is become increasing popular as Pagans look back at the magical ways people used to use their hearths for cooking and healing. The cauldron, once used over hearths or instead of hearths outside, is still very active in pagan practices today, both indoors and outdoors. Kylie Allerton uses an extremely large outdoor cauldron for potions and rituals! As well as using it inside over the hearth, “I have a hearth set up outside in the ritual space, it being the main focus at sabbath rituals, we all dance, muttering enchantments, chant and sing while our ritual feast is cooking & bubbling away in the cauldron.” “Every meal that I cook is cooked in the spirit of ritual, I prepare the raw ingredients for the ritual by washing them, they are then anointing with oil and herbs (that’s the admittance rite) before entering the pot, cauldron or oven (the sacred ritual space), the ingredients dance and sing while they swirl around the cauldron sharing their energy and flavour, becoming one and making magick, I myself and my children are usually dancing and singing, flinging the room with happy energy and as the energy has reached it’s peak a glass of sabbath wine is poured, charged, I take a sip before the rest is added to the pot. This ritual is instinctual and takes place every night, ordinary folk call it “making dinner” I call it making magick. If the meal is made with respect for the ingredients, love and happiness when you consume that meal you will also be charged with these qualities.”

Kitchen altars are starting to become more popular as witches stir brews in their modern kitchens. I interviewed Hayley Cliffe, who is commonly seen whipping up a sabbat brew or a seasonal dish about her kitchen. Her interest in Kitchen Witchery developed through her herbalism knowledge and the slow realisation that “most of the herbs and everything I used was from the kitchen pantry, so it made sense [to set up an altar there], especially because I rarely had room for a normal altar anyways. I just use every day items. I have a big wooden chopping board, which I use a lot of the time as an altar top. I have a wooden spoon which I’ve been using for about 5 years that I suppose I use as a wand, if you were to give it a name, and a kitchen knife that I use a like a boline. It’s more then just having my implements blessed, it’s about using the items every day so they become infused with your energies.”

Obviously you would need to love cooking as well, since so much of your energies go into the food. But is it just about the ritual around the food? “I find that it’s not so much how I cook, but it’s what I cook. I try and cook as much as I can seasonally and also try to judge what it is that my household needs the most. For example, if I’m feeling a little bit flighty or unsettled, I’ll cook something grounding, like some root vegetables… But I don’t just practice this in the kitchen – it’s my whole home. I try and change colours seasonally and have things about the house reflecting how we’re feeling. When I clean, I try to clean mindfully, like removing bad energies from the house while I’m vacuuming.”

Gardens and/or balconies are now commonly owned as part of a home. In this modern age it can be hard to find the time to enjoy our connection with the world around us. Building an outside altar, despite being restricted to items that will hold up in rough weather, can be relaxing way to bring your practices outside and to find your ‘home’ in nature. I spoke to Eilish De’Avalon, who has set up a beautiful outdoor altar for her practices and as you can see, it has been set up to be weatherproof. Although an outdoor altar is not necessary it can help you feel some different energies and focus your practices in a different way.

Finally, there is another way to bring nature into our homes – to quite literally bring nature into our homes! Kimi Ravensky accidentally created a different focal point in her home that resembles the old wishing tree tradition and an altar with a difference. Many year’s ago, Kimi’s neighbour’s gave her a little tree in the hopes she could resurrect it. Sadly, it was quite dead. But she thought of a way it wouldn’t die in vain. She decorated it with little trinkets and brought it back to life in another form. Suddenly a tradition started in her home she didn’t expect. Charms, bracelets and little dangles started appearing on the little tree from visitors. “It’s interesting how people react to it. People that come over just put stuff on it. I’ve even found bread underneath it… One woman walked in, saw it, took off one earring and hung it up… Some of it’s just cheap rubbish, but who cares?… The dangles are like its leaves. It’s got life now.” Even hair has been found tied around it. As they say – “Tie a yellow ribbon round an old oak tree!”

So whether you have a traditional hearth, a cauldron, a modern kitchen witches set up, an indoor or outdoor altar, traditions have certainly not died, in fact they’re only just beginning to evolve!