Self-Love Devotional Altar
We tend to hear a lot in our witchy circles about keeping an altar devoted to your craft or your deities or “just because”, but with our focus on Self Love for February, I wanted to put a little spin on your average altar, and offer up some tips for creating and using one that’s devoted to loving yourself and your craft. While the majority of the tips below are geared towards a physical altar that takes up space, with some creativity you can easily take the concepts and apply them to a paper or shoebox altar, or even a digital one!
First, set up and cleanse your space, dedicating it to be used as your altar. This isn’t to say that the space will always be used for this purpose, but it’s important to specify it so that its focus is entirely on what you want - to be better at loving and accepting yourself. This can be achieved by wiping the surface down with a household cleaner and cloth, placing an altar cloth or protective cover on the surface, setting up a boundary (visible or not) that separates it from other objects on the surface, etc. You can cleanse with incense or smoke, moon water, energy, anything!
Set down the object that will represent “you” in the center, at the back. This can be anything from a photo of you, a taglock, an object that you hold dear to yourself, a tarot card that you feel symbolises you, a personal sigil, a candle, et cetera. The item itself isn’t the important factor here. What matters is that you can identify yourself with that item, so that any energy directed through the altar will come to you.
Set down elements that represent your craft. You can get super creative here if you want! Do you have deities? Maybe put down little symbols for them! Are you a green witch? Dried herbs! A Sea witch? Shells or a vial of sea water! If you want to incorporate all four elements, you can totally do that. If you’re into shadow work, set down two candles: one for your outward face, and one for your Shadow. There are no hard and fast rules to this unless you implement them yourself.
Set down other aesthetic elements. A lot of guides towards decorating altars seem to imply that everything on an altar needs to have dedicated symbolic meanings. I don’t think that’s entirely fair. This is an altar dedicated to you so you should have things on it that you like. Are you a fan of jewellery? Put it on there! Crystals? Hell yeah! Tiny statues of corgis? Why not! A pretty space that you feel like is yours because it’s full of the things you like will help you maintain focus that the space is yours, as well as perhaps encourage you to use it more because it’s full of your favourite things!
Keep an area clear for your working space in the center. To denote this area as separate from others, you can use a bowl or plate, draw a circle, or simply leave it bare. Altars are meant to be used, not just looked at, so you need to keep a space large enough that it’ll be practical for you to do workings, leave offerings, place candles, a tarot card or two, etc. As large as you feel is necessary, or is practical given the space you’re working with.
Altars are, fundamentally, fancy working spaces, so in order for you to reap the benefits of it, you need to actually use it! Here are some general tips for using your altar to direct yourself towards self-love:
Leave offerings to yourself. Think of it like “food for the soul”. It doesn’t necessarily have to be food - it can be anything really - but the whole point is to feed your energy things that you enjoy, or that you want to bring more of into your life.
Spend dedicated time before it. You can call this “Me Time” if you want. Light a tea candle or a birthday candle (something small that will burn out relatively quickly) if you can, and almost use it as a timer for your dedication. During this time, you can meditate, read a book, do something you’ve been putting off but you know will benefit you in the long run, work on your craft, do a tarot reading, anything! Dedicate this time to a specific purpose, that you are actively present for, and acknowledge that you are loving yourself by being present in your own dang life.
If it’s not working, change it up. Your altar isn’t something that needs to stay as it was the day you made it, collecting dust (Your altar should never collect dust! Take care of it as you would take care of yourself!). Not feeling the shells or all the candles? Take them off, replace them with something else. Decorate it for the seasons or the holidays. Invite deities or the fae to dine at it by leaving offerings (though, as always, be careful when working with other spirits in “your” space). It’s your space, the only person you need to impress is yourself.
Make sure to cleanse regularly. Just like you’d bathe everyday or every other day, so should your altar receive the love and attention it deserves. Wipe off the dust, refill dried up water vessels, replace burnt out candles with new ones, remove old food offerings, et cetera. Keeping a fresh, clean altar may perhaps help you feel fresher and cleaner as well, though if it’s becoming too much effort and you aren’t reaping the benefits, you should sit down and analyse what you can do to change it so you are.
Stay focused. While you don’t need to be thinking “I love myself” every moment of every day, when using your altar, keep in mind why it’s there, what purpose it’s serving, and what you want from the experience. Ultimately, by using your altar and spending this dedicated time to acknowledge the love you deserve, you should find yourself more attentive to your own physical and emotional needs, as well as how addressing them better can fit into your life.
If you have any questions about this post, feel free to send an ask here on @witchhavencommunity, or you can send me on over on my own blog, @auroraliferous.
SAMMA
WHC Community Manager, the One True Birb, Screm Queen
@auroraliferous
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