Alternatives to physical altars for witches and pagans who can’t practise openly:
If you don’t have the money or space for an altar or you live with someone who does not support your craft, there are a few altarnatives for you to consider:
A SMALL POCKET ALTAR INSIDE OF A MINT TIN
this could contain incense, prayer cards, a tea light, small crystals or some herbs
- easy to hide and portable
- you can’t keep a lot of things in there
- you can’t really use it for offerings unless they are very small
A DIGITAL ALTAR / GRIMOIRE
this could be in the form of a tumblr blog, a Pinterest board or a simple notes page
- you can access it from anywhere
- you can get very creative with your spells and offerings
- useful for shadow work and divination, since you can document your progress
- very easy to navigate and organise
- you can’t make physical offerings
- no physical spell work (like jars or candles)
an analogue notebook that you can use like a mix of a journal / grimoire / altar
- very versatile and customisable
- you can use it as an altar to place physical offerings on
- useful for a lot of different things
- great for small offerings (like pressed flowers and herbs, photos, drawings and poetry / prayer
- useful for shadow work and divination, since you can document your progress
- no unlimited space, if you fill it up you need to buy a new one
- no offerings larger than the book
- difficult to navigate if you don’t have a good index system
- not great for physical spells like jars or candles
DIGITAL ALTAR IN VIDEO GAMES
this can be an altar space that you build in games like Minecraft or animal crossing
- you can make offerings like Minecraft flowers or dressing your character up in clothes that remind you of your deity
- playing the game and putting energy into it can be an offering in itself
- unlimited space (depends of the game)
- no physical offerings and very limited options for spells
- how much you can do depends a lot on the game
- good video games and consoles often cost money and are thus not accessible to everyone
- no (or very limited) options for writing down prayers and the like
- limited option for devotional acts
Whatever your altar space looks like and whether you even have one at all, remember that you are still valid and your gods love you and understand your situation.