creating an altar to yourself: an exercise in manifestation and passive control
recently my best friend told me about a change he made to his personal practice that completely revolutionized the way he felt fortune flowed for him. i've seen people talk about creating an egregore of themselves or their alter ego, but this approach is uniquely secular and occurred completely detached from this online space.
and what was it he did? well, he created an altar to himself.
and i know what that sounds like, but hear me out. this isn't so much an altar of worship or reverence--at least not in the way we think about those things--it's a passive spell that runs in the background, an act of self-care for his past self, boosting his self-confidence for his current self, and manifesting the person he wants to become.
WHAT IS AN ALTAR TO THE SELF?
This temple can be created from a very wide variety of items, but most often includes things that are meaningful or attractive to the person. For me, this includes crystals, trinkets, bones, flowers and herbs, pictures or drawings, sigils, and salt or ash. My friend also has a little statue that represents him, self-affirmations, and a devotional jar of beads in his.
I was introduced to this idea as not just something to help improve my self-confidence, but also as a way of shaping my future self. Each crystal will have its own meaning or trait that I'm is hoping to embody, and I can move them closer or further away depending on what I need more in the moment.
And even if you didn't care for a spell like this, from a psychology standpoint, this absolutely seems like it could be a productive exercise--especially if you're a more visual person.
HOW TO MAKE THE ALTAR
For this I'll introduce two different methods, one that I employed, and one that my friend employed.
My method:
Start with your favorite color(s) and maybe even an aesthetic (like cottage-core, dark academia, etc.)
Choose items that represent those colors or aesthetics, for me this would be green, pink, or purple crystals, naturey trinkets, and drawings that combine the two
Include things of great importance to you, even if they don't fit in the aesthetic, and try to make them look right
Arrange everything in a visually appealing way (I'll give some examples of this later)
But what my friend did was kind of the opposite, building the altar from the top down with things that were important to him, and just making it look good from there.
You've probably noticed that I make a big deal about the visual appearance of this altar, which is on purpose. I believe that it is of great importance this altar is appealing to you, since it's supposed to represent you, and it's supposed to represent your interests. If you don't really care as much about things being artistic or aesthetic, that's okay! As long as you can look at it and go, "Yeah, that's the vibe, that's what I want for myself," then you've done it right.
You can also add things like sigils, salt, or ash for an added layer of protection or a "boost" to the magic aspect, which I've added to mine. I also really like bones and don't have anywhere else to put them, so I add those, and I'll throw in some lavender to the salt since that's my favorite herb to use in workings.
WHY CREATE AN ALTAR?
Have you ever felt tired of being subservient to the whims of some external force, of waiting for things to happen rather than getting to decide that for yourself? If you do, this might be for you.
And it's not that this is supposed to snub or push aside worship of actual deities (I mean it can but it doesn't have to), but add to it. Think about it, most of us already have a self-care routine, something sacred to us, that we may even dedicate to our gods. All this altar is meant to do is add to that, to create a holiness to self-love and self-care.
The ultimate purpose of this exercise is to manifest the things you want in life, to design your future self, and combat the helplessness many of us feel when things start to change. It's meant to feed your energy, to form a conduit between you and something physical (which is helpful for those of us that dissociate often).
It is not meant to feed some heretical "fuck you" to the gods or the universe, rather give these forces a framework or "checklist" of things you want. At the end of the day, this is more similar to a spell than making yourself a deity that you want other people to worship.
I wish more pagans would stop acting like deities are fossils who have remained completely unchanged by time since the day they were first worshiped. If we can acknowledge how much societies and values changed from ancient times up to the present, then we should also acknowledge that the gods can and have changed too. Hell, the gods even changed along with their cultures back in antiquity! Whenever someone talks about an offering, practice or interpretation being "too modern" I just get so annoyed because it's operating on the mindset that the gods can never change, should never change and have never changed, which just isn't true.
Not to sound like a "Boomer" in the spiritual traditions community...
But.
I'm always annoyed by "Beginner Witchy!" Or "Baby Witch!" Content.
Nothing is "Baby".
It is just the basics.
And half of the posts don't follow the basics either.
It's "Rose quartz for Love! 💝"
No. How about "If you pay attention to how clean your house is, it's a reflection of how clean the energies are."
"the basics" that should be considered "for beginners" should revolve around how to live in tandem with the forces at play, how to recognise forces at play, and how to navigate changes in the forces at play.
It's like any art or craft. There's steps and stages and ways that processes are followed. That's how all spiritual traditions that are rooted in cultural beliefs are. And the New Age versions of these subjects are so ignorant that they don't even know what they are talking about to begin with.
The biggest hurdle I faced when coming from a culturally Christian, personally agnostic background into polytheist circles was not how to set up an altar or anything.
I struggled with the theological components. What's the philosophy of Kharis, what role did religion serve to the original followers, or what did Animism look like then vs now in New Age beliefs?
The problem was that all the beginner guides were about "what offerings should you give when asking for help with your love life" or "how to know Apollo wants to work with you."
It frustrated me so much because it felt like there was no foundation to the practices they were encouraging. It was all marketed, for lack of a better word, towards absolute beginners. But there was no philosophy, no worldview, not even bare-bones structure.
What's the point of knowing how to offer a rose-filled apple with Khernips if I don't even know what Kharis is (or even what the point of offering at all is)? What's the point of knowing what to pray for if I don't even know who I'm praying to beyond a name, or even how to actually do it?
It's something I've tried to keep in mind when I make helpful posts now that I have a bit more experience, but it does still grind my gears.
Don't let modernity take the magic out of your life. Allow yourself to see the world as a beautiful place, a place you belong in, one that you were made for.
Modernity could not strip magic from your life. It could only bureaucratize it, put it in shapes that are easily understood and categorized. Such a bureaucratization has its uses, but it loses a sort of whimsical spark. You should learn to see the world for both, but not lose either
I actually do think we should discourage women from becoming housewives. Do not become financially dependent on a man. That's how a lot of women ended up dead over the years. A man gets violent suddenly and you have to choose between homelessness or potentially dying at his hand because you have an enormous gap in your resume and no degrees or certifications or anything that will help you pursue a career that will allow you to be financially independent. He owns your bank account. His name is probably the one on the car. Try and leave and he can report it stolen. Where will you go then?
And if you do become a housewife, take steps to protect yourself. Make sure you’re legally married, for starters; stay-at-home girlfriends have very little legal recourse to claim their partner’s assets in a breakup. Make sure your name is on the house deed/rental agreement, and have your car in your name, even if your spouse is paying for it. Have your spouse transfer money every month into an account solely in your name, so you can buy yourself things without needing permission, but also so you can save up to leave if needed.
If your spouse fights you on any of this, then don’t quit your job. The tradwife to poverty pipeline is real, and so is financial abuse.
also, many women/people experience controlling behaviour and domestic violence from their partner for the first time during pregnancy. don’t risk thinking “he’s just stressed, it’ll get better when the baby comes” because it won’t. neither you and your child will ever be safe with that man. get out as early and safely as you can
I know people like to clown on aspects of classic Disney films that don't feel grounded in reality. But I've worked both front and back of house in restaurants of varying quality. And if I found out our line cook or something served a full plate of spaghetti to two dogs in an alley, I would consider that like. Like not good. But possible.
I've said it before, I will say it again. Tramp was shown latter in the movie to be a ratter. It is not at all farfetched to think that he might have once hunted a bunch of rats that threatened the restaurant and so the head chef considers him a valuable ex-employee and friend.
If nothing else, you have to give Gooseworx and the Amazing Digital Circus crew credit because they're all very online people and 100% had to know that making a show whose basic premise is "what if a bunch of people who are all fundamentally a bit exhausting to hang out with were forced to hang out with each other at gunpoint" was a fandom discourse bomb waiting to happen, and they did it anyway.
actually made this before the election tho seems slightly more relevant after watching CA vote no on things like rent control and, like, Prohibiting Slavery
