Setting Up An Altar

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Altars are a great way to show your devotion towards your practice. Most altars are practice-linked and require some real knowledge to create, but for beginners it can just be a setup of things that makes their practice feel more real. When I was a beginner, I used to look for decent naturally occurring items from outside to put onto my makeshift altar. I used to collect small dried pine cones, pine needles to make small besoms, feathers and river rocks to put on it. There is no limit to what you can put on it. But as you develop your practice, your idea of what you can put on your altar will change as well. The point is to make sure you have all the tools you need near or on your altar at all times, and that they’re either cleansed or charged (or both) properly before use. Besides your BOS, you’re probably going to need fancy magical paper in case you need to create a ritual or complex spell, which can be made by just dipping printing paper in tea for 10 seconds and hanging it in the sun to dry. Make sure turn it around so all the tea doesn’t collect on one side of the paper, otherwise it’ll unevenly colored. Make your altar as aesthetically pleasing as possible for yourself, so it gives you the atmosphere of a magical area when you’re going to engage in your practice. Below I listed a bunch of items you can put on your altar. Make sure they’re part of your practice for that functional quality. Enjoy!

Crystals
Table cloth
Herbs
Skull
Spell-jars
Athame
Wand
Chalice or Cup
Pentagram
Small chest for storing things
Runes
Tarot decks
Chimes (overhead) or bells
Wooden or clay spoons
Cauldron
Book of Shadows
Sigils
Essential Oils
Magical Books
Mirrors
Holy Water
Salt
Candles
Incense
Amulets
Talismans