An important part of our work together, and of your own personal spiritual journey, is for you to create your own personal altar. A lot of the things we’re working on when we’re talking about wellness boil down to re-creating a spiritual connection to the energy of the universe, building out personal rituals to foster and nourish your personal link to the earth, and in a greater sense, to the love that unites us all.
Having a dedicated place to center yourself and focus is important for meditation of all types. Your altar is meant to be a place of quiet and calm, a small corner of peace in your life and in your home. But for many people, creating an altar is a foreign process. Not to worry—creating a personal altar is easy and can be very affirming.
Eventually, we’ll want your altar to be filled with personal details: photos of you and your family, mementos from places that are important to you, objects that represent you and the perfectly unique being you are. The maintenance of a personal altar can be a lifelong process, much like tending to a bonsai tree or a garden. I’ll also give you recommendations of what to add to your altar on a monthly basis—you might need one essential oil after one session, but a different one after the next! The beauty of an altar is that it changes, just like you do!
For now, we’ll start with a basic altar. Here’s what you’ll need to create your altar:
1. Its own designated space. Regardless of personal preferences, every altar should be built in a clean, tidy space. It can be on a table or a bookshelf, in a closet, or you may decide to have a dedicated space in your home for your altar. It’s up to you. It can be as large as you’d like, but we recommend that you clear off at least a square foot of space for your altar.
2. It should be contain links to each of the four elements. For your altar to function as a designated place of connection to the universe, it should have an object that represents each element of the earth: earth, air, water, and fire. You’ll want to include a small bowl or container of water—make sure to replenish this as the days go by. For earth, maybe a rock or a crystal would suffice. Air can be represented with a feather you like, or a leaf—you can even represent air with something you smoke, like tobacco. Most people include a candle in their altar to represent fire, but if you are concerned with fire safety, or your building does not allow candles, adding something of a fiery color like red or orange will work just as well.
3. You want your altar to be in an easy-to-access place. As we work together, you’ll be asked to consult your altar often, sometimes daily—you want to make sure that your altar isn’t somewhere you won’t be able to reach easily.
And as long as you’ve followed these three guidelines, you’ll have built a perfectly functional altar! Your altar is something to get creative with—it’s an expression of yourself as much as it is a connection to the universe.
