Welcome to Gaia! ::

This is an ongoing sharing thread - respond once, respond every week, respond for every shrine in your house separately. Whatever strikes you, whatever moves you.

Look at your altar or shrine right now and describe what's on it.
If you like, go into detail as to what the items mean or why they're placed there.

No photos please - I'll set up another thread for those if you like wink I think it's more interesting to hear how people describe their altars, what they choose to go into detail about etc.

My altar in my dorm room is currently packed away in an ottoman. sad But I will re-post when I get it up. biggrin

At home I have a shelving unit with three shelves and I use the floor as a fourth shelf. At the bottom I have things that represent the Earth to me, the next level up is Water, then Fire, and finally Air.

I also have, at home, a home protection altar. It consists of a protection symbol in a bin of salt. biggrin

My alter has three levels with the top one having a drawer under it and the lower two levels being open to the air.
(In the drawer I have herbs and candles that I use for little rituals)

Their is a blue and gold stripped cloth that covers the top of it to protect the wood from ash from incense and that is also used to place the items of my alter on.

On my alter I have a large illustrator candle in the back of it in the middle.
On the left of the candle is a bowl with bread in it as a offering. (sometimes the bowl contains other offerings like home made cookies or baked goods)

On the right of the candle is a green plant limb with leaves freshly cut for a offering also. (sometimes the glass contains snow or fallen leafs or flowers)

I have representations of fire, water, earth, and air on my alter.
So I have Salt, Incense, Candle and Water in their corresponding directions.

I also have a small bell and a small pewter Pentacle plate at the front of my alter on the left that I burn candles for when someone needs a little extra positive energy or when I want to invoke or banish something like invoke positive things like courage, good dreams, passion or when I want to banish bad things like bad health, lack of judgment and bad dreams.

I have a Athame and candle snuffer at the front of my alter on the right.

On the next level of my alter below the first and under the drawer I have charcoal, incense, small cauldron, tarot cards and other things.

On the lowest level I have a bowl for ritual, some runes, and candle holders.

And that is my alter currently.

I don't currently have an altar set up because of my son and cats. They make a mess of things. When I did have it set up on a table with a cloth over it with the color representing the time of the year or upcoming ritual work. I had sea shells for it, a tigers eye stone, a pentagram, quartz stone and candles to represent the elements.

First you must walk into my room. if you take an immediate right from the doorway you will see my dresser. The top has been transformed into my alter. Lanterns hang on the left side from the heating duct. Two candle holders with the goddess and god astrological symbol upon them, moon and sun, hang on the wall my alter faces directly above it. As we scale our eyes downward you notice the small "golden" brass bell. You see an equal-armed cross as a handle and an intricate leaf design upon it with vines connecting the leaves into one piece. To the left is my crystal ball, made of raw fractured quartz. Wrapped around the base of the crystal ball is my pendulum made with small chain, a pentagram and malachite point as the focus. Further left is my chalice, filled with feathers sticks and other magickal items. To the right of the bell again are two finger chi,es made in Egypt. Past those you can see a birds nest where all of my tumbled crystals are housed. Back to the center of the alter you can see a bamboo mat that covers about 2/3's of the alter itself. The weather has warped the ends so it no longer lies flat. In the left hand corner is a small offering bowl with some trinkets in it: a starfish, a wishing charm, and a enchanted pendant. farther left is a row of candles, and beyond them is a long stone incense holder. Laying across the mat is a candle snuff made of a shiny metal. My wand partners this with its hand sanded hilt. My blade then follows. Finally inside my top drawer is where I keep all my other things for when I chose to change my alter. You turn around and exit my room, and that is all that there is to see.

Well I finally put an altar up and it is up high but now my son keeps climbing on things to play with it.
It is a simple altar right now, I just have 1 gold and 1 silver candle, between them I have a white spirit candle and before them I have 4 small candles to represent the elements. I also have a fairy statue on it, a unicorn statue, sea salt and lavendar herbs, roses (because it's spring) and some feathers.

Today my altar holds:

The black candle I lit during my equinox ritual. It's symbolic of the winter period. Why a candle at all? I don't know, the altar looked naked. I suppose it's symbolic in a meta sort of way to worship.

My incense burner. I burned some incense for meditation today, and when I burn it for a spiritual reason I use a particular incense burner and place it on my altar.

My orchid. I thought of my Lady today and wished it to be there as a focus point.

My alter is very simple. I keep it on top of my dresser so that way my cat can not disturb the set up. The majority of it contains the vessel for various spirit that I have collect over time. Those are placed in various sized jewelry boxes to house them along with a ceramic box to hold my dragons' vessels. I have a small candle and small bowl for water. I have a small thing of dried flowers. On the the far side, I have several crystals that I use every now and again. I have my tarot decks, angel decks, and incense in a shoe box on a book shelve.