Altars: They Can Shift Energy in Your Daily Life

I use altars to move/shift energy around issues or beliefs I hold that I want to shift. The other energy an altar can hold is gratitude, forgiveness, joy, etc.

I recently returned home from a training intensive, and during that time we were working with ancestors and patterns of the family. To shift the energy around the work, I built an altar. I worked the altar to help heal within me those patterns brought forth from the work I had begun in the class.

I took an old piece of bark that had moss growing on it that a friend brought to my house. I put it on my main altar, then I put my broken goddesses (too long to explain) on the bark where they wanted to rest. Then I took an apple along with my picture of woolly mammoth: this represented my ancestors and my family tree. Then I sprinkled star dust on it. Everything is shades of green and gold. I chose theses colors for growth and richness: the richness of life, not the riches of gold bars in the pot of gold story. I light the candle I placed on the altar. I also use my very best incense and shower it with Florida Water every morning. I play music for my altar, and I move all the items that need to be moved around to shift the energy it holds. And soon, when it feels right I will just switch everything out and start a new altar. It is very much like a Tibetan or Zuni Sand Painting in that all you have to do is move the energy and you will feel the shift in your life.

I have some other things I do because I have multiple altars going at the moment. I have one in my bedroom for gratitude for something that has come up in my life that is painful, and yet it is a beautiful gift. It has finger puppets on it, an orchid and Florida Water. There is also my balk Jaguar sculpture, serpent incense burner and some eagle/condor representation. I have my rattle that broke during class as well. I have pieces of paper I have written on and then prayed into. When I am done working this altar I will have a fire ceremony and burn all that needs to be burned and start a new altar. Some items will be reused and some will be placed into the fire as a gift for spirit.

Then I have my altar at work. Well, I actually have two of them. One has gifts given to me by clients; it also has poetry, cash and special objects I found in the desert with my friends during our training. It is a work altar, so I will pull cards and put them on the altar after removing the old ones. I also burn candles and incense. All of this is to set intent and shift stuck energy where I see it--and sometimes where I don’t even realize it is stuck.

My main suggestion is to let your heart guide you, use beauty to move you and move the objects until it feels right. Stay out of the thinking mind; I use this as a type of prayer and mediation! And use what you have available to you for object for the altar. Have Fun!

I love altars. Please feel free to contact me for any questions or suggestions.

Live Wild & Be Divine,
Rosemary