A few years ago, my husband built a wonderful corner cabinet, with three shelves at the top and doors at the bottom. Because of the layout of our living room, there is really only one place it can go, and there it has stayed since it was first created. So about a year ago, when I decided that I wanted to built a family altar, this cabinet was where I decided to house it. It was built by my husband, and pretty much stays put, so it seemed appropriate.
However, there was the trouble of what a family altar was going to be all about. I have several altars in my home. I have a permanent "working altar" in my room, which stays set up and is where I do things like meditation, magic, etc. I also have a kitchen altar on the windowsill in my kitchen, which is probably the room in my house where I spent the majority of my time that isn't spent sleeping. So I had to think of what purpose a family altar would serve, and my original plan was to have it be a simple place where both my husband and I could turn when we felt like we needed a little magical or divine intervention. The set-up was very simple. I placed it on the lowest shelf of the upper part of the cabinet, and made sure that the gods and the elements were represented. In the center, I placed a little prayer box with small sheets of paper, flanked by a white taper and a black taper. The idea was that either one of us could go over at any time, write our request down on one of the pieces of paper, place it in the box, and then light the appropriate candle...black to banish or white to attract. It sounds simple enough, but in actual practice, the altar kind of just sat there. This system was set up in response to an interest from my husband in being able to do a little more hands on magic, but the fact is that he just isn't a very magical or religious person, so while he like the idea in the beginning, it soon fell off of his radar. As for me, because I have my own personal working altar, this new and simpler method wasn't entirely necessary. Sure, I made use of it at times when I received a spontaneous prayer request. When my nephew was staying at my home and we received word that his dad had been killed in a car accident, it was very helpful to have such a simple system at the ready that I could use with him to submit prayer requests for his grandfather. Still though, I wasn't entirely satisfied. It so rarely saw any use, and I wanted something in the central room in my home to represent and connect me to my spirituality in a meaningful way.
Every year around Samhain and Yule, my house becomes transformed. My husband and I are big decorators for those holidays, and we love to see the house go through a period of dark morbidity at first, and then come out of that into a period of extreme light and joy. During that time of year, the day-to-day trinkets that fill up the flat spaces in our home get boxed up to make way for the seasonal fare, and we yield first to skulls, ghosts, pumpkins, and haunted houses, and then to evergreens, candles, snowmen, reindeer, suns, and all things sparkly. And so it was this past holiday season. In the course of all of this change, the family altar remained more or less the same, with seasonal touches added.
Then comes the packing up. This is also a time of the year that we love, because when we pack away all of the holiday decor, it's almost like starting with a clean slate. Everything seems blissfully sparse in contrast, and not everything has to go back just the way it was before. It was during this part of the cycle that a new idea for the family altar came to me. I stared at the corner cabinet, with our little family altar on the bottom shelf and two empty shelves above it, and an idea came to me.
In my tradition, we really resonate with the Shamanic idea of the Three Worlds. We have included this idea into our theology as a representation of our belief that there are an infinite number of worlds other than our own, and that we can connect with each of these worlds. The Three World ideology kind of sums up this concept in the Overworld, the Middle World, and the Underworld. Looking at my three-tiered cabinet, it occurred to me that making a three-tiered altar that represented the Three World structure was the perfect way to utilize this space and give the family altar a bit more meaning. Here is the result...
The Underworld Level...
On this level, I have several treasures that represent Underworld energies to me. In the center is a God of Death statue that my husband and I bought on our honeymoon in New Orleans, which is absolutely one of my favorite possessions! Next to it is another New Orleans purchase...a VooDoo wish stick. The goblet to the right was a Yule gift from one of my coven mates, and it depicts the face of the Crone. The alligator head is from Florida and represents my totem animal. The black taper candle is placed in a gargoyle candle holder that my husband gave me. I love the idea of gargoyles as these dark and protective entities, and consider that imagery very useful in magic. The statue of the woman on the left is a purchase from an antique store in Helen, GA, and to me she is very representative of the Dark Mother aspect of the Goddess. Her energy is dark, fierce, and protective, which seems very well-suited to the Underworld. The other smaller items in the front are a shell to represent the connection between the element of water and the Underworld, a small candle holder that holds a red tealight in representation of the element of fire (which I also consider to be connected to the Underworld), and a tiny Egyptian sarcophagus.
The Middle World level...
The Middle World level of the altar is very earthy. The large glass jar in the back with the iron topper and base is full of dried flower petals from the flower arrangement I made for my dad's funeral. Perhaps it would make sense to have this at the Underworld level, but I have placed it here for a few reasons. On the practical side of things, the Underworld shelf was already quite full, and this item is also a bit too tall for that shelf (the shelves aren't all the same height). However, I also view this as being connected to my last Middle Worldly interaction with him. That flower arrangement was the last thing I did for him that was connected to this life, and for that reason, I can just as easily justify placing it on the Middle World level. An earth Goddess statue and a golden reindeer represent some of the Middle World aspects of the gods. The element of earth is represent by several pentacles (a green pentacle disc, my pentacle tart warmer, and the pentacle carved on top of the prayer box), as well as pine cones, acorns, small pieces of wood, stones, and other such items that I have collected from my property and on nature walks. The large antler candle holder houses a green and very earthy candle that I used at my coven's Inner Grove Retreat this past fall, which was supposed to represent myself. In the center of this level is the prayer box that I mentioned before.
The Overworld Level...
Of all of the Three Worlds, the Overworld is the one that I have the hardest time connecting to, which is probably evident by how sparse this level of the altar is for the time being. However, building this altar has helped me to realize that this connection is something I need to work on, and so it has provided a valuable lesson. The centerpiece of this level is a mother and child statue, and to me this evokes the sense of the Mother Goddess watching over us from the heavens. The moon and sun candle holders represent those celestial aspects of the Gods. The element of air is represented by a celestial incense burner and feathers I've collected from my property. A white taper candle is also included, as well as a small angel. Typically I'm not big on angels, but this angel was given to me from my dad's aunt's collection after she passed away, so it seemed appropriate to give it a place of honor in my home.
The items included on this altar are just items that I already had in my collection, which I had never previously thought of categorizing in this way. However, by sorting them out into representations of the Three Worlds, I have been able to create an altar that helps to keep me connected to each of these worlds. This altar isn't necessarily as beautiful as some that I've set before, but it is very meaningful. It can still be used in the same way that it was used before, for simple prayer requests, but now each time I look at it, I am reminded of the Three Worlds, and it foster my connection to them on a daily basis. I also feel that it brings a bit of the energy of each of these worlds into my home, which creates a nice balance.
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