basicmanfitz
New Member
Unitarian-Universalist and Celto-Norse Polytheist
Posts: 17
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Post by basicmanfitz on Oct 2, 2013 20:47:41 GMT -8
I've enjoyed reading about everyone else's. I know that for me personally, maintaining shrines absolutely deepened my devotional practice in a big way.
I agree... its been both informative and inspirational to hear about what other people are doing for their home altars and shrines. As a someone with a young practice, its been instructive and I want to thank everybody for sharing. on a similar note, if anyone feels comfortable sharing photos, I'd love to see them :-)
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2013 21:27:40 GMT -8
There aren't any photos of my current set-up, but I do have a collection of old set-ups and other shrine objects here, if anyone's interested in seeing them.
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Post by David Dashifen Kees on Oct 3, 2013 5:42:46 GMT -8
I've a small altar about 1.5ft by 2ft (.5m x .6m) on which I keep some of the more common Wiccan-style accoutrements (chalice and wand) because they're pretty and I still use them despite never really having practiced Wicca. I also have a framed picture of a person in devotion that, believe it or not, was originally printed in my local hometown newspaper. I also have a statue of Columbia in the form of the Statue of Freedom that adorns the US Capitol in Washington DC made from marble of the capitol building steps (it's not that amazing, you can buy them online) and a poppet of Eris that a friend in Brazil made for me. You know what .... here you go: The item in the upper-left is new-ish to me. I made it for a veve that I got as a kickstarter backer to Drew Jacob's (the Rogue Priest) Magic for the People parlor. But, I didn't feel right about having the veve in the house since I'm not really a part of a Voodoo or African-Diasporic tradition. I repainted the small shrine black (from red) and now I'm waiting to come up with something else to do with it.
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Post by imbrium on Oct 6, 2013 19:56:40 GMT -8
I love hearing about and seeing pictures of shrines and altars. My room is huge, so there is space for a rather large set of shelves, not book case shelves but of the large and open room divider variety, with shrines for Ares and Aphrodite with the dragons, Heron Owl and the Reaper on another shelf, all my divination tools, and a non specific Druidry inspired altar across the top. It looks odd to see those different bits all together but the energy flows very well.
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Gandillon
New Member
This Halloween: to costume or not to costume?
Posts: 15
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Post by Gandillon on Oct 7, 2013 5:42:51 GMT -8
This is a blog post that has photos of my shrines, although they've been decorated for Fall now so they look slightly different. I love shrine-building... I think it's my main creative outlet. (I hate to say that without my shrines looking a bit better in those photos but, oh well!)
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Post by sarenth on Oct 8, 2013 6:49:09 GMT -8
My family has an altar/shrine (sometimes it is used as an altar, sometimes not) for our Gods. It's a very eclectic space, but none of our Gods seem to have issue with it. We also have shrines we tend for our Ancestors, including the Elements as we look at Them as our Ancestors in addition to our blood and adopted Ancestors. We also tend shrines for the Earthvaettir, the Roadside Dead, the Housevaettir, Moneyvaettir, and Animal spirits. I personally attend to the general Dead and the Warrior Dead on Their own shrines.
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Post by nymphaea on Oct 9, 2013 6:18:53 GMT -8
I live in an apartment with my best friend, but I have the master bedroom, so I have some space. I'm limited where I put things because of the cats though. My long dresser has 3 different set ups on it - the leftmost is a general shrine for the Gods, meant for devotion, that right now has representations of Athena, Aphrodite, Artemis, Hestia, Poseidon, and Dionysos, with an area for giving offerings of oil and incense (I hope to expand). Next to that is my shrine/altar for Hekate that is combined with my work on learning about the poison path, along with representations of animals I feel are relevant. On the right is my ancestor shrine, with individual candles, a larger one, offering bowls for liquid, food and an incense holder, a picture with all 3 of my closest ancestors that I honor regularly, a dish that holds coins and personal trinkets of theirs, and a small fake plant that has dried roses from my father's funeral, along with a deer skull.
My other altar is the room is in a large entertainment system that I use for storage, and it functions as a working altar for my tradition stuff, with many different representations. I have a kitchen shrine for the house spirits and a bowl outside the front door for leaving offerings.
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basicmanfitz
New Member
Unitarian-Universalist and Celto-Norse Polytheist
Posts: 17
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Post by basicmanfitz on Oct 12, 2013 8:13:08 GMT -8
This is a blog post that has photos of my shrines, although they've been decorated for Fall now so they look slightly different. I love shrine-building... I think it's my main creative outlet. (I hate to say that without my shrines looking a bit better in those photos but, oh well!) Gandillon, you have some particularly beautiful shrines. Your shrine to Dionysos has to be my favorite of the bunch! David Dashifen Kees and @sobekemiti, thank you for sharing your altars as well. Its nice to be able to see what other people are doing, and its an honor to share in something as personal as someone's altar setups. I'd like to post pictures of my own eventually, but not until I get my home cleaned up some more.
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Post by marybeth on Oct 12, 2013 13:49:29 GMT -8
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basicmanfitz
New Member
Unitarian-Universalist and Celto-Norse Polytheist
Posts: 17
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Post by basicmanfitz on Oct 13, 2013 5:32:24 GMT -8
marybeth, I like that you use favorite coffeecups and teacups on the ancestor altar. Also, I noticed the different prayer beads for your dieties; did you string them yourself? Also, I'm curious... why particularly do you leave coffee as an offering to your ancestors? Is it something they've specifically requested, or is it more along the lines of you offer living honored guests coffee when they visit, so why not the departed ones as well.
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Gandillon
New Member
This Halloween: to costume or not to costume?
Posts: 15
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Post by Gandillon on Oct 13, 2013 10:08:22 GMT -8
This is a blog post that has photos of my shrines, although they've been decorated for Fall now so they look slightly different. I love shrine-building... I think it's my main creative outlet. (I hate to say that without my shrines looking a bit better in those photos but, oh well!) Gandillon, you have some particularly beautiful shrines. Your shrine to Dionysos has to be my favorite of the bunch! Thank you! I put a lot of work into shrines, especially Dionysos'. i've had to split it into multiples shrines several times over the years because it never stops growing...
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Post by marybeth on Oct 13, 2013 10:19:02 GMT -8
Thank you! The necklaces are what I made a few years back in place of statues/as offerings. I make and sell jewelry at the local pagan shop where I live. The teacup in particular was my paternal grandmother's, and the blue cards next to it were my maternal grandmother's. Those are the only things of theirs I have. Well, coffee is one of those things that many, many people drink as part of their routine(I am *fairly*, though not completely, certain that this includes my grandparents), and I consider it a treat when I make it for myself, so it's more along the lines of offering them something that I think is nice and that I'm pretty sure they would think is nice, too. I haven't really gotten a whole lot of clear requests from anyone at this point, except when I got a nudge to put up pictures of my maternal grandmother.
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Post by MadGastronomer on Oct 13, 2013 21:07:08 GMT -8
Finally got around to taking some pictures for this. I'm lucky enough to have an entire room dedicated to religion. These are not all of the altars in the room. Some of them are not mine, so I won't photograph them (a friend can't keep hers at home, because of a small child who does not understand about not touching other people's things). Some of them are not that interesting. I absolutely could not get a decent picture of Hekate's altar, which I am taking as a hint. A lot of my altars, I build on top of boxes or trunks, to give me space to store things or to protect sacred items. Some of them are open underneath, but I still use it for storage space. Altar to Okeanos and Tethys, which I also use for my lustral rites. (There's a reason for it, but I'm not sure how much of it I can tell. It comes out of a local recreation of the Eleusinian Mysteries, though, based around the progress to the sea and propitiatory sacrifices to Poseidon.) A small round table on a dark wood chest, draped and veiled in cheesecloth (related to above reason), set with a tarnished silver bowl filled with salt water and beach rocks, surrounded by bits of driftwood. Scattered across the top of the chest are seashells. Caught in the veil are bits of seaweed and driftwood vines. Altar to Dionysos. Built out of three wine racks on top of a light-colored wood chest. The back two wine racks are decorated with lights shaped like bunches of grapes. The front rack hold bottles of wine, and is topped with two images of the god, one being my Woolly Dionysos and the other a reproduction of a young, ithyphallic Dionysos, and an amphora-shaped oil lamp. Behind these, a shrouded mirror framed in driftwood rests on the back two wine racks. (Sorry, can't show you the mirror.) Hanging from the mirror are a grapevine prayer necklace and a glass disc stamped with the comedy and tragedy masks. Framing the whole is a metal grapevine sculpture. Also around are an open bottle of wine, a water pitcher for mixing with the wine, a jar of barley, and my wine cup. Wine cup and water pitcher made by the marvelous Sherry of Sidhefire Arts, who makes pottery and ceramic pieces intended for ritual use, including many items inspired by Hellenic dishes and servingware -- like that wine cup. Central Wiccan-style altar. (Yes, yes, I know, but I've been using it a long time, and I'm not giving it up. The pentacle is a salt slab I carved myself. The rest of the tools are pretty standard. The candles around and in the cauldron are for 40 Days for Reproductive Justice. Oracle and divination altar. Many, but not all, of my tarot decks are out because I'm doing a tarot (re)study to limber up my symbol mental muscles as I resume my practice, which had been dormant for a while. Decks shown are Once Upon a Time, Tarot of the Cat people, Visconti-Sforza, Mythic Tarot, and Victoria Regina. The white deck in the upper corner is called Morgan's Tarot, and is not properly a tarot, but is a pretty fun thing for divination. The Witch's Mirror is by Literata. The little ratty fortune teller is by Lisa Snellings-Clark. Pictures are not great. Not much of a photographer. Also may have used the wrong setting.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2013 2:49:30 GMT -8
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Post by liadine on Oct 14, 2013 6:44:25 GMT -8
I'm finally getting my shrines in working order - there's still a lot that needs doing, but I'm happier with them than I have been in the past, so here's some pictures. Sorry for the crappy quality, low light (my room doesn't have a working light switch) and a bad camera don't mix well. For Brighid and Himself: Brighid: Incense blend, white rabbit fur, a silver-and-amber rose, various pieces of dedicated jewelry, offering bowl with tea-light, prayer beads, and some postcards (mostly UPG-related). I miss having a proper shrine for her, but this will do for now. Himself: Compass, tea-light (looking for an offering bowl), brown rabbit fur, metal stag statue, dedicated jewelry, red deer antler coin, tiger's eye, arrowhead, postcards and a few oracle/tarot cards which fit. For Persephone and Hekate: Bowls for tea lights and libations, bowl for holding barley (the barley's collected and put in a jar for Hekate after being scattered), dried pomegranate, prayer beads, small jar for incense, wine cup for holding previous libations until I can pour them onto the ground, postcards (with a lot of UPG imagery for Persephone). Edited to add some previous shrines from back when I lived elsewhere: For Brighid: For Himself, autumn 2011 I think?:
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