Many witches and spiritual practitioners choose to set up an altar in their home.
This can be a place to conduct magical rituals and practice witchcraft, but it can also serve as a focal point for spiritual work within your home.
Whether you are trying to connect with your inner voice or your personal deity, having a focal point that helps you clear away negative energy and distractions, allowing you to focus inward, is a valuable tool.
It is like creating a home office for your spiritual work.
In this article, we will explore the basics of setting up your own sacred space, from where to place it, how to prepare the space, and what kinds of things to include.
As you move forward on your spiritual journey, you will discover ways to further personalize your altar space based on your individual spiritual beliefs and practices.
Finding Your Sacred Spot: Choosing the Right Location
The first thing to consider is where to locate your altar.
This will be different for different people.
Some people think the kitchen is the perfect place to connect with their creative energies, while for others, this is a busy family space full of frantic energy.
It is also often a practical consideration.
While it would be wonderful to have a room dedicated purely to spiritual pursuits, for many, this is just not realistic.
When choosing a space for your altar, ideally, it should be in an environment that you control, both in terms of what goes in the space physically and the kind of energy that enters the space.
You don’t want someone leaving their dirty socks beside your altar or watching TV loudly nearby while you are trying to focus, and you also don’t want someone using the same area to bring negative energy into the space, for example, work-related stress.
So, ideally, you want a space that can be cut off from the rest of the home and which other people do not use, at least not without your permission.
A spare room, if you have one, is a great choice, as is a small attic space.
A basement space can also work, but not everyone feels comfortable doing spiritual work below ground level. You could create an enclosure under a staircase or an area under a windowsill.
If you have no other choice, dedicating a corner of a room to your altar is an alternative.
The bedroom is usually the best choice for privacy, though for people who share a room, this may require setting some ground rules with your partner.
Cleansing Your Sacred Space
When you choose a sacred space, you will want to cleanse it to prepare it for use.
Of course, this starts with physical cleaning.
A thorough clean, preferably with natural cleaners that won’t leave behind a detergent smell, is the first step.
There is then a question of energetically cleaning the space.
The theory is that everything that exists is made up of the same cosmic matter, and while we are certainly separate from the things around us, we are connected by an overarching energy.
When things interact, they exchange energy.
This is hard to deny, as we are left feeling a certain way when we come into contact with different people and objects.
But this kind of contact energy can also linger, and energy can accumulate.
This is not always a bad thing; places can accumulate positive energy.
But the point is that you want to actively take control of the energy of your sacred space and start building up the type of energy you want there.
This starts with removing existing energy.
The easiest way to cleanse the energy of a space is incense smudging. This is a simple process of filling the space with the smoke of a cleansing incense for 10-15 minutes.
Choose incense known to dispel negative energy, such as Sandalwood, White Sage, Frankincense, Lavender, and Lemon Grass.
You can also place crystals in the area known to draw away negative energy, such as Black Tourmaline, Selenite, Clear Quartz, Smoky Quartz, Amethyst, and Obsidian.
You can repeat this cleansing regularly to reset the energy of your space as needed.
Essential Elements of an Altar : The Foundations
Next is the question of what you should include in your altar space.
This is a very personal question based on your individual spiritual beliefs, so no two altars will look the same.
But these are the questions to consider.
You will need a surface for your altar.
This could be a table or a shelf. It is generally best not to place things directly on the ground, as this can affect the energy of the pieces and make it challenging to clean.
A small chest, or even a repurposed wooden cutting board, can serve.
Many people choose to cover their altar base with a cloth, often made from materials such as velvet.
Most people choose to place items in their space that represent the elements of nature : earth, air, fire, and water.
Many people choose a bowl of earth or a small plant to represent earth, incense or potpourri to represent air, lanterns to represent fire, and a vessel of water for water.
In the northern hemisphere, traditionally, earth is placed in the north, air in the east, fire in the south, and water in the west. This is inverted in the southern hemisphere.
It is then important to represent spirit, which is much more connected to your personal beliefs.
Some people choose statuettes of deities that they connect with, symbols such as crosses or pentagrams, or objects that were collected at an important moment in their spiritual journey.
These pieces serve as a focal point for the altar, along with a candle.
Flames are generally considered a good focus point to focus the mind, as the flame is both static and active, and it engages all the senses.
Beyond this, you should bring any other tools or symbols that you consider important to your spiritual practice into the space.
This could be a gratitude journal or a book of spells, family photos or mandalas, rosary beads or tarot cards, a musical instrument or ritual athame, crystals or Tibetan prayer flags.
As a basic rule, whatever you bring into the space should either speak to you on a spiritual level or serve a functional purpose.
If it does not meet that criterion, it is best left out of your space.
Activating and Maintaining Your Sacred Space
Once you have cleansed your space and you have decided what to include in your space, it is time to activate it.
Norse pagans did this in a variety of ways with their temples.
For example, they included gold votive offerings in the building’s foundations, and then conducted blood sacrifices in honor of the gods and painted the walls with that blood.
While we don’t recommend either of these practices, the principles are the same.
Demarcate the space and invite your spiritual elements into the space.
You can demarcate the space in a variety of ways.
For many people, the surface of the altar itself represents the sacred space, but sometimes you may choose to demarcate a larger space so that you can “step into” it.
Wherever your boundary, you can physically demarcate the boundary, for example, creating a salt boundary or using crystal makers.
The boundary does not need to be physically visible, but should be clear in your mind.
You can walk the boundary of the space, perhaps with incense or a demarcating crystal, drawing a clear boundary in your mind and your inner vision of the space.
Once the line is drawn, you can enter the space.
Cleansing has already dispelled unwanted energy, so now it is time to invite desired energy.
The first time you do this, you can do this by placing each object, understanding in your mind, or even stating out loud what it represents to you and the kind of energy you want it to invite into your space.
For example, as you place your bowl of earth, you can call on the element and ask it to ground you as you spread your wings on this spiritual journey.
If you place a statuette of the goddess Freyja, you can ask the goddess to share with you the secrets of Seidr magic and protect you from harm.
With your space prepared, you are now free to do your spiritual work, whether that be spell casting or meditation.
When you finish your work, it is a good idea to show gratitude for your work before leaving the space.
You can blow out any flames or leave them burning, depending on your personal preference and fire safety considerations.
Once you have activated your space for the first time, it should feel like a safe and inviting space that you can enter whenever you need, without undergoing the same ritual.
But doing some kind of call for aid when you enter the space and some kind of show of gratitude when you leave the space is considered best practice.
Periodically, when you feel like you need to renew your energy or a special date, like your birthday, comes around, it is a good idea to repeat the initiation ritual to renew the energy of the space.
You can also bring new things into the space whenever you wish, in the same way, stating why you have brought it into the space and placing it with intention.
When you remove an object, you should thank the object for its service before removing it.
Creating Your Sacred Space
Creating your sacred space is a highly personal experience, and everyone’s sacred space will look different based on their spiritual practices and beliefs.
What matters is that you do it with intent. Hopefully, you will find some inspiration to get you started here.
