Altars 101

Altars are dedicated sacred spaces used as a physical anchor for spellwork, rituals, and spiritual forces. They are highly personalized reflections of a practitioner’s craft, and do not have to be elaborate to be effective. Beginner practitioners often start with an easily accessible and everyday space like a table, shelf, or small container.

Because altars are unique to the practitioner, what is placed on them will be equally unique. There is really no right or wrong way to dress an altar, though there are some common items that tend to be used frequently:

• The Elements
• Deity Representation
• Tools
• Offerings
• Spellwork

Often, the things placed on an altar will depend on what type of altar it is.

Types of Altars

Working/Ritual Altars – these are probably the most common altars and are used to actively cast spells, mix and prepare ingredients, and perform rituals. They tend to hold functional tools like cauldrons, wands, athame, mortal and pestle, and ingredients for active spellwork.

Ancestral Altars – these altars are dedicated entirely to honoring deceased family members, beloved friends, and spiritual lineages. They typically avoid active spellwork tools, and focus instead on remembrance and connection. You may commonly find photographs, obituary cards, heirlooms, and offerings of food, tobacco, or spirits on these altars. Yes, you can include beloved pets on these altars as well – they are family after all!

Deity or Devotional Altars – these are built as shrines to specific deities that the practitioner has a relationship with. The aesthetic of these altars will match the preferences and lore of the specific deity they belong to. Statues and artistic representations of deities, as well as dedicated symbols and corresponding offerings can usually be found on these altars.

Seasonal or Sabbat Altars – these altars change throughout the year to align with the rhythms of nature and the Wheel of the Year. They celebrate seasonal shifts, harvests, and solstices. Items on these altars will typically correspond to the current time of the year, like flowers, seeds, and pastel colors for spring and summer, and fallen leaves, pumpkins, and pinecones for autumn and winter.

Portable or Travel Altars – usually compact in size, these altars are usually simple and easy to set up quickly. They are commonly used by practitioners who travel a lot, practice outdoors, require extra privacy, or need accessible altar options. They are usually contained within small boxes, cloth pouches, or even small Altoids/mint tins, and usually have smaller sized tools like birthday candles, crystal chips, and pocket-sized tarot cards.

Environmental or Elemental Altars – these altars are dedicated spaces to the elements, a singular element, or an aspect of nature. Sometimes these altars take the form of an outdoor garden, a dedicated water shrine, or a fire ring. Items that are placed on these altars will correspond with the element(s) or aspects they are dedicated to. You may see things like shells, chalices, or river stones for Water. Or things like soil, bones, plants, and crystals for Earth. Things like incense, feathers, bells, and wind chimes are common for Air. And Fire is usually represented by things like candles, wood, ash, cauldrons, and lava stones.

Meditation Altars – these altars are designed to help transition the mind from the chaos of life to a state of stillness, presence, and internal focus. They are usually pretty minimal, and include a focal point like a singing bowl, incense, bell, textured fabric, or other sensory anchor. Sometimes these altars are set with a specific intention in mind, like achieving mindfulness, connecting with the Divine Energies, or transcendence.

Digital Altars – these are virtual sacred spaces for practitioners to focus intentions, cast spells, and honor deities. They act as an accessible alternative to traditional physical altars, and are commonly used by practitioners who do not have the physical space for a physical altar, need to practice in secrecy, need accommodations for disabilities, and for online communities. These altars often use apps like Notion, Spells8, Pinterest, Canva, or other similar platforms.

Community Altars – there are multiple different types of community altars, but ultimately they act as a shared sacred space for covens, groups, and communities to combine their energy, intentions, and practice together. They act as a “town square” for multiple people to contribute, leave offerings, and anchor collective group spellwork.

Amplified Magic – when a group of practitioners focus on a singular goal, their combined energy anchors to the community altar and creates a stronger magical current.

Shared Hub – during gatherings, a community altar typically sits at the center or the head of the gathering, and holds collective tools needed for rituals and spellwork.

Spiritual Equalizer – community altars allow everyone to participate equally, regardless of experience level or financial background.

Types of Community Altars + Etiquette

There are typically three types of Community Altars: ones for private groups, ones for public festivals, and ones for local shops. Altars for private groups are usually kept within the group’s meeting space, and house formal tools, collective group history, and items passed down within the group. They are maintained by the group’s leaders or initiated members.

Public festival altars are commonly set up temporarily at large public gatherings, festivals, or local parks. The organizers of these altars oversee setting up baseline structures for the altar, and attendees are invited to approach the altar with their contributions.

Shop altars are commonly seen near the entrance of occult and metaphysical shops. They usually feature a book or basket where shop patrons can write petitions for healing, luck, safety, etc. The shop staff maintain the altar and take care of blessing petitions.

When it comes to Community Altars, you should always be aware of proper etiquette surrounding how to interact with these altars. A good rule of thumb is to look without touching – don’t pick up, move, or handle items on an altar without explicit invitation by those who maintain the altar. Inappropriate touching can disrupt energy charges around the altar. When in doubt, ask – if you wish to contribute or interact with the altar, ask the altar organizer what is appropriate. Some altars have strict guidelines on offerings and interactions. Check yourself, cleanse yourself – make sure to ground yourself before interacting with an altar. You want to avoid bringing chaotic, frantic, negative, or aggressive energy to altars.

Altar Protection

Some practitioners advise against sharing images of altars online or even letting houseguests view them. This comes from the idea that it could open the altar to possible energetic contamination, security risks, or spiritual interference.

Reasons for Protection

Envy + Evil Eyes – not everyone viewing an altar has pure intentions. A viewer’s jealousy, judgement, doubts, or negative thoughts could all act as an accidental hex and project heavy stagnant energy on an altar and the items on it.

Disrupting Spellwork – some spellwork relies on a tightly contained pool of energy to manifest. Letting others view an active spell could create an “observer effect where their doubts, curiosity, or external thoughts bleed into the spell, causing energy to stall, dilute, disrupt, or even break. This could affect the momentum of the spellwork.

Taglocks + Targets – some view an altar photo similar to a personal ID or signature. The way you dress your altar and the items you use can provide a direct energetic signature back to you. If a malicious person wanted to direct baneful magic your way, an image of your altar could give them direct coordinates to you and bypass other wards you may have in place.

Deity + Spirit Respect – technically, an altar that is dedicated to a deity, ancestor, or spirit is no longer yours alone. It also belongs to them. These entities may demand more privacy and quietude, and sharing their altars could open them to public scrutiny and energetic noise. It can be seen as highly disrespectful and even cause the entity to withdraw their presence from you and your practice.

The Pillar of Discernment – a common pillar of witchcraft is the pillar of discernment (formerly the pillar of silence), or the understanding of when and with whom to share your magic. Keeping personal practices private helps preserve the mystery of magic and concentrates energy in active spellwork. Sharing or showing off an altar can drain that energetic power and turn a sacred space into a public spectacle.

Adding Protection

There are numerous ways to add protective measures to your altar. Using masking shields like glamour magic, can create an energetic veil over an altar so that observers see the physical objects without perceiving the underlying magical currents.

Some practitioners choose to deactivate, disassemble, or relocate active spells to keep the altar a neutralized space. Others choose to use energetic barriers, like surrounding the altar with salt, protective symbols, or even covering the altar with a protective cloth.

Taglocks can be masked by blurring or omitting personal items like ancestor images, anything containing DNA (examples: hair, blood), handwriting, or highly specific heirlooms, within altar photos. An extra measure of protection is to run altar photos through an EXIF metadata remover to remove location coordinates, timestamps, and other device data.

Another popular tactic is to create decoy displays. This is common among teachers, mentors, and content creators. It allows the practitioner to separate their private practice from the public eye, and uses the decoy as a way to teach and absorb the public’s curiosity.

Remember – whether you decide to share your altar publicly or not, is entirely your choice. Weigh the pros and cons so that you may make an informed decision, and always remember to keep you and your sacred spaces safe.

Deity 101

A deity is a dive, supernatural being that is honored, worked with, and/or worshipped. Deities do not have to be classified as a god or goddess; they can include powerful forces, cosmic energies, or historical figures.

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Non-Traditional Deities

• Cosmic Forces + Concepts – abstract concepts like Chaos, Time, or the Universe itself
• The Elements – each element can be treated as a sentient divine energy
• Mother Earth Archetypes – worshipping a collective spirit of the planet “Mother Earth”
• Deified Humans + Saints – figures like Marie Laveau, Joan of Arc, or other folklore figures can be elevated to a deity due to their immense spiritual power
• Spirits + Creatures – angels, demons, fae, nymphs, or other mythological creatures (some work with these without necessarily elevating them to a deity status)
• Pop-Culture – using fictional characters like Gandalf or superheroes as thoughtforms or egregors

The concept of deities varies across paths and communities because witchcraft is highly personal, broad, and generally non-dogmatic. Some practitioners do not work with deities at all, and often choose to focus on the energy of the earth, psychological archetypes, or the innate power within themselves. Working with deities is entirely an individual choice.

Deity Work

Working with deities is more than just worshipping them from afar. It can involve inviting a deity to work with you in spellwork, provide magical assistance or intervention, divination to communicate with a deity, creating dedicated altars for the deity, and providing offerings or exchanges for spiritual guidance. Deities can act as partners, mentors, or even energetic tethers.

Choosing a Deity

Do the research. Look into ancient myths, historical pantheons, and study cultural traditions around the deity you’re interested in. Learn their correspondences like symbols, colors, plants, animals, and foods that are typically associated with them. Determine if the deity belongs to an open or closed practice. Remember, there are many similar deities, so if the one you’re interested in comes from a closed practice, you can find another very similar from an open practice.

Remember, it is entirely fine to learn about closed practices, just not to actually practice them.

Closed Practices = require strict cultural initiations and/or lineage, in order to practice.

Open Practices = can be practiced without initiation or lineage requirements.

Connecting with Deity

Establish an altar space to dedicate to the deity, and place items on it that correspond with the deity. Make sure to cleanse the space, as well as yourself. Cleansing can be done in various ways, but is most commonly done with smoke or salt water. The cleansing process can also help you enter a focused ritual headspace. Take time to reflect and meditate on the deity, then introduce yourself. Speak honestly and from the heart, stating who you are and why you would like to build a relationship with them.

Something to keep in mind – some deities do not enjoy sharing their sacred space with others. Think twice and do the appropriate research before combining multiple deities on the same altar.

Reciprocity with Deity

Give offerings to show appreciation for the deity. Offerings can be item based like wine, bread, incense, or tobacco, or they can be action based like volunteer work, cleaning up nature, or studying. To communicate with the deity, you can use divination tools like tarot cards or a pendulum, or through meditation or dream work. Once a bond is formed with the deity, you can ask them to lend their power to protect or aid you in your practices, or to mentor you as you grow.

Remember, deities are not a pool of free energy to just take from. Nor can you demand, command, or force them to work with you. If their answer is “no,” then accept it. Trying to force a connection will do more harm than good between you and the deity.

Deity Callings

When a deity’s specific symbols, themes, message, or name repeatedly disrupts daily life in ways that cannot easily be brushed off as mere coincidences, the deity may be calling out to you. These calls are often subtle, but persistent and cumulative and not dramatic booming voices or sudden visions that Hollywood likes to portray. Sometimes deities choose to reach out to a practitioner, rather than wait to be “discovered,” to guide the practitioner, offer a specific lesson, embody their archetypal energy, or invite the practitioner to work with them. Deities often seek a practitioner out when their personal values or current path closely aligns with the deity’s domain.

Single isolated events are most likely just coincidences, but a series of identical occurrences – usually 3 or more – can point to a message from a deity. Some ways that a deity may be trying to get your attention is by repeatedly placing their corresponding animals or items in your path, or by repeatedly popping up in various media or conversations.

Sometimes a deity may reach out to you through your dreams, showing their sacred landscape, or figures handing you their corresponding items, or images of them directly. These dreams usually feel distinctly vivid or hyper realistic, and are more memorable compared to typical dreams.

Another way a deity may be trying to get your attention is by shifting your mental focus. Unexplained urges to research them, or their culture or historical time period, having intense feelings of being pulled toward something you previously knew nothing about but now feel in awe or comforted by, or continuously shifting your thoughts toward the deity, all may be calls to pay attention!

Verifying the Call

If you’re a skeptic like me, you may be looking for ways to verify that a deity is calling to you. There’s a few things you can and should do.

First off, don’t jump straight to a conclusion. Remember how I said many deities are similar? Do some research at the deity you think is calling to you, and compare it with similar deities, even if they are from different pantheons. Look at the deity’s history, and even talk to other practitioners who work with that deity. Oftentimes beginners make the mistake of assuming a popular deity is calling to them simply because they like them or its trending on witchtok – only then to later realize that a completely different, maybe lesser-known deity’s traits fit the signs they were receiving. You could easily ruin a potential relationship with a deity because you mistook them for someone else!

There’s a lot of crossover similarities between Hecate, the Morrigan, Kali, Isis, Hel, and Circe. And there’s a lot of crossover similarities between Lilith, Lamashtu, Erehkigal, Lamia, the Empusae, and Pandora.

Use divination tools to open communication with the deity to help verify them. Lay out a tarot spread, or throw runes or bones with the specific intention of asking “who is trying to make contact, and why?”

Ask for a sign. Yeah, you can do that and it’s simple enough. Speak out loud to the deity’s energy and ask for a clear undeniable sign within a set timeframe, if they are who you think they are. Example: “If you are Hecate trying to reach me, show me a skeleton key within the next three days”

Once you verify who’s calling, you can begin the process of building a relationship with the deity and working with them. Remember to maintain your personal sovereignty. You can always decline a deity if you don’t wish to work with them. Simply provide the deity an offering of closure, thank them for their time, and choose your own path.

Open vs Closed Practices

Before we get too much further, let's talk about what the difference is between an open and a closed practice, and why it is so important.

A NOTE: while gatekeeping is generally seen as a bad thing, and is openly preached AGAINST in many witchy spaces, there is a time and a place for gatekeeping. Closed practices are one of those times, and I would personally urge everyone to avoid anyone preaching that gatekeeping has no place in witchcraft. There are times when it is essential and absolutely necessary.

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Open Practice: traditions and paths that are available to everyone, regardless of cultural or ancestral background. These practices are highly accessible systems that don't belong to a single, protected ethnic group.

Examples: Secular Witchcraft/SASS, Green Witchcraft, Kitchen Witchcraft, Wicca (most), Chaos Magic, Tarot, Astrology

Closed Practices: traditions and paths that are restricted to specific cultural groups, and require formal initiation, lineage, or community permission to practice them. These practices belong to specific historically marginalized or indigenous cultures, and are protected to prevent exploitation, distortion, and erasure/whitewashing.

Examples: African Traditional Religions, African Diasporic Religions, Hoodoo/Conjure/Rootwork, Indigenous Spiritual Traditions, Traditional Kabbalah, Brujeria

Semi-Open or Apprentice Practices: technically these traditions and paths are closed to the general public, but they offer a structured, public way to enter through deep study and community acceptance. These practices can be sought out for initiation by anyone.

Examples: Norse Heathenry/Asatru (generally open to anyone interested, provided the practitioner rejects racist/supremacist ideologies and respects the historical lore), Traditional British Wicca like Gardnerian or Alexandrian (requires formal initiation into a coven line, but anyone can seek out a coven to begin the training process)

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Gatekeeping Closed Practices

Gatekeeping closed practices is important because it protects sacred traditions from exploitation, prevents the erasure and whitewashing of marginalized histories, and ensures spiritual safety.

For communities that have faced - or still are - systematic oppression, keeping practices closed is a vital form of cultural survival and self-determination.

Preserving Sacred Contexts

When sacred rituals are taken out of their culture and shared, they are stripped of their original meaning, history, and community ethics. Gatekeeping these practices ensures that practices are taught along side their full context, history, and responsibilities to keep the tradition accurate and intact for future generations.

Protecting from Cultural Appropriation

Throughout history, dominant cultures have colonized marginalized groups, taking their land, language, and resources, and capitalized on their spirituality. This happens in many forms, including mass-market production of tools like smudge sticks, and even selling sacred ceremonies. Drawing a hard line around these practices prevents outside corporations and individuals from financially profiting off traditions that the originating culture was historically punished, enslaved, or even killed for practicing.

Providing Spiritual and Psychological Safety

Many closed traditions involve intense energetic work, interaction with ancestral spirits, or deep psychological shifts that require training to handle safely. Closed practices require initiation to ensure the practitioner is mentally, emotionally, and spiritually prepared to handle the practices without harming themselves or others.

Gaining Community Accountability and Lineage

In an open internet culture, anyone can claim to be an expert after reading a few articles. This leads to misinformation and the dilution of witchcraft. Closed practices rely on a system of elders, priests, or community leaders who vouch for a practitioner's character and maturity. Gatekeeping ensures that no one can misrepresent the tradition or abuse power within it.