Holidays Altar Magick

Holidays Altar Magick

Making space for your ritual

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Altar for Beginners.

The altar is that space that we dedicate for our individual magical practice, there are many types of altar for many purposes in many different esoteric Traditions, it usually consists - in its most basic aspect - of a wooden table dedicated exclusively to working our magic and perform our spells.

Many Different Practices Require Different Spaces.

See the altar as a reflection of your individual practice, it should remain orderly, useful, and practical for you.  It's not about how it looks and the pretty things you put on it, while the aesthetic aspect may be extremely important to you, don't get distracted in making this the primary focus, everything on the altar should be there for a reason, not just a simple one. decor.

The best advice on this, deconstruct your altar to its minimum necessary and symbolic parts, everything else, that's all.

Espiritismo Example To Understand This

The initiated followers of traditional spiritualism follow a basic rule with our altars: Do not mix the colors, and with "the colors" we refer to different esoteric practices.

When you are a spiritualist, and this is something that many modern practitioners have some difficulty in understanding, is that you work with the spirits, with the ancestors, and with the different deities and energies of each of them.  The practices of your ancestors enrich your practice, and when you work with them, just as you are a medium between the world of the living (earthly plane) and the world of the ancestors (spiritual plane), your ancestors are in turn the mediums. between you, and forces superior to them on the other plane.

This means that after some time, you will end up working with many different spirits at the same time, even from different pantheons and different religions, even so, each of these entities should not mix on the altars, their representative images (statues , drawings, names, etc…) are more than images and statues, they are their symbol on the altar, and should be treated as such, not as decorative objects that end up placed one on top of the other like grandmother's jewelry in a box.

Each pantheon and each deity (if you are working with more than one) should have its own space, and your Christmas altar is no different.

Returning to the Altar.

The Christmas altars have their origin in Venezuela in 1976, made by the followers and teachers of the metaphysical school of Conny Mendez, seeking to recreate the magic of the "Christmas Spirit" on a large scale, anyway, this practice stopped being carried out after just four years, however, my mom choose to keep this ritual in home, just changing the ididea from the original "Christmas Spirit Table and Supper" as a family tradition, and turned it into a small makeshift altar to honor the Magic of the time.

Creating Your Christmas Altar.

Choose a space and a small table to place your altar, cover this altar with a red cloth. As an alternative option, you can create the altar as a centerpiece to allow you to save space at home.

Your Christmas Altar Must Contain:

A censer

with a lighter or matches.

A candle holder

always with a red candle.

A small hand fan

to move the smoke of the incense in different directions.

Christmas Ornaments

they can be Christmas tree balls or other elements. Can be those decorations that this year you decided not to use on the tree.

A bowl (preferably wooden or glass)

to fill it with herbs and seeds of the season, seeds of plants that grow in your Country or City during this season.

*Optional

An image of Santa Claus, San Nicola do Bari, or a wooden statuette that can symbolize the Christmas spirit.

ALTAR USE

Just as a cross represents for people of the Catholic Faith the presence of their divinity, or for witches a pentagram can symbolize power and connection with the elements.  The altar acts - on this occasion - as our pentagram at home, it is a way of saying to visiting and well-intentioned spirits "here we celebrate you, you are welcome, this warm bright light and this fragrant incense is for you".

During December, we burn pine, cedar or mint incense and light a red candle (or it can be white), every Monday and Thursday to keep the energy alive and active at home, to dispel anxiety and frustration, to honor the visiting spirits, and to put our Light into the spirit world.

On the night of December 21, we light a long red candle in honor of the Spirit of Christmas, we write our wishes on paper and place them in a small saucer with myrrh, when the candle is completely consumed, we keep all the wishes together in an envelope to burn them the following year on December 20 (one night before the day of the Christmas Spirit).

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