{"id":110,"date":"2011-08-16T21:10:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T02:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.wordpress.com\/2011\/08\/16\/sacred-space-to-establish-space"},"modified":"2011-08-16T21:10:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T02:10:00","slug":"sacred-space-to-establish-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/2011\/08\/16\/sacred-space-to-establish-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacred Space to Establish Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I drove across three states to go to college, almost a fifth of what I brought pertained either to my altar, or my magical library.\u00a0 I set up my altar even before I set up my bookshelves or unpacked my clothes.\u00a0 Since them, I have spent hours poking and prodding at it, trying to tune it properly to the new space and my new needs.<\/p>\n

When I took it apart back in Kansas City, I had high ideals of putting it together so that the symbolism was clear and consistent, with cosmic forces at the heart, building outward to symbols of the mortal world.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the gods whose idols make up my altar would have no part of that.<\/p>\n

This evening, at last, I think we have reached a compromise: an arrangement that displays them as they wish to be displayed and fits my need for a pattern of some sort, all while still leaving me the space I\u2019ll need to work.\u00a0 It\u2019s somewhat unbalanced at the moment.\u00a0 There are gods who need spaces, but for whom I have not yet found or made adequate icons or idols.<\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"Altar-Cropped\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The topmost level consists of a candle rack where I have anchored protective spells for almost twenty years.\u00a0 Behind it is a slice of blue geode, given to me by my grandmother when I was a child \u2013 it has been a part of my altar for as long as I can remember.\u00a0 In front are a pair of quartz crystals, mined and cleaned by Pasiphae and Aidan in Arkansas; and a dragon-bell given to me by a neighbor in St.Louis.<\/p>\n

The next level is divided into three sections.\u00a0 You can see Dionysos clearly on the left, and at his feet is a Maenad.\u00a0 Sharing that shelf are a paper skull, representing mortality; and an anvil marked with a fire glyph, which I work with when honoring Hephaestos.\u00a0 You cannot quite see my ritual blade.\u00a0 In the center section are the God and Goddess statues I have been working with as I struggle to reconcile my fundamental queerness with heavily gendered archetypes that seem to work so well for others.\u00a0 In between them is the altar-box Aradia made me as an Initiation-gift, a world tree painted on one side; the other bearing six small drawers, each filled with an elemental power.\u00a0 On the right is my ritual chalice; a rubber purple Ostara egg from a ritual several years ago; a copper bracelet and ring in the shape of serpents, which I used to channel the spirits at the Farmhouse S\u00e9ance<\/a>.\u00a0 My cauldron completes the set, but that section needs a great deal more attention.<\/p>\n

The lower level is divided into five sections: three along the wall, an elemental circle in the center, and a working surface.\u00a0 The back left section contains a variety of tools \u2013 my jeweler\u2019s hammers, saw, and and bench pin; a gong and striker; a sickle-shaped ritual knife, and several cloths.\u00a0 The central recess contains my sun-god maks and a piece of driftwood found in Chicago.\u00a0 The back right section contains my visionary mask, my Orb (long story), the statue wherein lives a spirit I work with (though I haven\u2019t seen her since Heartland), and a rose and candle from my Phi Theta Kappa induction which will be incorporated in my altar to Athena as soon as I find or make an appropriate idol.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4204\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The elemental circle is fairly straightforward: candle nubs saved from the altar where I worked with Aradia, Pasiphae, Aidan, Chriotus, and D; a quartz crystal, a flame-shaped stone and a clay censer, a stone, a blue bowl and a sea shell, each accompanying their respective elements; in the center is a clay pentacle I made.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The rest is all working space: a mad collection of tools and spells and memories and works-in-progress.\u00a0 The five stones \u2013 one beside each element, one atop the pentacle \u2013 are for a project I\u2019m working on, as are all the stones lined up in the front: blending the hot-stone massage I\u2019m learning with the ceremonial magic; the four will be marked with elemental sigils, others will be marked with zodiac and planetary seals.\u00a0 There\u2019s a money spell in the back left, and a bottle in which I dump excess lust (that one never worked right \u2013 it overfilled almost immediately and I always had more \u2026 still handy from time to time, though).\u00a0 The giant sage wand was a gift from a shamanic practioner at Heartland 2009, who took Aradia and I on very interesting inward journeys.\u00a0 The pile of quartz are also from Pasiphae and Aidan.\u00a0 There\u2019s a green soapstone container full of all the hematite rings I broke in highschool, which I\u2019ve kept for spell components.\u00a0 And more.\u00a0 And more.\u00a0 There\u2019s even more below and inside the altar table.<\/p>\n

This is where I work.\u00a0 By the way, I\u2019m crazy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I drove across three states to go to college, almost a fifth of what I brought pertained either to my altar, or my magical library.\u00a0 I set up my altar even before I set up my bookshelves or unpacked my clothes.\u00a0 Since them, I have spent hours poking and prodding at it, trying to … Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","tag-altars"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kUcm-1M","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}