Building Outdoor Ritual Space

[MarieBay]

What sorts of factors would you consider if you were able to build outdoor space?  (Privacy, ancient models for what you're doing, different pagan religions, alignments with the stars or directions, etc.?)

What would you build?  What materials, structures, other symbols would you want to use?

 
Oh ho ho, when I have my own acreage... Right now, I have about six acres of family land to play on and a fair bit of privacy. I use the fire pit quite often for ritual work (and s'mores!), and there just happens to be a nice potting station nearby which is perfect for preparing herbs and things.

I really, really would like to put up a flagpole in the upper field for prayer flags and other offerings, but it's probably not going to be possible until I get my own place.

Some day (when I have my own land...) build a circle of standing stones with a fire pit in the middle as a more permanent and comfortable place to do rituals and leave offerings. It's one of the reasons I'd like to purchase the land I grew up on from my parents. It's on the top of a huge hill with a fabulous view, and there are great and useful trees nearby (ash, maple, apple, hazel, spruce, pine, cedar...), and there are already huge rock piles everywhere, just waiting to be rearranged!

And tonnes of space for a giant great witchy garden and root cellar.

[Annie Roonie]

..

Just hanging my own little spot of peace here again.

I am still waiting for shrubberies to go on sale to plant before winter, and then next spring it'll be all about the other plants.

However, the circle is useful now and an added beauty bonus is that a wildflower weed decided to grow and bloom (mornings only - it stays twisted shut like a morning glory for the rest of the time). It took a bit to identify but Venetian Mallow (Hibiscus trionum) it is.

             

I'm very discreet in my usage of the space spiritually, but the neighbors  seem to like it. When there is more privacy with trees, I will feel a bit freer. Right now simple meditation is powerful enough.



The mint came back in good form too. So there are at least two pants to keep me company so far and at dusk, there is steam from the ground that drifts up between the pea gravels. I am lucky.

[MarieBay]

The mint came back in good form too. So there are at least two pants to keep me company so far and at dusk, there is steam from the ground that drifts up between the pea gravels. I am lucky.

 
It looks like such a peaceful place

[drekfletch]

What sorts of factors would you consider if you were able to build outdoor space?  (Privacy, ancient models for what you're doing, different pagan religions, alignments with the stars or directions, etc.?)

What would you build?  What materials, structures, other symbols would you want to use?

 
I'd have a great deal of site-specific considerations.  The flow of travel through the space, daily life/activities.

I currently have an altar at the top of the stairs to the parking lot. (I live on the top floor, so I have a tiiiiny deck as my entrance.)  This holds my miniature herm for Hermes, the keys for Hecate, and a Brick for Zeus.  It's a convenient location to give these three related aspects offerings every day as I leave.  The herm is for travelers, and the keys are for gate-keeping.  If I get property, this boundary will be at the end of the driveway, where I don't walk by.  I'd have to stop the car and get out to offer.  So will I change the aspect?  Or just acknowledge the Gatekeeper away from the gate?

If I get the money to buy the family farm back (Grandparents sold it shortly before I was born, 30 years ago) where will I be farming?  Where are the fields going, what's being planted (rotating crops or permanent herb garden, etc) and what's the traffic pattern between them, the house, the forest and the road.  I'll have a firepit somewhere permanent.  I plan to have a harvest altar in the fallow field that get's burned annually, with a centerpiece effigy of the land-mother-spirit.  What will I do for a compost pile?  These are important questions.

Other factors involve how many people would be using it at once, as well as how my practice would evolve for having the space to begin with.  If I don't get the farm, all those considerations would be altered to fit the land I do get.

Privacy isn't too much a factor.  And practice I did outdoors would almost always involve a social aspect, so it would appear to be a normal party to outsiders.  Ancient practices and other religions would influence what I was doing to an extent, but only through that practice would it affect structures and spaces.  I don't use astrological correspondence, so I don't think it'd factor in.  Directions might, but mostly in deference to the lay of the land.