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Author Topic: Do you keep your altar out in the open?  (Read 6704 times)

shadowsiren

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Re: Do you keep your altar out in the open?
« Reply #30 on: March 30, 2017, 05:10:25 pm »
Quote from: rubyred;204441
Ooooh, I like this idea!!

 
I do too!

I'm not sure that the full altar+shrine would be able to fit on something like a plate but the "just shrine" stuff probably could, which is the important part.

Louisvillian

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Re: Do you keep your altar out in the open?
« Reply #31 on: April 01, 2017, 12:45:03 am »
Quote from: rubyred;203925
So do you guys keep your altars hidden from view, or do you not care either way?

I've kept mine out in the open for a while. I haven't really had reason not to.
At first I had a small altar (really, a stool that I had a bowl on top of) in front of the fireplace, with accoutrements for the shrine on the mantel. Then I rearranged the altar and shrine stuff onto a short bookshelf, which I placed on the opposite side of the room; not only does that have basically all of my Paganism, magic, and mythology books, it has my offering bowl, cup, candles, incense burners, and statue of Hekate. And then I moved that bookshelf/altar/shrine to right next to my door, and I hung another shrine above it where I have my statuettes of the twelve Olympians/twelve dii consentes as well as my handmade clay statue of Cernunnos.

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Re: Do you keep your altar out in the open?
« Reply #32 on: April 02, 2017, 06:55:41 pm »
Quote from: shadowsiren;204444
I do too!

I'm not sure that the full altar+shrine would be able to fit on something like a plate but the "just shrine" stuff probably could, which is the important part.

True. For now I've moved my tarot cards all into  a wooden box that's sitting on top of the altar/desk. And my other stuff is in the drawers of said desk. For now. I guess I can pull it all out when I need it but I'm a very visual person!

Quote from: Louisvillian;204501
I've kept mine out in the open for a while. I haven't really had reason not to.
At first I had a small altar (really, a stool that I had a bowl on top of) in front of the fireplace, with accoutrements for the shrine on the mantel. Then I rearranged the altar and shrine stuff onto a short bookshelf, which I placed on the opposite side of the room; not only does that have basically all of my Paganism, magic, and mythology books, it has my offering bowl, cup, candles, incense burners, and statue of Hekate. And then I moved that bookshelf/altar/shrine to right next to my door, and I hung another shrine above it where I have my statuettes of the twelve Olympians/twelve dii consentes as well as my handmade clay statue of Cernunnos.


Sounds like you do a lot of rearranging as well! I feel like moving stuff around keeps everything fresh.
« Last Edit: April 02, 2017, 06:58:11 pm by rubyred »

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Re: Do you keep your altar out in the open?
« Reply #33 on: April 07, 2017, 04:56:10 pm »
Quote from: rubyred;203925
I am rearranging my house because of space issues and the only place I am able to put my altar now is in the front area/living room right by the kitchen. I love the idea of having it out where I spend most of my time anyway, but my only issue with this is that guests will see it. Which isn't a huge problem, since I don't try to hide my beliefs or anything, but I'm also not trying to be like "hey everyone! Look at how interesting and pagan I am!"

Also, my altar is a small desk that I sit at so it's not just a little shelf or anything. It's a full on workspace filled with all my candles and incense and tarot decks and runes and crystals , an obviously spiritually dedicated space.

I've seen on many websites not to have your altar out in the open or within view from anyone who wouldn't "appreciate" it, whatever that means. I don't know if I agree with that or not, since what does it matter what other people's opinions are on my spiritual practice? So do you guys keep your altars hidden from view, or do you not care either way?

 
I have two. One is an outdoor shrine in a wilderness area that is hard to find. It's in a small island in the middle of a marsh and surrounded by reeds. I don't worry a lot about it being found by the wrong people. However, I have found shotgun shells on the island, so I assume deer hunters visit it from time to time. This is a picture of it:

The other one I keep boxed up in a crate and bring it out when I have the time to do proper dedications and invocations. One time I opened the crate to find the Babalon and Ra figures embraced. Funny thing: I didn't recall placing them in that position. Now I knock on the crate before I open it so they aren't disturbed.

Sorcha

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Re: Do you keep your altar out in the open?
« Reply #34 on: April 07, 2017, 07:04:34 pm »
Quote from: rubyred;203925
I am rearranging my house because of space issues and the only place I am able to put my altar now is in the front area/living room right by the kitchen. I love the idea of having it out where I spend most of my time anyway, but my only issue with this is that guests will see it. Which isn't a huge problem, since I don't try to hide my beliefs or anything, but I'm also not trying to be like "hey everyone! Look at how interesting and pagan I am!"

Also, my altar is a small desk that I sit at so it's not just a little shelf or anything. It's a full on workspace filled with all my candles and incense and tarot decks and runes and crystals , an obviously spiritually dedicated space.

I've seen on many websites not to have your altar out in the open or within view from anyone who wouldn't "appreciate" it, whatever that means. I don't know if I agree with that or not, since what does it matter what other people's opinions are on my spiritual practice? So do you guys keep your altars hidden from view, or do you not care either way?

 

Mine is out in the open right now. The more explicitly religious stuff except the crèche and rosary get put away when my family visits, which is rare since they live 14 hours away. I have a mix of saints and goddesses I'm talking with right now, along with that tall vigil candle, which is for my ancestors and rather interestingly seems to be getting the attention of my grandfathers lately. My spirituality is currently whatever-works eclectic, but I've been including more saints lately.

I've also got this little guy on a side table:

It's a small working altar for a friend of mine who's been going through the wringer, so candles, spells, etc for him go there. It's also in the open.

I have a friend I wouldn't put everything away for, but anybody else would probably have varying degrees of put-away before I'd have them over. The friend the small altar is for knows I light candles and has some vague idea that I chat with St. Brigid (although I'm really working with Brigid the goddess, I honor her as a Saint as well), and if he was ever here I'd probably put away less than for most people even if I'm not totally "out" to him.





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SunflowerP

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Re: Do you keep your altar out in the open?
« Reply #35 on: April 07, 2017, 08:36:49 pm »
Quote from: SunflowerP;204176
You (and others participating in this thread) might also be interested in the Altar & Shrine inspiration & pics thread.

 
Responding to myself, because I want to make it less of an over-subtle hint and more explicit, but it's basically a response to Shankara and Sorcha - and to anyone else considering following their/Vixen's lead.

While it's perfectly fine to post altar/shrine pics and descriptions in this thread, you might very well also (or instead) want to post them in the Altar & Shrine inspiration & pics thread I mentioned. People love looking at each other's altar/shrine pics and drawing inspiration from them (and having trinket envy :)), and they're much harder to find when they're in a thread whose title reads like a text-based discussion about altars/shrines and which is just such a discussion for the first couple of pages.

Whether you post there or not is your choice; it's not a rules issue at all. But I do encourage it, because if the sharing process is part of what you want from posting them, that's a better place to achieve it.

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Sorcha

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Re: Do you keep your altar out in the open?
« Reply #36 on: April 07, 2017, 08:37:43 pm »
Quote from: SunflowerP;204750
Responding to myself, because I want to make it less of an over-subtle hint and more explicit, but it's basically a response to Shankara and Sorcha - and to anyone else considering following their/Vixen's lead.

While it's perfectly fine to post altar/shrine pics and descriptions in this thread, you might very well also (or instead) want to post them in the Altar & Shrine inspiration & pics thread I mentioned. People love looking at each other's altar/shrine pics and drawing inspiration from them (and having trinket envy :)), and they're much harder to find when they're in a thread whose title reads like a text-based discussion about altars/shrines and which is just such a discussion for the first couple of pages.

Whether you post there or not is your choice; it's not a rules issue at all. But I do encourage it, because if the sharing process is part of what you want from posting them, that's a better place to achieve it.

Sunflower
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Will do! I have some older pictures there, but my altar keeps evolving, so updates would probably be in order.


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Shankara

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Re: Do you keep your altar out in the open?
« Reply #37 on: April 07, 2017, 10:22:58 pm »
Quote from: SunflowerP;204750
Responding to myself, because I want to make it less of an over-subtle hint and more explicit, but it's basically a response to Shankara and Sorcha - and to anyone else considering following their/Vixen's lead.

While it's perfectly fine to post altar/shrine pics and descriptions in this thread, you might very well also (or instead) want to post them in the Altar & Shrine inspiration & pics thread I mentioned. People love looking at each other's altar/shrine pics and drawing inspiration from them (and having trinket envy :)), and they're much harder to find when they're in a thread whose title reads like a text-based discussion about altars/shrines and which is just such a discussion for the first couple of pages.

Whether you post there or not is your choice; it's not a rules issue at all. But I do encourage it, because if the sharing process is part of what you want from posting them, that's a better place to achieve it.

Sunflower
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Thank you for the hint. I'll try and place them in the location you mentioned.

MabSolana

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Re: Do you keep your altar out in the open?
« Reply #38 on: May 09, 2017, 12:45:59 am »
Quote from: Emma Eldritch;203931
Like Morag said, depending on your living situation you may want to consider things like whether or not your landlord will flip if they happen to look in. If that isn't an issue then it really does boil down to who you are likely to have in your home.

 
Currently, I have my altar right by my bed on top of a cabinet. Since I have roommates who do not share my beliefs I want to respect them too, as they do for me. I did have some stuff in our living room but I moved it when they had to explain it to their girl friend and she did not accept it. He has since dumped her and is with someone different, but I do not want to put him in that situation again...
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R03e

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Re: Do you keep your altar out in the open?
« Reply #39 on: May 12, 2017, 09:32:33 pm »
Quote from: rubyred;203925
I am rearranging my house because of space issues and the only place I am able to put my altar now is in the front area/living room right by the kitchen. I love the idea of having it out where I spend most of my time anyway, but my only issue with this is that guests will see it. Which isn't a huge problem, since I don't try to hide my beliefs or anything, but I'm also not trying to be like "hey everyone! Look at how interesting and pagan I am!"

Also, my altar is a small desk that I sit at so it's not just a little shelf or anything. It's a full on workspace filled with all my candles and incense and tarot decks and runes and crystals , an obviously spiritually dedicated space.

I've seen on many websites not to have your altar out in the open or within view from anyone who wouldn't "appreciate" it, whatever that means. I don't know if I agree with that or not, since what does it matter what other people's opinions are on my spiritual practice? So do you guys keep your altars hidden from view, or do you not care either way?

 
I follow Loki and Cernunous. Both are in my room. I done this for several reasons, one my house is small and doesn't have a lot of space. My room is my personal space so why not keep them there especially since I live with my mom. I also do not want her or my sister, who visits, to see partly because I haven't told her I am Pagan yet. My room is decent sized but the only spot for Cernunous was the top of this organizer and Loki's is the top of a trunk which I had for storing books. She is Catholic or Christian I always forget which one we were. I was raised Catholic converted to Paganism. She is not overly religious; she mainly goes to church and celebrate the religious holidays. I didn't even kept it a secret for religious reasons it just that telling her something takes forever since she likes to interrupt and sometimes goes off topic. Also the topic never came up.

Anyways I suppose whether it is out in the open is preference based. However, someone mentioned the difficulties of living in an apartment and having the landlord find out and the issue of guest being disrespectful to the alter. I am sure those same people would be upset if their altar to Jesus, if they had one was touched and moved. You live in your own home so any issues with a landlord is not a problem for you. You are worried about whether or not it is 'advertising' your Paganism. If this is the ideal space because there is room for it and you will be near it a lot. If they interpret it as showing off your paganism that can't be helped and it is none of their business where you place your religious stuff. However I some altars can appear as decorative. Not many people are knowledgeable of myths and pantheons and some are hardly known such as the Celtic Gods and even the Nordic gods especially Loki. I have candles on both of them, an antler from a garage sale which lots of people would have especially where I live, incenses and a drawing of Loki. I even showed both my mother and sister the drawing but never mentioned it was for an altar. My room is the most convenient spot and it just so happens to aid in hiding it. I didn't pick it for subtly. However several times my mom had done the laundry and brought up my clothes to my room. Which I wouldn't even know until I came from work and up to my room to find clean clothes on my bed. It is either she goes in and out and there fore paid no attention to them or she notice but never suspected because she haven't asked about them.

It is up to you but do not worry too much about it. It is your faith and your house. Some might even think it is decoration even if you didn't make it look like that. A lot of people have candles. People like me like to draw, some people of statuettes of artworks and sometimes the subject matter is mythological. Not saying you have to claim it as decoration but some of your guests might not even guess it as an altar.
R03e

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Re: Do you keep your altar out in the open?
« Reply #40 on: May 13, 2017, 08:36:34 pm »
Quote from: R03e;206024
She is Catholic or Christian I always forget which one we were.

 
Since Catholicism is a branch of Christianity (some Protestants, usually evangelical/fundamentalist, like to claim it isn't, but they're wrong), you'll be accurate either way by just saying 'Christian'.

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