Altars- temporary setups

One of the common issues many people come into when they first start seeking paganism, witchcraft, and alternative spirituality is that they might not have space for an altar all the time.  There are also many people who live with unsupported family members, or have room mates, or many other factors that do not really allow for having a full time altar set up.  This leaves them asking themselves and other pagans what can they do about this?  Some people feel they are less pagan or witchy if they can’t have a full time working altar or shrine.  If you fit into any of these, then this post is for you.

It is perfectly acceptable to only have your altars set up when you are going to be doing an active working.   Many people have to do this sort of practice and work.  There are many reasons why people don’t have full time altars (children, family, pets, room mates, room size, ect) set up in their lives.  For some it can be a hassel and for others they embrace it and make it apart of their actual rituals.  In this way they can build more power.  They will not be suseptable to any and all energy of day to day life when in storage, as such the ritual and power charge in them remains and builds.

In having your altars up only during working its important to still build a powerful personal connection with the tools on your altar.  When you have to set up an altar for each working you make that part of the work itself.  The set up will help you get mentally and physically prepared for magical, spiritual, and religious work.  The set up and placement triggers the body to know that certain actions are going to happen next.  The mind gets told that a different sort of mindset is needed and the transition from normal consciousness to ritual consciousness comes a lot easier.

By making the altar set up and preparation a part of the ritual you start building power and energy for the ritual the moment those items are touched and sent out.  By unwrapping the items and placing them reverently on the altar they get full of sacred energy.  This energy will build in those items and radiate when they are used.  This process also puts mental and emotional energy into the item that serves as triggers for magical, spiritual, and religious actions.

Ritual preparation is as much a part of the ritual as the meat or actual working is.  By treating this process as sacred and reverently as you would the actual ritual you create an even more powerful ritual working.  The power will start building the moment you start setting up your altar and get it complete for the working.  The blessing after the set up will seal the power in and set the tone for the ritual.

Yes.  That is an important part.  If you are not going to be having a permanent altar the altar should be physically cleansed before and after each ritual.  This is yet another part of the ritual prep and the building of power over the altar.  This will remove any mundane or day to day energy that has built up on the surface of the altar making it sacred and suitable for workings.  The blessing when the altar is set up charges them for that specific ritual.

When you take the items down and put them away you have an action that serve as a way to transition in and out of ritual consciousness.  This serves to finally disperse any energy raised in the ritual that was not directed.  From here the sacred energy can be placed into the objects to be used again.  Anything not wanted to be kept will be dispersed into the ground as the altar is taken down and day to day life returns.  This is why the blessing and cleansing of the altar items and actual altar surface is essential.

I hope that now you can see that even if you have to use temporary altars you can make the most of it and still perfor very powerful and effective rituals.  The spells and ritual workings may take a little longer, but if you put all your intent and focus of the ritual into the items from the beginning the power will still be there.  It will not diminish.  It will only grow the more you feed them.