There is an hour in the evening when the house lets go of its noise. The dishes stand drying, the street empties of engines, and the lamp throws one small warm island onto the floorboards.
An altar is a table that has been given a purpose.
It may be a chest of drawers with a scarred top, a shelf above the books, or a windowsill where the cold comes through the paint.
Nothing needs to be purchased before the first one is made. Most of what the surface asks for is already sleeping in the cupboards.
Begin with the question of where the altar will stand.
What a Wiccan Altar Is
The altar is the working center of any rite performed at home.
It holds the tools within reach of the hand and marks the place where attention gathers, the way a hearth gathers a room.
Everything set upon it is there because it means something.
An altar is not a shrine to be worshipped from a distance. It is a workbench, kept with care and used often.
Some altars stand all year in the same quiet corner, in winter light and spring dust.
Others are laid out for a single evening and folded away before the first gray shows at the window.
Both are altars. The cloth decides it, and not the furniture.
Where to Place the Altar
Choose the quietest room available to you, the one that holds its silence even when the rest of the house is awake.
The altar wants a corner nobody crosses by accident. Interruption undoes concentration, and a door opening behind you takes the whole evening with it.
A bedroom corner serves well, and so does a spare room, a landing, or a deep alcove the daylight never reaches.
Avoid the direct path between a door and a window. Moving air and open flame keep very poor company, and a draught finds the candle long before you do.
Avoid the spot where a television or a telephone sits in plain view, glass-faced and waiting to light up.
If the home is shared and privacy matters, a cupboard shelf behind a door works well. The altar is simply closed when the working ends.
Leave enough bare floor in front of the table to stand upon and to turn upon.
Room for a magic circle is worth far more than a grand piece of furniture.
Which Way the Altar Faces
Most practitioners set the altar so that it faces north.
North is held to be the quarter of Earth, of stillness and of form. Standing before the table you look toward that quarter, and the wall in front of you stops being a wall.
Some traditions face the altar east instead, toward the light of the rising sun.
Others place it at the center of the circle so that it may be walked around, the flames turning slowly as you pass. That arrangement suits group work rather better than solitary work.
None of these is wrong. Choose one and keep to it until the feet find the direction in the dark.
A compass settles the question in a moment, and the needle does not argue.
Choosing the Working Surface
Wood is the traditional choice for the working surface, and wood remembers what is done upon it.
A wooden top takes candle wax, spilled salt and rings of water without complaint, and it keeps a little warmth under the palms.
A small side table, a trunk, a bread board worn pale in the middle, or a wide stool will all serve.
Stone and slate are excellent, cool to the hand and heavy enough that once placed they tend to stay placed.
Glass and polished metal throw the candlelight back into the eyes, which many people find distracting.
The surface must be steady above everything else. A table that rocks when leaned upon will spill something eventually, and it will choose its moment.
Height matters a great deal more than beauty. Waist height suits standing work, and a low table suits kneeling.
Measure the space carefully before carrying anything up the stairs.
The Altar Cloth
A cloth lifts the altar out of the ordinary furniture beneath it.
Laying it down is the first act of every working. Shaking it out and folding it away is the last.
Natural fiber is preferred, which means cotton, linen, silk or wool, thread that came from something that once lived.
Black is common, because black shows the flame and gives the eye somewhere to rest.
White belongs to cleansing and to beginnings. Green, red, brown and deep blue are often chosen to answer the season standing outside the window.
Keep the cloth for the altar and for nothing else. A tablecloth borrowed from supper smells of supper, and it does not hold the same quiet.
Wash it by hand when it needs washing, and dry it in open air.
Burn marks are not damage. They are the record of work already done, small brown moons on the weave.
The Four Elements on the Altar
Four things stand on the altar because four things make the world.
Earth, Air, Fire and Water are each given a body to live in and a quarter to stand in. The tabletop becomes a small map of the circle.
The four elements are the frame that everything else hangs upon.
Set them down first, and the remaining objects find their own places around them.
The four containers need not match, since honest objects outrank matching ones.
Earth in the North
Earth is placed at the far left corner of the altar, in the north.
A dish of plain salt is the usual representative, dry and faintly gritty under the fingertip. Dark soil, a flat river stone, or a bowl of grain does the same work.
Earth stands for the body, for patience, and for everything that endures without asking to be noticed.
A pentacle, if you own one, is laid down in this quarter. It doubles as a small tray for anything being blessed.
Air in the East
Air is placed at the far right corner of the altar, in the east.
Incense represents it, because smoke is simply air made visible, a gray thread climbing and bending and climbing again. A single feather serves just as well.
Air stands for thought, for speech and for the beginning of things.
The censer keeps this quarter throughout the working. Set it on a tile if the surface beneath is precious, since heat travels downward as readily as smoke travels up.
Fire in the South
Fire is placed at the near right corner of the altar, in the south.
A red candle in a steady holder is the plain and sufficient answer, and the flame leans toward you whenever you breathe.
Fire stands for will, for courage and for the force that makes change.
Anything lit should stand well clear of the cloth edge. Melted wax travels further than anyone expects, and it travels quietly.
Much of what applies here belongs to candle magic as well.
Water in the West
Water is placed at the near left corner of the altar, in the west.
A small bowl or a deep shell holds it, and the candlelight lies trembling on the surface. Fill it fresh for every working, and empty it afterward.
Water stands for feeling, for memory and for whatever lies hidden.
Pour it out onto soil rather than down a drain, wherever that is possible.
The Center of the Altar
The middle of the altar is deliberately left bare.
This is the working space, where a candle is dressed or a charm is assembled thread by thread.
A crowded center makes for clumsy hands. Objects get knocked over, and a knocked candle ends the evening early and in the dark.
Keep a hand span of open cloth at the very least, an empty place for the work.
The Goddess and God Candles
Two candles commonly stand at the back edge of the altar, a little above everything else.
The left candle is given to the Goddess and the right candle to the God.
Silver and gold are often used, though plain white candles carry the same light.
They are lit first and put out last. Everything else on the altar happens between those two small moments of flame.
Some altars carry a figure or an image between them, watching from the shadow at the back. Statues are a matter of preference rather than requirement.
Lady of the moon, Lord of the greenwood, be welcome at this table.
The Working Tools
Tools are gathered slowly rather than bought in one afternoon. Each takes a while to stop feeling like a stranger in the hand.
An altar holding three honest objects outranks an altar of unfamiliar purchases.
The tools most often named are these:
- the athame, a black handled knife used to direct energy
- the wand, used to invite rather than to command
- the chalice, which holds wine, water or fruit juice
- the pentacle, a flat disc used to bless and to ground
- the censer, which carries the incense and the charcoal
- the bell, rung to open and to close a rite
- the besom, or broom, used to sweep the space beforehand
- a book, kept open at the working being performed
The magical dagger and the wand are the two most often confused with each other. The knife directs and commands, where the wand asks and invites.
A book of shadows earns its place on the cloth quickly. Written rites are far steadier than remembered ones, and memory goes strange by candlelight.
Nothing on this list is required on the first night.
Where Each Tool Rests
Every tool is given one place and returned to it afterward. The hand should find the knife without the eye leaving the flame.
A workable arrangement across the surface runs as follows:
- the salt dish to the north, at the far left
- the censer and the incense to the east, at the far right
- the red candle to the south, at the near right
- the water bowl to the west, at the near left
- the Goddess and God candles along the back edge
- the athame and the wand along the near edge
- the chalice a little to the right of center
- the pentacle lying flat in the middle
Learn it once and the layout stops asking anything of you at all. That is the whole reason for fixing the positions, so that the hands may work while the mind is elsewhere.
A Simple First Layout
A first altar needs no more than five things.
- a cloth to lay down over the surface
- a candle standing in the south for Fire
- a bowl of water in the west for Water
- a dish of salt in the north for Earth
- a stick of incense in the east for Air
Cloth, flame, water, salt and smoke. That is already a complete altar, and nothing further is required in order to begin.
Tools may be added over months, each one welcome as it arrives.
Consecrating the Altar
Consecration is the act of setting something apart for one single use.
It is done when the altar is first laid out, and again whenever the altar is moved.
Begin after sunset, with the room clean and the door closed behind you.
Wipe the surface with a damp cloth and dry it thoroughly, until the wood is warm under the hand.
Lay the altar cloth down and smooth it flat with both palms, corner to corner.
This wood is set apart. Nothing common belongs upon it now.
Light the incense and carry it slowly once around the table, letting the smoke trail behind you.
By Air, this altar is swept clear.
Light the candle and pass an open hand above the flame, close enough to feel the heat.
By Fire, this altar is warmed and lit.
Dip a finger into the water and touch each of the four corners, leaving prints that dry as you watch.
By Water, this altar is washed clean.
Take a pinch of salt and set it down in the north, white against the cloth.
By Earth, this altar is made steady and sure.
Stand a moment longer with both hands flat upon the cloth, and let the room go still.
Let what is worked here be worked with a clear heart.
The candles are then put out, and two threads of smoke rise in the dark. The altar is ready for use.
Turning the Altar with the Year
An altar changes its face as the wheel of the year turns beneath it.
Fresh leaves arrive in spring and dried seed heads in autumn, rattling when a door closes too hard. The cloth changes color along with the season.
Apples, nuts and dark candles suit the closing half of the year, when the windows go black early.
Shells, feathers and river stones suit the growing half, when the light stays late.
At Samhain the altar often carries photographs of the beloved dead, propped where the candlelight can reach their faces.
Nothing set out for one season should be left there past it. Wilted greenery on an altar reads as plain neglect.
Keeping the Altar
An altar is something kept rather than something stored.
Dust it weekly and change the water in the bowl. Trimmed wicks burn cleaner and smoke a great deal less.
Wax that has run onto the surface is scraped away once it has gone cold and hard and white.
Salt draws the damp out of the air and grows heavy with it, so replace it often.
Keep the tools wrapped in cloth whenever the altar is packed away. A traveling altar folds down into a shoebox or a drawstring bag.
A cloth, a candle stub, a shell and a small knife are enough away from home, on a borrowed table or a cold windowsill.
The altar is wherever the cloth is laid.
Lay it down tonight, in the quiet after the house has settled, and begin with whatever is already in the cupboards.