Having a dedicated altar in your home is a beautiful and extremely personal way to connect to sacredness and spirituality.
Whether you use this for a daily ritual you have created for yourself, your quiet time/meditation, your yoga practice or just a space to reflect.. I highly recommend that you create one if you haven’t done so already.
What is an altar?
An altar is a sacred place/space that is used for your ritual. If you look in various traditions and religions, an altar is where you pray, a sacred place for sacrifices and gifts offered to God/Gods and other ritualistic purposes.
Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship.
Why do I need an altar/sacred space?
It doesn’t mean that you must be religious to have an altar space. Your altar is an outer representation of your inner attunement.
By having this sacred space/place you are honoring yourself and what matters to you. You are honoring your sacredness and your rituals.
Once you create a ritual/rituals in that same space/place, just by entering and being in that space you will feel the difference in your energy. It is very powerful.
How to set up your altar
Set your intention for the altar. Considering what is sacred to you and what purpose you would like for it to have.
I will share a little bit about my sacred space.
I have 2 altars in my home. One is in my bedroom and the other one is in my yoga room. In my bedroom I have a separate table with Ganesha statue, crystals & a singing bowl. My intention is to create a protective and serene space when I rest, but to also see this every day as I wake up.
My Yoga room altar holds other crystals, cleansing materials and a blessing bowl. I meditate in front of it and ask for it to hold space for any rituals that I do, as well as when I teach and provide energy healing sessions for my clients.
Find a special place that is not cluttered. Keep your altar free of debris.
What should I put on my altar?
Gather items that inspire you and you have a connection with. In other words, anything that is meaningful to you. Here are some ideas:
Photos of your ancestors , Crystals, Oracle Cards, Candles, Written prayers, spells, or rituals , Flowers, Statues, Pictures or objects that remind you of what you're manifesting, Beloved books
If an item has significance for you and evokes the feelings of love, peace, happiness, gratitude etc this can be placed on your altar.
Others like to use the 4 elements of nature; Earth, fire, air, water
You can place fresh flowers which you bought specifically for your altar ( this ties in with water/earth element). When you sit for meditation, rituals you can light a candle ( fire, air & space).
I love to use candles and incense to invigorate other senses.
For those who practice Yoga on other days than the live sessions with me – it can become your sacred practice space too – given that there is enough space.
Once you create your altar space/place, don’t just leave it as decoration. Use it for intentions, manifesting, asking for guidance, doing rituals, meditations, yoga practice, chanting – fuel it with all of these things and It will fuel you back – the magic is very real.
Here’s a quick story
I love travelling to Bali. It is my spirit home. As soon as I step off that place – I can feel the uplifting energy. Why?
This was me participating in a purification ritual known as melukat. This is at Tirta Empul holy water temple.
Well, everyday - several times per day the Bali people make offering ceremonies, in order to keep the harmony of the inner and outer worlds in balance. They also have altar spaces in their gardens.
Every day they will put out this little hand woven basket called Canang Sari and usually is a small quadratic basket woven from palm or banana leaves. Inside the little basket you will find rice, incense, cookies, flowers, money etc as an offering. They also use a Frangipani flower and go into their garden altar space and do a water blessing.
When I watched this every single day. It felt so peaceful, so simple yet so special and sacred. This really inspired me to do the same for my home. A daily blessings ritual – how beautiful is that?
And so getting back to when I step off of that plane.. I honestly believe that the reason why I feel the way I feel every time I land in Bali is because of how the people raise the energy and vibration of the island with their daily blessing rituals and their pure intentions.
This is the same for your altar and your space.
My wish is the same for you.. May your altar/your sacred space and your internal environment bring & reflect peace, love, happiness, purpose, connection and sacredness.
Ps. If you feel like sharing a photo with me, I would love to see it. You can e-mail me on toma@toma-j.com
