Creating a Portable Altar
Table of Contents Other Days of Wiccan Observance Herb Correspondence Creating a Portable Altar Ritual Tool Associations Finding Your Magickal Name Color Magick Should I Raise a Pagan Child? Basic Axioms and Magickal Laws The Pagan Movement Essentail Oil Correspondences Essentail Oils and their Magickal Intent Make Your Own Oils Days of the Week and their Magickal Associations The Wiccan Rede (Full Version) The Witches Cupboard Tools of a Kitchen Witch Colors in Psychology Wicca: Questions and Answers for Parents Magickal Ethics		Recently I'd been trying to come up with a way to create a small, useful, and portable altar set up that could be taken with someone in either a purse, backpack, or kept in a car glovebox. I'm the type of person that sometimes gets pulled to do a meditation or a quick devotion or work and it needs to where I am not later when I can make it back home to my full altar and sacred space. I'm also one that needs my tools. Some people can work without but I need to have my candles and incense for concentration and the creation of sacred space. Some "out grow" this need, others, like myself, never will. So in this great need to come up with something, I managed to figure out the following items that would normally be found in a regular altar set up, but in a more portable fashion. *Mini Birthday Cake Candles - These candles are perfect for carrying since they are small, generally about 2 inches at the most, and come in all kinds of colors. Yes, even black! You can also get candles that have designs on them, multiple colors, or even in shapes. But for the basics in the kit, plain solid colored ones should be all you need. A few white candles and then which ever other color you think you may need like blue, green, pink, or purple. *Small Lighter or Matches - I personally prefer a lighter because of the use of sulpher in the match heads, but this is a personal decision that you would need to make. Now you can get very small little lighters that are about the same size as the birthday candles. *Mini Incense Sticks - Many companies now make mini incense sticks and some even come with a holder. If you don't have a holder and you run into the occasion to be working outside with your kit, you can just poke the incense into the ground. Or carry a small dop of putty to quickly make something to hold the stick. Also, I would say that even if you don't normally use stick incense, it's easier in this case to do so. Otherwise you'll need to have not only your incense, but a burner and charcoal and possibly some old ash or sand to absorb heat. Again, personal decision will need to take over here, but I would go with the sticks or even cones. Small and does the job. Standard in the kit should be a blessing or Goddess blend or sandalwood. *Mini Wand - This is something that you can buy now in a lot of Pagan shops, but you can also make this very easily. Go outside and find a 3 to 4 inches long. Remove any greenery still attached. If you want you can just use it as is, or strip off the bark, oil with linseed oil, and mark if possible. But going natural works well. It's your decision how fancy you want to get. *Small Baggie of Salt - With a little zip lock bag get some sea salt for your altar. *Dram Size bottle of Altar/Blessing Oil - If you have a certain type of oil that you use as an altar or blessing oil, toss into your kit a dram sized bottle. If you don't have an all purpose anointing oil that you use, you can make a blend of frankincense and myrrh and use that with your kit. *Mini Bell - If you use a bell to ring in your spirits, fey, elements, or deity to circle or to clear the area, you can get a small mini bell from a craft store or at any department store during the Yule season. *Mini Athame - Now, this is up to you if you even wish to go as far as to have a portable athame. Some would chose not to because you can typically use to wand in it's place and we aren't going to be talking about an actual double sided blade here. If you wish to have a portable athame or ritual knife I have seen people use pocket knives, knives from Swiss army kits, or even using an "athame pendent" (the knife shaped necklaces that you get in shops like Spencers). *Collapsible Cup - This would be your portable chalice. These cups are available at camping and hiking supply stores. They are little plastic cups that can pop up and when folded down form a small flat disc. *Pentacle - Take the one right off your neck or get a small pentacle representation in the form of a rock or crystal which either has a pentagram carved into it or which can, in and of itself, less the marking, still represent the element of Earth. *Mini Broom - You can get them almost anywhere now. They are so cute and work great to sweep out the bad vibes in an area. Now, after getting all your things together, determine the size bag that you will need to carry these items in. You can purchase a large bag designed for tarot cards and slip in all your stuff. Or, if you're crafty, you can sew together a bag which , when opened, opens up into an altar cloth. One way to do this would be to make it with a zipper going on 2 or 3 sides of square design (each side and then the top, or zippers on the sides and a tie at the top. This when unzipped and untied you are left with the bottom seam being the part holding the bag together). Naturally when sewing this together, zippers can be hidden by fabric or ribbons so that they are not right out in the open. If you chose not to make your own and buy a tarot bag, wrap your items up in a cloth and place them inside the bag wrapped up. This not only keeps things from falling out, but also keeps the energy inside. Once the bag is made or picked out, get all your items together, bag included, and go into your permanent or usual working area and bless, cleanse, and consecrate each of your ritual items. Obviously you can work the candles like you would any other candles and set them aside to be cleansed when they are going to be used so you can infuse them for their purpose. The incense can also sit on the sidelines. But, as with anything new like this, it doesn't hurt to have them in for a general overall blessing of tools, and then consecrate the ritual items like the wand, athame, chalice, and so forth. When all are cleansed and ready to go, wrap them up, put them in their pouch, and off you go! I had gotten this idea when I was thinking about going into counseling work for Pagans in hospitals and care facilities. It's not always possible to bring in a whole altar, and when you are in a place that has a chapel, you can work there or always go outside. Also, whenever I go to the beach I want to stop and hold a little mini ritual for the Goddess of the Seas and all the creatures in her realm. This is a great way to go anywhere and be fairly discreet about what you're doing and have everything that you need for an altar right there. About the Author: Athena Pendragon has been a practicing Witch for over 13 years. She is a solitary Eclectic Celtic Hedge Witch and loves her tools. She currently carries in her purse her tarot cards, pendulum, mini wand, magick cords, and power crystal at all times. You never know when they might come in handy. [Copyright 2001 by Athena Pendragon - Use and distribute freely with proper credit given.]