How to Make a Wiccan or Pagan Altar

An altar is a great way to express your religion be it Wicca, Druidry or whatever, here I'll suggest some of the more common Wiccan and Pagan supplies you can use to create it.

An altar or sacred space is a place where you can go when you want a moment of calm, if you want to mediate or show your devotion, and can be a refreshing and nourishing thing to have! Sacred Spaces or Altars can keep you connected to nature and are a good place to keep your ritual and spell tools, your book of shadows if you have one, divination tools like tarot cards and whatever else you want! An altar is a truly personal thing so everything you see here is just a suggestion – go with what feels right and it harm none! :o)

Start off by finding a good spot most likely in your house but if you can find somewhere safe outside this is good too. You may wish to get a box or table and cover it with a cloth, you can use something from your house, maybe get some fabric from old clothes or from the charity shop, natural fabrics are best, or even buy a cloth, there are lots of really nice Pagan themed cloths to buy with say a Green Man design, or pentacle design.

Create a sacred space, there are different methods to use, you can do something you are familiar with, or just something simple like lighting a candle (preferably white for cleansing), use some incense starting off with dragon's blood, a herb easily available online, then burn frankincense to bring in the positive energy. Bless some water with salt (ideally sea salt) and sprinkle the water in the area of the altar and on any items you wish to cleanse.

There's various tools, items and supplies you can use for your Wiccan or Pagan altar – here are some for you to choose from.

Candles

Many people recommend having four candles, one in each corner to symbolise the elements and compass points. See below for the correspondences and colours of each element. As with everything it's up to you, but having four candles does help to create balance which is an important thing for a Wicca or Pagan sacred space.

Elemental correspondances

Earth – North – Green Candle - Bell

Air – East – Yellow Candle - Athame

Fire – South – Red Candle - Wand

Water – West – Blue Candle - Chalice

However, as Oz-Shaman pointed out (see comments at the bottom of the page) these correspondences are different in different traditions. If in doubt, go with your intuition and what feels right to you!

Representing the God and Goddess

Lots of people like to represent the god and goddess or a favourite deity. This is a very personal thing and really imagination is your only limit! But people often use statues, maybe of a god or animal perhaps, or something from nature like a seashell or a crystal or rock, you could also use a candle with a the god and goddess symbols on it, or even carve it in yourself. You can also represent the Goddess and God with ritual tools.

Ritual Tools

Bell (North & Earth)

A bell or tibetan signing bowl is traditionally used to represent North and earth and there are lots of lovely bells available with pentagram or other symbols. This allows you to have sound in your spells or rituals. If you don't have a bell you can use salt, again preferably sea salt.

Athame (East & Air)

Traditionally the Athame is a black handled knife that represents Air. The Athame is not for cutting but for tracing out magickal symbols in the air for spells and rituals. A separate white handled knife is usually used for cutting, but as with everything you have freedom to alter as you choose. The Athame also usually represents the God.

Wand (South & Fire)

Wands are used to direct and intensify energies, and like the Athame for drawing pagan symbols. There are many different types of wands you can have and materials that can be used. You can take a small branch from a tree and even decorate it, or you can buy a wand, either made of wood or crystal. Crystal wands are especially good for healing.

Chalice (West & Water)

A Chalice is a good thing for an altar, you can use it to hold wine, water juice, blessed water or any substance you feel represents fertility or holiness. There's various silver chalices available for sale, or if you don't want to buy anything you can see if you have any nice small container in your house, and make sure you include it your cleansing ritual at the start of making the altar, to rid it of any energies it may have picked up in day to day use. The Chalice can also represent the goddess.

Something from Nature

Keeping your altar or sacred space seasonal is a great way to keep connected with nature and its energy. Again you are only limited to what you can find but to give you an example you could have some coloured leaves from autumn, berries, seashells, rocks, a small branch of a tree, an acorn, or some flowers but be careful not to pick any rare ones.

Crystals and Gemstones

Crystals are excellent at concentrating energy and can be used in spells, mediation, healing and in helping to change your life, through assisting with losing weight, depression or even helping you to astral travel. You can keep the crystals you are not using at any one time on your altar and this will also help to empower the altar. An especially good crystal to have is clear quartz, it is one of the best stones for healing, and also balances chakras, and can help with intuition, confidence, awareness.

Incense or Oil Burner

Smells are excellent in evoking emotion and moods and so are vital for spell work and rituals, and good for meditation. So a good incense burner is a great thing to keep on your altar. There's a variety of Pagan themed burners available for sale. If going for an oil burner, I recommend choosing a soapstone burner as they are better at projecting the smell and so your incense lasts for longer!

Something Personal

You may wish to put something personal of your own in the altar, to link it to you so that it can be a positive force for you. What you choose is really up to you, but examples might include a diary, a special piece of jewellery that you keep but don't wear, a photo of loved ones, a present that you have treasured, a toy from childhood, something unusual like a shell or strange rock you found and kept with you for a while (so it absorbed something of your aura). It up to you!

So as I said before, how you make your altar and what you put on it are up to you! These are some suggestions that I hope you find useful, as with everything in paganism and alternative religions, use your intuition and imagination and you'll have a great altar and a really special place to retreat to!