The original altars were round, being usually a tree stump or a large rock. Today many of us use a small table. I have a large wooden spool, used by Utility companies for wrapping cables and lines. The set up begins by placing a black altar cloth over the altar. This represents the "first movement" within Procreation, towards that which came to be.
Next we place the Spirit Bowl on the center of the altar. This represents the Divine Nature, which was present at the Center of Creation. Then we place two altar candles upon the altar, one to the left symbolizing the Goddess and one to the right symbolizing the God. These represent Their presence, as They oversee Creation.
Next we place the Elemental Bowls, in a pattern which encircles the Spirit Bowl. The Earth Bowl is to the North, Air Bowl to the East, Fire Bowl to the South, and Water Bowl to the West. The altar itself is set in an orientation to true North. The ritual circle is always entered, and left by, the North-East "doorway". The setting of these bowls symbol- ize the coming together of the Elements themselves, in their part in the Creation. We begin with the Air Bowl, and move clockwise. The Earth Bowl is placed last. After the bowls have been placed, we lay out the rituals tools and mundane tools. Each tool is set near the Elemental bowl to which its nature is associated.
At this point, the Spirit bowl is filled with the sacred liquid (which burns a blue flame), and the ritual circle would then be cast.
The spool is a private altar and it is outside underneath my Mulberry Tree. It is too heavy to transport for any of our gatherings, so we employ an altar that one of our initiates made, when we meet for Treguenda, etc.
The elemental bowls are traditionally ceramic. Some of our initiates have gone down to a Restaurant Supply Shop, and bought Japanese tea cups for their elemental bowls. For the Spirit bowl they bought metal ice cream dishes there, and they work quite nicely. Our Spirit bowls are about the size of a hand, and approximately 3 or 4 inches deep.
Regarding a permanent altar, most of us keep a shelf with a God and Goddess Statue on it, along with a small bud vase, incense holder, and a votive candle. Our old temple setting for one of our Groves had a permanent circle (a rope circle fastened to the floor) and a standing altar. But even with this, the altar must be set up as I stated in the first note, because the placement of those items is part of each ritual. So, the altar itself is simply a support for those items, which through their role in the Mythic Drama (the placement) make it a Sacred Space. The permanent altar which I described as the "shelf style", is more of a devotional altar as opposed to a ritual altar.
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