One of the requirements of the Dedicant year is to showcase your personal home shrines and altars. We are to show how they grow and change as we grow and change in our journey. I have shown my shrine and altar many times in many places. Currently, my space has grown to take over most of a large window shelf. I used to have just a central altar, where I had my icons and elements and did all my works. Now, I have the space to add shrines, as it were.
This side, the left side, is my "magic" shrine. It is here that other gods/goddesses/spirits are honored, and other magic is done. Currently it has a Spellbook which only holds one of my devotional prayers and my ADF member card. Eventually it is to hold prayers and such. I also have my Druid Animal Oracle Deck book on this side, mostly for balance, as it doesn't really work on the right side where I keep the actual deck. I also have a candle, candle snuffer, incense burner (for looks only, it was my mom's and it has a crack in it), my Athame, and two necklaces. One is a carved reindeer horn piece devoted to Elen of the Ways. It was a gift from a grovemate just before we left on our journey as a military family. She keeps us safe in our travels. The second is a small token style necklace with an imprint of Aries on it. I was born on the 31st of March, so an Aries I am, haha! The cloth is a pretty scarf that I got long ago... I can't recall from where, though!
This is my central altar, devoted to Brighid. I started fully worshiping Her exclusively about 16 years ago, devoting myself to Her on Imbolc of 2005. The icon in the back is a drawing I did in a fit of Imbas of Her, and have used it on every shrine and altar ever since. I was going to color it, but never did. The brass swan is a piece that my inlaws gave to us in a large cache of brass objects, and it was the only piece that spoke to me. (the rest of the brass when to others who wanted them, and to a recycling yard) I have a candle in the back, little bottles that once held water from Her site in Kildare, shells from Taiwan and Coco Beach FL, fused glass plate for my incense burner disc, a bowl with water and river stones, a wooden acorn, and a rock of hematite. All these little things have personal significance to me, like the shell from Coco Beach, which was the first time I had been to the ocean. I also have my wedding ring and a small Brighid's Cross pin that I wear sometimes, and received from the founder of a Brighid order I used to belong to. The cloth is a scarf with wheat motifs on it, and I love the color. It all sits on a large brown wooden box that holds extra things, like cloths and candle holders.
This side is my divination and ancestor's shrine side. I have a large river rock that I painted my Lady on, in Her guise as the Saint (I will explain later in this post). I keep a small set of prayer beads on this stone. I have a hand dyed silk scarf that sits under it all. The deck is the Druid Animal Oracle deck, and I use it almost daily for inspiration/motivation. It sits in a small wooden box that my eldest child brought back from Taiwan (it was the perfect size!). I have a handmade Ogham set, which I don't use nearly as often as I should, a pair of Faery earrings from a friend to represent the Good Folk, 2 family bibles covered in family costume jewelry as my Ancestors shrine, and a pair of silver bracelets that are personal connections to the past.
The stone does need a bit of explanation. I have seen my Lady in many guises, either in intense visions or subtle feelings. The red haired woman in a green mantle is usual for many, I know, and I have seen Her this way, but I have also seen Her garbed like the Mother of God. I wondered if I was seeing Mary at the time, but no, very intensely it was Brighid. I have also seen Her, standing very similarly, like the priestess statues from Minoa, arms outstretched, clad in hard metal plates of copper, hold a wavy knife, point down. Her hair was hard and wavy as well, and also copper. Again, She was very distinctly Brighid. So, I have different ways of envisioning Her, and sometimes I think She does it to be how I need at that time. Many would not see their gods in the Christian guise, or in any other pantheon, and for good reason, but for some reason She seems to choose how She wants to be at different times and stresses in my life. A theory I have is that the Divine comes to us as we need, and not necessarily how we want. But I digress...
Every high holy day I clean my shrines and altar off, dusting things and shaking clothes, etc. I wash the bowl properly, and change some small arrangements of the items. Again, it has grown since I last wrote about my area, mostly because I have room to spread things out in one place. This arrangement will most like last the entire 3 years we are here in Germany, and depending on the space we have in our next duty station, might look entirely different.
This is my altar space, with adjacent shrines, as of August 2nd, 2022.
No comments:
Post a Comment