How to Create a Home Altar

Creating an altar at home is not a new idea. As long as there have been humans, we have been creating beautiful, meaningful, and private devotional spaces. If you are interested in creating an altar for yourself, it is a simple activity that can bring joy to your day-by-day life. It’s easy. Here’s how!

First, take some time to ask yourself why you’d like to create a personal altar. This is a process of intention setting that begins by exploring your motivation. It can also help you decide where to build your altar. I wanted to create a space to focus my contemplative life, to pray, to honor my ancestors, to connect with the Divine, to ask for protection for myself and my family, and to express gratitude. This is a space I visit daily to nurture my relationship with Divinity and to deepen my relationship with myself. It is also an expression of beauty that helps me stay connected to the sacred. All of this is involved with my intention for the altar I have created and continue to create. Others may want a small space of simple beauty which points them toward the sacred. And others may want to create an elaborate, ongoing work of art that is itself a prayer to and adoration for the Universe. Take some time to consider the Why and set an intention.

The Why can lead you to the Where, which is the next step in creating an altar. If it is a small, simple space you are after, you may use a shelf in a bookcase or the small table beside your bed. Even a windowsill can become a simple and elegant altar. If you’d like to create an elaborate work of art, an homage in gratitude, you might start with a blank wall, add artwork, or textiles, consider lighting, and then place a long table before the wall to add all sorts of objects. This can be a fun and lengthy process or adding items over the course of years.

My altar is on a table in my home office. This is my private haven for study, writing, meditation, and zooming. It is a space all my own – a room of my own – and so my altar is for private use. Where would you like your altar?

The final step is assembly. Gather meaningful objects and dress your altar. You may drape a meaningful cloth over the table to set objects upon. Add candles for ceremony. A feather or stones that you have discovered while walking. A special shell or a lovely vessel. What moves you? What warms your heart? What are you healing in your life? What are you grieving? What would you like to honor? Choose objects that connect with these very human experiences. These are our sacred moments, the tender places where we invite the Divine Source. Choose objects in the quiet of your heart and you’ll create something true.

My altar has pictures of the ancestors on the wall above it. I honor my ancestors, thank them for the life they have given me, and ask for their wisdom and guidance. In this way I remember that I am part of a lineage and that I have passed along this lineage to my children.

I have an altar cloth that I made by sewing together two fabrics. One side is a piece of blue raw silk, shot through with gold thread. The other side is black velvet. I turn the cloth as needed. When my father died, I turned the cloth to the velvet side to mark the solemnity of the moment. Upon the cloth I have candles, crystals, a vase of feathers I have collected from the property where I live, tools for energetically clearing the space, small sacred objects given to me by friends, small photographs of people I love. I change these out at times and periodically I strip the altar, clean it, and reset it. This keeps it fresh and helps me stay engaged in a sacred process.

I hope this is helpful and that you have fun and find joy and sustenance in creating your home altar.

Sending love,
Janet