Samhain altar 2005

 

I've not been able to make a large altar for some time. I think the last one I did was for my daughter's Wiccaning (and I'll be doing another for my son's). This is a small altar, typical of what I usually do.

What makes my Samhain altar different from any old Sabbat or Esbat altar is that this is the only time I use the black velvet cloth you see. It has embroidery work along the one edge. When I could leave my altar up year-round, I kept this cloth on my altar until Yule, when I replaced it with a bright white satin. This year, I will need to deconstruct my altar. The other Samhain-special feature are the two black candles in the back. When I had more space in the room (and on the altar), I lit more black candles.

Everything is pretty self-explanitory but b/c of the nagle, it's hard to tell what some things are so I labeled them. If you click on the photo, you should get a large version.

I was a little tense, listening for my napping daughter, during my circle casting so it was very simple and quick but at least I did something. I also did some spellwork I've been meaning to do. Just a simple karmic retribution kind of thing; "whatever you do comes back to you." Samhain is a good time to do that kind of thing, I think. I kept meaning to catch a new moon but as I just told my close personal friend Erin, I'm lucky that I realize it's the end of the month (she said the same).

Oh and the "cake" of my cakes & ale is usually a HobNob (an oat cookie, popular in the UK and if you see one, oh, you must try it) but this time around I had a mini-muffin. I believe the Goddess would enjoy a chocolate chip mini muffin. I also dared about a mouthful of wine and a ton of water. I was exhausted from dragging everything out and setting it up!

Anyway, I love seeing other people's altars. If you have a photo of yours, please comment. I hope you liked sneaking a peek at mine.