My Altar

Wooo, first post! As part of a project involving some friends of ours, I started this blog. It's going to basically be a journaling of my witchcraft/pagan learnings,  and a record of my growth.

I thought a nice first post would be to show off my current altar. It's tucked neatly in the corner of the bedroom, and above and to the right are two corner shelves, one of which is another altar of mine (That's currently mostly empty) and the one below it belongs to my wife.

As of yesterday, my altar looked like this:

I moved things around a bit. I also (tried) to redye my altar cloth. It's literally just a piece of cut broadcloth which I dyed once already with old tea bags to make it more of an off-white colour with a mottled pattern. I was trying to dye it blue, using dark blue food colouring...

And now it's pink. (It's much more vibrant in person.) Urk. Not terribly pleased. Not sure how blue dye turned something pink, but I guess it's at least a nice colour for spring. I'm not finished; it's "missing" something. But what I have on there right now:

-my athame
-my bell rattle. The wooden handle used to be the end of my old wand. I use it as a "smokeless smudge" when burning sage is either unavailable, or I want something more physical. (I can shake the rattle harder for emphasis.)
-shells, moon snails, and sand dollars in a big mussel shell (to represent water)
-a wooden sculpture of three birds, and
-a tiny wooden owl (to represent air, and also birds in general)
-a teeny little dragon (fire, and dragons)
-The pale green up with the red ribbon, to the left of the black bowl, is full of forest things-it has an acorn, several chestnuts, and a piece of bark.  (earth and forest)
-the black and red bowl is used for offerings, or placing stones, or anything where I need a shallow container
-the wooden plaque is painted with a pentacle in the centre, and with representations of all four seasons around it.
-the blue and white candle holder is handmade, and is supposed to be a wave (I guess...)
-there's a little owl shaker, sitting in an owl candle holder. He serves the same purpose as my bell rattle.

It's still a work in progress. But it's a start!