My friends, I see this mistake being made way too often, and being the nitpicky detail-obsessed bitch of a magician that I am, I desire to correct you all, because you are all being wrong on the Internet.
- An altar (noun) is a consecrated space for religious, devotional, magical, or spiritual operations, often a raised platform used for sacrifices, offerings, rituals, communions, and other mystical endeavors. Example: “The priest walked up to the altar to perform his daily offering to the gods, placing a jug of wine on the consecrated surface.”
- To alter something (transitive verb, i.e. it takes a direct object) is to change it or make it different in some way than it was previously. Example: “The student altered his paper when his teacher pointed out mistakes in his spelling and grammar, because he did not want to get a bad grade when he turned it in.”
One does not set up an alter, and one does not altar something to make it better. STOP BEING WRONG, YOU GUYS.
On a more serious note, it would seem as though my own altar collection has blossomed to the point where I’m starting to run out of space in my bedroom. I mean, even if I had a room just for occult and devotional work, I’d still be running out of space, but at least I’d have a space just for it. As it is, my own altars are a little disparate, and can’t really be combined in any comfortable way: a devotional altar for prayer and meditation, my Table of Manifestation for my Hermetic work, my MaGOS/orgone generator setup, my altar to praise and work with Hermes, and another table for random rituals, consecrations, conjurations, and the like. I like the separation of different sets of tools or goals at each altar and space, but it is starting to make my room look a little full. How do you all deal with too many altars, or do you make a point beyond which you don’t do something with a set of forces or gods?
