Druid, Wiccan, or whatever – many of us have permanent altars in our homes. Most of us have one, but have you ever considered making more? Some of us have gone on to make altars to specific deities or Kindreds. Some of us have additional seasonal altars or family altars in addition to the personal. Have you ever made an altar to yourself? To an experience? It’s an interesting concept that is explored on the new Offbeat Homes website – from the same group of people who brought you Offbeat Bride!
Turn a Shitty Corner of Your Home Into an Altar for an Awesome Thing
Although I haven’t made an altar for a leg brace or anything like that, I have created an altar to my marriage. It currently sits atop a DVD shelf in the living room. There’s a photo of us before and after our wedding ceremony, my wedding bouquet (preserved for me by one of my best friends), trinkets from our wedding, and the unity candle from our ceremony. (Our handfasting cords hang on our bedroom door.) I often smile when I look at it. I don’t tend it very much aside from an occasional cleaning. If we ever have a conflict, I would probably light the candle as we promised to do. I don’t leave offerings, but as I write this I may consider it for our anniversary. It is an altar of sorts as it is dedicated to us. I believe that any structure dedicated to honoring a spirit, energy, person, or experience is an altar.
I’m curious if any of my readers have altars to themselves, their marriages, their living family members, or an experience?
Author M. A. Phillips 
Making shrines is one of my favorite crafty things to do! Usually I’ll make them if I’m inspired by something specific, like a book or piece of art, or to preserve mementos from a trip. I’ve also made them as gifts for people for everything from a tribute to the Mets to a memorial for a cat.
Back when I turned 25, I started doing “birthday shrines” for myself, so I could see where I was mentally/spiritually/artistically/etc around once a year – kind of like a “checking in” with myself. I will probably make one for our wedding once it happens.
This reminds me that I need to take nice photos of the shrines I’ve made so far and put ’em up on flickr or something…
I *love* your idea of birthday altars! And I would love to see the altars you’ve made. I really liked what you did for the Autumn Equinox!