City Magick: Urban Rituals, Spells and Shamanism - Christopher Penczak 2001

Office Altars
Urban Magick

What gods are petitioned more than the deities of career, prosperity, abundance, and good fortune? Perhaps the gods of love and passion, but, while some can do without romance, almost everybody has a job. The career mind-set has been hammered into our collective psyche. You have to work, get a nice place to live, and be near your job, so you can get nice things. Then you have to work more to pay for it all. The cycle is neverending, but the doctrine rarely asks you what you want to do. Are you helping anyone but yourself? Is your job or company moral and ethical, or making the world a better place? No, the first question we ask is how much money are we making. I like to have nice things and a comfortable home, but I also want to be happy with my life and decisions. We all have stepping-stone jobs that, hopefully, lead us where we want to go, but many of us get stuck on the rock and completely forget the direction we are headed. We all still pay homage to these deities, asking for more money, more vacation, and better benefits.

The office building has replaced the ancient temple site. Most people work outside the home, and those who do usually spend over forty hours there, if not more. Religious fervor has been replaced by career fervor-the desire to get ahead and meet your financial and career goals. Here, many make their bargains with unseen powers, asking for more and often offering something in return. Here is where so many do magick, regardless of whether they use the word or not. If you are going to put so much of your personal power into your career, you should make space for it. You should honor it. Take some space and create an office altar. Make your work sacred.

You may think you can’t do this. You work at an uptight corporation, or deal with clients directly, and can’t keep an altar. You can’t even let your employer know you are involved in something as strange as magick. It’s okay. I’m not asking to you to hang a sign over your desk saying “Sorcerer Here” with an arrow pointing to you. Coming out of the broom closet, so to speak, is a personal decision everyone must make for themselves. I can’t imagine not being open about it, but we all have our own life path to follow. Follow your inner guidance, not your inner fears. If you have space on a desk, windowsill, or shelf, take some small personal items that mean something significant to you (see figure 7). You don’t need any traditional tools, just some simple items that grant you a renewal of your personal power in times of stress. Pictures of loved ones are an excellent source of power on any altar. Particularly in an office, pictures can be a simple way to honor the balance between your office life and your home life. You can have a desert rock for the element of earth. When someone asks, say you picked it up while hiking on vacation. You can have a bottle of seawater, from another vacation. You can substitute a snow globe for the bottle. Both contain water. For air, aromatherapy products can again be used. I had a supervisor who had a bottle of stress-relieving eucalyptus lotion. You can rub it on your temples to relieve headaches. Charging such a lotion with the intention to relieve pain and bring mental clarity is very effective. Something like that can be used for the element of air, and still be easily explained. Everybody gets headaches at work. The element of fire may be a little more difficult, but you can keep a lighter or a book of matches visible to represent fire in your mind. Plants bring in a real living quality, and may even grow better in this sacred altar space. Depending on how liberal your office is, and how comfortable you feel there, you can put crystals or other small power objects on this impromptu office altar.

Figure 7. An office altar.

Whenever you are in a time of stress, look to your altar to remind you of the things that are important to you. When preparing yourself for a presentation or meeting, gather your power and keep your center by offering a little prayer to the powers with which you work at this altar space. It works wonders for your career and prosperity magick, and it makes you happier in your day-to-day job. This sacred space may lead you to happiness in your current position, or lead you to a new life change.