The House Witch: Your Complete Guide to Creating a Magical Space with Rituals and Spells for Hearth and Home - Arin Murphy-Hiscock 2018
Kitchen Shrines and Altars
The Kitchen As a Sacred Space
While your entire kitchen is or can be sacred space (see the discussion on sacred space in Chapter 2), creating a defined location within the kitchen that serves as sacred space can help you focus on the spiritual aspect of hearthcraft while using the existing space in your kitchen in a practical fashion. These defined places or zones provide you with a touchstone of sorts, a place or thing that you can use to represent the greater whole.
The term altar can evoke the concept of something formal and untouchable. In neo-pagan usage an altar generally means simply a physical space used for magical work or worship. It provides a place of focus. A shrine is generally a specific site set up to honor an entity or principle.
Do you have to figure out which you’re using in hearthcraft? No; the word isn’t important. A lot of the time your altar/shrine will be a place that symbolizes or otherwise represents your connection with or to a deity, or your concept of the sacred. What you call it isn’t important. In this book, both words are used to mean the same thing: the special spot in your kitchen (or elsewhere) that you have chosen to house meaningful objects and symbols, which stimulates and supports your ongoing spiritual practice.
If you intend to use it as a place to display meaningful objects connected with a hearth deity or house spirit and as a place to leave offerings, it is probably a shrine. If you intend to use it primarily as a place for some sort of eternal flame and as somewhere to put short-term spiritual items as you work with them over a short-term basis, including magical items such as sachets or empowered symbols and objects, it’s probably an altar.
Altars can be designated as more active and projective, whereas shrines tend to be more passive and receptive. Does it matter if you can’t define or clearly separate what you’re setting up or what you intend to do at them? No. It also doesn’t matter if you set one up and it slowly takes on the characteristics of the other, or if you set up one place to do double duty as both. In the end, what you’re doing is creating a place to serve as a physical point of reference for your spiritual work, an interface for your communication with the Divine.
A “Home” for the Home
An altar or shrine is a created sacred space, an area set apart to honor a concept or force, a deity or spirit, or to represent your connection to the Divine. Both can represent emotions, commitments, or just about anything you desire or require. A space such as this in the hearth, the spiritual heart of the home, stands as a formal physical representation of the spiritual hearth. It provides a “home” for the symbolic hearth. A formal physical representation of the hearth makes it easier for you to visualize it and interact with it. People usually find it easier to work with a tangible representation than an abstract concept, no matter how strongly you may feel that abstract concept’s presence. People like to mark the places they consider sacred in some way, partially in honor of what they feel is sacred but also to remind themselves of that sanctity and to create an analogy in the physical world.
Is it essential to have a kitchen altar or shrine? Well, yes and no. You can certainly cultivate and manage a spiritual environment without one, but it’s a lot easier to do if you have a physical place where you can focus your attention now and again. A place where you can collect certain special things that symbolize or remind you of your connection to the sacred principles in your life is a unique thing. It’s simply easier for most people to have a physical representation of what’s going on in their heads and spirits. Human beings are somewhat magpie-like in that shiny things attract them and make them feel good. It’s gratifying to have a designated place to burn candles or incense, or to leave tiny offerings to your house spirits or the universe in thanksgiving, or to put the first leaf of autumn or violet of spring.
A kitchen shrine or altar doesn’t need to be something large. And that’s a good thing, because space in a kitchen is generally already at a premium. Some may already consider their counters or stovetop to be sacred space, and that’s fine. But one of the benefits of creating a single focal point in the kitchen to serve as a shrine is that it keeps your spiritual or magical-related work off your main everyday workspaces.
A separate altar also keeps potentially inedible materials away from places where food is prepared. And finally, it keeps things such as smoldering incense or burning candles and oil lamps safely out of harm’s way. There’s no rule that stipulates there can be only one such space per kitchen or home, either. If you want to set up two or more, do it! If you create a physical representation of the spiritual heart of your home, adding a kitchen shrine doesn’t take away from that physical hearth.
Designing Your Shrine
There are things to consider when you design a kitchen shrine or altar. First of all, the location should be somewhere accessible, yet out of the way in order to protect the objects upon it. There’s a lot of activity in the kitchen, and you don’t want your shrine area to be continually disturbed; there are also the safety issues previously mentioned. Places you can consider using include:
✵ Above the doorframe (a narrow shelf is ideal)
✵ A wall shelf
✵ A series of narrow shelves running about a foot below the ceiling (plate rails, for example)
✵ On the back of the stove, along the top of the back plate (you may need to set a board on top of it to provide a wider surface, and remember that if your fuses are located there, the shrine and its contents will have to be moved to access them)
✵ In hanging baskets (wire or wicker; the three-tiered baskets make an interesting multilevel shrine)
✵ In a hanging pot rack (you can place bunches of dried flowers and other natural objects on top)
Here are some suggestions for items you may wish to include on your shrine or altar:
✵ Something to represent your connection to your ancestors
✵ Something to represent your household or hearth spirits
✵ Something to represent a hearth deity with whom you have a special connection or resonance, cultural or otherwise
✵ Something to represent the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) or simply fire as a symbol of the spiritual hearth
Creating Images for Your Shrine
Rather than using found objects for your shrine, you can make images to represent the guardians or deities that you feel guide you in your kitchen. Or you can make representations of those entities and energies you wish to invoke in your hearth to attract more of the same or to be guiding lights.
For this project, you can use self-hardening clay, also known as air-drying clay, which does not require baking to set, or you can use heat-dried clay or another modeling substance. Work on a flat surface covered with plastic or newspaper to protect it from the clay.
Before you begin, decide what kind of shape or figure you wish to sculpt or form. It doesn’t have to be a literal portrayal of the spirit or deity you feel drawn to; allow yourself to be inspired. Perhaps spend a few minutes with a pencil and paper doodling shapes or ideas for the figure. If you are making a figure to represent an abstract principle, again let your inspiration and instinct guide you.
The mint in this project is associated with abundance; the lavender is associated with peace; the cloves are associated with purification; the basil is associated with harmonious domestic management; the rosemary is associated with protection; the sage is associated with purification; and the salt is associated with purification and prosperity. These items were chosen for their general association with common themes in the practice of home-based spirituality. If there are other herbs whose energies are more appropriate to your chosen spirits or goal, use them instead.
You will need:
✵ Candle, candleholder
✵ Matches or lighter
✵ Self-hardening or heat-dried clay (about the size of your fist), color of your choice
✵ 1 pinch dried mint
✵ 1 pinch dried lavender
✵ 1 pinch ground cloves
✵ 1 pinch dried basil
✵ 1 pinch dried rosemary
✵ 1 pinch dried sage
✵ 1 pinch salt
✵ Small dish for herbs
✵ Tools to work the clay (toothpick, chopstick, skewer)
✵ Small dish of rice or salt
1. Take a moment to sit quietly and clear your mind. Take three deep breaths, releasing as much physical and mental tension as possible with each exhalation.
2. Light the candle, saying:
Sacred flame,
Bless my work with your light.
3. Knead the clay to soften it. As you knead, visualize the clay glowing with the energy of the deity, spirit, or principle you wish it to represent on your altar or shrine. Once it is soft, flatten it out with your hands.
4. Measure out the herbs and salt into the dish. Hold the dish in your hands and say,
Herbs,
I call forth your qualities of protection,
peace, harmony, purification, abundance, and prosperity.
May my hearth always be blessed by these,
and may those who live in this house know good fortune,
health, and love.
5. Hold the dish of herbs in front of the candle so that the light of the flame shines on them. Say:
Sacred flame,
Bless these herbs.
6. Sprinkle the herbs evenly over the flattened clay. Roll the clay up, then form it into a ball. Knead it again to distribute the herbs throughout the clay.
7. Begin to form the clay into a rough shape approximating your idea for the figure. When you have the basic shape, begin smoothing it. Add details with tools such as a toothpick, a chopstick, or a skewer.
8. Leave the figure in a safe place to dry. If it has very thick areas, the clay may need more time to dry out properly. Turn it at some point so that it dries evenly.
9. When the figure is dry, you may paint it or leave it as it is. (Check the packaging of the clay for suggestions regarding what kind of paint to use.)
10. Place the figure on your shrine. Place a small dish of salt, rice, olive oil, or some other kind of offering by it. In your own words, thank the deity, spirit, or principle for its blessings, and ask that it remain always by your hearth and bless your home.
Create Shrines Throughout the Home
The information regarding altars and shrines is applicable to any room in your house. If you are lucky enough to have a fireplace in your home, try using the mantelpiece as a shrine to the things you hold sacred. Photos of family, original artwork, candles, mirrors, colors and textures, statues or figurines all can be used to evoke a sense of your home and of your connection with the sacred principles in your life, as well as the Divine. Consider making it a family altar, with input from all members. Wherever the spiritual heart of your home is located, an altar or shrine can help confirm it and make it feel more real to you. All the suggestions here are easily applied or altered to create a shrine elsewhere in the home.
Shrines and altars don’t need to be permanent. You can set one up for a specific event, for a period in your life, or for a season. They can be set up anywhere in the home. Denise Linn’s beautiful book Altars: Bringing Sacred Shrines Into Your Everyday Life is an inspirational resource for this activity, as is Jean McMann’s Altars and Icons: Sacred Spaces in Everyday Life. Both are illustrated in full color and demonstrate the wide variety of ways people collect, arrange, and situate sacred displays that reflect and honor certain ideals, principles, milestones, or loved ones.