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My Altars
The Main Altar : I have most of the Deities whom I honor represented here in various ways. Whether that is direct statuary or by symbols of them that I have found or created by hand over the years. I also have a lot of stones, I do a lot of my healing with stones. The stones I use may look very mundane to other people, but in fact they are not chosen so much for their appearance as for the effect that they have. A lot of the things on this altar as well as on my other altars have been given to me as gifts. The main statue that dominates this altar is the Freyja statue, and above Her is a rug beater that I use to represent Frigga. The Freyja statue I bought myself. The rug beater, was a gift from one of the women in my Kindred who was there when I installed it and actually helped with the process.
The Disir Altar: This altar has a lot of things on it that are very family related and has to do with how I see myself in my spiritual evolution. The three matryoshka dolls on it stand for the Matrona which were revered by the Germanic Folk early on after their exposure to the Romans. Because of my Lithuanian/Ukrainian Heritage they are the central focus of the altar for me. The majority of the objects on the altar are things that were given to me by relatives, such as my mom, my aunt or my kids. I also have objects on there which are part of my inheritance from both of my grandmothers. There are only a few things that come from other folks and they are all either present members of my Kindred or past members. I give my Disir an offering of alcoholic libation(whatever I can afford) every week, I have a 'disir cup' that I keep particularly for them. Though you would think that it would reside on the Disir Altar it lives on the main altar right next to Freyja. I have always felt that because She is The Vanadis it is the place for the cup. I tried recently to move the cup to the Disir Altar and it didn't work out.
The Altar To The Alvs & The Alfar: This is where I honor my male ancestors and also where the house spirits live. I give offerings to them daily in the form of incense. When I do I have a particular phrase which I use as I offer it which is," Hail the Alvs; Hail the Alfar." On feast days they get some kind of libation, usually beer or mead. The Alvs who live here are very mischievous and when I cannot find something I will often bribe them with incense to help me find it... If I don't find it within a reasonable time I will threaten to 'cut them off' and it will miraculously turn up almost immediately. It's a very interesting relationship we have. I love my housewights very much and they love me.
The Outdoor Altar: This altar was brought for me by one of the members of my Kindred, her parents had the stones on their property and they gave them to us as a gift. Several of us put the altar together in a group effort and it is well used and well loved. In fact this is pretty much the main altar at this time. It looks very simple and it is, but it doesn't have to be fancy to be a working altar. What happens is whatever we need at the moment gets imported off the other altars. I keep the oath-ring for the Kindred on this altar, and do my daily blots here. I usually have at least one person join me at this stage in the game. This year I had to cut back the grape vines that grow on my porch and I didn’t just want to throw them away as trash so I wove them into a wreathe and we hung it over the altar, it now looks like it has been there forever.
Written by, Ayla Wolffe©2008
The Disir Altar: This altar has a lot of things on it that are very family related and has to do with how I see myself in my spiritual evolution. The three matryoshka dolls on it stand for the Matrona which were revered by the Germanic Folk early on after their exposure to the Romans. Because of my Lithuanian/Ukrainian Heritage they are the central focus of the altar for me. The majority of the objects on the altar are things that were given to me by relatives, such as my mom, my aunt or my kids. I also have objects on there which are part of my inheritance from both of my grandmothers. There are only a few things that come from other folks and they are all either present members of my Kindred or past members. I give my Disir an offering of alcoholic libation(whatever I can afford) every week, I have a 'disir cup' that I keep particularly for them. Though you would think that it would reside on the Disir Altar it lives on the main altar right next to Freyja. I have always felt that because She is The Vanadis it is the place for the cup. I tried recently to move the cup to the Disir Altar and it didn't work out.
The Altar To The Alvs & The Alfar: This is where I honor my male ancestors and also where the house spirits live. I give offerings to them daily in the form of incense. When I do I have a particular phrase which I use as I offer it which is," Hail the Alvs; Hail the Alfar." On feast days they get some kind of libation, usually beer or mead. The Alvs who live here are very mischievous and when I cannot find something I will often bribe them with incense to help me find it... If I don't find it within a reasonable time I will threaten to 'cut them off' and it will miraculously turn up almost immediately. It's a very interesting relationship we have. I love my housewights very much and they love me.
The Outdoor Altar: This altar was brought for me by one of the members of my Kindred, her parents had the stones on their property and they gave them to us as a gift. Several of us put the altar together in a group effort and it is well used and well loved. In fact this is pretty much the main altar at this time. It looks very simple and it is, but it doesn't have to be fancy to be a working altar. What happens is whatever we need at the moment gets imported off the other altars. I keep the oath-ring for the Kindred on this altar, and do my daily blots here. I usually have at least one person join me at this stage in the game. This year I had to cut back the grape vines that grow on my porch and I didn’t just want to throw them away as trash so I wove them into a wreathe and we hung it over the altar, it now looks like it has been there forever.
Written by, Ayla Wolffe©2008