Everyday Altars

Words & Photography
by Suzanne McCarthy



Do you have an altar in your home? Not the strictly religious kind but something more in line with a personal altar? Home altars are fairly common throughout the world. For example, Balinese and Hindu cultures, as well as the tradition of feng shui, believe every household should have an altar.

Most Westerners, I suspect, might say they don’t have an altar in their home. But maybe we have altars we’re unaware of, ones we erect unconsciously. "The urge to create sacred spaces is so deep in the human psyche that, even when there is no formalized intent to make an altar, we often create them subconsciously...", says Denise Linn, a world-acclaimed expert in feng shui and space clearing.



Think of a child's bedroom shelf where he has arranged a prized comic book, souvenirs from special vacations and a ticket stub from a stand-out show, or a kitchen windowsill with small stones and flowers from the garden. Simply stated, an altar is a group of treasures and tokens curated in a space.

...an altar can act as a visual cue for us to reflect on things outside the mundane...It reminds us to consider what's important and it allows us to pay homage.

And why would we erect one? Because an altar can act as a visual cue for us to reflect on things outside the mundane. It can help us shift our attention away from the ordinary toward something beyond ourselves. It reminds us to consider what's important and it allows us to pay homage.

There's no one right way to create your altar. It doesn't matter where or how big or small. It can be inside or outside, on a bedroom dresser, or in the bathroom. Put one in your studio or office, or in your hallway as you enter your home. Altars can contain one object or twenty.



When deciding what to place in your altar ask yourself: What am I thankful for? What gives me peace? What inspires me? What is magical? What makes me feel alive? In short, objects with meaning. Objects can be whimsical, funny and irreverent, or very spiritual.

An altar isn’t passive or stagnant; it can change with the seasons and celebrations. Items can get shifted or swapped out for something else. Gone are the fresh flowers now droopy and fading, and in come the pinecones. All altars, however, seem to contain constant or reoccurring objects: something from nature; and something to engage the senses such as candles, incense, favourite colors, pictures or cloth.