A Canaanite Altar Tour

A couple post ago, I included a picture of my altar.  Since I took that picture (about a year ago) there have been some changes to my altar.  Nothing drastic, but I wanted to do an altar tour anyway.  Some pagans like to show off their altars, and others like to look at pictures of altars (Altar Porn!).  Personally I like to do both.  IMO altar making is a type of art in it’s own right, and looking at the altars of others is a good way to come up with new ideas.

There are two altars in my house.  The one I will be sharing today is an altar I share with my husband.  My part of the altar is dedicated to my pantheon and it’s where I do my personal practices.  The other altar is a family altar, and after the Yule season it has gotten into a state of chaos.  After I get that together I’ll do an altar tour of that one as well.

Here’s the general overview of my part of the altar.  It’s still has the same set up as it did when I first took a picture of it, but I removed the 7 day candles and the cauldron and replaced them with this floral and faux food arrangement.  I’ll go more into detail about the arrangement later in this post.

The rectangle mirror thing is a candle plate that I use as an offering plate.  On the offering plate there is an feather shaped incense holder which replaced the generic Wiccan/Celtic one.  To the center left is a decorative bowl I use for water offerings.  Water here comes from an aquifer, so unfortunately the bowl has gotten coated with lime after some time, and I don’t know how to remove it without damaging the bowl in the process.  Next to that is my oil lamp.  At the bottom are two tea light candles that I received as a gift that were too pretty to burn, so I use them as decoration.  The offering plate sits on a mat that I crocheted to help catch wayward incense ash.  I chose a purple yarn because the Canaanites and later their descendants the Phoenicians were known for their purple dye.

Lets start with my Ba’al and then go left from there.  It’s difficult to find statues of the Canaanite gods, so most of the time one has to settle with pictures.  When I searched for images of Ba’al Hadad I couldn’t find any that I like enough to put on my altar so I made this image out of polymer clay and paint.  Next is an amulet to ward off the evil eye.  It just seemed like it need to be on the altar.  Then there is an image of Asherah that I found online, printed on photo paper and put in a picture frame. Next is a little figurine of Asherah that I created also from polymer clay.  It was inspired by the many goddess images archeologists have dug up in Israel.  To the left is a selenite spiral.  I’m not really into crystals, but this made me think both of Asherah poles and of the ziggurats of ancient Babylon, so I had to buy it and give it Asherah. Bellow that is a bottle of sand.  My family and I recently took a trip to San Diego.  When we visited the beach I made sure to take some sand with me. In mythology Asherah is often depicted as hanging out by the seashore doing domestic chores.  When I got home I put the beach sand in a bottle and put in on my altar in Her honor.  Lastly is a hand shaped trinket holder filled with variety of votive offerings.  There a silver colored stone (I have forgotten the name of this stone) to represent silver, a piece of pyrite to represent gold, a tiny piece of Lapis Lazuli, a little plastic cow to represent a cow offering.  I also placed a small dove pendant I’ve had since I was a child and a little pentacle and hamsa charm just because.  There is also a mini Hindu bull statue in front of the Ba’al plaque.  Ba’al is associated with bull, plus I just wanted a golden bull on my altar.

From right to left.  The white statue is an image of Mary Magdalene.  Recently the Magdalene has made a reappearance in my life, so it felt right to put her back on the altar.  The green bottle is shamnu moru (myrrh infused olive oil).  l use this for anointing.  And the square bottle is shamnu raqachi (spiced olive oil)  which I burn in my lamp. Behind both of those is a bottle of Florida Water, and a candle snuffer.  The red thing in the background is a sistrum I made from a embroidery hoop.  The blue altar cloth is a hijab I bought at the local Mosque’s open house, and the smaller black cloth is what I believe to be a belly dancing belt.

Please forgive the white cardboard, I used it to block the reflection of my bedroom and myself in the mirror. It makes for an ugly picture.

When I think of the Iluma, I think of them bringing fertility and life to an arid land, and this is what this arrangement represents. It also serves as a collection of votive offerings.  The “floral” arrangement is made of plastic flowers (I don’t know what type of flowers they are suppose to be, they were something I had around from another project), dried wheat stalks, and salt ceder twigs.  There is also an apple, pear and a white pumpkin I crocheted, and some plastic grapes and a faux pomegranate.  Those little white vase are currently holding Japanese incense, although sometimes I burn resin incense sticks (the awesomeness of loose incense without having to deal with charcoal discs).  In the past I visited a Buddhist temple, and I really like how the incense where located right on the altar just waiting for you to offer them, so I added this element to my altar.  It also prevents me from having to rummage through drawers looking for incense.

That is it, I hope you enjoyed the tour.