The Spirit Altar

    

    A good friend of mine just gave me Denise Linn's book: Altars: Bringing Sacred Shrines into Your Everyday Life. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in creating a home altar of any kind. Many of her words echo my own thoughts about altars. Linn says: "The urge to create sacred spaces is so deep in the human psyche that we often create them unconsciously. A gathering of photos on a piano, an arrangement of personal objects on a desk or fireplace mantel, are perhaps outer manifestations of an inner desire to establish hallowed and holy spaces in our environment."

    When an altar is considered a sacred space where we can deepen our connection with the Divine, Linn calls it a spirit altar. I like to make spirit altars in different parts of my home, and I frequently rearrange them, so their energy is never stagnant. 

    The backdrop for this altar is a mandala surrounded by symbols of the world's major religions. Over the mandala are the words: PRAYER: A MULTI-CULTURAL JOURNEY OF SPIRIT. The mandala symbolizes the many paths to God and the many teachers who have shown us the way. 

    I grew up in a Christian church, so Jesus was my first way-shower. For me, the icon of Jesus symbolizes the way of Love and the divine masculine. Growing up Protestant, I was not taught to revere Mother Mary as the Catholics do, but I read books about her visitations to Saint Bernadette at Lourdes, to the children in Fatima, to Saint Juan Diego in Guadeloupe, and many others. I realized that the divine mother is missing from Protestantism and I decided to insert her into my personal theology. My hand-blown glass Virgin Mary symbolizes the divine feminine that humanity must recognize in order to reclaim the balance of masculine and feminine energies that God intended each of us to embrace.

    Other elements on this altar that symbolize connections between heaven and earth are the white feather and the celestite crystal, a stone that is thought to connect one with spiritual realms. The moon shell is another symbol of the divine feminine, and the book by Paramahansa Yogananda contains universal prayers, affirmations and visualizations that are inclusive for anyone of any religious persuasion. 

    The candlelight, as always, symbolizes the Light of God that shines in every human heart and connects us all as one. 


For further reading on the Divine Feminine: A Day for All Humanity


Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 20, 2022 at 8:52 PM

    Beautifully written my friend. You should submit this to the Daily Star, religion page.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 21, 2022 at 8:26 AM

    Love this. I have always fashioned altars.

    ReplyDelete

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