Making An Altar

This is something I haven't done because of the fact that I don't have any money to buy stuff for this, my parents/family members can't find it, and it doesn't seem like I have space for this stuff. Okay, that's kind of a white lie, but there seriously isn't any place I can put my own alter because I share a bedroom & bunk bed with my seventeen year old sister who hates the fact that I am Pagan. And my bedroom is basically my step-mom's computer/cat room. Yes, it smells of bad cat litter, but I'm used to it right now. So, I started looking for easy and crafty ways for us Teen Witches and other Pagans could make some pretty cool alters.

I won't post the entire article, but it's called Be A Crafty Teen Witch by Gwinevere Rain  and she wrote about how most Teen Witches have a budget, which is REALLY true, so the best time, she advises, to get stuff is the after Halloween sales. There are a lot of stores that have some pretty good Halloween clearence sections that can be used for alters, but we also have to get CREATIVE. That probably means going to yard sales around town and finding items (snow globes, china dolls, glass figures, flowers, etc) that we like, define us or what we believe to be the Goddess and God. Also, we can just go around and find plants and natural things that we can use. 

Here is a video that gives examples of different alter ideas and what you should do with/for your alter.

And this video is like any teenager witch that will help you to understand why and what to put on your alter. Some of the things on here may not matter to Pagans, but if you want you can include whatever you want because this is YOUR ALTER.

And here is a picture so that you can get a better look to how to set up your alter. Like I said, I haven't set one up yet, but hopefully, soon, I can and I'll be able to take pictures for you guys! Well, good luck, and start thinking about what you want to put on your alters. In the next couple of posts, I will explain to you the esbats and moon phases and then I will explain about how to find your own Goddess and God. It's more of a Wiccan thing, just so you know, but since there are many cultures that have many Gods, you have a lot of chances of getting picked. I've heard that you get picked and that you get to pick or someone picks for you, but that's for later. Alright, well good luck and have fun!

Book of Shadows- To Do And To Make

Let's take a small and quick break here. I'm going to help all of you create your own Book of Shadows. Mainly, the Book of Shadows comes from the Wiccan religion, but I think that it's best to use it for whatever any of you want, because it will be the book where you store all your knowledge about spells, rituals, holidays, how to use things, etc. And a Book of Shadows is used for your personal self and you can pass it on to your children and their children, to follow the generations. My Book of Shadows I started about three years ago, and I haven't really added on because I wasn't really sure about joining my religion. Now that I am, I am not only going to add on to it, but I'll make it pretty amazing. In my book of shadows, I have a number of different spells I can use for any occasion, such as healing spells, beauty, luck, protection, etc. I need to really get all the information modernized because most of it isn't up to date, but I plan to make it really stand out.

For your book of shadows, you can either write in a blank book or you can type it. I usually type it because I can type faster, but I like to write, so I may do both! But you can do whichever you prefer. I'm going to post a video to help all of you to help give a general idea of what your Book of Shadows some thickness. If you don't want a Book of Shadows because you are afraid that your parents will find it or something, that is perfectly fine. There is actually a way to "code" it, if you know what I mean. But here is the video, and after that you can check out how I code things. There will be a video about an idea of things that you should put in  your Book of Shadows and there will be one for some idea of ways for you to make your Book of Shadows full of life and more interesting.

When you look at these two videos below, think about the different ways she personalized her Book of Shadows; how she made it fit to what she likes, how she made it more interesting, how she took into consideration of matching colors to their spells. If you have ever seen the Spiderwick Chronicles, think about Arthur Spiderwick's book that tells about the Fae creatures and how he made included flowers Faeries might have liked or some plant samples. Go outside the box if you want to!!!

In this next video, take account of how Flora has set up her Book of Shadows and all the things she has included to her Book of Shadows.

Now, if any of you are interested in "coding" your Book of Shadows, please continue down to below, the rest of you, enjoy setting up your book of shadows and good luck! Because I know I have some future ideas for my Book of Shadows.


Coding Your Book Of Shadows.
The form of code that I use is simple for me, because the day I learned it I used it OVER AND OVER because I was just so excited about it, and I will show it to you today. Just to warn you, it's a little like math. It's something new, like algebra, that you are learning and when you keep practicing and practicing over and over again you aren't sure about getting it until BAM!!! it clicks!

With this exercise, you will need a piece of paper (doesn't matter what kind) and something to write with. Now, on your piece of paper, make two rows of twenty-six columns. On the bottom row, write the letters of the alphabets in order. When you are finished with that, stop. Now, you will have to think of a word. For now, just a simple one. Like TOE. So write TOE in the first three columns at the top. What you do now, is continue writing the alphabet after the E. If you look at the example below, yours should be correct as well. (When you continue the alphabet order, the next letter you get to is O, skip it and move on to P and the same goes for T; skip it and go to U).

Now, let's try something a bit more challenging. Let's use the word MAYBE. Do the exact same format as you did before, then write MAYBE at the top and continue off of that. If you get the concept, your table should look like below:

If you got that, then great! I'll explain to you the next process. The next step is words with two of the same letters in them, like APPLE. Since we have to stick to the twenty-six letter rule, we won't put APPLE at the top row, but we'll put APLE at the top. Since there is a double letter, we have to take out the one that appears second. So go off like you originally would while using APLE. It should look like this:

 If you got that, awesome! Now let's try the word PURPLE. What we'll do, since the letters aren't next to each other, we'll still take out the second letter and it will look like PURLE. Use the same process and it should look like this:

If you want to look at a better way to example it, here is a picture:

And that is how to use my way of coding. If there are other ways you would like to use, instead of using letter against letter, you can use symbols, numbers. colors, anything! The sky is the limit!


So, good luck everyone! If you would like, please post some other ideas that you have or some pictures of your own Book of Shadows. When I get mine together and actually have some money, I'll show all you guys! Blessed be!