Sunday, February 1, 2009

Day 32: imbolc/brighid/candlemas

Today is Candlemas, and tomorrow is Imbolc, so here I present pictures of my altars.
This first picture is my "Source" altar. The Mists of Avalon states "All the gods are one God, and all the goddesses, one Goddess, and there is but one Initiator." The Source is the Great Mystery, the Initiator, that which I refer to when I say "God". Mostly it's just the candle and the little angel, which was called the Angel of Wonder, which I have renamed the Spirit of Wonder, because that's how I see God.
Also on this surface you can see the little divided plate on which I put little elemental things: a tealight for Fire, a couple stones for Earth, a cone incense dish for Air, and a shell for Water; also, my Medicine Cards: these I drew for my Totem Animals, and I got Eagle, Wild Boar, Crow, Deer, Lynx, Turkey and Black Panther. There's meanings behind them all, but that's way too much typing for a photoblog ...


This is my Goddess altar. I used to have God and Goddess and all the elements on one altar (plus the Source candle and the Spirit of Wonder, etc.), but it was getting crowded, so here I have the Goddess candle (in the middle) and Water on the left (it's kind of in the back, towards the West) and Earth on the right (North-ish). There's other stuff there, because my room is really crowded. Not important.


My God altar, and originally my only altar, with the God candle (note the phallic rock leaning against the candle ... someday maybe I'll smooth down the bottom so it can stand erect), and Air to the left (again, in the back, for the East) and Fire to the right.
You can see my staff in the background, to the right of the altar.


And the awesome thing about my altar is that it's two-tiered, so the bottom space is my "working space" ... I use it for decorating for the Sabbats (as pictured below), as well as for "workings" (spells), etc.
It is currently "decorated" for Imbolc, hence all the candles and the orange. Unfortunately, that's all I've got, by way of Imbolc decorations ... I'm kinda working on it, but Imbolc, even with Candlemas as a Catholic Holy Day, doesn't have near the amount of easily accessible commercial decorations that, say, Samhain, Midwinter and Spring Equinox do (due to the corresponding holidays of Hallowe'en, Christmas and Easter). Even the other harvest festivals (Lughnassadh to some extent and the Fall Equinox even more) can make use of Thanksgiving decorations, or at least some of them ...
But alas.


Anyway, happy Candlemas/Imbolc, and I love you all!

1 comment:

  1. Wow. I completely forgot Imbolc! Dang. I always remember things the month before and get really excited and want them to be right now, then I forget by the time it rolls around. I love the different shots of your altars, they're really nicely set up and feel so very pagan! I love altars and how they show the individuality and specific pagan-ness of each person.

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