Latest / Random Heathen Ramblings / Altars: Why Do Heathens Have Them, And How Do I Create My Own?

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Altars: Why Do Heathens Have Them, And How Do I Create My Own? · Random Heathen Ramblings

0:20
Well, hey everybody. Hello and welcome back to
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another episode of midgard musings.
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My name is Jesse. Thanks so much for listening
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Tian, I do upload weekly content on the YouTube channel, weekly
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I upload new content. So when what we're going to be
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talking about today is that, you know, a lot of heathens coming
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into this path. May be newer.
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Heathens folks that are just starting to get into this whole
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thing Ric, a lot of questions circulate around online about
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how do I set up my alter? What should I put on it?
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What should I do to, you know, create this space.
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So we're going to talk a little bit about First of all, what an
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altar is and second of all why we have them.
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And lastly, not least important is maybe how you can set up your
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own altar. Okay, so to start with and
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alter, okay, is exactly what you might think.
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It is a Sacred Space dedicated to your practice as a heathen.
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You'll will. Oftentimes see I Such as
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candles, images are statues of various gods or goddesses other
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items. You might have in, you know,
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various herbs or, you know, every heathens altar is
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different. I don't think you'll ever see
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two altars exactly alike and especially coming from a Norse
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Norse Heathen or Germanic. Aegon approach, you know,
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sometimes you'll see Alters that are focused on a specific deity
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or you know, have have a certain motto or a certain kind of
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aesthetic to it. That's focused on a certain or
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specific thing. The the historical parts of
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Alters our sacred spaces goes back.
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To proto-germanic times, when you would see or there would
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exist a space Outdoors, specifically called a Holger and
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it's an old Norse word. That means an altar or
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Sanctuary, some somewhat of a Sacred Space.
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Some sort of holy sacred area that is set aside for Spiritual
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purposes, right? For your spiritual practices,
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the the hole digger was quite often just a, as far as what
4:22
looks was quite. Usually just like a pile of
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stones at least coming from the north Germanic areas.
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The and again, it was, it was Outdoors.
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It was uncovered. And again, it was, it was used
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to leave offerings to the gods or to the land.
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It's here. Is quite different as in
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comparison to what is called a whole, which is basically a
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temple. It's a roofed Hall where you had
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other spiritual workings performed in done in and in a
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more sheltered environment right now.
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That's what an altar is it, and And so the reason why we have
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them as pagans is, at least for me is there's the need to sort
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of create that connection between us and the profane realm
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of midgard, a place where we can sort of connect to our date.
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He's and connect from the profane to the sacred.
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Place where we can leave our physical gifts and offerings to
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the gods and to our, to the whites of the home, and the
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land, and the and are in our ancestors and, and some and
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some, some heathens. You may see, or find out that
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some are have multiple altars in their home or in their living
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area. You may have a heathen who has
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an altar dedicated strictly and specifically to Let's say, you
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know Thor for instance just as an example and nothing on their
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altar. Has anything to do with anything
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except for you know, so you may see hammers you may see pieces
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of oak or acorns or other things that are associated with, you
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know, Thor things with thunder, lightning strength, you know,
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various things like that nature, whatever.
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This person may associate Thor with some of the Gods, you know,
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since store is is called his red hair, the color red, maybe
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something that many heathens associate Thor 2 and they will
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have things of red color, either died or painted or what have you
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place their honor about the altar, right?
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And then other Alters Maybe. Consider consisting of things
7:16
dedicated, specifically to their ancestors and ancestral altar,
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where you'll see items of, you know, family, heirlooms, Family
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Photos, you know, pictures of deceased relatives things like
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that things that are dedicated specifically to the ancestors.
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And then you may see a space or an altar that is dedicated to
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the whites or the spirits of the home.
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Who's fatir? They're called, or the house
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whites. And that may be something that
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is our that that would be a space dedicated.
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Something strictly for the spirits of the home, the whites
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of the home that live and dwell within your, your, you know, the
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roofing roof to an area of your of your living space.
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And those those Alters may contain some sort of physical
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representation of what the Who's fatir?
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Could, you know, something that is a physical representation of
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what they are? Some people will use little
8:23
images of gnomes, since the gnomes are very, very common in
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Scandinavian, folklore. So that that's quite often used
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in the physical representation of the, the who's fatir another.
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So there you go. You have you know, different
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altars. For different purposes at
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depending on what type of heathen you come across or and
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as you are learning to develop your individual cultic
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practices, you may discover that you like to adopt or follow the
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same thing. Maybe you just have one Central
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space that you dedicate to all your ritual work and depending
9:04
on what it is that you're doing you kind of customize or or
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adjust the aesthetic of it, you know for it.
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It's really going to be up to you.
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There's no Real way set in stone.
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Basically, what you want to do, you know when setting up your
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altar is setting it up as a space dedicated to and for the
9:25
gods or you the you know, the sacred dealings.
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So why do we do it? Why do we have the altars?
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And I said, like I said, we have a to have a place to leave our
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gifts to connect with our deities.
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So I'm going to take a quick break.
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I have a couple of words from our sponsor and let you guys
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listen into a couple things about some folks who I wish that
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you could go ahead and support. So, let's go ahead and take a
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quick break and I will be back after that.
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So stick around talk with you shortly.
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All right, folks, welcome back. Thanks for sticking around and
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listening to the rest of this episode about altars.
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So real quick, before we continue on with the discussion.
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I do just want to make it a point of letting you know that
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you know everything I say here on this podcast and on my other
10:27
platforms the Facebook and YouTube platforms, you know,
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this is one heathens view. This is my view on things.
10:33
This is the stuff that I've kind of gathered and learned with
10:36
overtime and I've kind of made it my own.
10:39
How I, you know, incorporate things that I've learned into my
10:43
own practices, this is by no means a representation of
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heathen read. As a whole or by any means an
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entire Heathen world view. It's my world view.
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It's kind of what I adopt and practice and it works for me.
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So keep that in mind. This is not me saying anything.
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This is how it should be. It's not, this isn't Canon,
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doesn't work that like that. So bear all that in mind as you
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go through, and listen to what I have to say.
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And hopefully it helps you and your You're developing your own
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cultic practices. So before the commercial break,
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we talked a bit about the altar aspect of what an altar is and
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why we have it or why we have them.
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If you are for, you know, have some heathens out here, who have
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multiple altars altars for multiple different reasons.
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We have, you know, God Alters ancestral, Alters, White's,
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alters for the house history. Tear the land whites, the
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housewife. That thing's.
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So we kind of went over all that.
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So what we're going to talk about in this segment is kind of
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You know what you can do to set up your your altar or Sacred
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Space, some ideas maybe that you can, you know, toss around and
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play with a little bit as you develop the space that you want
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to develop. And another fun thing to is, as
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you as you develop as a heathen and as you grow, so will your
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altar at least in my in my case it has you know, the way my
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altar look. I first set it up is not the
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same as it looks today. It's sort of grown its evolved.
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There's different things on it that have been added to.
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There's some things on it that have been taken away.
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So don't be surprised. If as you grow as a heathen that
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your altar space will sort of evolve and grow as you are.
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So, how do you set up an altar? You know, what, what can you do
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to set an altar up? So first of all, I think one of
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the biggest things that you need to I sort of start with is
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figure out where your altar is going to be and that's going to
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depend largely on the space that you have available in your home
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or apartment or whatever, your living arrangements are and so
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that will depend on how big and or elaborate you make your altar
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to be. So first of all, to figure out
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where you want it and you want to make sure that that space is
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Private enough and not necessarily out in the open.
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I have seen instances and some homes where people have their
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altar in a very common area. I mean, and I think that'll
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probably be personal preference and how things work for that
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individual and working with their, with their, you know,
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with the gods and then their own individual cultic practices.
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But I personally feel that it's a Sacred Space Between You and
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the gods and who you invite to that Sacred Space or who sees
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that Sacred Space. Space should be left up to you
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alone. It shit, you know, if it's in a
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common area where everybody gathers or sees it, I feel that
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there is something that's being taken away from its sacredness.
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But again, that's just me. So once you've figured out where
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your altar is going to be. Want to get something to set
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these items on your altar items. It could be a small table.
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It could be a bench. It could be a mantelpiece that
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you secure to the wall. It could be anything really.
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That provides you with a surface to set your items on?
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I have a small table and it can kind of it has like leaves that
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expand in and out, you know, so I can And it's fully, you know
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expanded with the leaves set out.
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So it's it's at its largest diameter.
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But again depending on the space that you have available and and
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how much you want to have on your altar.
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You'll just need to kind of figure out what.
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Yeah, what surface area is going to work best for you.
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The next thing that you'll want to do is Or like what a lot of
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folks will do is they'll have some sort of covering or cloth
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some sort of a tapestry maybe or, you know, something that
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covers the surface area and kind of gives the nice aesthetic, you
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know, it could be a colored cloth.
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It could be white. It could be have a design on it.
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It could really be anything and it's not essential but it is
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something I think that a lot of Of folks, enjoy and like to
15:44
incorporate. Because again, it gives that You
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know, just nice aesthetic appeal.
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So after you've gotten like a cloth so or covering on there,
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what type of things do you want to put on your altar?
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And again, this is all going to be dependent on what this altar
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space is for. If it's for the gods or for a
16:10
specific, all you can think about getting an eye on some
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sort of statue or image of the god or gods or goddesses that
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you want to honor or venerate and have Dedicated to them, you
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know, you'll see a lot of folks that have statues whether they
16:29
be, you know, modern representations or ancient
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replicas or replicas of ancient Idols or statues, from medieval
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times and predating Medieval Times.
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You can quite often make your own.
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If you are crafty enough, you can make your own wooden or
16:51
other other. Oils, depending on what your
16:53
craft skill level is, what tools you have available to you.
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If you don't have the tools or the skill set to make your own,
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you can readily find things online.
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One of the places that I mentioned during the commercial
17:08
break, Odin's beard woodworking makes great altarpieces wooden
17:12
altar pieces of gods and goddesses.
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They have a ton of options so that there's one thing that you
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can start with. And again, if you don't want To
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go out and get a god Pole or a piece of, you know, a statue of
17:26
the goddess of you can go is get something that represents that
17:30
god or goddess. For instance for like, you know,
17:34
for air, he is a god of fertility, a god of Agriculture,
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the sort of the life-giving aspect and he's a lot of times
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represented as having horns like a like a stag or a deer, you
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know, so maybe you have some deer antler on your altar,
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something like that. If you want to focus on unfair
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or Thor, as I mentioned earlier his, you know, association with
18:00
the oak tree. Maybe you have an Oak Branch or
18:03
acorns or things like that. So there's other things that you
18:06
can put on your altar that represent the gods without
18:08
necessarily showing or being seen as an actual image of one
18:13
of the Gods. So you have that option.
18:15
It's really just kind of depending on what you want to
18:17
do. Let you'll see a lot of candles.
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Lit, or or candle holders with candles on their on altars and
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fire is one of those elements that I like to incorporate
18:33
within ritual, because it sends the energies that you're in
18:37
putting into your ritual, out into the sacred.
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I feel very, I feel strongly that that's a great thing to
18:47
have. So maybe you get some candle
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holders and some, you know, some scented or not.
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Scented candles and you add them to your to your altar space.
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Another thing that you can add is a bowl, some sort of
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receptacle for your offerings, something that can contain the
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liquids or or solid items, the food items that you want to
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offer to the deities or spirits that you're working with.
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Some other things that, you know, things of nature, if you
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have a set of runes, maybe you keep your runes on the altar
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space. Maybe you have, you know, some
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incense things that as you spend time at your altered, that you
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can burn to create a pleasant Aroma something that as the fire
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burns from the candles. It, you know, the Roma carries
19:45
into the flame and gets sent off into the secret, something that
19:47
creates. It's a very a welcoming presence
19:52
because again, it's your Sacred Space in your time, with the
19:55
gods and goddesses and you want to create an inviting area, some
19:59
some place that you would feel welcome to to join someone in
20:05
company with and that and then having said that you know, one
20:09
of the other parts of this is to have things set up in an
20:14
aesthetically pleasing way, which is why I said earlier, you
20:17
know, maybe you Things up with, you know, a towel or blanket or
20:23
something like that. So something that gives a good
20:27
aesthetic appeal. So in the meantime, I want you
20:30
guys think about that. We're going to take another
20:32
break. Let our words from our sponsors,
20:34
come through and I will be back to finish this up and talk with
20:37
you soon. Thanks again for listening.
20:46
Hey everybody, welcome back. Thanks for the patience.
20:49
And the enduring with me on this this episode talking about alter
20:54
spaces and things like that. We're covering a lot today.
20:58
And in terms of the, what's the why's the, how's the wears, all
21:03
different kinds of stuff that relate to our altar space.
21:07
What we talked about beginning of the episode was, you know,
21:09
what an altar is, what the Sacred Space is.
21:13
And then then we talked a bit about why?
21:15
Do it and why we have them and what their purpose is and how
21:20
how, how they can help us connect and talk with our gods
21:25
and goddesses, the spirits of the land, the home, our
21:27
ancestors, even the different kinds of altars that you can
21:31
have or come across that you may see or encounter all the fun
21:37
stuff. And then and before the break,
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we talked a bit about the, you know, how or what, we can add to
21:42
our altars and and how to set one up.
21:45
So too. Kind of add on to that, you
21:47
know, we talked about how about making them an aesthetically
21:50
pleasing space think about you know, if you were invited to
21:54
come over to somebody's house and this was maybe your first
21:57
time ever being there. You've kind of gotten to know
22:03
this person. They invite you over, you come
22:05
over to their home and everything is in like this.
22:09
Just state of disarray things aren't very clean.
22:13
They're not kept up there. You know, a weird odor.
22:19
Just just things that generally make your experience.
22:23
They're not the greatest, you know, so you come by, you know,
22:28
you spend time with them and then you leave and that left an
22:32
impression on you. So, if they were to invite you
22:34
back to that space, you know, would you be so inclined?
22:39
As to want to take them up on that?
22:41
Invitation? Probably not.
22:44
Now if you If your first experience to this person's home
22:48
is a pleasant one you go. There you see that you know,
22:50
their their home is kept up nicely.
22:53
There are no dishes piled up in the sink.
22:55
There's the home is is cleaned. It has a really welcoming
23:01
presence to it. You're way more likely to come
23:05
back. If you're invited to come back
23:07
and you'd be much happier to be to accept that invitation.
23:12
It's kind of the way I see how altar spaces are you are.
23:15
Eating a space, a meeting point for the sacred to come and spend
23:20
time with you, whether it be your ancestors of the whites of
23:23
the home or the gods, you know, you want to create a space that
23:28
when they see it when they combine, when they experience
23:30
it, that it is welcoming and pleasant.
23:34
It's going to be, you know, maybe they'll be more inclined
23:38
to want to return When you invite them back again.
23:42
And again and again, as often as you may be so inclined.
23:45
I need to do. Okay.
23:47
So keep that in mind as you build your altar, there is no
23:50
right or wrong way. You can do research on
23:54
historical holger's the the outdoor stone altars and see
23:58
how, you know, there wasn't anything very elaborate about a
24:03
lot of times. It was just a pile of stones,
24:05
kind of stacked up. Sometimes you may see ones that
24:08
are a bit more elaborate. There's a bit more care and time
24:11
put into how they look. And see a lot of that's just
24:14
going to be How the person sets things up how they've set, you
24:18
know, they're that space to look.
24:21
And so that's how it's going to be for you.
24:24
How do you want your altar to? Look?
24:26
How do you want it to appear? Don't be discouraged.
24:32
If, when you set it up the first time, it looks maybe a little
24:35
bit bear. Maybe there's aren't you.
24:36
May know there aren't things on it that you want there to be.
24:40
You can add things to it as you go, you know handmade items,
24:44
purchased items from place. His like Odin's beard.
24:47
Woodworking other, you know, heathens.
24:50
Greetings, u.s. Is another one who I actually
24:53
haven't mentioned in podcasts before, but hopefully I'll this
24:58
will be like a reminder for not just you guys but for me to add
25:02
some information about that, you can go to Facebook and search
25:05
heathens. Greetings us, and that's at
25:08
c-store the fella, Jim all of sudden out of out there in North
25:12
Carolina. He ships worldwide as far as I
25:15
know and I have a tea light candle.
25:21
That's a 3, tealight candle holder that he made for me on my
25:26
altar. It was a gift and it's handmade
25:28
and it's one of the altar items that I keep.
25:31
And it's a part of my altar rituals all the time, you know,
25:38
so there's things like that, if you're not so skillfully
25:41
inclined to make things on your own.
25:42
There's there's definitely folks out there that That you can do
25:47
business with and who can make things that are just going to be
25:51
wonderful on your altar spaces. So, you know, just kind of just,
25:56
you know, to sum it all up, you know, you what you want to do is
25:59
first of all, decide where you want your altar.
26:02
What do you want your altar to be 4 and then dedicate that
26:08
space to just the things that surround your spirituality and
26:13
the path that your purse. You don't want to contaminate it
26:17
with anything else. Other than that, it definitely
26:19
needs to be something that is set aside and devoted to your
26:23
spiritual work in your, your faith and your practices.
26:27
So figure out where you want it to be decide what you want it to
26:30
look like build it, allow it to grow and build as you are
26:36
growing. And as you are building up as a
26:38
heathen yourself, if you guys have any questions or want to
26:41
bounce anything off, may have any ideas, definitely feel free
26:44
to reach out to me by. Oh emailing midgard.
26:46
Musings Tian at gmail.com.? I try to respond to those emails
26:52
as quickly as I can. You can also drop me a message
26:55
on the Facebook page or or leave comments down in the YouTube
26:59
videos, which I always try to at least acknowledge and or reply
27:03
to, as I'm able check out all the video descriptions in the
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It helps the podcast grow and get out into the ears and eyes
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of heathens all over the world. Thank you guys and gals so much
28:00
for listening to today's podcast.
28:02
I hope that it's been somewhat helpful for you.
28:05
So until next time, hail mayor ancestors smile on you and may
28:10
the gods continue to walk with you.