Tse Moana

  • About Tse
  • Cats
    • Monkey
    • Milo
    • Captain
  • Headers
  • Tse Elsewhere Expanded

Altar

[PBP] A is for Altar

Saturday, July 5, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

2003-12-13mamaaardeMy Altar has always been my most visible ‘thing’ of my paganism. When I started out on this path in my teens with Cunningham’s Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner, all swept up by the storybook feel of what Wicca was, buoyed by TV shows like Charmed and the whole Wicca-for-Teens thing that started showing up in books, I was very focused on the magic and the ritual parts. That mainly showed in a lot of reading and gathering of info from various books and websites and not much actual practice. However, The Books dictated I should have an Altar, so I did. I set it up as it should, according to the books, with representation for the elements and the God and the Goddess and so on. But it was mainly just something that I should have, not something that directly connected with me.


As time went on, and I grew comfortable with my path and what I felt, what I needed and what I wanted, Wicca mostly fell by the wayside. I’ll always retain some things, purely because it was the first thing I learned, but I have grown into my own. Polytheistic versus just the God and the Goddess, and more emphasis on spiritual practice versus magic/witchcraft and ritual. I occasionally do spellwork or a small ritual thing here or there, but my main expression these days is internal and silent. And as that has evolved, so did my feelings toward, and connection with, an Altar. It started to pull me in.

In high school I had made this big clay statue of a (hugely!) pregnant woman: Mother Earth. She was the first thing that resonated with me, and so I built a devotional space around her. That started still in my teens, and that is what the picture shows. Mother Earth safely inside the cupboard, with a nature image in the frame before her. And to the left behind me you can see, vaguely, a jar. It has sand in it, and feathers stuck in that.

Over time, I added more items that meant something to me, versus items that I was ‘supposed to have’ . And with every item, Altar, as a concept, became a part of me. And the more that happened, the more the appearances changed, and so on. The rules-and-regulations approach got replaced by one based on intuition and feeling, especially as I started to incorporate more mind-stuff into it (meditation, general mindfulness), culminating in the present day with the entire top of the dresser in my bedroom dedicated to my faith (and my craft, even though I use it little).

1654243_10151936641028155_221143015_nI wish to build a connected universe in my Altar. So the base of it is formed by a goat skin (which I found at Ikea, of all places, but my wallet liked it 😀 ). On top are signifiers for the elements, which is something that originates in my Wicca beginnings, but fits very well in my nature-based approach. There’s three bowls, for the three realms of Earth, Sea and Sky, but also for the elements of Earth, Water and Air. The Earth bowl is light green and filled with rocks, a pinecone, a fossil, a (fake) spider and such. The Water bowl is light blue and filled with shells. The Air bowl is light grey and filled with a glass sphere with air bubbles inside, and feathers. For Fire there are candles. Beyond that I have variable things there, like egg-shaped rocks, postcards featuring Mucha art depicting Spring as young women, and spring candles (bright green and yellow) that I placed there this spring. And when I tweak the Altar for summer (probably next week), I will replace the eggs and postcards and candles with different things, depending on what feels right. Probably, though, the green candle will be replaced by an orange one. And there will be flowers on it more often and so on, all through the seasons.

Next to that I also have statuettes/figurines of those deities that are special to me, and whom I worship. These are Bast, Egyptian Goddess of, among other things, Cats; and Athena, Greek Goddess of  Wisdom and War. Both will get their own post in this project, although poor Athena will have to wait for next year. I will post a new picture of the Altar once I’ve changed it, but here’s a somewhat recent one I already posted back in February when I changed my bedroom. This was before my new dresser so everything is much smaller.

Posted in: General, Pagan Blog Project Tagged: Altar, Journey, Me, Pagan Blog Project, Paganism

All Over the Place

Sunday, March 23, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

It wasn’t very  busy at work on Friday, so when I got there a wee bit before twelve to start my shift at noon, I figured I’d ask for leave. I had some reporting stuff to do later on, so I just asked for leave until 16:00, which I got.

Then Nienke suggested we go to the movies. So she asked for leave, and then Thomas was game for movie as well. We harassed traffic for quick answers, which we got, and off we went to the cinema. We decided on Need for Speed which was actually a pretty good movie. There was a decent plot, nice actors and very pretty (and fast) cars.
Afterward we went back to work until the end of our shifts, it was hilarious seeing everyone’s faces when we showed up again after leaving earlier 😀

hemnesSaturday we went to Ikea, really early in the morning. I got the big Hemnes cabinet along with some fabric baskets to put inside it. When we got to the kitchen part, I fell for the dishes there. I’d been bored with my regular whites anyway so I got new plates and bowls in dark purple and faded green. Also two picture frames to display some of the Paul Kidby prints I got as a Kickstarter reward. After getting home I spent the rest of the day building the bloody cabinet. By nightfall it was ready so I could put stuff in it. It will probably take a little bit of getting used too, as it’s a wee bit deeper than I anticipated/remembered. But it does already look much better than before. It’s real nice to have a proper place to spread out the altar.

This morning in Pilates class we got a new series of excercises, ouch! After lunch I removed all the winter decorations still in place and put up the spring stuff. It looks nice 🙂

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Altar, Decoration, Friends, IKEA, Kickstarter, Movies, Nienke, Pathé, Photos, Review, Shopping, Sports, Spring, Work

Like a Baby

Sunday, January 26, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

The new bed? It sleeps fantastically! 😀

Yesterday in the morning, after sleeping in and doing some laundry I put the closet back. That left the bed, and the sidetable I use as altar space.

In the afternoon, we celebrated Uncle Tammo’s birthday. Had a great time, nice to catch up with the cousins as I don’t see them as often. As expected Uncle Louw was also there, so I asked him if he would come home with me for a sec to help with the bed. I tried with Nienke earlier in the week, but that didn’t go very well. With Uncle Louw, it went much better and we got the thing upstairs in one piece 😀

In the evening, I put the bed together, and returned the Altar and rest of the things.

1620878_10151936520758155_1406527355_n

1654243_10151936641028155_221143015_n

And! It started snowing! So this morning, I woke up gloriously on my new bed, and was greeted with a beautiful white world outside my window.

Was a bit tricky to get through to get to Pilates, but I made it. After coming home again, I dug a path from the front door to the road.

Spent most of the day playing WoW and watching stuff on Netflix, which I reactivated yesterday. Now with an iPad, and the improved offerings, the cost-benefit analysis was much more postive 😀

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Altar, Animals, Cats, Furniture, Home, Milo, Monkey, Netflix, Photos, Snow, Sports, Winter, World of Warcraft

Tse Elsewhere

Find me on InstagramFind me on PinterestFind me on GoodreadsFind me on TumblrFind me on TwitterFind me on FacebookFind me on Last.fmFind me on Steam

2017 Reading Challenge

2017 Reading Challenge
Erik has read 24 books toward his goal of 75 books.
hide
24 of 75 (32%)
view books

Random Quote

I personally believe we developed language because of our deep inner need to complain.

— Jane Wagner

Tags

Animals Art Birthday Books Cats Creativity Dad Eating Out Eva & Jarig Family Food Friends Games Garden Gender Gert Health Holidays Home Ingrid Leicester List Made by Me Me Milo Mom Monkey Movies Music Nature Nienke Parents Pathé Photos Review School Shopping Site Tessa Theater Transitioning TV Videos Work World of Warcraft

Categories

Archives

My latest Instagram

Instagram did not return a 200.

Check it out

Twitter Ramblings

Follow @tsemoana

Erik
@tsemoana

  • @NS_online Top, bedankt!
    about 2 months ago
  • @NS_online Groningen
    about 2 months ago
  • @NS_online zeg, waarom scant de NS Wintercity code voor gratis drankje bij de kiosk niet en weet de medewerker ook niet dat dit een ding is?
    about 2 months ago

My Latest Pinterest Pins

Visit Pinterest's profile on Pinterest.
Crayfish Creative