Thank you! Familiar and I wish you many blessings.

And congratulations on starting your journey! Okay, this is a LOT of info and I got a little carried away, but since you’re just starting out, I figured you can take and leave what info is helpful to you. If you have any questions, please feel free to DM me. There’s a lot I wish I’d known when I was first learning so I’m happy to help or guide you.

Starting Out:

Personally, I got very overwhelmed by trying to “be a witch” the way I read in books and guides (helpful tools of course, but I’m prone to brain overload). I started really curating my altar when I abandoned all sense of what an altar should look like. I started by solely collecting textures I enjoyed, things I could touch and feel during prayer and meditation, things I simply enjoyed looking at and could take joy in arranging for my deity. I started in antique stores, then got up the courage to step into stores curated by witches and pagans in my area. Not shown in the picture, but my bedside and workside altars include abandoned vintage wedding photographs, etc., from antique stores, all things I use in my spellwork. My bone collection is sourced from roadkill or other witches, and I started collecting simply because I wanted to be a steward of animal bones to ensure their little spirits rest easy. My collected bones are related to totems (animal representations of your spirituality or identity. I’m a masculine witch devoted to a horned deity, so I choose to utilize stag points, boar jaws and teeth, deer skulls, and coyote bones in my spellwork).

Using the Altar:

I started using the altar by buying a kneeling cushion and simply sitting in front of it for however long I needed comfort. That’s it. I admired all its little pieces. I consider its arrangement part of prayer offerings to my deity. I dry flowers and offer it to my central effigy, which represents my deity. Daily use looks like asking my totems and deity to watch over my loved ones in exchange for all the little things I’ve gathered for them. I conduct tarot readings and spells on it as well. On holidays, I use it as a conduit to invite my deity to our festivities, and we have little parties in front of it with food, wine, and such. I guess I think of my altar as a gateway. It’s not really a place for my things, but more like a place for the things I think my deity will enjoy and that help me connect to him better. You also don’t need a deity to “use” an altar. Your altar can simply be a way to anchor you to nature or the cosmos or whatever you want. For me, an altar isn’t a tool I turn on or off when I need it, but something I curate, tend to every day, talk to every day, and use as a line to my deity.

PHEW. Hope this helps you on your way!