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The picture above is the current arrangement of altar I use for my daily magical practice and for my monthly Mansion invocation. The first general question to deal with is, "What is an altar?" For a mage or magical practitioner there is a basic answer which is that the altar is your magical workspace. This is where you do your ritual work, your invocation and evocation and communication with spirits.
Your altar is constrained by practical considerations. For example, I currently live in a small apartment so I cannot devote an entire room to ritual work nor do I have much space available. I therefore have decided to use the top of a bookshelf as the base of the altar and the wall behind the bookshelf for images, sigils and seals.
Your altar should appeal to you and be a personal expression of your practice. Many traditional hoodoo altars, for example, are full of various items and wax from candles is left where it melts. I tend to like a cleaner, sparer look and I like a more airy, clearer, white and light space, so my altar reflects that. One should keep in mind that the altar is essentially a door or window through which you come into the sphere of the spirits you contact and through which the spirits come to you. Maintaining an atmosphere of respect and devotion is necessary, though there are manifold ways to do this. I have been priviledged work with the very talented mage Nigel Jackson and many of the images are his, thanks so much Nigel!
My altar has an orderly arrangement to it, but one that evolved organically over time. All of the parts are meaningful to me and all of the parts relate, more or less to each other in their arrangement. Let's start at the top with the image numbered 3. This is an image of Hermes Trismegistus and since I am a Hermeticist, has central placement. Image 2 is of Eros and a man and woman chained by love, image 4 is of a spirit pouring gold to an astrologer/mage. On the exoteric level these represent love and prosperity magic, but esoterically the pouring of gold signifies wisdom, "Wisdom is better than silver and gold" and Eros signifies that love is the key factor in all magic, "Love is the bond of bonds".
The center images 7-10 and 19-21 are the images of the 7 planets. They are arranged from left to right in the order of the days of the week, alternating from the top to bottom row. Thus 7, Sun; 19, Moon; 8, Mars; 20 Mercury; 9, Jupiter; 21, Venus; 10, Saturn. Note that the top row contains the masculine planets, Sun, Mars, Jupiter & Saturn and the lower row, the feminine planets, Moon & Venus and the hemaphroditic Mercury. Below many of the planets are the sigils of their intelligences and seals, for example 12 is the seal of the Sun and 13 the sigil of Nachiel, intelligence of the Sun. 14 is the seal of mars. 15 is the table of Jupiter, traced from 1-16 in gold and 16 is the table of Jupiter with the sigil of Jophiel traced on it. 17 is the table of Saturn with his seal traced on it. 23 is the table of the Moon and 25 the seal of the Moon. 29 the sigil of Anael the intelligence of Venus.
My daily practice consists of lighting a candle before the planet ruling the day and doing a short invocation of the planet. Temperature permitting I wear the color of the planet of the day during that day.
Around the central 7 planet focus of the images are some additional images of importance to me. 1 is the Celestial Lord of Heaven a key Taoist deity and 6 is Khizr, a Sufi spiritual being, both showing my interest in and devotion to Taoism and Sufism in my practice, despite my primary focus on Hermeticism. 5 is an additional image of Jupiter and 11 is an image of the 16th Mansion of the Moon, both spirits with which I have an affinity and wish to emphasize.
Another key image is 22, that of the 3rd Mansion of the Moon, whom I do a monthly invocation of whenever the Moon reaches the 3rd Mansion. A small silver inscribed talisman of the 3rd Mansion of the Moon is wrapped in silk in box 31.
Other items of interest are 18, duck feathers, placed next to the Moon since the Moon rules ducks. 24, a statue of the Buddha, showing my respect for Buddhism. 26 is a wrathful Buddhist spirit and 30 an image of the Green Tara, a merciful Buddhist spirit. 26 is in a black box and 30 in a white box showing the duality of the Cosmos. 28 is a geode, looks nice!
The rest of the items are practical paraphenalia of magic. 36, Candles; 33, matches; 37, spare glass candle holders; 34, brass candle snuffer; 35, incense tongs; 32, incense burner.
Clearly this is just my own personal arrangement of space and images, infinite variation is possible. I look forward to having more space and being able to do multiple altars and even an entire room for invocation.
You might also be interested in my Renaissance Astrology CD Library Series, with over 120 rare astrology and magic books as well as my Facsimile Editions of unique Astrology and Magic Books and my discussion group Spiritus Mundi.
If you wish to delve even deeper into this fascinating area I offer my Planetary Magic Mini-Course and Mansions of the Moon Mini-Course, which allow students to immediately start making talismans and elections and are a great introduction to my longer Electional Astrology Course, Horary Astrology Course and Astrological Magic Course.
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Specializing in Horary Astrology, Electional Astrology Astrological Magic and Astrological Talismans.
Copyright 2007, Christopher Warnock, All Rights Reserved.