Pagan Information Question #13. What tools do you think are essential on your Altar?

Question

Do you use any tools or things as a part of your worship and what is their significance? What is the SINGLE most important tool that you simply can't do anything without?

Brightest Blessings,
Raji the green Witch

Answer 1

I only have a few tools as it is... a bowl, incense burner, runes... soon I'll have a horn and I'm making a Thor's Hammer. But the single most important tool is myself. I can speak to the Gods without any of the things listed above.

Answer 2

I have a kitchen altar, an outdoor altar and a portable altar for use at rituals. I keep meaning to set up an altar to Aphrodite in my bedroom and not getting around to it. It involves moving furniture and stuff. I'll do it soon, really. My kitchen altar is the top of my credenza in my kitchen. Inside are all my herbs, tea and aromatherapy supplies, candles, and various ritual tools. Oh, and I keep my potatoes and onions in there too. In a separate cabinet of course. On top is a table cloth made from my wedding veil to honor Hera. Also is a peacock feather to honor Her as well. There is also a small cauldron that I keep herbs in for burning, an offering dish and a cute frog candle holder. Surrounding this is pictures of my dear departed relatives. Tucked behind the pictures is my candle snuffer, insence burner and lighter. This is where most of my worship takes place, as I'm a kitchen witch. I don't keep my ritual blade here because I don't want any accidents. Oudoors, I have an altar that is simply a large, attractive stone with several small stones around it and wooly thyme planted in front of it and some flowers that come up in the back. Over it is a cherry tree. I sit and meditate here when the weather is nice and I put my offerings on the stone at night. My travelling altar is rather a mess. It's a coffee table with removeable legs. I put the legs in a big box with all my various ritual supplies. The top gets leaned against the house altar and the box shoved alongside it. The box is just full of stuff. Alot of it is mine and some of it was brought to some ritual or another by other folks. It started out as a table cloth, few candles, a cauldron, an offering dish and a blade and now it's got so much stuff in it I can hardly find anything! I should definately sit down and organize that soon.

Answer 3

My altar tends to be a matrix of crystals, deity images, ritual tools, and Tarot decks, that builds and becomes more cluttered over time. But what is essential? That depends on what I'm doing, so I try to keep it simple and specific to the work at hand. For some rituals, I set up a temporary altar specific to the work I am doing at the time. Is it an act of worship of a particular deity? Then I want to have the image of that deity, a candle of a color appropriate to that deity, a censer, and an offering bowl. If I am scrying, then all I will have on my altar will be the crystal ball or scrying mirror, maybe a few candles, and there will be other candles in the room and incense burning on the main altar. If it is an act of High Ceremonial Magick, then usually I will have the four elemental weapons of the Golden Dawn, or sometimes simply my wand, and my book of conjurations. If I am summoning a spirit, the incense will be in the triangle, not on the altar.

With everything, though, I always have my Tarot deck handy, because I like to to a divination before any ritual.

Answer 4

Myself.
When I first started Heathenism, I popped a bottle of hard cider, walked out to the tree in the back yard, sacrificed the first drink, sat down and talked. Some of the best "conversations" I have with the gods have been like this. I was also dead broke LOL (I have three kids) so I add to things slowly. I am finishing up my drinking horn (I think if you can make it you should) and I have an offering bowl that I'm known to use for apples and salad. Hehe I am nothing if not practical. And I look at it this way. I'm a housewife. My ancestors were a practical people. Why shouldn't I be? I doubt Frigga minds that I use my bowl to hold food for my family. I'm sure she heartily approves.
Other then that nothing. I haven't started on a hammer because I don't have time right now. Plus my horn is being difficult. :D But in the end, what I have is me and the gods, not matter what tools I use.

Answer 5

I agree with everyone who says that the mind is the most important tool.
On my altar, I keep a small crystal bowl of salt, crystal goblet of water, my 7 inch clay pentale that I made,, a coffin shapred incense burner that holds both kinds, a small cauldron to butn homade incense and other things in ritual, a ritual candle, a statute that represents the god and goddess to me, my tarot cards in a wooden box, and a cute bowl that holds the essential oils I use most often for meditiation, a small mortar and pestle, lighter, incense spoon, a photo of myself the year I became dedicated to Wicca, and that's it.
I keep my items that I use only for formal ritual in a chest under the altar, next to my stack of comp notebooks that I use for my BOS. In the chest I keep my wand, chalice, and athame.
I know this sounds like a lot of stuff and my altar must be really cluttered, but I love it and find it beautiful, and I think the gods aprove since I'm happy.
When I do a formal ritual (maybe 12 times in a year), I clear off everything and cleanse it throughly, and then set it up with only the items I "need", so other things don't get in the way.
Oh, and on my wall above my altar I have a beautiful hanmade besom hanging and a stone plaque of Goddess Rhiannon, who's my patroness.
This sits in a small corner of my bedroom where no one really notices it unless they are looking for it. I move it to cast when I have to. All of my ritual tools have great significance to me, otherwise I wouldn't have them. The one I simply can't do without is my athame, I usually use this over a wand.

Answer 6

Well, there's nothing I can't do without other than myself. However, I'm an animist. The tools I work with have spirits within them, as with anything else. So working with them isn't just working with "things". Some of my tools are your usual generic neopagan ones--like my antler-handled athame. However, I also have a bear skull rattle that I made myself as part of my more shamanic tool set. And I have a number of animal skins I do trance/shapeshifting dance in.

Some people get downright snobby about tools. "Oh, you use tools? Well, I must be a better magician/witch/etc, than you, 'cause I don't use tools! Nyah!" Foo on that. I like my shiny objects, darnit. They add to the pageantry and the "play" aspect of ritual, the parts that help to create the right suspension of disbelief for a really good altered state of consciousness.

Answer 7

No tools are "essential" all your tools are but an extension of yourself to help you focus.

That said, I do have several tools (lol), My pentacle is my base and represents the Earth, My wand is a focus of my mind and represents the element of Air, My Atheme is a focus for my will and represents the elements of Fire, My lantern represents my inner light and helps to guide me, my bowl represents the womb of the Mother and the element of Water, I also have small statues of a bear and a stag to represent my totem animal spirit guides, My sword is a larger version of my atheme and is used for constructing my circle, My staff is a larger version of my wand and can also be used for constructing circles, I made a wheel of the year to honor the passage of the seasons, and my besom (broom) is for cleansing and purifying space before I work. Additionally I also use a green candle in the North for Earth, a yellow candle in the East for Air, a red candle in the South for Fire, a blue candle in the West for Water, a golden candle and silver candle to represent the Lord and the Lady, and a white candle to represent "the All, the Everything".

I can do without any of these tools if I so choose for the only "tool" that is really needed is myself.

Blessed Be )O(

Answer 8

Although we know tools aren't really necessary, I do admit I have a penchant for buying and making them! I have a medium-sized cauldron that I love; I made a beautiful wand with a crystal tip, painted it a lovely metallic purple and hot-glued beads in Quarter Colors around it -- beautiful and functional (for Drawing Down the Moon ritual). I have a mortar and pestle for grinding herbs, miscellaneous incense for spells and worship (along with many apothecary jars of herbs); I also have a priapic wand that I made from a wooden dowel and an unopened fir cone that I use in Beltaine rituals. Probably the item I find most useful is my athame. I use it for casting the Sacred Circle and Calling Quarters ONLY. Of course I also have my pentacle that I wear always, so it's not really an altar tool, but still very personal and important to me. I also like to take a ritual bath with the soap I made that has certain herbs inside it, or my bath salts I made by using sea salt, sage, and consecrating it by passing it through myhrr and frankencense incense. I also have an oil I made to consecrate certain things, and also myself and the hubby into our Circles. Also, my books are very important: I have over 110 and they have taught me much. Even though we know we don't need tools, I feel they are nice to look at, fun to have and make your rituals feel more special. Yes, I guess I do like my "pretties", since I have them all over the house, lol.

If I am at ritual with the Grove I like to participate in, I take only myself -- but they consecrate us into the circle with oil and incense. If alone or just me and the hubby, probably the tools most important to me are my athame and my herbs, incense, candles and, of course, my BOS with the ritual or spell that I wrote that I am going to use.

After reading the entry just below me, I have to add this: you are absolutely right; I also set up a different altar for my workings, other than the one I leave up all the time. I was trainedin a Celtic Traditional Ceremonial coven and High magick tends to need certain things that are not always on my "everyday" altar. Also, I live in Florida, so impromptu workings at the beach may find me calling quarters and casting the circle with nothing more than two fingers of my receptive hand.

Answer 9

Single most important tool - my mind

Things that are included on a harrow (altar) in heathenism: Drinking horn, blessing bowl, sax (knife), Thors Hammer

there can also be a blessing twig and incense burner.

I add my box of runes and the oath ring of the Kindred.

Nothing is absolute - those listed make a blot easier.

Answer 10

I don't rely too much on tools, though I enjoy using candles. The most essential altar item I keep is something to inspire me. Usually it is a family photo, or an item that represents my current focus. I have to have something there that I look at every day and feel comforted or uplifted.