The Basic Wiccan Altar

Unless you are working within a specific Tradition that has a certain way of setting up your altar there are no rules about where it should be placed or what you should put upon it. The altar is the place where you interact with the Gods so it should represent that interaction to you in whatever way you find best.

"Traditionally" an altar would hold a representation of the God and Goddess, symbols of the four Elements, some candles to see by, and your working tools.

In many Traditions the altar is placed either in the North or sometimes the East of a room. But again this is not a hard and fast rule. If the way your room is set only gives you room to put your altar in the West then do it that way. We Witches may be traditional, but we are also practical and we can work with what we are given.

Your altar cloth would typically be made of a natural fabric such as cotton. When starting out check out places such as Walmart for inexpensive table cloths. I recommend inexpensive because sooner or later it's going to get dirty or have candle wax spilled on it and you're going to want to replace it.

For representations of the God and Goddess you can either use candles or you can use statues of the Deities. In the beginning it is probably easier and less expensive to go with a couple of pillar candles. The Goddess candle goes on the left upper corner of the altar and the God candle on the upper right.

To represent the Elements you can use the following:

East/Air - incense
South/Fire - red candle
West/Water - chalice or cup of water
North/Earth - a small dish of salt or dirt

There's a pretty good you-tube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1a9mAaESiQ that might give you some ideas as well.

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Is there a proses to createing your altar for exsample casting a circle around it while createing it? / And also the wiccan book I get most of my information states that u may use a dish (seramic or wodden) with a pentagram imprinted to repersent earth in the altar, what would be ur opinion on that?

There is no particular ritual required to create the altar itself, although I would certainly want to make sure to clean and dust the table or shelf you will be using and to keep in clean thereafter. On the other hand, I would cleanse and consecrate any items that you will be using on that altar for rituals.

In answer to your second question, it is indeed possible to use a plate or flat circle of wood with a pentacle inscribed on it to represent the Element of Earth.

May I ask which book you're reading? If it is confusing you I might have some other book suggestions that you'll find make things clearer.

Is an altar absolutely vital? I live with my parents who are acceptant now but aren't comfortable with my being wiccan. So do I absolutely need an altar right now to keep practising? Any info is helpful, thanks. BB )o(

Katya, an altar is not absolutely essential. But it is still something that will be helpful in your practice. Perhaps instead of having a large altar you could come up with something smaller. I have a small wooden box with miniatures of the Elements, etc that I can carry with me when travelling and then put away when I am not working with it. Something like that might be an alternative for you.

is the plastic made off pentagram or pentacale basically advisable for represent my instant altar for ritual but its well blessd by my will ? just askin only sir ,,,

Traditionally only items made of natural materials are used on an altar. I would not recommend using something made of plastic. If you're using the pentacle to represent the Element of Earth then a better alternative would be a dish of salt or dirt.

How do i stand a simple altar for myself

The first post in this thread should be enough to help you set up a simple altar for yourself.

I have a question also. You say that you can use a pentacle on a piece of wood to represent the element of earth? But does the element of earth not have its own symbols? I'm not saying that I couldn't or wouldn't use a pentacle for the element of , I'm just asking if it would be more appropriate to use the actual earthen symbol?