How to Build an Altar

Depending on someone’s practice, it’s possible for altars to be any combination of these different types, but generally when pagans talk about “building an altar for a deity,” they’re referring to the third type, or a devotional altar.

These altars are located on tables, shelves, or other surfaces, and are decorated with images, statues, gifts, trinkets, candles, and other items that express appreciation for a specific entity. What makes them altars as opposed to shrines is the fact they also have spaces to leave food and drinks.

In Heathenry, a devotional altar serves a number of different functions:

I remember how strange it was to have an altar when I first started a pagan practice. Now it feels strange to go without one.

You may already know who you want to dedicate your altar to, but if you don’t, that’s okay too! You can always build a general-purpose altar and go from there.

This could be in a bookcase or a floating shelf mounted on the wall. This route is nice because it gives you options to tuck your altar out of the way, but to still give it plenty of surface room. Shelves are also great for expanding altars that sit on tables. I’ve used small floating shelves to build my altar up and give it different sections.

The drawback to shelves is that you can’t safely use taper candles on them unless they’re electric. You’ll want to stick with candles in glass containers, such as votives, tea lights, or pillar candles. They may also be harder to reach or more out of the way depending where you put them.

A very creative way to display an altar is to place it within a glass plant terrarium. This has benefits similar to cabinets: Terrariums protects the contents from dust and accidents, but unlike cabinets you have more options about where to place it. Many plant terrariums open from the top as well, giving you the ability to light candles and place offerings within it. The heavier ones also keep your altar safeguarded by any roaming pets.

I’ve personally never used a terrarium as an altar, so the drawbacks I suggest here are purely speculative, but I imagine plant terrariums can be a bit difficult to move things in and out of.

Box altars are exactly what they sound like. These can operate like a diorama, in which everything is built into the box, or the box can simply act as storage for you to remove altar contents and put back as needed.

Box altars can be humble or fancy. Some may be made out of a simple shoebox, while others are foldable wooden boxes that contain different compartments. Either way, they’re designed to be stored very easily. This option is great if you can’t display an altar publicly for some reason.

A variation of the box altar is the pocket shrine. Pocket shrines are portable shrines packed away in a candy tin, a matchbox, or some other small container. Depending on their size, a pocket shrine may contain things such as iconography, poetry, small tokens, and perhaps even a candle. These are meant to be unpacked from the container and put away when finished.

The drawback of this variation is rather obvious: Not having an altar on continuous-display can be difficult to manage, as well as unpacking it and packing it.

I’ve recently discovered the joys and benefits of building shrines using shadowboxes. Shadowboxes are great for keeping small devotional items, statues, and artwork together in a way that reduces clutter and also protects them from dust and accidents. They’re also incredibly space-saving since they can be mounted on walls like picture frames.

The main drawback to shadowboxes is that they have no inherent platform for making offerings. You’ll need to hang them above a shelf or table if you want this option.

You can find shadowboxes at craft stores, thrift stores, and online.

Your first altar doesn’t need to be fancy. Mine consisted of a single taper candle, a plate, and a decorative cloth, all of which I found around the house. While this first altar was very plain, it served its purpose well.

After I began venerating Loki regularly, I made an altar specific to him. I added artwork depicting him, more candles, an offering bowl, a small drinking horn, crafts I made, incense devoted to him, an altar cloth, garland, and fairy lights.

By decorating Loki’s altar with things that reminded me of him, it became a “home” for his energy. Now it’s a place where I can easily connect with him at any time. Your altar will do the same for the entity you venerate.

Devotional altars have three basic features: An area to make offerings, something to indicate who the altar is for, and some form of illumination to “call” the entity to the offering. You’ll want to prioritize getting items that fulfill those functions first, and then adding additional things as you altar grows.

Decorations can be thought of as any item meant to improve the general presentation of your altar. These are neither offerings nor tools but they nevertheless have an accentuating effect. You can decorate your altar however you’d like. Some ideas for decor include:

Cleansing refers to various methods of removing residual energies from objects and spaces. You’ll want to cleanse your altar as well as any secondhand items you plan to use for it.

While cleansing items can be done in many ways, the easiest way to do this is to simulate the act of physically cleaning them.

With the item in front of you, take one hand and stick it into an imaginary basin that’s filled with all your recollections of what “clean” feels like. Take this essence of cleanliness into your hand and begin to scrub your object with it as if you’re actually scrubbing it with soap. Wipe away any energetic residue and throw it into a (real) sink or trash can.

If it helps, you can also use the elements to aid you in this cleansing. You can use water to cleanse any items that can get wet, and you can use incense or herb bundles to cleanse any items that can’t get wet by passing them through the smoke.

Consecrating refers to a method of energetically assigning a job or function to an item, i.e. programming it. This is so your item functions correctly on the spiritual plane. You’ll want to consecrate any tools that act as a catalyst between our world and the otherworld, such as your altar surface and potentially your offering vessels.

After you’re done cleansing an item, simply place your hands on it and tell it its job, e.g. “You shall be a platform to give offerings to the gods.” You can do this with language or some other form of communication.

However you do it, your communication must come from a place of intentionality; from a place that feels deep and real. If your motivation for speaking these words is to simply follow these instructions, then the intention behind your actions is to carry out orders, which is not the same as intending to give your items their jobs. This distinction is important when it comes to consecration.

Once you have everything prepared, you can go ahead and set up your altar. There’s no real rules for how to organize it, so long as it works for you.

A basic setup involves placing your main iconography in the center of the altar, placing your offering vessels in front of the iconography, and setting up one or multiple candles on one or both sides. However, what you do will be up to your space, the items you have, and your personal tastes. (For example, I’m personally a big fan of asymmetrical altars.)

You may rearrange your altar anytime you please and for any reason.

Giving offerings is a lot simpler than you might think. If you grew up in the US, you’ve probably given cookies to Santa Clause or left carrots out for the Easter Bunny at some point. When we’re children, the driving motivation for giving offerings isn’t based in logic, but instinct. It’s specifically the instinct to give something meaningful to the important forces in our lives.

I want to you take a moment to remember what this feels like, and to notice how this sensation feels in your body. This is what you want driving your motivation for giving offerings now.

You can give whatever you’d like for your first offering. Once you have your offering prepared, you can proceed as follows:

And that’s it!

You can leave your candles burning for however long you’d like—anywhere between fifteen minutes to an hour is reasonable. How long you leave the actual food / beverage out depends on how perishable it is. Water can be left out until it evaporates, but any foods should be cleaned up before going bad.

Immediately establish a strict personal rule that absolutely nothing goes on the altar except for offerings and the items and decorations you intentionally put there. Trust me, all you have to do is mindlessly set one book on it to turn it into another storage-area.

The quicker you adopt a policy of treating your altar as an occupied space and not as a shelf, the easier it’ll be to maintain it in the long run.

If you’ve already gotten into a habit of treating your altar like a shelf, you can try placing it in an enclosed space instead, such as a glass cabinet or terrarium. This will help discourage you from setting things on top of it.

It’s not too difficult to keep an altar in good shape. It will maintain a nice appearance if you use it regularly and dispose food and drink offerings in a timely manner.

If your altar falls into disarray from disuse, one of the best ways to remedy this is to rearrange it. Take a photo of your altar setup in case you end up disliking the new arrangement. Afterwards, take everything off the altar, dust it, clean the items, wash the altar cloth, and dispose of any candles that became too filthy with dust.

Rotating your altar’s decorations on a seasonal or holiday basis can also help maintain its appearance and cleanliness.

Only use taper candles and pillar candles on tables or dressers. Use candles that go in glass containers or lanterns for shelves. Keep flammable decorations away from flames.

While not necessary, it’s possible to build multiple altars. People might do this if they worship multiple deities, venerate multiple pantheons, or have a mixture of different practices. You have a lot of options in instances like this, though what you end up going with will depend on both the nature of your space and the nature of your practice.

Some examples for different solutions I’ve seen are as follows:

If you need to dismantle an altar for any semi-permanent or permanent reason, you’ll want to notify the entity your altar is dedicated to before doing so, as well as inform them why you’re dismantling it. This is just good manners.

If you’re taking down someone’s altar because you’re ending your veneration practice with them, you’ll also want to have a heart-to-heart talk about this. For more information on spirit communication, see Deity & Spirit Work 101.