Get Started Creating an Altar (from VNS Episode 5)
Episode Stats
Summary
In this episode, we talk about the importance of a good altar and how to get started creating one. We also talk about offering offerings to the gods and goddesses, and offering to the ancestors, as well as offering to each other.
Transcript
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uh matt and sheila how do i get started creating an altar what do you say to that sheila
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um yeah first of all what is the purpose of your altar is it going to be to the gods and do you
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have a particular god that you would like to honor are you going to rotate it depending on
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the season of the year or your particular needs or is it going to be an altar to the ancestors
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a lot of people do that they have a special one to the ancestors with pictures and artifacts and
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things like that where they can pour a horn and again you don't need to have a horn and you don't
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need to have mead you need to sincerely recognize and give blessing and honoring to those ancestors
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to a god or goddess a lot of people will get a statue statuary that's not necessary you can
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start with something very simple if you're on a tight budget again it all has to do
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with your heart and your intentions i remember years ago we used to actually um when elsie
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christensen um kind of gave up a summer for work we took on a lot of that prison work for a long
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time and uh i remember actually corresponding with several people who ended up coming into
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the afa and kind of moving up through the ranks um the one thing i would have never forgotten was
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uh some guys who were in some um were incarcerated and they wanted to have some kind of a ritual
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fire well they knew they couldn't do it but they were able to gather together some pine needles
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and with that they wove the pine needles into a traditional old sun wheel the the kind of the
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primal sun wheel the circle with the cross in it and then they all sat around it and they envisioned
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that just bursting into flame that to me has stayed with me my whole life i mean how could i
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say that was not a real um experience and one that wasn't profound it was profound for them to
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have gone to that much attention to it and to manifest that and then to describe it to others
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so know that the gods are not going to uh have a checklist on whether you've done it right if you
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do it with a good heart with good intention and again what we do is give a offering of some kind
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and and usually heart to hand a horn or our truth our love our wish for well-being for our gods
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for them to to be able to do their work in all the worlds and then to ask for a blessing if
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that's what we need or to ask for guidance or to ask for intuition or whatever might be needed
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but again we don't just say give me riches no it's not that kind of thing that would be kind
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of abusing the relationship but it doesn't take very much so you can get a drinking horn you can
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have some mead but you could use spring water you could use fine apple juice or wine in fact
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we were reading about how um wine was typically used in in in scandinavia because it was imported
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and so um odin offerings to odin would be typically with wine rather than with mead
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because mead was the common beverage there so when we did open world prayer day yesterday we
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used red wine and that just felt right you know it's what you do so again it's your intentions
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but definitely plan it execute it as best you can and put your heart into it
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you know i don't think i can put much more on it than that i think that the thing that i would add
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is do it do it now don't wait until it's perfect don't let perfect be the enemy of good
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um ideally it'd be great if you got your own special altar table set up in the perfect spot
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and you're able to have statuary and the things that you really want there but until you get to
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that point clear off the top of a bookshelf clear off the top of a bookshelf and if you just got a
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candle set it up there don't let um the logistics prevent you from taking that first step the most
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important part is that you're doing it and the intention of doing it so by all means make it
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beautiful make it elaborate make it your own make it as special as you want over time
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but start today and look up to it don't don't let concern of doing it the right way hold you back