Create a Beltane Altar

"Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again."

~Joseph Campbell

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An altar is an outer representation of your inner attunement and a personal way of connecting to spirit, the sacred or to your spiritual tradition. Altars hold what we value. They can reflect back to us the energies we want to invoke, ideals we want to strive toward, the divine we want to channel; what inspires us and what we aspire to.

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Find an area in your home, office, work space—it could be any area (shelf, table, bench) that you set aside as sacred personal space. It can be as simple as a window sill or the whole top of a sideboard. You can create multiple mini altars and refresh them with the changing seasons. 

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You can create an altar using any items sacred to you. If the item has significance to you and brings you feelings of celebration, peace, love, or inspiration, it’s a good choice. This is your altar. This is your sacred space. Make it yours.

Here are some elements you may want to include:

~Representations of the five elements (a crystal for earth, a feather for air, a candle for fire, etc.)
~Items to activate your senses, i.e. incense, and ground the sacred in your physical body and harmonize with the natural world.
~Images of divine beings, gods, goddesses, spiritual teachers who are meaningful to you
~Statues of divine beings, gods, goddesses, spiritual teachers who are meaning to you.
~If you use prayer beads or malas, an altar is a perfect place to keep them energized when you are not using them
~Oracle Cards or sacred texts. You may even want to keep your journal on your altar.

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For your Beltane altar, bring in the colors of the season’s fecundity—lots of green and the spring flowering plants of your geography.

~Lots and lots of Candles or a cauldron for the Bel fire
~Braided ribbons to symbolize the Maypole
~Symbols of fertility—eggs, acorns or seeds
~Antlers or Horns
~Chalice
~Symbols of the Green Man
~Fill a glass bowl with water and float flowers or candles in it.
~Any flowery, aphrodisiac-y and passionate laden essential oil is perfect for Beltane. (Rose, Ylang, Ylang, Jasmine, Peppermint...)
~Dress a tree. This is the perfect time to go out and celebrate a tree. Especially a hawthorn, rowan or birch - but the tree spirit will welcome you attention whichever kind of tree it is. Sit with it, talk to it, dance around it (maypole), honor the tree and its fertility. Hang ribbons from its branches, each ribbon represents a wish or prayer.

Beltane Affirmations:
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"Life blooms all around me.
I bloom and grow continuously.
The universe gives life to my desires.
Pleasure is sacred.
I am beautiful as I am part of nature.
I am cleansed of the hardships of my past.
I am in a state of rebirth."

~Affirmations from EarthAndWater.co

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With an altar, we invite the divine into our lives, and send our intentions out into the universe. Let your intuition, your inner sense of beauty, truth and goodness guide you. Your attention and intention with your altar will energetically nourish the items on your altar and they in turn will energetically nourish you. 

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Photo credit: MichiTermo via Canva