A ceremonial space is a dedicated area of your home for you to connect with your personal practice for spirituality, meditation or contemplation.

It’s a way of honouring yourself by having a place that is solely yours, an expression of your spirit, a place to go when you need healing or inspiration, and a sacred space to help you cultivate deep presence and daily ritual

Some use it as a place to invoke a certain feeling, channel energy, or commune with source or part of a religious practice.

Often an altar is set up in this space, which offers a sacred space for you to reconnect with yourself throughout the day.  

Altars have been used for millennia in religious ceremonies and holy architecture. Your personal altar may have a theme that resonates with you or a current life event for example a birth altar, a seasonal theme or a religious celebration.

Why set up a ceremonial space?

We experience the world through our senses. Having an altar can serve as a visual reminder to take time each day for self-care. It engages our senses (through sound, scent, sight) in a way that artificial stimuli can not do.

The meaningful imagery invites us to connect with the rich & deeper elements that are of importance to us personally. To pause & remember there is a deeper purpose to life than just going through the motions.

Just going through the process of designing & setting up your own alter allows you to dedicate some thought & time to things that are significant to you. It can be fun!

Benefits

Having an altar adds beauty to your home and can bring immense benefit to your emotional, spiritual, and mental well-being.

Although how you build your altar is personal, there are some key things that can uplift and beautify the vibe as you set forth on a regular practice of soul-care for emotional well-being. 

Your outer world is an expression of your inner world. Consider your altar as a symbol — how you show up and take care of it can become a compass for how you are showing up and caring for yourself.

The more you tend to your altar, the more its healing and clarifying energy swells.

It can offer so many emotional benefits such as comfort, solace, inspiration, motivation, tranquility or strength depending on the purpose of your space.

This is a space you have created & should feel safe & at ease to express yourself in anyway you choose.

How to set one up

There are no set rules for how your altar should look or feel. It can be very simple or more elaborate, as long as it feels beautiful and aligned for you personally.

1/ Decide what the purpose of your altar will be. Here are some ideas: memorial altar, meditation altar, aspirations altar, and ritual altar, seasonal altar but any loving purpose you desire will work.

2/ Choose a place in your home you can use that will be relatively peaceful & free of distraction. This is where you will do your daily practice.

3/ Take a few minutes to close your eyes and breathe deeply, then walk around the chosen room and pick the best location for the focal point of your theme.

Focal Point / Altar:

4/ Use a surface such as a dresser, a table, a low stool / bench or table.

5/ Make the space clean & clear.

Wipe the chosen area down & any chosen objects you will place here.

Make sure it is dirt & dust free. 

Though it’s not a necessity, it is nice to energetically clear the space of your altar.

Do this with by smudging with incense or herbs of your choice such as palo santo or white sage

6/ Add soft furnishings. Place a comfortable pillow or rug in front of it or low stool so that you can sit in this space with ease.

Get creative

7/ Choose some elements for your altar that serve as a reminder to connect with yourself, and your theme. Carefully lay this out onto your focal point. Any items that make you feel connected to the reason for the space.

Suggestions; Oracle cards, crystals or stones, photos, flowers, food, ornaments, candles. Try to have some elements from nature that appeal to you such as a feather, leaves, plant or flowers.

You may want to place intentions or affirmations or supportive quotes or poems to inspire & lift you.

8/ Arrange your items and make a commitment to spend a little bit of time each day with your altar. Spending time with your altar can be as simple as looking at it in passing or simply touching an item on it for a moment.

Use the space

How & how long you spend here is entirely up to you . You may visit several times a day to honour the theme, especially if it has religious purpose.

You may visit in the morning to set an intention for the day, or at the close of the day to reflect & unwind.

It might be for a moment to connect or an hour to meditate.

It is likely that it may fluctuate. In times of need it can be reassuring to visit your personal space more frequently and of course, life events may take you away.

And this is all fine.

When travelling, I like to take an item from my altar so that I have something familiar & significant with, to connect with even when on the go. It can be a moment of centering & grounding no matter how crazy things can get whilst on the move.

My Altar 

My personal altar is a place for me to connect with living in alignment with the moon. 

In this space I  have an oracle card deck (Moonology) , a lunar cycle image to remind me that everything is a phase, notebook, journal, a beautiful orchid, crystals, candles, books, and white sage for smudging.

I tend to it often, adding items such as pine cones in the autumn & changing things around such as crystals I keep here depending on intentions I am committing to at that time.

Overall, this is a space for you to enjoy so go forth & have fun creating & connecting.

We would love to see your ritual space.

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