Want to Practice Your Intuition? Try Altar Work

A Quick Guide to Altar Work

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As I stated in my last love letter, I have been reading Honoring Your Ancestors, and there is an entire chapter on altars. It had me thinking about the altars I have and have kept since 2017 or so. Most of my altars between 2017 and 2020 were temporary, looking like crystal grids with plants and crystals. I would set them up as I hiked, as I pulled cards, etc. I would then take them down once I was done with that moment. My first ever Yule altar was very temporary as well only lasting a day or two.

As I have settled into my practice, and I had 3, almost 4 years to myself not living with anyone, I figured out my altar work a bit better. I, of course, have ADHD so it has not always been the easiest ride. I wanted to share a couple of things I’ve learned along the way.

1. Have An Intention

Your intention can be anything truly. You can have an altar for your divination work where you do your tarot. It might have an altar cloth, a candle, a stick of incense, and your decks, runes, bibliomancy book, etc. It might be an ancestral altar dedicated to your ancestors known and unknown. Perhaps you have your goddess or god altars. It truly does not matter what the altar is for, just make sure that you have an intention set for it.

One of the mistakes I kept making was that I would have “altars” around, but I would only have a vague understanding in my own mind about what they were actually for. This made them feel inconsequential and out of alignment even as I tried desperately to grasp on to this spiritual “necessity.”

NOTE: You do not need an altar for your spiritual work. I personally like mine, and I have many, in order to ground into my intention and to focus my wandering ADHD mind on the task at hand.

2. Schedule Time At Your Altar

Here is something that I am awful about, again thanks to my ADHD, is attending to my altars. For instance, up until this move, I have routinely ignored the altars of The Morrigan (she’s so patient with me), my nana, and Mary Magdalene. Now that these are all within the same shelving unit as my other goddess altars, I am much more likely to use them. Part of the issue with Mary Magdalene and Nana was that I was unsure of their purpose, my intention around them. I am still working on Mary Magdalene’s. I haven’t taken it down, but I am still not using it as I thought I might when I set it up back in 2020.

I now schedule my times at my altars. Mondays & Full Moons: Artemis, Saturdays & New Moons: Hekate, Quarter Moons: Persephone, Tuesdays & Wednesdays: The Morrigan, Sundays: The Marys, Daily: Creative Hearth and Ancestor Altar. When cleaning or cooking downstairs: Family Hearth Honoring Your Ancestors has been incredibly helpful with my shift in perspective around my ancestral (Nana’s) altar. The House Witch has been super helpful in helping me understand the energies around a hearth.

I also have my lunar cycle altar, which is currently hanging up on my wall instead of lying flat like it used to. I look at it daily, even if I’m not always processing what I am looking at. I think for me, it’s just a good reminder of the imagery and symbolism I may see over the lunar cycle.

3. Trust Your Intuition

Ok, but what does trusting your intuition mean? For me, that has been a hard and long lesson to learn. If you put something on your altar and you feel elated about it, definitely keep it. If you put something on, and you have an emotional or physical reaction that is troubling, remove that item. If things feel stagnant, deep clean your altar, refresh the water if you have water, burn some rosemary or incense. Give it new life.

For me, my intuition is confirmed through synchronicities through my divination decks or imagery that comes up throughout my daily life. Wow, there are a lot of foxes popping up everywhere right now. That’s right, I needed to be convincing and smooth with my language for xyz today. Stuff like that.

My intuition also manifests in my body. I was talking with a friend about trading services and goods today. My entire body got goosebumps and filled with warmth as we chatted. I knew it was the right choice. Had I been covered in chills and freezing with my gut churning, I would have asked for time to consider what felt good/equal and moved on from there. Your intuition is your own. Learn to work with it in a way that you understand.

One final note for those of us who get dopamine from purchasing things for projects. It is very easy to fall into the dopamine cycle of buying, buying for our altars. You can start with what you have and move on from there. My first altars were a gifted little kerchief from my nana, crystals I already owned, a candle I had already used before, and a card or two from my tarot deck. You do not need to buy for your altar. Intention is everything. I have sourced quite a few things for my altars over the last few years. Most of the items are things that I 1) already owned 2) were gifted or 3) were thrifted. I do have some new things such as my Little Stitchsqueak dolls and This That and These goddesses, but even some of those were gifted (thanks, T 🥰). Don’t get caught up in the buying. Truly, stick with what you have. Do what feels right.

Have you worked with altars before? Do you have any tips or tricks to share with the community? We’d love to hear!

Wishing you well this week! May your life offer what you need in this moment.

With love,

Aventurine ✨