Elemental Altars Blessing My Home

Creating sacred spaces that reflect the environment where you live is a part of ecomancy: the magic of connection to place. I am fortunate to live on several acres of land in the hills outside my hometown, and enjoy a buffer zone of privacy in all directions from my house. I have created four altars honoring the elements of each direction on the borders of my property, and I often visit them for spiritual renewal as well as to maintain and care for them. On a few occasions, I have led the Crow Women in ceremony that visited each altar for a specific ritual purpose. It is not difficult to hike to each site, and we generally sing as we travel from East to South to West to North.

The first altar I created was to the North, my Earth Altar. Here I petition the Spirits for security and safety, protection and grounded energy. I used materials that were nearby— cut rounds of wood, rock, branches entwined in the fence that separates us from the neighbor’s property, and other “found” objects. I have brought many items to this altar over the years; unfired ceramic items, food and drink, plant material that didn’t survive indoors, and every year after Samhain the remnants of my carved Goddess pumpkins. I have placed glittery rocks on this altar, berries and nuts, even a small mirror. I find that these items disappear! I believe that the resident Crows (there are many who hang out around my house) carry them off, and I am happy to provide these totem birds with shiny objects for their enjoyment.

I next created my Southern altar, dedicated to passion, determination and directed action. The challenge with creating outdoor altars or shrines is using materials that will withstand the rigors of weather- snow, sun, wind, rain, etc. For the Southern altar I used rounds of wood again, but placed upon and around them large rocks that are red, gold, or carry glitter within them to represent Fire. I have also installed various items that indicate fire, heat, passion… some of these have also been carried off by Crows or other wildlife (there are lots of critters around where I live!), but that simply makes each altar a work in progress, a developing place of worship. On my Southern altar is the Litha wreath that we created in our 2018 Summer Solstice ritual, which was held at my Southern altar. In an previous blog I described the Crow Women’s wreath-making tradition. Our wreath from that summer still retains the beauty and power it manifested during the Litha ritual. Our wreath from our 2019 ceremony hangs in the oak grove near our Crow sister Carole’s home.

The Eastern altar was next created- with the help of one of my Crow sisters. We identified a cozy semi-circle of shrubs and branches to the east of my house to honor the Spirits of Air and new beginnings. We placed flat stones in the center on the ground, and tied lovely ribbons and streamers of fabric to the limbs and branches surrounding it. I also installed a miniature version of the Tibetan prayer flag in that space. The altar is not one solid object… rather, it is a location where the air and breeze can flow through the branches, shaking the ribbons, the leaves on the shrubs, the fans, and the prayer flags. It is open and made of air! I have had to re-tie some of the ribbons and add some as the seasons take their toll on these tokens made of fabric.

Finally, I created my Western altar, dedicated to Water and inner emotional tides. I had some ceramic bowls which allowed water to cascade from one to the other, and I set them next to tree on my Western border. In the bottom, larger bowl, I scattered small stars made of metal, shells, and glitter. I tied a memento of one of our departed sisters, Donna Pauline, to the ceramic structure. And, I placed a few pieces of broken pottery nearby, one of which appeared to have the shape of fish. I periodically carry a pitcher of water to this altar and pour it through the cascading bowls to refresh the spirits of water and the West and to renew my soul’s reservoir.

In a future blog post, I will describe creating small directional rock sculptures around the circle at the entrance to my property, and the challenges of using rocks to represent all the elements, not just earth. I will also describe a few other rock sculptures that I created with spiritual intent. I feel that my home and loved ones are protected by the strength of the magic and power that accompanies each altar, and by the repetition of ritual visits to these sites over the months and years. I hope that you in your own home or living space can find inspiration to create your own elemental altars using both natural and created materials, in ways that feed your spirit and bring pleasure to the Goddess and the God. No matter the extent of your land, there is room for some touchstone of element energy in each direction. If you have no land, then little altars in your home can serve this purpose. And, perhaps you can use the four songs included in this post in your own devotions. They are grouped together on our album Crow Magic because we hope people will use them for practices like those described in this article.

How do you honor the directions? Do you have individual elemental altars like I do? if so, what are they like? We’d love it if you would leave a comment with a story of your creative journey working with element altars. Blessed Be!

The four snippets of song in this post are from our album Crow Magic. That recording explored two aspects of magic: rites of passage and elemental magic. The tracks are available from Amazon; follow the links from our store. Each of the songs will be discussed in its own in-depth blog post, also part of this ongoing series on the music and magic of the elements of earth, air, fire, water and spirit.