HOW: Ways to Altar

But It’s Up to You

Feb 05, 2023

Have your own ‘satellite show.’ It’s easy. Step in. See how it feels.

Here are some examples from the first year Flat Black Gallery show. But just do your thing. Which can be any thing.

These altar examples include…

simple-to-make card altars
craft-oriented portable altars
and tabletop altars.

Tabletop altars can be paired with portable altars in your altar practice. All can be based in art, craft, copied pictures, writing, and whatever you feel appropriate.

SIMPLE ALTARS

Your satellite show can be as simple as a single object on a table or on your dash or your handlebars. One simple version that I like is using a 3x5 card. It can be a printout of art or icons you like. Or your own art. Or prose. A copied passage from a source important to you, or a source you want to explore.

Simple card altar in larger altar context (see tabletop altar below for more).

Digital altar card for your phone, always with you.

See our digital altar card series launching February. You can download this one above from this Mulch post: 35,000 Decisions a Day.

PORTABLE ALTARS

I use several related altars—a traditional tabletop altar as my main, and a variety of portable altars that travel but that often have some relationship to the main altar.

Portable altar with changable altar cards

A simple altar that can be made in a few minutes. Know that even a few minutes making an altar is a start on path that you will learn something from. That path for you might be long—the beginning of a rewarding practice with altars. Or it may be short—you got nothing from it. BUT, maybe that experience of ‘nothing’ will emerge later in your life. Time passing, events, emotional journeys, and our pursuits bring changes or needs, and for which altars can play a variety of productive roles for us.

So, try it. Free. As I say, you’re pre approved.

These are some altar possibilities. There are many more ways to build and use altars. Explore!

TABLETOP ALTARS

A tabletop altar is a common form. They can include literally anything that relates to your theme, or that you want to explore as part of an altar. I find that a portion of altar objects are in flux—new to the altar or about to move off the altar. Some items remain.

Here is a tabletop altar with that includes portable altars and art. See video tour below. This altar in the Raices Cultura annual Run with Los Muertos celebration in Coachella CA was a progenitor for Day for Descendants Art & Altars.

Here is a collection of various images from the ancestor » descendant celebrations. These show a range of art media, expression, and emotion—acknowledging the light and dark outcomes in our futures.