Getting Ready For Autumn Altars

Witch, I Got You! Grab Your Crystals, We're Creating Altars!

Full Blog Post on Facets of Communication Part 3

My main winter altar goes through a cyclic pattern of being created and then destroyed. Attuned to a cycle of life and death, my altar lives through the dark half of the year, being born in the autumn, grows through autumn and winter and then gets old and dies back in late spring.

Recently I felt the call to the space that holds my winter altar. Maybe I was sick of summer and desperate for the comfort that the dark brings my soul. Maybe I needed closer support from my spirit guides, but one thing was clear, I needed to build my winter altar early. Having my winter altar attuned to my spiritual yearnings brings a physical anchor into my magical sensing-scape. I felt instantly grounded and that I could take a deep sigh of relief.

Do you need to make the call? Does your witch spirit need her guides on by her side? It may be time for you to build your autumn altar. Below is an excerpt from my old blog post on my series Facets of Communication with conversations on Altars for Holding a Gathering & Altars as The Rest Between Realms. Which speaks also to the nature of the Tree Whisper Oracles and building animistic altars for oracle cards.

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The Visual and Sensory Vocabulary of Tree Whisper Oracles

Whether we are creating an altar especially for our Tree Whisper Oracles to call home or making room for them on an existing altar, we are offering them space. We are offering them a special place in our home, heart and sensing field. The aliveness of spirit and magic we infuse our altars with will diffuse into our oracles and support their own animation and their own beingness to awaken.

When we place our chosen cards down on the surface of the altar, we are holding a gathering, and we are opening the channels for an interaction through our felt senses to take place. We will notice the key word and this will settle within us, fading slightly into the background. It's important to not hold to tightly onto the key word as this word can and will evolve.

We will begin to notice in the card image, ambiguous patterns and obscure shapes in the leaves, bark and branches. They will dance, morphing into animal faces and fae beings. Personalities will come forward and then fade into the background. We will notice in our own self, the stirring of feelings and physical sensations in our body. We will hear fragmented voices, delicate like song and in velvety tones. And we will notice these voices as having a unique quality and as not our own. Our memories will begin to reanimate. Paying attention to all of these communications, in a gentle and curious way will allow our felt senses to open out more, like the petals of a flower. Allowing aliveness to settle and form a message for us, and this is how we communicate with the Tree Whisper Oracles.

When we consider how Tree Whisper Oracles communicate, we can understand more clearly why creating an animistic altar for them to rest upon is favourable. Tree Whisper Oracles will want to be in the woodlands and wild places and generally accompany their guardian out and about wherever we will go. But when at home, they will enjoy resting among other animated aliveness.

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Altars as The Rest Between Realms

When we walk an animistic spiritual path we honour the aliveness of not only living beings such as animals and plants, but also the aliveness of the elements, like water, fire and stone. And we also recognise aliveness in otherwise regarded as inanimate objects, like divination cards, stones and feathers for instance. As animists we also regard sacred spaces as collectively alive. These spaces while accommodating a community of spirit and magical energies, also become something of their own animal too. Animistic altars remind me personally of the Beech Tree. The Guardian of Souls and Spirit, The Teacher of Wisdom, The Rest Between Realms.

The rest between realms refers to a contact boundary of relation. If we can imagine many realms, many dimensions of reality. All touching but not overlapping, like bubbles as they cling to one another. Each including worlds, universes, spirit and aliveness. This is a metaphor for how I, as an animist, understand the connection between animations. And how I understand the interconnectivity of energy and spirit. Such as the connection between our physical reality and the realm of the Tree Spirits and the Fae. There are channels through which we can interact. But we largely remain whole in our unique reality. With these considerations and in viewing every part of the altar alive in some way. And of these alive parts as our spirit tribe, our kin our clan. Our altars become a rest point, between realms. Where we can invite presence. Or awaken presence when holding a gathering.

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Altar Activation

We can imagine, if we like, that the energies we connect with at our altar space are there by our invitation and through their own choice. They become our community through a process of relation, and we theirs. And so, when we call upon them, they will come. They are not bound to our altar and nor are we to their reality. There is no tether. Only a spirit thread of relation. Like a paper cup and its thread. We make the call and our community comes to us.

We may have many aspects to our altar and we may not need to open all of these channels together. We may have a special area for deity, for our divination cards, for ogham, for our notebook, or our bibliomancy book. We may have a manifestation area, or a special place for healing and meditation. Each are can be in rest until we open it, activate it specifically.

When we want to facilitate communication with our Tree Whisper Oracles, and hold a gathering, we can invite the presence of our community through an activation ceremony. This can be as simple as lighting a candle and inviting a grounded and aware presence within our being. Or we could us a phrase of words or a special poem or song that we have selected.

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Yours In the Psychic Caves,

Mags Black.