Hi, my loves and welcome to Wiccanow. Recently I’ve been all over the show, covering everything from lavender, to a botanical witchipedia to a healing spell and also my top magickal plants for indoors to promote healing. Today I want to veer off in another direction again and talk about something I haven’t covered yet, which I probably should have, namely how to set up your witchy altar!
As I mention all the time, how you want to do things like set up your witchy altar is completely up to you. There are some guidelines that I’ll outline below about how many people like to set things up, but just because most people do it one way, definitely doesn’t mean that you have to follow suit.
Altars are a very personal thing and each and every one of us will set them up differently. Some people love to have an elaborate altar in a prominent position in their home and others prefer a more simplistic and pared-back version somewhere out of the way. Because your witch’s altar is so personal, choose whatever you are more comfortable with. I’d suggest starting out simple and then adding to your altar if it feels right.
My 7 Top Tips for Setting Up Your Witchy Altar
So, let’s get into it! Here is my guide to setting up your witchy altar.
Witchy Altar Tip #1 Figure out what’s important to you
Your altar is a personal space, which celebrates and symbolises your spirituality. It’s the place where you’ll put representations of your hopes and dreams and where you’ll set intentions for spell work you might be doing.
Figuring out what’s actually most important to you and your life is vital here. What are your future plans? Why do you want an altar? What energy do you want to channel? Why are you drawn to witchcraft? Do you honour a deity? Are the cycles in nature important to you? These are all good questions to set about answering before you start setting up your witch’s altar.
Witchy Altar Tip #2 Choose your location
When choosing a spot for your altar, think about how often you’ll be using it and how much space you want to dedicate to it. Some people will have an entire altar room (I don’t know many people who have that much space but that’s beside the point really) and others will have a very small space set up in a corner of their desks. Either is totally ok and you need to decide how much space you have to spare.
When choosing a space to set your altar up in, be aware of getting in the way of other people that you live with. Maybe you have housemates at home and the dining table might not be the most appropriate place to set up on. Maybe you’ve got kids and that lower side table might be in reach of inquisitive little hands. Maybe your cat (this is me) is a little less graceful than she might like and enjoys jumping onto things only to find herself falling off again and sending everything crashing onto the floor. What I’m saying is, pick an appropriate spot that won’t bother the other creatures you’re living with.
When thinking about the location of your altar, it’s also nice to consider how good the energy feels in that space. I tend to get morning sun in my apartment and I’ve positioned my altar to make the most of that. I love that it gets bathed in natural light every morning and I feel like this brings a really special energy to my altar. Maybe you have a favourite plant you’d like to incorporate? Or a favourite window? A favourite room? Your altar is meant to be a space that feels special to you, so choose your location accordingly.
Witchy Altar Tip #3 Direction of your Altar
Did you know that many people choose to face their altars to the north? If you’re curious as to why this is, let me explain.
The 4 directions on a compass have a corresponding natural element that they represent.
Elements and their corresponding directions
| North | Earth |
| South | Fire |
| East | Air |
| West | Water |
Because Wicca is an earth-based religion (and I’m coming at this from a Wiccan perspective), many of use choose to have out altars facing to the north.
This is absolutely not something you have to follow, however, and feel free to choose whatever direction you want for your altar, even if this is no specified direction at all. Maybe one of the elements speaks to you more than the others, or maybe you appreciate them all and choose to rotate your altar every 3 months. Decide what’s important for you and go with that. Test out different orientations and see which works best for you.
Witchy Altar Tip #4 Altar Decorations
This is such a big one, that I’m going to write a separate post on all the things you can add to your Witchy altar and the reasons that you might add them. Check out my witchy altar decorations here.
In the meantime,…
Click here to read this complete article.
