Akashic Manifesting with Altars

Working with the visual vocabulary of Akashic energy and how to use it to enhance your manifesting goals with Altars.

Transcript

Akashic Manifesting with Altars

Working with altars is pretty much a staple of both religions and spiritual practices. There are entire shelves of books in any bookstore which explain how to do it, what to use, what you can achieve with them and so on. I'll mention a few of my favorites at the end of this podcast in case you want more books to add to your personal reading list.

Trying to describe altar work, even in general, is just exhausting to contemplate, probably because I've tried it a time or two in the past with what I would consider pedestrian results. But now that the world is struggling to emerge from our hibernation, energies are moving again, and manifestation urges are reappearing, the topic of altars is coming up again. It can be confusing and overwhelming trying to figure out what you should or shouldn't do, in part because different people and traditions contradict each other. And then there are the questions of knowing where to even start, how to know if an altar is working, and what to do with it while it is.

So, what I thought might be helpful in this moment is to talk about how I work with altars personally and some of the insights I've gathered along the way.

First, I feel the need to get this part out of the way: altars are not controlled or fueled by intention. I once had someone tell me the difference between an altar and a display is intention. Nope. That's a bit like saying the difference between riding a motorcycle or driving a car is in your intention. A) You shouldn't ride a car. That's called "car surfing" and it's often deadly. B) Motorcycles and cars take very different skills and muscles to operate as well as different licenses. There's just a lot more involved in utilizing either or both than any intention you might be having in the moment can help with.

Now, intention is necessary to a certain extent even if the intention is just to put together an altar. But intentions do not generate energy or cause actions to occur, they can't predict or control events, nor do they substitute for common sense or real time awareness of reactions and consequences. As the saying goes "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

So, while I advocate for setting an intention before doing any type of energy or Akashic work, I experience it a bit like washing my hands before cooking dinner. It's part of the process, but not something I focus my attention on.

With that said, how I understand altars is each one is a relationship I'm participating in. No matter what the purpose for my doing so, I'm entering into interconnection with someone/something beyond me whether this is the season as I experience it in my environment, another business(es) for some opportunity, the greater web of life for abundance in one form or another, a deity, community in order to create a specific kind of connection, manifesting of a partner, reaching out to the resident beings or guardians of place and so on. The options are endless, but in every case, what I'm creating is connection or relationship.

This means when I approach the process of creating an altar, no matter if it is small and temporary or grand and requiring construction projects, I start by setting aside all distractions and focus on starting a conversation.  Think of this like sitting down at a coffee shop, pub, or restaurant to talk with a friend.  Once you both are settled, your attention should be on each other and a good conversation is not one in which you listen only to get what you want or to respond, but one where you allow yourself to be interested in what the other wants to express. 

So, while I almost always have a purpose for an altar I'm building - almost always - I try not to go in with an agenda as to how it will look, what it will entail, or how the process will go.  Just as with friends, there are boundaries which keep things healthy and positive (don't sneeze on their food or kick them under the table), but within those boundaries there is a great deal of room to do things the way we choose, and this way is a combination of both parties.

Let me clarify what I mean by conversation in this context.  For those who want to work on improving their intuitive skills or learn how to apply Akashic energy to their spiritual practice, this is a good way to get started.  When beginning an altar process, I tune my attention to the Akashic energy all around me and specifically to the energies which I want to work with for this altar.  This is similar to how a reiki practitioner will begin to run Reiki energy through themselves and their hands in order to work with a client.

Once I'm tuned in, meaning I'm listening, I will begin putting the altar together.  For me this starts with where I want the altar to be.  Like in Reiki where the person runs their hands above and around the person to feel where they should begin working, I feel into the area to see if this is actually where it feels right to set things up.  If I feel like doing it somewhere else, which does not mean my mind thinks it should be somewhere else, then I change plans and set it up in the other place.  This is the conversation.  I am being told Yes to the altar, but shown where it would work better for what I'm attempting to achieve.

I repeat this process over and over with each item including listening to where the item is placed how it works in relationship to the others, and if it should or should not be used at all which sometimes changes once other items are already in the mix.  It's not unusual during this process for me to feel the need to swap out something I thought I would use, feel the need to add something, or leave something out which ends up being unnecessary. 

Once I think I'm done I stop for a moment and broaden my attention back out to the whole.  Is it done?  Does it need anything further?  Am I ready to start using it?  Sometimes it tells me it's done, and I can feel it because there is a felt in my body "click" and then the energy of the altar starts radiating out on its own. Other times the altar is meant for me to be part of it (as in stand or sit in the space which I've built big enough for this purpose) and so once everything is ready, I'll need to get into it or start the ceremony it is meant to support.

In all cases, once the altar is set, then, like any good friendship, it's got a life of its own which it begins to experience and which radiates out into the world around me. If it's a permanent installation or one which is going to be in place for a significant amount of time, it can just be left to do its thing and those who are energy sensitive can feel the altar begin to permeate the space it's in and even the bones of the building.

If this is an altar which is for a temporary purpose you can, in addition to the primary purpose, imbue (marinate) some item you wish to work with like a necklace or ring for use at a later date.

Working with altars is instinctual to some people. They've done it since they were small and just add more formal knowledge of what they can do with them as they go along. For others altar work is a foreign concept and can be quite overwhelming. There are so many books about methods and rules and formulas for doing this or that when it comes to altars. There seem to be conflicting and confusing "have to's" and "should's" depending on who you're talking to or what spirituality/religion you are working in.

What I have found is there are few "have to's" when it comes to working with altars. Again, there are boundaries such as don't try to use them to coerce someone into doing something they don't want to do. Don't seek to use altars to harm someone else intentionally. Those are both black magic and have negative consequences for everyone. As the saying goes, as long as you're not harming yourself or anyone else, do what you will.

Personally, I think of all the information out there about altars as more like languages and vocabulary. All of them are means of communication, but each has its own syntax and culture. There is a Wiccan/Witchcraft vocabulary when it comes to altars which focuses on the elements and creating sacred space. There is a Hindu vocabulary which includes Puja and deities, energy symbols such as yantras, and a deeper, older version of Feng Sui which helps us understand the interconnection of things. There are Native American altars which include the 7 directions, totems, and beings of place while Celtic altars include trees, plants, and deep earth energies such as the Green Man.

You don't have to choose one over the other or exclude any of these any more than you need to pick one and only one language to speak. I'm fluent in most of these and semi fluent in many more. Because of this I am able to see the similarities as well as the differences, work with a mixture of all of them at once, and see how they can complement whatever it is I'm doing or working to achieve.

This is why in altar work I'm just as likely to use a small eraser shaped like a house which I got from the dollar store as I am a bespoke bear rattle or a Venus of Willendorf pendant. As all things are made of Akasha, all things are part of the conversation and can be used in altar work. Understanding the vocabulary, practicing so you can enter into conversation with ease, and realizing what you've set in motion is a relationship and not a thing, so has an existence beyond you, will support your altar work and help it to flourish.

For further reading on this subject I recommend: (Some of these books are no longer in print, but you can find them easily enough on Ebay or other resellers)

Beautiful Necessity: The Art and Meaning of Women's Altars by Kay Turner

Altars and Icons: Sacred Spaces in Everyday Life by Jean McMann

Altars Made Easy by Peg Streep

Altars: Bringing Sacred Shrines into Your Everyday Life by Denise Linn

Altars of Power and Grace by Robin and Michael Mastro

A Book of Women's Altars by Nancy Brady Cunningham