Simply..those special things....

3/11/2018

Here is the passage from A Year To Clear by Stephanie Bennett Vogt which got me thinking about altars.

Though we mostly associate altars with churches or temples, they can be found everywhere. The special flowewr centrepiece on a Thanksgiving table and the good china place settings are a kind of altar. The photos on the refrigerator, the grouping of rocks or shells from a favourite beach or summer experience, the portrait holding court over the mantel, and the wreaths we hang to celebrate the seasons are just some of the ways we remember and connect with something timeless, somthing larger than ourselves.

She suggests we look around at the altars we have created....

12 Comments

Lotta link

4/11/2018 01:58:19 am

Laughing at my own 'altar' to fruit and vegetables in the kitchen! I hadn't seen it as such, but that's what it is! I don't think I have any others at present, but when I do they are usually nature related - flowers, or things I have collected from outdoors. Subconsciously I think I avoid altars that might require dusting. :-)

Freda

4/11/2018 02:08:24 pm

Very wise Lotta and nice that you can eat them too!

Gail

4/11/2018 02:38:03 am

Although Denise Linn and I are of different spiritual bents, her book on Altars is interesting, full of reasons why to have a home altars.

Freda

4/11/2018 02:09:05 pm

I must check that one out Gail.

Mary

4/11/2018 03:54:28 am

Ahh. At first I thought I didn't really have any 'altars', but after reading Vogt's description, perhaps I have a few. Mostly nature related on my mantel that I vary when dusting--carved birds, small stones from Maine, very small pieces of driftwood.

Freda

4/11/2018 02:10:17 pm

Meaningful things, even if just temporary.

cath

4/11/2018 07:23:06 am

I find my ´altars´ vary in depth/meaning. I am not consciously aiming at connecting with ´the timeless or something larger than ourselves´
and sometimes it happens anyway.
Sometimes it is enough to have created a small island of beauty, a feast for the eye. Sometimes I gather a few objects intuitively and only much later they begin to speak as a whole. Yet another time I first connect to the quality of a specific time of year and then look for things that would express that on a small scale.

On a side note, I noticed yesterday and again today I have some difficulty using the word 'altar'. It is so loaded with religious meaning for me. I rather think of my islands as gateways.

Freda

4/11/2018 02:13:03 pm

Islands of beauty and gateways - lovely. I've always thought of mine as just 'arrangements and mine are very seasonal.

Susan

4/11/2018 09:19:00 am

I'm thinking around Cath's thoughts on altar and gateway.
I'm resisting looking up a formal definition of altar, and wondering whether it refers to a specific chosen location or not, consciously chosen objects or not, required the active act of veneration or draws one's attention, enables an experience of something that the objects imply or the objects themselves. Just thinking.

.Freda

4/11/2018 02:15:11 pm

It's nice to think about what my arrangements actually represent, and how they make me feel They are very intentional and I have made them for as long as I can remember.

Susan

5/11/2018 09:38:11 am

Attempting to define and explore the concepts of altars and gateways, with a friend today, he introduced the idea of a shrine. We didn't come to any conclusions, just ended the conversation staring into space, perplexed.

Freda

5/11/2018 01:55:19 pm

I watched a programme about Bali where placing fresh flowers on a shrine is a daily custom. Beautiful.

Simply..those special things....

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