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....