Sylvanna Devlin

Okay Caveat as some know I am going back to my pursuit of the Orthodox Christian church. But (Sorry Wicca but fuck off) Witchcraft is not a religion. The other gods exist and are chatty. But I only worship Allah. Thus this explanation I had sitting around still works.

One of the things I found most frustrating starting out in the occult section of the used bookstore was that they said “set this up” but no one ever fucking just explained why. What each component was. What you could do with it and how to combine them. I also didn’t have $300 to drop on supplies. And don’t really now but had extra help with other expenses because I was so impractical. If you can shop around and hunt what you want preloved items are definitely good but if you’re new? Dangerous if you don’t have an eye for healthy energy. As for what the pieces mean, Iris was with me so I can tell you the point down to…

An altar cloth

This creates an environment for magic to rest in. Like a cup with water. You need a place to focus and pull together all that energy so yes indeedy the cloth is important. Choose a color/pattern/fabric you find satisfying and pulls your particular energy together. Mine is blue either velvet or satin whichever is easiest to get my hands on as I’ve had to rebuild several times.

Candles

Led will do in a pinch

Candle holders are optional

Candle holders add a nice aesthetic that can help concentrate energy by pleasing the eye. You can be creative with these and while candles with flames are preferable it’s also an option to have LED ones if that’s not feasible.

The purpose of fire or fire visuals is probably easy to guess – or at least instinctual. It’s cleansing and a potent way to focus our energy. But some rental agreements say no and cost is a factor for most. Barring the life affirming flame an LED candle will set the mood and help you direct your will but isn’t quite as spiritually potent to the other side of the veil.

“Offerings”

These are:

Metal chalice for wine

Crystal glass for water

Wooden bowl for oil

Small dish for salt (salt cellar)

Optional 2,4,6 more spice cellars

One: these liquids get gross, only use a little and change either daily or weekly at least. Two: these are the fundamental riches of life. These are what makes the sacred form life in your altar like blood running through it.

Why those materials? Frankly history and pure association. Crystal clear is how we describe healthy water, a metal chalice signifies strength and offered wealth, and the wood is the best vessel for oil as we may end up dipping our fingers in it. And the natural shaped quality of the wooden bowl is like the cradle of magic that is prevalent in olive oil. A sacred aspect to many traditions therefore has gathered spiritual weight.

It’s important to note somewhere, and here is as good as anywhere else, that magic that flows with or absorbs the meaning or implications of the past, or the use of others, has more potency As it draws upon the faith of everyone who uses it when you call in the universe. So use a metal chalice for wine, crystal glass for water, and a wooden bowl for oil. Okay?

The optional spice combination should also be placed in spice cellars and have personal meaning to you. The passionate, earthy quality of my personal spice combination sits out full time, as does the salt. If you can’t think of anything there are multiple forms of salt you can set out. Ground, crystallized, and Himalayan make a potent combination if you are seeking to purify elements to your life. They can also represent wealth. Peppercorns also work for those who want to work with passion. But don’t get greedy with however cellars you set out. 3,5,7 are the numbers to go for and one of them will always be salt.

You can, with some combinations cheat a little, two forms of pepper in one bowl and a two complimentary spice combination in another. As well as using two forms of salt in the cellar reserved for that spice. But again, working within the limitations of magic you can only do up to three per and you absolutely do need to mix three kinds of salt if you are mixing three in the other dishes. And no mixing three in one, unless it’s three in all of them or one and one in another to reach 5.

Why? Magical wholeness makes a difference when preparing or setting an alter. There are numbers we have to contend with. 3, 6, 9, or 5, 10, 15, or 7, 14, 21. Are the three sets of numbers that are used most frequently in magic and thus have the weight of thousands of individuals going back thousands of years. Don’t fight history in magic. Flow with it. My father could probably tell use why those numbers in particular appeal to us. But as they do. And they work. Stick to them. But when in doubt 1 salt cellar is always an option.

For me, starting out, spices I didn’t regularly use were an expense I wasn’t willing to justify. So Salt? Was Soy sauce. It did the trick. My other two matching cellars went empty waiting for the right spell. That’s an option too.

 When it comes to choosing spices outside of the required salt it gets very personal. Intent matters, as does a signature. My magical signature is the spices I choose. Others may research their magical properties and change out the “offerings” as intent changes.

That’s the part that tends to confuse new pagans. These are indeed offerings to the other world – in my case anyone that’s listening. You can choose to create a magical signature or you can try to get more specific intention. But the central concept is the respect for the weight of spiritual history, and the spiritual world. They are what flows life and meaning into all that you do in front of your altar – or away if you’re a set it and forget it kind of individual. 

Athame (ritual dagger)

No. No. No. Do not use it to draw blood. While blood can make a powerful contribution to a letter or burning, if you don’t menstruate fucking prick your finger with a pin if you’re going to blast the other realm with potent magic. It’s not like you need much.

So what is the point of an Athame beyond stirring cauldrons and poking at ashes? Times past it absolutely would be used to draw blood. But thanks to the weight of the world we don’t actually need to draw blood to symbolize blood, and that’s essentially what it does. Do not skip out on this important aspect of the altar. This should be something only you touch once you have acclimated it to you. It represents your blood. Just don’t actually get yours on it.

Small metal bell.

You will ring this. You have several options as to when. In cleansing rituals the bell banishes negative energy. In healing rituals it’s used in between stanzas as a call to set it out into the world. You may also find some call a spirit to you. Be friendly and see what it wants. It will likely want to help you in exchange for offering it thanks – gratitude is an energetic food they find quite tasty.

One compact/handheld mirror

Are you going to gaze into this? Absolutely but it’s the most powerful focus we have is to look into our own eyes and see what visions we gain – in our own head. (And about the present— knowledge of the future is the path to madness) If you see something in the mirror other than you it’s time to worry. But mirrors are all doorways to other realms and are part of a passageway system.

You only want to look into our own, ask your question, hopefully get an answer -inside your head- and close the damn thing up, put it face down. Close the damn pathway. Walk the fuck away. As such only come to a mirror with a fucking question and it better not be whose fairest of them all.

One or two items of specialization

So for me a thimble and geode.

This is again a spiritual signature. Personally if my cat would let me sew I would use the thimble as intended. But I also use it to measure spices in potions so have fun deciphering those!

The geode is a Druid thing to recognize my magical roots I sort of meandered away from. It’s grounding and beautiful and calls the spiritual world to observe without necessarily interfering. Yes we do want that. Magic witnessed by the invisible is likely to be more potent and those I call to witness my work are of the earth.

One statue/icon/standing cross

Focus, focus, focus. Where does your magic come from? Concentrate? Who do you call upon when stuck? Bran may be who I utter for in small needs but Abba (the Christian god) is who I really bug if my needs are extreme. Hence my Celtic cross. Are Christianity and witchcraft supposed to mix? Are you fucking kidding? If the church can take our Yule trees we can take their cross.

If you are not directly under a fire alarm: Sage and bowl to place it in And Incense and pleasing holder provided you’re not allergic to it.

Sage is good for cleansing spaces as it is famous for. A good start to any ritual. But impossible to use with a fire alarm three feet away so the bell will have to do to set the space if that’s not possible.

Incense – oh the lovely world of signature fragrances and the magical properties of each. If only I could partake. But alas I’m allergic to artificial fragrance and live with a close by fire alarm if I could afford the natural kind.

For casting/prayer you will also likely need

Foci

Ritual clothing/jewelry of some sort

Burning paper

Lighter

The foci is probably an obvious concept, the burning paper needs a lighter. Write your request into the universe, set it on a cast iron dish/cauldron and ignite! Not only is it satisfying and oddly feels like an accomplishment. As long as you have read it aloud it travels with the light and smoke. For some flash paper equivalents it’s mostly light. But what you really want is for it to travel hence the point of that.

Ritual clothing, like a scarf, will help you get more into the headspace of casting and prayer and will aide your focus and energetic output as a result.

Sure nice right? Expensive to set up but deeply pleasing when you do. What if you are hard up or have no room

One amber jar with oil, water, wine, salt mixed in.

One dish for. “Finds”

One cheap compact mirror.

This is the equivalent of doing magic with a number two pencil. You should only fill the jar once and seal it. Set it somewhere with a dish for little tiny things you find like pleasing stones or even broken jewelry. And use the mirror as described above. The bare minimum for enhancing magical will and prayer.

Some of the best tools are preloved or so brand new they don’t already have their own energy. If you’re just starting out use new or gifted items that have familial significance – like your great grandmothers incense holder or some such. If taking on an object with history, you need to either convert the energy to your own or be related to that history.

Once you’ve gained some power over your energetic signature you can take on tools that already have energy to them. Choose wisely and only pick up what resonates with you. If you are practiced or sensitive enough you can do this through Etsy as much as garage sales. But you first need to be able to recognize what you will find harmony with. I love items with history to them but I wouldn’t want an assholes energy combatting mine when I dedicate it.

The simplest way to acclimate a tool to you is to use it. Anoint your third eye with the oil, sip from the wine, taste the salt, sip from the water. Utter a prayer as the object comes to focus for the first time. Or if you have waited for everything to get settled into place focus on the whole alter. But anoint your third eye etc. And in that order. Why? Iris said so. Oh fine. With the oil on your forehead you enter a space between worlds and you taste in the order that makes sense to picking up flavor and quality. With each bit you enter deeper and deeper into the sacred. The mystery to Greek Orthodox. It’s a logical order of events that does not foul the senses.

Do not skimp on the details. Use good olive oil you would put on a salad, bottled spring water, wine you would actually drink (non alcoholic is an option), and good fucking salt.

The prayer to “lock” an entire altar to your use differs a little from person to person – and is necessary before embarking on any other witchcraft. But you can pop the altar together without using it but leaving it unlocked can cause wild energy to build that is good for chaos magic and nothing else. Which of course is what I did because I was willing to harness the fucking thing when ready to actually use it and the energy was pleasing.

To bless an item the best thing to do is use it with good intentions. But before then comes the locking of an alter in progress.

To begin with all you need is an alter cloth and one item that you are going to use. Then you unlock the energy and lock. New (or used) items in. Remember going the used route can be very satisfying. There’s joy to be had in vintage or antique collection. But unless you are practiced enough do not put them on your alter right away if you want to use it for anything.

One way is certainly for it to sit there together long enough but it’s not ideal. This is indeed what I did. But you shouldn’t

Instead focus your mind on your energy and let it pour into the alter in as much as it seems to hold. If you are practiced in energy work you will find out how much it can contain at any one time. If you are not it may be more difficult but not impossible. But please gods start with all new equipment if you are still trying to sense energy inside you.

Then utter the following prayer, swapping out my name for yours – either a real name or the name you will use in the magical world. And again thanking your gods, this time in the second row.

I seal this space as a work of [Your spiritual name]

Thank you to [Your gods]

May you find home among the tools And no one else but Allah.