Your Alter

[aiyanna]

Your Alter can consist of these items:

- Cast-Iron Cauldron and/or Chalice
- Incense
- Anointing Oil (optional)
- Altar Pentacle
- Candle Snuffer (optional)
- Athame
- Wand
- Representation of the God & Goddess: candles,
statues, rocks, nature items that represent masculine
and feminine
- Taper Candle Holders (if using candles)
- Altar Cloth (optional)
- Offering Bowl
- Altar Bell (optinal)
- Incense Burner Plate
- Quarter representations (North, South ect.) Also
Elements (Water, Fire ect.) Candles will do, or have
bowls of earth, water, insence for air, red candle for
fire
- Decoration (according to season and ritual) leaves,
pine cones, nuts, snow, pointsettias, flowers, grass...

[Angaridatha]

Wow, that's a decked out altar!

For the poorer college student folks, here are some alternative ideas.

First, you must have elemental reps. These can be simple though, from feathers (air) to a bowl of stones (earth). Even though it's winter, most of these can be found in nature outside, you just have to know your correspondences and sometimes think outside the box.

Then, whatever tools you have should have a place on your altar. If you don't have any tools, don't worry overly much. The simplest set of tools are athame (fire) wand (air) chalice (water-this can even be a cup as long as you have cleansed and blessed it) and pentacle (earth-belongs in the center of your altar, and you can definitely make it just a work of art on paper if you would like)

Reps of the goddess and god are very much essential as well. If you're broke and you don't have anything else, here are some alternative suggestions to a fancy statue.
-any rock with a hole in it (goddess)
-phallic symbol (god)
-handdrawn reps (for those artists out there)
-gold and silver candles

Candles are nice but many of us aren't "allowed" to use them in our dorms. That hasn't stopped yours truly, but your altar is your business.

Overall, a fancy altar setup is nice, but in reality, your altar is an expression of yourself and your personal relationship with the gods, who understand if you are poor and don't have a "sanctioned cauldron". Set it up according to its purpose and your tastes.