The Altar You Never Set Up

Do you mind if I make a prediction about you? Okay.. Somewhere in your house right now, there is probably a bag. Inside the bag is a piece of fabric you bought specifically to be an altar cloth. There might be candles and maybe even a little dish. Maybe there’s something you found on a walk and couldn’t bear to leave behind. If there’s crystals, I’d wager good money that the6 are still in the tissue paper they were carefully wrapped in by the shop owner. You bought these things with real intention and genuine excitement, and you brought them home, and you set the bag down somewhere, and that is where the story ends.

And now, you’ve been walking past that bag for four months.

I need you to understand that none of this is a character flaw. This is one of the most common things that happens to people with ADHD who want a spiritual practice, and almost nobody talks about it because the witchcraft internet is a parade of gorgeous finished altars photographed in perfect lighting. Nobody posts about the bag.

The altar is not stalled because you are lazy

An altar is a surface, not an achievement

Your altar should be visible

A tray solves more problems than it should

Start with one object

The abandoned altar is not evidence against you

Build for the house you actually live in

The altar is a reminder, not the practice