A bad witch's blog: altars

Showing posts with label altars. Show all posts

Friday, 20 March 2026

Flower Folklore: Heather for Luck and Sweet Dreams

White heather is one of the plants most associated with luck. It's a bit of folklore that pretty much everyone knows, although Queen Victoria gets the honour for popularising the belief beyond Scotland.

Wearing a sprig is supposed to bring you good fortune, while having some in the home will protect it from all sorts of problems, from fire to fairies. Brides can include a sprig in their bouquet as a symbol of purity, constancy and fertility. Heather pillows are said to help bring sleep and sweet dreams.

Heather is more associated with late summer than with the time of the Spring Equinox, but there are winter and early spring varieties. That's the kind that grows in my garden. There's so much at the moment that I had to prune it back from the path when I did weeding the other day. I brought the cuttings in to put in the vase you can see in the photo.

It might not be the usual thing to put on a Spring Equinox altar, but I believe in witchcraft we should go with what nature is providing rather than purely stick to what's stated in text books. That vase is going on my altar.

One of the great things about heather and it's use as a good luck charm or protective amulet is that it dries really well. You can continue to wear it or have it on show it for a long time after you pick it, but please don't gather more than you need. Another thing about white heather is that it's rarer than the usual pink or purple type.

All wildflowers, especially the rarer ones, are best left for wildlife to enjoy if possible. Winter heather is an extremely valuable source of food for insects in the early months of the year.

Rachel Patterson in her book A Kitchen Witch's World of Magical Herbs writes that it can be used in incense blends to cleanse space. I'd suggest letting it dry, then grinding it up before adding it to mixtures. She adds that apparently the incense can also be burnt while doing spells to bring rain.

https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/03/rounding-year-camellias-another-spring.html

https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/02/iris-bad-witchs-goddess-of-week.html

https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/03/green-london-flowers-on-street-where-i.html

Monday, 23 June 2025

Pagan Eye: Tamesis Druids' Summer Solstice Altar

I celebrated Summer Solstice with the Tamesis Grove and here's a photo I took of the altar. It was a lovely ritual outdoors under an oak tree. Tamesis is a London-based Druid grove which celebrates the eight seasonal festivals with outdoor ceremony and ritual throughout the city. You can find out more about the group here: https://www.tamesisgrove.com/

On each of my Pagan Eye posts, I show a photo that I find interesting, with a few words about it. If you want to send me a photo for a Pagan Eye post, please email it to badwitch1234@gmail.com Let me know what the photo shows and whether you want your name mentioned or not. For copyright reasons, the photo must be one you have taken yourself and you must confirm that you are submitting it for A Bad Witch's Blog.

Friday, 27 October 2023

Wheel of the Year Altars: My Ancestor Altar for Samhain

Here's my ancestor altar for Samhain, the festival celebrated by modern pagans to honour loved ones who have passed. On the altar I put old photographs of my parents, my grandma and the cat I owned when I was a child.

Altars are good ways to mark the turning of the seasons and the Wheel of the Year. They don't have to be big. This one is on top of the fireplace in my witchy room. On it I always have small statues of deities but the other things change. It can have seasonal flowers, candles of an appropriate colour and other things such as small pictures or photographs.

I'm sharing this picture on the day my new book is published: Pagan Portals - Rounding the Wheel of the Year. It covers things to do to celebrate the changing seasons including folklore, customs, magic, ritual and crafts.

This morning I'm doing a free online talk to mark the launch. It will be on Facebook Live, but the recording will be put on my YouTube channel afterwards. I'll be reading from the book, chatting and answering questions. It's 10am for the live event, but will be available for watching later too. You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/events/829297315867310

Copies of Rounding the Wheel of the Year can be found at my publisher Moon Books: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/our-books/pagan-portals-rounding-wheel-year

They can also be bought from Treadwell's bookshop at 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury, London, or ordered online from Waterstones and Amazon. (Note: I earn commission from advertisers for some links. This helps support my blog at no extra cost to those who read my posts.)

Friday, 8 September 2023

Altars: Household Gods Assemble! - For Eco-Magic

Here's a bit of eco-magic. It's based on a suggestion from The Silversnake Project, an environmental project in book form by Phil Smith of Plymouth University.

One of the actions in the book's toolkit says: “assemble your ‘household gods’ and place them on a mantelpiece”. It adds that you could model deities out of clay or use found objects or toys.

I already have an altar on a mantelpiece. I regularly change it to reflect the seasons, pagan festival and spells I’m doing. Putting things on my altar to reflect the ritual acts of The Silversnake Project toolkit made sense.

In the picture you can see my altar containing various goddess effigies, including a statuette of Gaia, a replica of a plaque showing three Celtic goddesses found near Bath, and two clay goddesses I made some time ago. I added three plastic toys. I found the toys while I was looking for things in the litter outside my home to make a charm bracelet for another of toolkit projects. The green alien was in the flowerbed in my front garden and the two little dogs were under a bush down the road. They’re too big to use as charms, but they are perfect on my altar.

I feel the alien complements the Celtic trio of goddesses, who have alien eyes in my opinion. None of them seem scary though – it’s a reminder that difference isn’t anything to be afraid of.

Dogs are one of the earliest animals to have befriended humans and have long symbolised protection as well as guarded entrances. Archaeologists have found Ancient Mesopotamian clay figures of dogs buried beside or under doorways. Dog amulets were also carried by people at the time in the belief they would help keep them safe.

It feels good to have repurposed plastic things that had been dropped in the street, but also serves as a reminder that humans leave far too much plastic waste lying around, which is harmful to wildlife. These plastic toys are cheerful, but also a reminder to reduce plastic waste and to clear up the litter left by others out and about.

The Silversnake Project book is published by Triarchy Press and can be found on Amazon. Yesterday I posted about how it prompted me to find out about a local river and walk along the banks. You can find the link here. I'll be trying out more of the suggested actions and blogging about them as well.

(Note: I earn commission from advertisers for some links. This helps support my blog at no extra cost to those who read my posts.)

Other previous related posts
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2023/03/altars-sacred-space-for-march-with.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/04/earth-day-clean-ups-media-magic-what.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2015/03/pagan-eye-east-end-street-art-promotes.html

Friday, 3 March 2023

Altars: A Sacred Space for March with Flowers & Seeds

Here's a picture of my altar for March. On it I have things that I feel symbolise the month, including small pottery replicas of eggs and a pewter hare on jewellery that's very special to me. I also have a miniature narcissus or daffodil flower and forsythia blossom I picked from my garden, crystals and a candle as well as goddess figurines.

Yellow is a colour for March in my opinion because so many of the flowers that bloom this month are that colour. That's why I chose yellow for my candle and selected my yellowest crystals. If you regularly read my blog posts, you will probably have spotted some of those items on my March mandala from a previous year. In the centre of the altar is a tiny cauldron which I filled with wild flower seeds. I will be sowing them in my garden when the weather is a tiny bit warmer, after they have basked in the blessings of the goddesses I honour.

I set up my regular seasonal altars on the top of the fireplace in my witchy room. They take up little space that way and aren't somewhere my cats are likely to knock things over. If I'm doing larger scale spellwork or rituals I'll set up more temporary altars on a table. I don't have room for a large permanent altar in my home, but that's fine as far as I'm concerned.

You can find out more about seasonal magic in my forthcoming book Pagan Portals - Rounding the Wheel of the Year. I will also be talking on the topic at MoonCon 23 Spring Edition on March 11. It's a free online witchcraft conference run by Moon Books.

Tuesday, 7 February 2023

Witchy Shopping: Pentagram Star Candle Holder

I'm rather tempted to get this pentagram candle holder. I spotted it on the clearance shelf in Sainsbury's when I was buying some groceries yesterday. Okay, it's listed as a star tealight holder and I guess it was part of the supermarket's Christmas range, but it would look brilliant in pride of place on an altar. It'd be just the thing for some candle magic too.

The reason it didn't go straight into my trolley is that I'm trying to declutter my witchy room a bit. I've already got a lot of candle holders - far more than I really need and as many as I have sensible space for. What I should do is go through them and find a few to pass on to someone else or take to the charity shop.

In the meantime I'm sharing this picture, so if it appeals to you, pop down to your local Sainsbury's and see if they've still got them. As they're sale items I suspect they won't be there for long.

Thursday, 8 September 2022

Altars: A Practical Space for Scrying and Divination

This is my altar set up for scrying with a crystal ball. It's a practical arrangement using the coffee table in my witchy room, which is a suitable height when I'm sitting on my sofa next to it. It doesn't have to be complicated. All I put on it are things I actually need for the work:

Crystal ball on a stand or cushion
Candles in a suitable holder
Incense (sticks in this case)
Wand for circle casting
Journal and pen

I cleansed my space by tidying up then visualising candlelight dispelling unwanted energy. I also visualised the light cleansing my crystal ball of other influences. I lit my incense then used the wand to cast a protective circle around me and the altar. The crystal ball was used for the actual scrying. Afterwards I made notes in my journal.

If I'd wanted to I could have put other things on the altar - perhaps items relating to the question I was asking, a statue of a deity I honour, salty water or a herbal infusion if I'd chosen to cleanse with that instead of light, and other crystals that might boost the effectiveness of my psychic work. However, they aren't essential. Sometimes a simple altar is all you need - especially if you are short of time and energy.

This post continues a series I've been writing about altars. earlier examples include a Goddess altar, a solar altar for sun magic, and Harmonia Saille's hedgewitchery altar.

You can learn more about crystal ball reading and other forms of divination in my book Pagan Portals - Scrying. I'm also teaching a two-session online evening class on scrying via the College of Psychic Studies, starting Tuesday 13 October. You can find out the details for that here: https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/whats-on/

Other previous related posts
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/05/what-do-you-do-when-others-see-things.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/03/pagan-portals-scrying-sold-703-copies.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2021/12/scrying-tonight-using-wine-glass-as.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/07/pagan-eye-luban-divination-bowl-at.html

Monday, 20 June 2022

Sun Power Altar and Spell for Juggling Life Events

Here's the altar I set up to make the most of Summer Solstice energy with a spell to help juggle the disparate things life throws at us. At other times of the year you can do this on a Sunday, which is a day always associated with the sun.

I gathered things to represent the sun: a golden threaded cloth, beeswax candles, a chalice with a solar design, a holey stone wrapped in yellow wool, midsummer flowers, a yellow ribbon around my wand, a solar angel card and the Summer card from the Magic of Nature Oracle. The yellow ball in the centre (on a stand I usually use for a crystal ball) is the focus for the spell. I'd used the ball as one of a set when I was trying to teach myself to juggle, and that's also the theme of the spell.

The first thing you do when learning to juggle is just pass a single ball from hand to hand. You then start to throw the ball from one hand to the other and make sure you are good at doing that before adding a second ball, then eventually a third. For this spell, cast a circle if you like, then pick up the single ball and pass it between your hands. Say:

"I call upon the power of the sun to give me the energy to do all I have to do. Help me juggle whatever is thrown my way. Give me strength and agility both in body and mind. Grant me patience to learn from my mistakes. Help me to master the skills I need through practice. If I drop a ball, help me pick it up and try again. I ask this blessing and give thanks for sunny days and all the summers gone and that lie ahead."

End your spellwork by taking down any circle you cast, then ground, which you can do by pressing your feet firmly on the floor. You might want to have a few sips of water or fruit juice as well, after all that solar energy work!

Altars

When I recently asked a question about what people would like me to blog about, Jane W replied saying she'd be interested in information on "the basics, such as setting up and taking down an altar, information on various tools and so on."

What I'd say to start with is that there's no one right way of setting up an altar, unless you're in a very strict tradition that sets out rules about such things. For general spellwork, an altar is used as a name for a place to set out things you need for the spell and anything that will add extra symbolism. Most people use a table or shelf, but it can be anywhere that's convenient. Clean the surface first to get rid of unwanted energy. Choose altar coverings, candles, flowers and other objects in an appropriate colour or with the right correspondences for the spell. The most important things are the practical items - so for this spell, a wand to cast a circle, a ball and a cup of water to sip.

I'm going to write more about altars in the future.

Monday, 17 May 2021

Altars: Harmonia Saille's Picture for her New Book

This is the altar of Hedge Witch Harmonia Saille, which she photographed especially for her new book. She has kindly let me reproduce it on A Bad Witch's Blog. She said: "The altar is what I call my working altar for magic rather than one to celebrate a Goddess or God."

Harmonia's best selling book is Hedge Witchcraft, closely followed by Hedge Riding and The Spiritual Runes. Her new one is called Magic for Hedge Witches. Here is an endorsement for it, by Yvonne Ryves, author of Shaman Pathways Web of Life:

'As someone who works shamanically I am always fascinated by the similarities and differences between the way I work and the way of a Hedge Witch such as Harmonia Saille. This book drew me in immediately and had me hooked completely well before the second chapter. This is not just a book for beginners, despite being under the Pagan Portal’s umbrella, but a book that reaches out to everyone who uses ‘magic’ in their lives and work, Witch or otherwise. The author’s personal practice and experience is delightfully interwoven with historical references, practical exercises and suggestions, making it both a guide and a resource for coming back to over and over again'.

Harmonia posted her picture after seeing a photo of my Goddess altar, which I put on my blog a few days ago. I thought I might start a new series of blog posts on altars, so please send me a picture of your altar if you want to, along with any comments.

You can view Harmonia Saille's earlier books, including Hedge Witchcraft, on Amazon.

Tuesday, 11 May 2021

Pagan Eye: My Goddess Altar with Forget-Me-Nots

I took this photograph yesterday after noticing that the forget-me-nots on my Goddess altar were still looking lovely, even though I picked them on Friday morning. Now, I know some people think altars are private and personal, and witches shouldn't share photos of them on social media, but seeing as my altar was in the back of the video for my talk on Magic for the Month of May, it isn't really that private.

If you have a photo of your altar you'd like to share, do send me a picture! Let me know if you are happy for me to put it on A Bad Witch's Blog and whether you want your name mentioned or not.

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