Keeping an Altar With Kids in the House

It can be difficult to keep an altar, when you have little kids running about.  Even slightly older children (8 or 9) get curious, want to play with the things you have up there, etc.  And, animals too can get in the way and/or hurt themselves on what you have on your altar.

The first thing you can do, to help with these concerns, is put your altar up on a higher surface (fireplace mantle, etc.).  I have mine on top of a rather high dresser in my room.  Given it's height and location within the room, items are kept "out of sight, out of mind" for the most part, and it's too high to encourage the kids to play with it, or the cats to jump all the way up there when there are other surfaces, closer to the window.  ;)

Another thing you could do is to place your altar in a location not easily accessible to children.  For instance, if you have your office closed most of the time, with a child gate up so that your toddler can't play with your computer or the plugs.

You may also wish to consider the kinds of items you have on your altar, to prevent injury to any of your loved ones.  An athame is a pretty standard component of most altars, but they're not a good idea when you have children running around.  They'll be naturally curious, and you certainly don't want them playing with that!  Chalices as well might not be such a fab. idea.  Kids will want to drink out of them, or wash barbies hair with them, or...

There are other ways to represent the divine feminine and/or divine masculine energy upon your altar.  One such alternative, and I know many of you already do it, is to simply have a silver candle for the feminine and a gold candle for the masculine (left unlit, unless in ritual).

For me, that alone didn't seem personal enough.  And, I don't know if you've run into this, but gold and silver candles are really hard for me to find.  When I do find them, from new age suppliers, they are much more expensive than any other colored (or white) candle!  So, I decided to go with a representation that would be much more personal, and much more permanent (no worries about either injury OR melted wax, the kids eating the candles, etc.).

I went to a craft store and purchased two wooden, UNfinished candle stick holders.  I also purchased some non-toxic paint that would work for wood projects.  I bought silver and gold paint, along with white, yellow, and orange.  While concentrated on what these would be solely used for (i.e. concentrating on the Goddess while doing the silver candle, the God while doing the gold candle), I went home and painted the unfinished candle stick holders.

I painted one of the holders silver.  When that one dried, I used the white paint to paint a moon symbol on it.  The other holder I painted gold.  When that was dry, I painted a yellow (with orange accents) sun on the side.

Now I can use these with white candles (MUCH easier to find), or with the gold/silver when I can.

I'm a pretty creative person, but I really suck and drawing anything.  Honestly, I can mess up stick figures for cryin' out loud!  So, if I can do something like that and have it look pretty decent, anyone can.  In the end though, it doesn't matter how awesome it does or does not look.  What matters here is that it's personal to you and the divine, and that it represents what you need it to represent, while still being as safe as is humanly possible for and around your family.

Magic or Magick

You may have seen that many new agers put a 'k' on the end of the word 'magic'.  You may or may not, however, know why.

Much like spelling 'woman' as 'womyn' in an effort to equalize the way the sexes are viewed, 'magick' is the new agers' way of attempting to make a distinction between what they/we do and the sleight of hand type magic you may be used to seeing in Vegas.

Honestly, I still spell it without the added 'k'.  The way I see it - magic (or the belief in it's power, if you don't personally believe it is real) has been around far longer than illusionists have been magicians.  So, why should it have to change it's spelling to accommodate making that distinction?

A quick look at the dictionary will still give you the definition you want for the word.  So, I'm going to steer clear of that extra 'k' I think!  I'm going to let 'magic' stay the way it's been.  If illusionists seek to make a definite distinction - let THEM change the spelling to suit themselves.  I see no reason too. 

Of course, with all that said, I'll likely still wind up spelling it with a 'k' now and then, because I know there are a good deal of people out there who were raised by a parent on a neo-Pagan path, who spelled it with a 'k', and I do want to make sure that they know that I'm completely clear on the distinction they are attempting to make with that addition.

HOWEVER... that won't be too often.