For over 6 months I’ve undertaken my spiritual practices in front of an altar frozen in time.  

Usually, I change my altars every 6 or so weeks, in alignment with the turning of the 8 pagan seasons. Typically my altars are sacred places of beauty, vibrancy, and aliveness.

For the latter part of this year, my altars have been a cremation ground. Frozen in the lovers season of Beltane. Frozen in the time of the first of my 3 love relationship break ups of this year. They have mirrored the loss of lover-ship felt so painstakingly in my heart. They have been a faint flickering of hope in a seemingly unchanging landscape. A hope that time will soothe my heart’s great woe. And the passing of time has definitely helped.

With the gateway of the Winter Solstice unfolding into Yule time, I felt a long awaited opening into the process of changing my altars. And it has indeed been a journey, of several emotionally discharging days. 

As I cleared my central altar, I removed the Oxumaré statue given to me by my ex-ex-ex-beloved Alexandre. This statue whose nose reminds me of Alexandre’s beautiful nose. This statue that beams the warmth of his face. This statue that was one of the most wondrous surprise gifts I have ever received, and that was carried by Alexandre’s friends all the way from his home country of Brazil to the Netherlands. This statue that was an immovable, central feature of my altar since Beltane.

I have come to realise that I looked upon this statue each day in my morning practices, unintentionally worshipping what was. Longing for and idealising the past. 

When I closed the lid on the box into which this statue went, and then turned to look at my freshly adorned altars, the air about me was one of freedom. 

I can again see myself reflected in my altars. 

My morning practices in front of them are slowly returning to being (mostly) a remembering of my divine being and the divine nature of all things. Why I come to practice in front of my altar each day is less and less about making it through the day and more and more about gifting myself and the world something beautiful.

I’m so grateful for these small sacred acts, like changing altars, that remind me of my power to make and move with change. 

Small actions can after all carry huge energetic shifts. And so it is. Ihhuuu!