Your Spring Altar

The observance of natural rhythms is an essential component of wellness, and the season of spring is the first of four seasonal beats. Altar-building in honor of the season is a simple and rewarding activity that offers compounding benefits to health and wellbeing.

Altars are essentially spiritual installations. They can be large or small, busy or minimal, high or low—it’s up to you. They are there for you to enjoy and admire. These delightful installations are wonderful for creating a meditative atmosphere. This is particularly true if you take good care of the altars you build, keeping them dusted and tended to. They’re vessels for intention setting, letting you tune into what sparks joy, what is needed to grow, and what can now be released. They’re also fun to make, promote creative flow, and their execution and admiration require that we get present with ourselves and the universe.

It’s never too late to build an altar in celebration of the current season. If spring is the season you’re in, peruse the following suggestions in establishing your own altar of rebirth:

• Use elemental objects. Some relate the season of spring to the element of fire, and others relate it to the element of air (and some equate it to both). In any case, include something to represent fire and/or air in your altar space. Fire may be represented with candles, objects cast from flame hues (yellow, orange, red, pink, and lavender), lava rocks, or items forged from fire, like blades. The air element may be represented with incense smoke, air-filled jars, or objects representing the intellect, such as elegant wood-carved wands, or a journal. Air may also be represented via the color of the objects you choose. Suggested colors for air include blue, gray and white.

• Use plants and crystals. Fresh greens, flowers, and crystals are appropriate for all altar spaces. When potted, plants bring all elements to your altar space (potted in soil to represent the earth, moistened to include water as it cleanses the air, growing with the passion of fire). Crystals attract and reflect light, bringing prismatic rainbow vibes and individual crystal energies to the installation. Spring plants include rosebuds, daffodils, thistles, and potted herbs. Spring crystals include peridot, emerald, aventurine, and ocean jasper.

• Create a striking arrangement. Your altar should be a thing of pride! Whether you choose symmetry or subtle chaos, the shape in which you arrange your objects should be eye-catching and alluring. Try arranging your objects symmetrically if you’re looking to invite greater organization and orderliness into your life, and more sporadically and if you’re looking to grow and expand past your comfort zone.

• Include your intentions. As eye-catching as they might be, altars great secret keepers! Have no fear when it comes to asking yours for what you want. You can do so several ways: speaking intentions into altar jars, writing them down on pretty little bits of paper to tuck under candles or into sacred containers. You might even scratch intentions into the exterior of a pillar candle, casting them into the ether as it burns.

• Keep it tidy. The power of an altar fades with neglect. It’s important to spend time with your altar to keep it alive and working for you. Altars are like little gardens for intentions to grow, so they need daily talking to, dusting, watering (if applicable), and general freshening. Change out any decaying botanicals. Wash and refill bowls of water. It’s also a good idea to look at your intentions if you’ve written them down—discarding any that are no longer needed or wanted on a monthly and/or seasonal basis.