Witchy 101: Building an altar

One of the first outward signs of a budding Pagan sensibility is an altar. All the books talk about them, and things can be found for them all over the internet, in witchy shops, and even in thrift stores. Sometimes even in ordinary stores, if you're one for retasking everyday items. An altar is a place that is always dedicated to the deity (or deities) of your choice, a place that shows your devotion and reminds you of it, as well as being a place where you can go to meditate, perform spells and rituals, make offerings, do divinations, and any of the other ways we use for interacting with our gods.

Here's how you build your own. First, choosing your altar:

1. First and foremost, you need to decide what kind you need and want. Do you expect to have it set up all the time, a permanent home for the gods in your house? Or do you expect to have to move it-- say if you live in a dorm or travel a lot, or if you perform most of your rituals outside or with a group of people who meet in different places? You don't need to choose only one of these: it's perfectly alright to have a working altar, a travel altar, an ancestor altar, a family altar, a specific-purpose altar, a kitchen offerings altar, or any combination of the above, or others entirely.Once this is decided, you can move on to step...
2. What kind of altar would you like? If it's a permanent part of your home, there are lovely pieces of furniture that can be bought from pagan shops online or in the real world, and there are any number of mundane furniture pieces that can be retasked-- coffee tables, end tables, wall shelves, hanging cabinets (which are especially interesting if they have doors, like those shrines you see for Day of the Dead in Mexico), hutches and sideboards (which offer the benefit of storage underneath), the top of a dresser, and so on. If you're a traveler or an outside reveler, look for flat old tree stumps or rocks, or think in terms of transport-- a small folding table with nice cloths to cover it's functionality, a board that can be balanced between upright bricks or stones or cinder-blocks, a cart with wheels, a small table or shelf that will fit in a car and survive being moved around a lot, these are all good options. 
3. Once you have the physical altar itself chosen, taking into account the fact that pagans tend to collect up tools and stuff, and the fact that as our knowledge and understanding change, so too might our needs from our altar, it's time to set it up. If it's raw wood, consider painting it or woodburning or carving it, staining it, anything to make it as beautiful and special as you can. Cover it in nice cloth, or, if you're gifted with that sort of talent, make one from scratch with symbols and beads and embroidery that means something to you. The more layers of meaning and intent you can build up, the better. Many of the books say that placement is super-important, that the altar has to be facing North or East or what-have-you, but really, when it comes down to it, wherever you have space and opportunity is good. A pretty view is nice, but not necessary. Out in the open is bold, but hidden away in a closet is more private. Make your own judgments about such personal things.

Then, choosing your decor:

1. There are a few basic things that every altar for a mainstream-pagan faith should have (consult your books for any specific faith's requirements): The most basic would just be a representation of your chosen deity, and maybe a candle and / or a surface to place offerings on, but a standard pagan altar has an athame, a boline, a pentacle, a cauldron, something each for earth (salt or dirt or a stone, etc), air (a wand or incense or a feather, etc), fire (a candle, a burner or some sort, or something made in fire), water (a bowl of water, a shell, a riverstone, etc), and sometimes spirit (a clear quartz, a pentacle, a mandala), as well as the representations of the deities and various candles.
2. Make a list of what you'd like to have, as well as what you feel you need just for basics, and go looking for them. If you can make any of it for yourself, the added intent and will can help bring the energies you're dedicating together, but it's perfectly alright to buy your items, so long as you buy them with intent, cleans them before use, and keep them for the purpose you want them for. Energies get disrupted really easily, and if you're going to have the tools storing them, they work better if that's all that's asked of them. Keep the list in your Book of Shadows. Refer back to it and change it as your needs and knowledge change; it's a good way to track your personal progress.
3. Consider a theme. Is this for a specific purpose, or just for daily use? What are your favorite colors and symbols? How can you make all the parts of the altar look and feel like parts of one cohesive whole, and not just a pile of stuff on a shelf? Having all your representations and tools in agreement helps tie the whole together-- Say you worship a sea diety: you can have a light and airy shell, a sea stone, a bottle of sea water, and some lightning-glass to represent the elements, a statue if the deity made of marble or coral (if you can get it) or in scrimshaw or on boat wood, a blue cloth, blue and sea green candles, holders made of sea glass or in sea colors, and random tokens found on the beach as offerings.

Then building the altar-space:

1. Once you have everything gathered, it's time to set it all up. Many of the books will tell you exactly where to put everything, and that's a good place to start, but once again, this religion is about self-determination: pay attention to how things feel as you lay them out, how they look all together, and how you function in the space, and feel free to move things as you go. 
2. Rules of thumb: The left side can be seen as feminine, watery and earthy, subconscious, potential, dreamy and emotional, while the right side can be seen as masculine, fiery and airy, conscious, actuality, wakeful and physical, while the middle is usually seen as unity, spirit and deity. If this feels right to you (and it might not if you're, say, left handed and therefore more dominant and action-y on that side, or if you follow a fully feminine or entirely masculine Path, or whatever), try arranging the tools you have according to that rule of thumb.
3. Play around with the positioning of things. See how easy it is to access, say, the candle you have set up near the Goddess statue, or the offering bowl you've decided to keep, or the wand you use to represent air. Can you move around your altar without thinking about it so you can focus on your prayers and rituals? Do you have everything you'd like to use within easy reach? If not, move things around, take things away, add things to the display, until it feels right.

Then, dedication and use:

1. Once it's all the way you want it to be, cast a Circle, light a candle for the deity of choice (or deities, or just to your higher self), and dedicate the altar. Bless everything and ask that it help you in your practice. If you haven't cleansed things yet, cleanse them now. Fill the altar with energy that feels the way you want it to feel-- calming, powerful, connected, safe, whatever the purpose of the altar is.
2. As you use your altar, whenever you bring something new to it, be sure it fits in before you start working on rituals-- something distracting or out of place will make it hard to stay focused.
3. Every once and a while, maybe on full moons or dark moons or some other fairly frequent time, clean it up, put things back where they belong, replace spent candles, refill your stock of matches or lighters or incense or whatever else you use, and basically just make it nice and usable again.
4. Once in a while-- for the seasons when they change or once a year on an important day-- take everything down, redecorate if it's that sort of altar, and rededicate everything with fresh new energies.

An altar is not the focus of everyone's practice, but it's a night way to train your mind to see things in a mystical context, and to learn consistency and upkeep. It's a physical representation of your practice: if you aren't keeping your altar clean and fresh, are you progressing in your study?

Notes.