Chris Olmstead
As for Altar set ups…
1. I once read Crowley’s remarks on how he contrived his stuff while he was out
wandering the world or climbing mountains. He found ways to just use the
simple things from his kit…cook knife became Athame, tin cup became the
Cup…etc.
This sort of ‘kitchen witch’ working is accepted by lots of folks. You can set an
altar up and take it down as fast as you can set a table.
2. I also have noted the “Porto-Pagan” set-ups at some of the Pagan Fests I’ve
attended. Carry the stuff in a cardboard box that can be up-ended for an altar, or
even placed on it’s side for a rain-proof ‘shrine’. Close and carry off at the end of
the visit with a minimum of re-wrapping to protect the fragiles. Some just contrive
one with the natural objects at hand…a rock, a stick, a lantern or candle, etc.
3. Some folks (including myself) have a small duffle into which I’ve placed a
second set of “traveling” working tools. I have the great good-fortune of having
friends who give me cool things. The coolest stay on my Altar, the second-
coolest hang out in the sac, and sometimes I shift the goodies around.
4. I have a buncha books that offer arrangements I find a bit Over-whelming, but
I can certainly post them, if you really need them. If you want me to fetch out
Official Altar diagrams from some of the slick commercial works I have on the
shelf, RSVP.
5. For “public” Altar, in my home, I ‘clutter’ a shelf, a mantle, or a small window
sill. It sounds to me as though, since all your stuff is packed andyour space is
totally compressed, that the “window sill” Altar is a good solution for you. I put a
little origami pinwheel up on an Eastern sill, a small shell on a Western one, a
tiny oil lamp on a Southern one, and a pretty rock on a Northern one. The whole
House is the Altar “Table”.
To clear my space I have been known to light a stick of incense, scaling it
upward in my mind until I am swinging a huge flaming brand before the various
Darks I’m dispelling, and run through the house screaming and raving aloud until
they back off. A joss stick lasts about 20 minutes. I can almost guarantee that if
you summon your Ki and Incant over a flaming brand for 15 minutes, most
Shadows _will_ go elsewhere. I haven’t had to do it in THIS house more than
twice in 3 years
The Witchcraft Chronicles 
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