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Having a personal shrine or altar in the home is a practice which has spanned many spiritual traditions throughout history. I would like to tell you I have a couple wall niches in my home serving as shrines to Inanna and Dumuzi respectively. The reality is that I have one permanent altar/shrine in my home which sits atop a chest of drawers. It serves dual duty as both a meditational altar and a shared shrine to Inanna and Dumuzi. For the purposes of this article let me define the difference between an altar and a shrine. When I speak of an altar I am referring to a space where spiritual work is done. This can be anything from simple prayer and meditation to being used as a work table for enacting the most elaborate of rituals or spells. A shrine, as I define it, is a space housing an item or items representing a particular deity or religious icon. It is a place of honor and may or may not be surrounded with items held to be sacred to the deity or the shrine’s creator. Mine qualifies as both a shrine and an altar as I use it to not only honor Inanna and Dumuzi, but I also like to light an oil lamp to them prior to sitting in front of it while praying and meditating. When first setting out to erect an altar or shrine, you should have the answers to some questions clear in your head. For starters, is the purpose to honor deity (a shrine)? Or as a place to do spiritual work (an altar)? Or both? If you intend it as a shrine, you will undoubtedly want a statue or some other representation of the deity to be your main focus. I would advise against using a candle or oil lamp for the purpose of a shrine as the shrine is meant to honor the deity. It’s not meant for actual spiritual work. Alternately, you could use a candle or lamp as deity’s representation and simply light it for a certain time period each day to honor the deity in that manner. In an idyllic world we would have ample space to surround the statue with items we strongly associate with the deity. Unfortunately that is not always the case. On my shrine/altar I have, in addition to my statues representing Inanna and Dumuzi, a small resin cow which represents Taurus the Bull with whom Dumuzi has close associations. I also have sitting atop my shrine a ceramic chalice with a relief of Inanna on the front. For an altar the options open and can create a bit of confusion to someone who feels overwhelmed by erecting their first altar. Again, you will need to clarify some issues in your head. Is the altar to be used for spellwork or rituals? Or is it more of an object of beauty to inspire prayer and/or meditation? In the latter case the options are fairly simple. We are at liberty to place upon the altar as much or as little as we please. So long as there is some sort of association with spirituality held to the object, it’s fair game. I have wands, an athame, many stone people, feathers and oil lamps (to represent Inanna and Dumuzi) upon the altar. I also have a silver dolphin pendant given to me by a very good friend as well as a couple other gifts from those I hold dear. Dolphin, of course, is one of my spirit totems. It’s also the first one of which I became aware when this same friend "saw" one swimming around me. If you have decided to erect an altar for the purpose of ritual and/or spellwork, you will likely need more space and have less room for purely decorative items. For such an altar, it is good to have upon it the tools you usually choose to work with (and don’t mind being displayed for all to see). You will also want to leave plenty of room free so you will have space to fill with other items you will be using when you perform your spell or ritual. As you can see, I’ve incorporated aspects of both into my altar/shrine, and it works quite well for me. Apart from having a space set aside for prayer and meditation, I like that I am constantly reminded of Inanna and Dumuzi by it’s presence in my home. Should you decide you’d like to build one of your own, may the Old Ones bless your endeavors!
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