What Do I need for an altar?

[Zing0619]

Ok I am new not only to this guild but to Wicca itself and I need to know what I would need for an altar.  

[too2sweet]

What goes on a person's altar really can vary. Traditionally you would have something that represents each of the 4 elements (air, fire, water, earth), a representation of the God and the Goddess, and then there might be other items such as candles or personal items.

On mine I have incense in the East for air, as well as a set of chimes. In the South for fire are some candles and my athame - as well as a glass paperweight thingy that says "imagine" - since fire is about creativity (among other things). In the West I have a hand painted bowl to hold the water as well as a chalice (of sorts) for libations. In the North for Earth I have my pentacle as well as some crystals. Some people use specific candles to represent the God/dess, some will use statues. I use a pair of crystals - it's not ideally what I'd like to be using, but for the longest time my altar had to be somewhat non-altar looking, so that's just what I had to use.

For some good info, you may want to check out this thread in the Academy... Wicca 101. Lesson 10 specifically covers Altars, but over all it is a good place to learn about the basics.  

[Danipyr]

~[[/]]
As too2sweet said, it usually vary a lot from person to person.
And since I would just pretty much repeat her by speaking about mine, I'll just drop a link, which I got some inspiration from.. A few years ago..

http://blessedbe.sugarbane.com/altar.htm

It has some ideas, but once again, it's really varies from person to person, how they want it to look. 3nodding
~[[/]]  

[doistu]

My alter is really personal too me but some of the things that I understand are commonly found are candles, wands, athames, statues, seasonal representations, corner symbols...

thats all i got so far hehe  

[too2sweet]

Here's a link to the Altar Pics thread that is in the Gallery.