Welcome to Gaia! ::

Today was the first time in years that I took the time to organize a nice altar. Between moving, children and pets, I did not have the proper place for an altar and I just kept putting off making the time. But I am very proud of myself for finally getting it up. I still have another altar to put up but I need more statues. So I do understand time and other issues, and I don't think anyone should feel bad about not having something up during certain times in your life.

I wouldn't call putting up an altar pageantry. It shows a certain level of respect for our beliefs and our deities.

I feel there is just cause to call it such from a religious perspective.
Pageantry is a rich or colorful display. Catholic Mass is pageantry, Wiccan ritual is pageantry- it is something physical to break us out of the motion in our daily lives and catch our attention.

On a psychological level, it can alter our brainwaves. Some of the most moving spiritual experiences I have been a part of used pageantry to create a sense of other-worldliness, that way the drone of daily life was so far from our minds that we were able to experience everything on a deeper level.

I do not feel that pageantry and respect cannot co-exist in a single action.


Within a religious studies course, this description is used to address religious pageantry.

May I recommend some sources?
Embracing the Moon by Yasmine Galenorn is an excellent book. I believe she describes the difference between ritual that changes our experience of the world and what she calls "dramatic play", acting out in order to draw attention to ourselves.

The first is the description of Pageantry that my World Religions professor discussed when he commented on my paper.

I sincerely apologize if any offense was taken, though I do not find those scholarship programs to be in and of themselves "fake", even if some of the contestants are.

Yeah i guess like the others said, it all just has to do with prioritizing. You just need to sort out either in your mind or on paper, what you need to do, and work out a schedule for it. Making time for this is just like making time for any other sort of thing that you like to do and/is important to you.

ok my modification for the navy actually might work with this. think little stuff. with parents who dont agree, and with little money candles are cheap and you can get them small. also they dont look special. sea salt and water are some other things that i have on my altar and are again not really strange or expensive. you could even use normal salt if needed.flowers is a good thing since it just looks like decorations. depending on the parents statues for goddess could look like angel statues. i got an angel statue at a dollar store that i used for a while as my goddess piece(now i have a small vial of silver flakes). crystals are a little bit more pricey depending on the area. you may be able to convince your parents you just want them cause they look cool. instead of a bell or drum i use my ipod which again isnt really strange. another thing to note is that ritual tools are alot like christmas presents when youre a little kid, its the thought that counts so making stuff for your altar works as well. many parents encourage their kids to be creative so see if you can get clay and build things out of that.this weekend i'll be posting in the lesson forum at least some explanations on tools(there is a thread already there i just havent put any info other than the intro). also i'll post a picture of my altar here so people can ask questions and we can discuss ideas. flameguardian and anyone else with a home altar should consider doing the same since some of the newer people benefit from seeing rather than just reading.

Is there a reason you feel pageantry cannot be for personal benefit?