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Shrine Advice, Please

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Post  AgathonZante Tue Feb 18, 2014 12:15 am

Should I build my shrine and altar a certain way, or is it basically a designated place for Hellenic worship?
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Post  Thrasyvoulos Tue Feb 18, 2014 12:24 am

Basically, all you need for a shrine is an icon of the god(s) it honors, a receptacle for offerings (like a plate), a receptacle for libations (like a bowl), an incense burner (they're a dollar at a dollar store), containers to hold the libations and offerings (a tin for the offerings and a bottle for the libations, for example), candles or lamps for Hestia and the other gods that pertain. There's no particular method of setting one up, so long as it's done with love and respect.

The altar can vary, depending on whether you're in a Mystery tradition and so on, but it doesn't really differ that much from a shrine, either. An altar is basically for sacrifices, in which case the sacrificial flame IS the altar, but they share many similarities.

Or so I'm fairly sure. If I'm wrong, I'm sure I'll be corrected.

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Post  AgathonZante Tue Feb 18, 2014 12:28 am

Well I suppose I am fine then. Thank you  Very Happy 
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Post  Erodius Tue Feb 18, 2014 12:54 am

First I'd recommend taking a browse through the resources in the Beginner's area.

This should also be helpful some: https://olympianismos.forumotion.com/t230-basics-of-shrine-worship

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A shrine is a place for worship in general. An altar, technically, is an object on which a sacrificial fire is lit; it's a particular 'thing'.

Icarus is essentially right as far as furnishings are concerned — but you really do not need even everything that he's mentioned. All that is absolutely essential is a fire, and water to purify yourself. Icons are not essential, although helpful they can be. Only certain types of statues are suited for empsychosis, but that is nothing a newfound student would be doing anyhow.

You should be making the sorts of sacrifices that are most suited to your living situation. Wine, incense and burnt offerings are all equivalent. Any one, or two, or all of the three is perfectly sufficient. It is the action of offering and the substance that constitute the essence of a sacrifice, not the quantity.

There are a few customs to setting up a shrine or an altar. A shrine is customarily set up so the deity worshipped there is facing east (the worshipper, west), or the opposite. North-south oriented shrines and temples are rare, although this is not a universal. Likewise, for obvious reasons, if there are images, they take a central place in a shrine, with the arrangement of multiple images following divine hierarchy etc. A home would typically have only one shrine for the worship of the whole household, with a handful of deities worshipped there.

For altars, if they are permanent, they are afforded a designated and demarcated space which is not to be entered unless for purposes of offering a sacrifice, and then, only by those who are purified to do so. This is called a τέμενος in Greek, or a templum in Latin. Altars, also, unlike a shrine, are always dedicated to only a single deity, or to a small group of closely associated deities addressed as a single entity. Altars are also dedicated, meaning they are usually inscribed with 1. to whom the altar is dedicated, 2. by whom it was dedicated, 3. for what reason it was dedicated, and 4. when it was dedicated. Home shrines might have several small altars (or braziers, more like, at that scale) for the various deities there.
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Post  AgathonZante Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:40 am

Yes, I have a separate structure for the altar. There's the Shrine, which houses the icons (statues) of the Gods and things that represent Them. Then there's the altar or offering block as I something call it, where offerings are placed.
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Post  AgathonZante Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:53 am

I have one more question, what if you want to take the shrine and altar down to move it somewhere else? How do you decommission it so to speak?
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Post  Erodius Tue Feb 18, 2014 7:10 am

On general, it ought not to be moved or interfered with. There is the idea that sanctity is cultivated through use over time. But if you have only just recently set something someplace, there shouldn't be any reason why you could not move it.

Altars were often portable, however, and could be moved as necessary. Small ones would even be carried with armies on military campaigns.
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Post  AgathonZante Tue Feb 18, 2014 12:17 pm

Yes, what I am referring to is if you have to move to a new home or apartment, or if the shrine and altar would be much better in another area.
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Post  Erodius Tue Feb 18, 2014 12:40 pm

If you are moving to a new residence, you can simply establish/relocate a new shrine there. The tutelary deities of Rome were brought to the city from Troy by Aeneas, and if one moved residences, one would take one's shrine furnishings along. Moving was rather rare though in Antiquity, so this would have been much less of an issue for most people than it is nowadays. Most householder people lived in the same home for most or all of their lives, and usually for many generations.

But apartments existed then too, as now, for individuals, smaller families, new immigrants to an area, and the less wealthy. Even very modest apartments would often have a niche in a wall or a simple shelf for religious purposes.
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