hello i have been a wiccan for 2 months now and proud of it. I was wondering if the sword and dagger could have a substitution.

What an excellent idea! I don't have any pictures of my own altar, but found these on one of my favourite websites:

http://www.avalonia.co.uk/hekate/who_is_hekate.htm
for an altar to the Goddess Hecate.

http://www.avalonia.co.uk/contact/avalonia_photographs.htm
Scroll down for a Wiccan altar.

I am going to try and take some of my own and post that too. I have a love for altars too.

Joanna

Welcome to the boards Faithful_wiccan_eyes and Joanna!

Faithful: are you looking for a susbstitution to place on your altar? Depending on which element you associate them (Fire or Air) you can represent those elements on your altar a myriad of ways, For air you can place feathers or bird figures, etc. For fire candles are always good, or dragons, etc. If you are looking for a substitution to actually use for casting circle etc., a wand can be used in the same way. It is common for those who dont have an athame to also use their hands. Pointer finger being the wand substitute and pointer and middlefinger together to symbolize athame.

Tools are not always as important as the intent so use what is available to you. For example, it took me a couple years to find the athame that was right for me, so I had to improvise a lot.

Joanna: I also have a love for altars. I have several in my house, just no photos!

Your altar is absolutely beautiful! I wish I had a table that was that big... :-( oh well.

Please excuse the quality of these pictures.. they were the best I could get... I'm not a photographer obviously lol. I hope you can see everything alright, they are kinda dark:

[imageBellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Niamh

Your altar is gorgeous! I love the pentacle... Is it beaded?

no, but I painted it myself. Its one of those wooden shapes that you get from the craft isle in WalMart. When I bought it, it was a plain wooden star, then I painted it and thats what I got. It may look beeded because I have stones placed on top of it.

I also did the wall hanging... I drew that about 2-3 years ago.

The two wands in front are hand made. The darker one is an oak branch that I got about 2 years ago in the forest in Northern CA (where my druid friend lived- he just passed away last Samhain). I put a quartz at the tip and tied it with hemp (I had to glue the quartz down :-( but thats ok). I forget what tree the other wand came from (silly me), but it is just a small branch with nothing else on it. I got it as a wedding gift from an old spiritual Pagan hippie (lol). Maybe someday I will add some ribbons to it. :-D

Oh yeah, and I also made that little cauldron. I made it in high school art class out of clay. You cant really see, but it has a purple triple goddess symbol on the front of it.

Beautiful work all of it!

I have 2 wands. One was made for me and is maple with leather wrap and a quartz on it

the other is willow and I made it, quartz and leather and copper wire

Most everything else on my altar was bought or gifted. Though i am in the process of refinishing the handle on my athame <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

the other is willow and I made it, quartz and leather and copper wire

your wands sound beautiful! :-) My druid friend that I was telling you about was about to make me a besom out of willow, but unfortunately he never got the chance. If I get the chance to make my own willow besom I would dedicate it to his memory.

Though i am in the process of refinishing the handle on my athame

My husband, Gwyddion wants to start getting into blacksmithing and make his own athames/bollines/swords. I am going to college right now for business so that one day I can own my own metaphysical shop in which we would sell his swords and such. *glee cant wait* lol. That wont be for many more years to come though. Anywho... I have a tendency to ramble... so I'll stop now lol.

BB!

I actually made a besom with apiece of driftwood. I also have a wayward Elder tree that will need some trimming this year and I am hoping to make another besom and wand with a branch of that.

ooo! a besom made from Elder! If only I didnt live in the desert... but alas I do...