How to Create an Ancestor Altar in Your Home

Many people have personal altar spaces in their home. They use them for meditation, communing with spirits, or creating sacred space. Some people have a central altar; some have altars scattered all over the house. Some even have altar spaces out in their yards and gardens.

An ancestor altar is something you set up to honor your departed loved ones - family, spiritual teachers, and dear friends. Some ancestor altars are only set up at certain times of the year. For example: during the pagan/Wiccan holiday of Samhain, commonly known as Halloween; for Dios de los Muertas, the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday; or the Chinese tradition of creating an ancestor altar for a departed family member. There are many more for different spiritual traditions. Some ancestor altars are left up constantly, or are set up after a loved one dies and remain up for as long as a person wants that memory to remain green and present.

I have had altars for years, but I only set up an ancestor altar after the death of my partner of eleven years. For me, having a place to meditate and do my daily practices was important, and including him in this space was paramount.

I believe the direction of the ancestors is the West, so I have set my ancestor altars up against the west walls, but you can place the altar wherever you are most comfortable. The altar in my living room holds the pictures of my departed partner and the pictures of our spiritual teachers. The one in my bedroom is more personal - my beloved's picture is there, but also the container with his ashes, a box with a lock of his hair, rocks from the river where he died of a heart attack; calligraphy of one of his songs, created by a friend in honor of his memory.

You can set up an altar on any surface you wish. It is nice to use a decorative cloth covering - you can change the color as the holidays and the seasons change. Right now I have a white and green cover for the coming of spring. Candles and/or incense burners add to the sacred atmosphere, as do seasonal flowers or plants. And of course, the most important part, are the pictures and/or personal items of those whom you wish to honor.

Whenever you create sacred space, it is good to purify the items and the room itself. This can be accomplished by burning sage or cedar, or sprinkling spring water with springs of rosemary, if you are chemically sensitive to smoke. Smudge or cleanse the room, the table or shelf, and each object by either passing them briefly through the smoke or by sprinkling them with the water. Then set up the objects and pictures. Take time to reflect on each one, and on why it is important to you.

You can add items to your altar, or change it, whenever you feel called. There are no hard and fast rules here, this is something we can each do for ourselves, for healing, for growth, for comfort. Over Christmas, I set up my partner's crèche, a snow globe with polar bears that I gave him one year, and also Goddess statues to celebrate the Winter Solstice. We both had eclectic spiritual traditions - he was a Sufi Sheikh that was raised by a Christian preacher and still loved to sing old hymns and carols at Christmas; I followed the Sufi path, but also honored the Goddess/pagan path and insisted that we sing the Solstice songs as well. We had made these "Christmas/Solstice altars" for years - Christian on one side and Goddess on the other, merging to the Sufi symbols in the middle. It made sense that the ancestor altars I created for him would reflect the life and traditions we shared.

Having an ancestor altar helps us connect with our roots, with our departed friends, lovers and family. It can be a comfort to those of us who still walk in bodies on this earth.