Winter Solstice rituals were all over my Instagram feed yesterday: photos of beautifully decorated altars and fires and letters to old selves being thrown in fires. Growing up in the church, I only ever saw altars being used in, well, church. The idea of creating one in the home seemed a bit foreign and weird to me. Then COVID started and everything moved virtual. People started curating spaces for meditation and altars became less and less foreign. Why wouldn’t I want to create a beautiful safe space for healing and reflection? Maybe it was just the word, “altar,” that rubbed me the wrong way…

Flash forward to now and I have a little, “altar,” set up of my own. It makes my room feel homey and not witchy at all. I’ve found a few things that remind me of places I love and it’s a little sacred space for me to feel in my element and relaxed. I have an old fashioned mini cheese cloche that holds two shells, one black and one white, that my boyfriend and I found on one of our walks in the Cape. There’s also some bark from a trip to Vermont (excessive, but I get emotionally attached to things ok?) and some old wooden bowls I found at a thrift store, where I’ll put water and collected items from nature walks.

… It’s ok to have a practice that makes you feel connected that doesn’t fit into any church practice or spiritual practice that influencers might post on Instagram.

I haven’t figured it out, but I feel like I’m slowly discovering my own spirituality. I believe in Jesus and the power of the universe and that we will never be able to understand God because God isn’t a “He” it’s a force, a power, a creator, that we won’t ever fully understand as humans. I don’t want to go on about my beliefs because that’s for a good glass of red wine and a long conversation. What I think is important is to share my story so that others can understand it’s ok to be unsure of what you believe in or that it’s ok to have a practice that makes you feel connected that doesn’t fit into any church practice or spiritual practice that influencers might post on Instagram.

My goal for myself is to find a practice that is led by my intuition alone. I know what I am interested in and I want to let that define my spirituality practice. I strongly believe that only you can know how you connect with God or the universe best, but I do think it’s important to cultivate some type of practice with a source larger than us because there is something so much greater than us as humans out there. We have so many faults, and looking at the universe and how expansive and beautiful it is and all the miracles that have happened in my life … man we have no idea! For me, that is God and Jesus and the Spirit that lives in all of us.

I strongly believe that only you can know how you connect with God or the universe best …

So although I love going to church and find happiness there, I love finding a quiet place for prayer and reflection at home with my little altar space. I also love incorporating using the Solstices and other events to guide when I journal about certain things. For example, yesterday on the Winter Solstice, I wrote on a tiny piece of paper what I wanted to leave behind in 2021. Then I burned it in one of my bowls. I didn’t feel like I had to do anything more witchy, just the act of burning things that aren’t serving me felt helpful and allowed me to take a deep breath. (Despite almost burning myself and getting ash all over my room…) Today and over the next week I will celebrate Christmas and family and Jesus and begin crafting my lists and intentions for the New Year. It’s time to start new!