Scoot The Monkeys Over!

I've had so much fun today working on the beautiful, handmade altar that I purchased from Jody Armijo. Jody is Cindy's partner. They live in Northern New Mexico and I dearly love both of them.

Cindy has an altar and as do many of our friends. So a while back when I was watching one of my favorite movies, The Milagro Beanfield War, it made me want to get an altar, but I didn't know where to start.

So I asked Cindy, "Where do you buy altars?" She suggested that I buy Denise Linn's book Altars: Bringing Sacred Shrines Into Your Everyday Life. So I purchased this fascinating book.

On the back jacket cover, I read these words, so I  sat down in Roy's and my chair and read the entire book in one day.

So the next time that I was talking to Cindy, she told me that Jody had just made his first two, beautiful altars for some friends of theirs and she sent me a picture of them. Then Cindy also told me that Jody was going to start making altars and she was going to start selling them online, in her Pooh & The Brown Piglet Store. And before she and I adios-ed each other, I had purchased my very first altar.

My altar that Jody made that Cindy customized for me, arrived last week and it is totally beautiful. She told me that I had a heart of gold, so they named it, Heart of Gold. And this is a picture that Cindy took of it and e-mailed to me, before she mailed it.

When my altar arrived, Cindy had included: a rooster, a Great Pyrenees dog, two tiny bottles of beer and two miniature pumpkins and four tortillas, that Jody had molded out of clay and painted. And Jody signed the back of it and it is #6.

As you well know, since I didn't blog for four days, I had a busy week. So this morning after I did a little paperwork, I vowed to set up my altar, using Denise Linn's book as my guide.

I first thought that I was going to set up my altar, in the big room, on top of the electric, faux wood burning stove, next to my guitar.

But I changed my mind and decided I wanted to put it in our bedroom, on top of the dresser, next to my monkeys. And all I had to do was remove the clock and scoot the monkeys over.

Then I opened up the book, to page 150 and used the Meanings Of Altar Objects as my reference guide, because it is a partial list of different objects with their associated meanings.There were lists of religious items, symbols, shapes and patterns, offerings, polished stones, metals, plants and flowers, shells, herbs, fruit and grains, twigs, branch and leaves, essential oils and incense, animal symbols, aquatic symbols, winged creatures, amphibians and reptiles, mythical creatures, colors, etc.

I spent over an hour, having fun and deciding what I wanted to put on my beautiful altar. And this is what I came up with!

And this is a partial list of Cindy's items and the items I chose with their associated meanings:

The altar itself:

Turquoise-relaxation, meditation, peace

Pink-love, softness

Dove-peace and feminine

Gold Heart-solar, magnificent, expansion, healing, balance

Roses-love

On my silver charm bracelet that Tony gave to me, hung top center:

Silver-ruled by moon, deceptive, feminine force, intuition

Bear- Health, strength and stamina

Turtle- longevity, stability, home, Mother Earth

Lizard-guardian of dream time, divination

Buffalo-abundance, courage, determination

Snake-wisdom, initiation

Rabbit-intuition, quick thinking

Then I added the rest of these objects: Please note that this *** means it is my interpretation

My mother's cross- Christianity, intersection of Heaven and Earth

Duck-emotional balance, domestic harmony

Donkey-surefootedness, determination

Dog-loyalty, protection, faithfulness

Peace sign hanging around the donkey's neck-peace, love***

Rooster-alertness, fertility, enthusiasm

Quartz Crystals-spiritual attunement (That's the way it is spelled in the book)

Beer bottles-fun ***

Tortillas-abundance, harvest

Candles-powerful symbol of spirit

Pumpkin-Thanksgiving***

Appalachian Trail sign-Photoshop or Henry, Fay, Miss Moneypenny and me on the Trail***

Key-opening inner realms, because I do not know what key it goes to***

Alien guitar pick-music, love, peace, Longmire—Texas Style video***

Silver dog bone-too cheap to buy a gold one***

Little Debbie's alien-attracting helmet-Longmire, way too cute and makes me laugh***

And that is about it for tonight, because I can't wait to add a few more things to my beautiful altar and figure out where I am going to hang my clock. (And I love that light circle that the clock left behind. It is northwest of my fabulous altar.)

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!