Pocket Altars and Travel Shrines
I, like many Hellenic Polytheists, or just pagans in general, have one large altar dedicated to the worship of my deities and the execution of various rituals. But I also know that for many that isn’t feasible, due to unapproving family, or even just lack of space or frequent travel and moving. This is a guide on how i assemble my smaller pocket alter that I bring with myself on any longer trips that i may go on than a day or two. Note, how I may do it is very different than you, and that is completely ok, these are just some suggestions.
This is the container I use to carry everything, the rubber band is very useful in making sure it doesn’t open up and spill, and the metal tin helps keep the contents protected. I also have many other repurposed altoid containers holding everything from erasers to bandaids, so a pocket shrine like this is very discreet.
This is what I see when i open it up…
… and these are all of the contents spread out. They fall into a few main categories, items for offerings, representatives of each of the gods I worship, and decoration. Going through each of the items one by one let’s start in the offerings category.
A simple bottle cap! I use this as a temporary offering bowl to hold libations or food or whatever i need.
A small incense stick and matchbook. These can be lit as on offering themselves or to prepare khernips. Next, are diety representations.
These I feel are all pretty simple so I’ll run through them all together. From top to bottom we have a horse statuette for Poseidon, a small yellow ribbon flower for Apollo, and a coin for Hermes. Finally, we have decor type items.
These start with a small assortment of crystals, (from top to bottom) obsidian, smokey quartz, quartz, and amethyst. These I only use during the occasional ritual, or when I am in a place long enough to set up a temporary altar.
And last but not least is my mini altar cloth with the bottle cap from earlier for scale. This I’ll often layout over the area if I set anything up.
Now, this is of course how I do the idea of a pocket altar, and it is suited entirely to my lifestyle and needs. Being that, I can have a large main altar at my house, and when I travel I usually stop in a location for multiple days before moving on. If you need this to be your main altar set-up, design it so it doesn’t need to be assembled, maybe glue pictures of your deity(/ies) to the lid of the tin and simply set the offerings inside the container. If you’re really worried about disapproving family, try instead an e-shrine! But remember, the most important part about you and how you worship, is that you do what feels best to you! Just be creative and try new things out!
