By Kat Wilson-Smith
For Kat, altar adornment is a beautiful practice that nurtures self-care and self-love. This art form encourages intentionality and devotion, inviting a deeper awareness of both your surroundings and your own physical presence. To discover more about the art of adornment and sacred intention, be sure to explore her offerings on Instagram.
Firstly, what is an altar? Great question! Traditionally an altar is a platform or table which is used for ritual preparation and the presentation of offerings.
An altar is often found at a place of worship such as temples and churches. Let’s recontextualise this idea, especially when taking pleasure into consideration, an Altar has the potential to transform your space from the mundane to the sacred. The act of adorning your altar is all about intention and representation, it is an opportunity to anchor the energy of your intention into your space. Ideally you want to set up your pleasure altar in your bedroom or pleasure room.
Intention Setting For Your Altar
Before you get too carried away creating your space, we invite you to drop into a moment of stillness and connect with your pleasure. Focus on your breath and ground your energy into the Earth. Feel your heart expand with love and imagine your crown unfolding like the petals of a lotus flower.
Ask yourself: What is the intention for my pleasure practice and thus my altar space? What do I want to call into my practice?
Perhaps you are looking for more self-love or passion. Maybe your practice offers a space of peace or release from everyday stresses?
Choosing Your Space
You want to choose a space where your Altar will not be disturbed, it doesn’t have to take up a lot of space. The top of your dresser or your bedside table will make beautiful altar tabletops. If you love up-cycling furniture, you may want to make a day of finding the perfect little side table or bedside drawer.
We invite you to consider the amount of effort and space you create for your altar; this may be a reflection of your pleasure practice. As your altar changes and transforms with you, we encourage you to consider the previous statement. Before beginning the creation of your space, you are welcome to cleanse your space with your preferred method of smoke and/or sound.
Altar Adornment
You may have some fabric or a beautiful scarf you wish to drape over the surface. Things to consider: Are there any motifs, prints, patterns or colours that resonate with the intention for your pleasure practice or for where you are at with your pleasure practice?
If you are calling in more self-love, what colours evoke this feeling.
Pink is a colour often associated with love and self-love.
Red is associated with passion, desire and is also a very grounding colour.
We invite you to consider when was the last time you indulged in creating a space like this for yourself?
Consider the texture of the fabric and what it evokes, velvet is typically a luxury fabric for example. The process of selecting the elements for your altar can be a very visceral experience, we invite the play of all your senses, what looks, feels, smells, tastes and sounds pleasurable?
Please find the curated playlist here.
Things you may like to add to your Altar Space:
Flowers
Can act as a reminder to tend to them as you should regularly tend to yourself. Each flower will also hold its own frequency and symbology.
Candel
A flame can symbolise the passion you wish to ignite within yourself.
Devotional images and/or statues
These may be of deities, gods and goddesses that you feel a resonance with such as Aphrodite.
Mirror
As an invitation to explore mirror work practices.
Incense, Palo Santo, Sage
Smoke cleanse that is in alignment with your practice.
Oracle and/or Tarot Cards
Such as the Divine Feminine Oracle Cards.
Anointing, Massage or Body Oil
The Yinn Body Oil makes such a great companion to your altar space.
Pleasure Wand
Crystal or glass, it’s time to bring them out of the drawers and allow then to take up space. Charge your wands with your intentions.
Feathers
Perhaps a bougie bedroom feather.
Crystals
You may have extra crystals round your home to create your space with.
After draping your fabric, have fun arranging your items intuitively. Take time to notice the sensations of everything. You may like to prepare your favourite snack or a cup of tea while you create your space. Once the space feels complete, we invite you to sit, stand or lie down in front of your Altar and reflect upon your intention. Allow this intention to wash over your space.
Breath in…and exhale.
You`ve done it, you have set up your very own Pleasure Altar! As you tend to your own pleasure needs, you are called to tend to your altar space regularly in devotion to yourself. This may be in the form of cleaning/cleansing your space, rearranging your items and/or buying yourself some new goodies to adorn your space.
Please find below a list of items you may like to add to your Pleasure Altar:
- Yinn Body Oil
- The Luna – Rose Quartz Edition
- Yoni Egg – Black Obsidian
- The Sex Spray
- Solis Cacao
- Aireah Paper Incense
- Womb Free Bleeding Blanket
Love this article? Check out The Aura Ritual to Release Emotions and Old Energy.
It's our pleasure.
Y x