Dot it on your wrists or behind your ears like perfume to calm frayed nerves from a long flight or help you keep from saying something you’ll regret to your annoying Aunt Nelly. But what if you don’t want a permanent altar, are practicing in secret, or have nowhere to put it? A travel altar is easy to make and can easily fit inside of an empty breath-mint tin. Here’s how to make one, whether it is the only altar you have or a secondary one you use when you are away from home! You will need:

If you like the article below, you might also like Road Trip: A Modern Witch’s Guide to Hitting the Highway. Representation of fire: candle, red stone, stone deer figurine, piece of antler, red and yellow glass marble If you haven’t come out of the broom closet yet, there’s lots of options to keep your ritual tools discreetly out of view. A simple drawstring bag works. I have a feeling that some of the items in the box will always be there, such as a candle, a set of prayer beads, and my small book of words of wisdom given to me by a reader. Other objects relate more to my current curiosities and season in life—an image of the Virgin and Child from the Eastern Orthodox tradition; a scallop shell from Kyle’s journey along the Camino; moss to represent a season of growth, both without and within. And then there will always be objects that find their way in after catching my eye, such as the small piece of honeycomb, inviting me to ponder and encouraging me to find deeper meaning hidden in everyday life.Because each room has multiple functions, I have yet to find the perfect place for my Morning Ritual. While a cozy silent nook can always be found, as the day continues that nook turns into an office, an entertainment center, a place to pile laundry (okay, that last one is my own fault). The foundation of your altar will be an altar cloth. This can be any cloth you choose to cover the surface and place whatever tools and decorations you decide to include. The altar cloth represents the foundation and sets the space aside as sacred. You can have just one that is special to you, perhaps it is designed with a certain symbol, or you can have several different colors and change them out to correspond with the sabbats.

A final option is that you can leave the tin as it is and then just have it disguised as something it is not, which can be very useful if you are a closet druid! Sample Travel Altar: OBOD Bardic Initiation Gift Another option here is painting–if you are working on metal, enamels work well. You can also use spray paint (a technique here is to paint one shade, let it dry, then take leaves, flowers, or ferns and then lay them on top of the box and spray a second shade). There are many options for keeping your ritual tools hidden from view if you haven’t yet gotten out of the broom cupboard. Simple drawstring bags work well.An impromptu reading of the Tarot can break up relationships with people that you only see once or twice per year.