A Birth Altar, Lily Shahar Kunning
Our son was conceived very deliberately in a ritual designed to bring forth the baby that visited my partner and myself in aseries of dreams. So when the time came for birth preparation,of course we wanted to have him born that way-intentionallyand in a sacred context. One of the ways we devised to makethat happen is to design and build a birth altar. I have severaldifferent kinds of altars in my home- some are for specificdeity or the dead, and some altars that hold “works in progress”.To me, a “working altar” is for a specific project and the items placed on it have symbolic and religious value that contributeto that project. For example, when making a wand, I not onlyhad elemental reminders of air and its attributes on thatworking altar, but also all the materials to construct andconsecrate the new tool until the work was finished.Because we were planning on giving birth at a birth center or hospital, we realized that we would not have space to craft an altar from scratch- that is, build thestructure on or in which the items would be displayed, like a shrine. So we decided to stick with alimited amount of items, that could be configured in any number of ways, depending on where weended up and how much space we were allotted. We opted for items that could be configured on anytabletop.Those doing a home birth can take this process many steps further and build a shrine if they so chooseand take up as much space as their living quarters allow. (Another nice thing about a home birth altar isthat you can start building it during the pregnancy and use it for multiple evolving purposes: as a placeto focus on a healthy baby, as a place for ease and comfort of the mother, a place to commune withyour unborn child, and and place to assemble collected items from here and there, until the grandmoment arrives.So what goes onto a birth altar? That is really up to the people involved, as it is a deeply personalchoice. I can tell you what I placed on mine for inspiration:
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Statuary/Tangible items that invoke a deity, spirit or being:
There were specific deity thathad been involved in my son's conception that we invited to the birth- so we had specificreminders of hir. In addition, I also placed a brass figure of Sheela-Na-Gig, opening her vulvawide for the world (to use as visual inspiration for me and my coming work). We also hadanimal allies on the altar for personal spiritual work reasons: wolves and doves, crows andfoxes.
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Charms, Talismans, Other kinds of spells:
We also had lots of help from our religiouscommunity to help move my placenta previa while I was pregnant (so that I could have avaginal birth instead of a C Section), and there were many charms and talismans given to usfrom Witches all over the world as a result. We felt that these spells needed to see this magick working to fruition, so they all went onto the altar.I also made a few talismans myself during my pregnancy: one to keep me peppy during general
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