shrine

The speaker discusses the process of setting up a shrine or altar. They explain that the simplest form of a shrine is based on personal comfort and tradition. They give examples of setting up a shrine to deities in Hinduism and pagan traditions. The speaker mentions using water, incense, flowers, and images of the deity in the shrine. They mention different ways of doing rituals, depending on the individual's beliefs. The speaker also explains that over time, more things can become a shrine, such as the kitchen or specific areas with reminders of practices or people. They mention using virtual shrines on computers and finding patterns or resonance with the deity or qualities everywhere. The speaker emphasizes that everything can become a shrine and that the process evolves over time. Hi everyone, I thought I'd talk a little today about setting up a shrine. We're going to start off with the simplest form of a shrine or altar. It depends how you talk about these things, different ways. The simplest form is according to the tradition that you feel comfortable with. So, for example, I used to set up a shrine every morning to Tara or Durga in Hinduism, which would correspond to different aspects of the goddess in the pagan tradition. Every morning set it up with water and incense and flowers and images of the deity. That used to take half an hour or so and then we would do a chant, which took about an hour. It was an hour which included half an hour of silent meditation because that's how I did things in the Buddhist tradition. But if you're doing it from a pagan standpoint, then you have to build something on the basis of the things that you're comfortable with. So, for instance, if you're a nature type person or a hedge witch, you employ the things that you feel comfortable with that give you a resonance with the particular qualities that you want. So, for example, that might be herbs that you've gathered, herbs that you're growing, incense, water, candle, whatever it is that makes that particular resonance. So, this is the simplest form of shrine building and then doing a ritual with burning incense, with burning a candle, however you like to do that. This is the simplest way of doing it. Now, eventually what happens is more and more things become a shrine. So, for example, in Hinduism the whole of the kitchen becomes a holy place or a place which you have little shrines, you have little images of the deities that are to do with cooking. And if you're involved in other forms of pagan belief, you may decide to have herbs and deities and little areas that become shrine-like because they have reminders of practices, people, even recipes. So, you might have a spice rack. That spice rack becomes a form of shrine. And this applies to everything. Everything becomes more shrine-like. So, for example, to give you an example, I would very often have a virtual shrine. So, I would set up two or three laptops, old laptops, and they would have different deities, different chants on them which I would then utilize. So, the computer becomes, when you use a virtual shrine, which you can find online if that's your particular thing, becomes a form of focus for the energies that you're trying to utilize. And you will go out and you will start to see patterns. So, this is the important thing, is to see the patterns, the shrine patterns or the aspects of the deity or the aspects of the quality that you're resonating with everywhere. So, everything in that sense becomes a shrine. So, for example, you may go for a walk and you see something and you may take a photograph of it. And because you've seen something there that resonates, you may leave something there. For example, you may arrange twigs in a certain way, you may arrange the stones in a certain way, whatever it is. So, everything becomes an opportunity to stay in the focus and in the presence and in the essence, the resonance of the things that you're engaged with and the path that you're engaged with. So, it's quite a simple process, very easy to understand and it does develop. But you start off with physical shrines, physical altars that have the things that you feel are appropriate. And eventually, everything becomes appropriate. Okay, that's all from me for today. Bye now.