The History of Altars
Altars have been used from almost the beginning of human civilization, as far back as the Paleolithic Age. Yet many people today do not understand exactly what an altar is outside of a religious structure, and do not believe they can set up personal altars in their homes. Nevertheless, on a subconscious level, we set up varieties of altars without giving any conscious thought to the process.
 
It is common to see groupings of family photos arranged on shelves, tables, or pianos. Many people place clusters of sentimental objects or collections of various kinds in glass-front cabinets or on shelves in various rooms of their homes. It is not uncommon to see displays of beer cans, thimbles, dragons, model cars, or similar objects. These are all done without conscious thought or planning except that we “want to.” But why do we feel drawn to do this?
 
 
Why Do We Build Altars?
 
Carl G. Jung named the deepest part of our subconscious mind “the collective unconscious,” and said that it connects every person to every single ancestor and provides access to everything that has been known in the past. It seems that the collective unconsciousness within each of us is persuading us to build a personal altar, such as our ancestors did. The problem is, we seldom stop our busy minds long enough to listen to the collective unconscious and learn from it.
 
The wall of beer cans is a type of informal attar to the gods Dionysus or Bacchus, both deities of the vine, wine, and good times. Model cars may well be a subconscious tribute to the fleet-footed Mercury or to Helios and his sun chariot. Thimbles are symbols of weaving goddesses such...