I don’t have a huge amount of altar space in my home.  With three cats, all three appropriately named after some form of mischief and/or destruction, we have to keep sacred things in very safe boxes.  I wanted to share my humble little altar emplacement with you, just to give you inspiration, if nothing else:

The cloth is a handwoven piece from “the Bonnie Weaver”, who makes the ren faire circuit in New England.  The pattern is a type of “shadow weave”, a method that I’m told was actually invented in the 20th Century by Mary Meigs Atwater, the woman who reintroduced hand weaving to the United States.  Given that Our Lady is also known as a goddess of weaving, the cloth seemed highly appropriate- both as an example of weaving and the advancement of an art.

I don’t think that it’s necessary to go track down a master weaver to buy an expensive piece of cloth for your altar.  However, if you are going to include an altar cloth, I think that something handmade is best if you can find it or make it.

Until about a month ago, the cloth was the only piece on my altar.  I haven’t been able to find any small statues that resonated with me- neither anthropomorphic pieces nor owls.  So the owl you see was a providential find.  I’ve struggled for a long time to find an appropriate owl- most of the statues I find have eyes that are… wrong.  It’s hard to describe, but a lot of them have eyes that look vacant or vapid to me- hardly fitting for a goddess of wisdom.

This owl on the other hand, has enormous, piercing eyes that are actually magnifying lenses.  From my usual focal distance, they look like silvery windows into a different version of our world- a version that is slightly out-of-focus and unseen.  These owls are available from Pier One, a store that I don’t normally frequent.  My wife was looking for pillows and the owl jumped out at me.  If I hadn’t found that one, I might have picked up an owl with a more “scrutinizing” or “inquisitive” expression.

Of course, I’m still on the lookout for a statue of Our Lady that blends Her modern and ancient symbolism.  So far, the statue of “Freedom Triumphant in War and Peace” atop the U.S. Capitol is probably the closest, but it’s still not quite updated enough for my purposes.  One of these days I may have to try sculpture, or at least get rich enough to afford to hire a sculptor to make one.

The card and the coin are really recent additions.  I talk more about them here.

That’s my altar to Our Lady of the Republic.  I wish it was larger and more complex, but I only have so much room in the cat-proof spaces.