https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*Wd2HFWbZ-lGfQVzjnnvX_w.jpeg I consider myself to be a chaos magician, which is almost painful to put down on “paper,” but not the type to use superheroes or other bits of pop culture in my work. I tend towards a looser, but appropriate, definition of the term–in the sense that I follow no one path very strictly(anymore). If the tech works AND resonates with me, I use it. As someone with a few side hustles that served as my primary (albeit insufficient) source of income for the last few years, you can imagine that I’ve tried my fair share of prosperity spells in an attempt to bring more wealth into my life. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t, but when the magic is flowing, and things are going your way, it’s hard not to notice. The main issue I run into is that eventually, no matter how good things are going–the magic dries up, the candle burns out or your sigil target lands, and you get what you wanted(or something approximate). This where the altar comes in. https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*flOu_sYKFE_n5ISLAxmhpQ.jpeg Conceptually speaking, while ritual to bring you increased prosperity and has potential to fill your pockets, it doesn’t promise sustained results because that’s not part of their design. Here are a few examples of what I mean: I need $900 to fix my car -> St. Expedite brings you the money, end of story I’m stagnant in my shitty, low-paying job -> Sigil for finding new, better jobs and my friend suddenly remembers their company is looking for someone just like me I’m a bartender and business has been slow all month. I need money for bills -> Burning a Don Dinero candle until my trip brought in a bunch of special events and now I have more than enough to cover expenses. Prosperity spells are going out to eat, as a wealth altar is to cooking at home. It doesn’t solve for the future, it’s a temporary fix. https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*ji-AHYTDgkjFD19Cl3Airw.jpeg The sheer beauty of the altar lies in its simplicity. Most people will place them in the Eastern-most section of a room–mine lives in the corner of my home office which faces the rising Sun. So I don’t lose you in the weeds, I’ll give you the most fundamental rationale for why–the Sun rises in the East, and the Sun wakes us from sleep, makes crops grow and illuminates the darkness, as well as our path. Are there other explanations? Most definitely, dig around and see for yourself, especially if you think my reasoning is inadequate–that’s the fun of magic, right? https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*MXuU91vpvBbXJM3wvkJz_Q.jpeg I don’t think there could ever be a BAD time to start this practice; naturally, the more spirit work you’ve done previously will lend some experience, allowing you to incorporate your own belief systems into the whole exercise–thus making it slightly more comfortable. For the sake of expediency, I’ll tell you that I’ve never been to a witch shop or Botanica that DIDN’T have a wealth altar prominently displayed somewhere inside. Are you a freelancer, or business owner? How about working in the service industry? If you rely upon anyone else for your financial security (I can’t actually imagine someone that doesn’t fall into this category) you should probably always be using wealth altar tech. https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*ZxvWROTX0efRrSXc9QciKw.jpeg After the initial investment, altars have a minimal upkeep cost. Fortunately, I live near plenty of heady witch shops (which I avoid) and a delightful Botanica (wholeheartedly support) and can quickly grab some colored candles, herbs, oils or incense. This isn’t as “free” as sigils are, but it’s still basically free, especially if you’re already in the practice of making offerings, to say, your ancestors, the Old Ones, or whatever other freaky shit the kids are doing these days. If enchantment is essentially stacking the odds in your favor, WHY NOT lean into the practice and have an ongoing place to focus your hopes, dreams, and goals? Even if you don’t buy the whole magic thing (why are you reading this?), there’s something to be said for focus, intentionality and positive thinking. All things aside, prosperity spells are a quick fix to an immediate problem and working with a wealth altar is an ongoing process. It doesn’t have an end because, as humans, we’re never satisfied. Just because you get a job, fix your car or scrounge up the money for an unexpected bill it doesn’t mean you won’t need anything else in the future. Life is always in flux, and an altar is the best option for working with that. To me, it’s a space that allows me to externalize things in life that I want while allowing me to continually add new targets. Think of it as an amplifier for those magical techniques discussed earlier, somewhere you can keep your Bayberry candles, god statues and sigil cards–all working in unison with the other offerings and symbols of wealth. https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*BEWIsk4qUQ3iZjde9W2saw.jpeg Setting up you altar: - Dedicate a space to use for your ongoing exercise. I’m using an old IKEA 3-tiered shelf I scored from the bargain section(it used to be where St. Expedite lived, but I’ve since built him his own shrine outside on our fire escape), set up in the Eastern-most corner of my office. - Find a beautiful altar cloth to cover your workspace, the most popular colors being green (money), purple(royalty) or gold(duh). You can find over-priced, cheesy Wicca-flavored ones on Amazon or your local witchy head shop, or you can go the DIY route and head to a fabric store and roll your own. - Pick up some candles; personally, I would use those green, 7-day novena candles because they’re found in abundance and relatively cheap. However, if you’d like to choose your own adventure you can grab a money or luck drawing, Don Dinero, red and yellow (or gold) if you’re incorporating St. Expedite. Other accouterments would be lodestones, Maneki Neko (waving cat), Chinese Hell money, foreign currency, spirit offerings, ritual-specific oils, golden dishes for coins/bills, incense holders, etc. This is a space for your personal needs come into play because no one’s situation will be the same but the general idea is to develop your jumping off place. Now that you’ve seen the basics, we can move onto actualizing this shit. I can’t tell you how to activate your altar, let alone how to “use” it, but I can tell you what I’m going to do. As stated above, I’ve got my altar, cloth, and decorations, so I’m ready to go, right? Maybe, because I’ve done work with other spirits and planetary rulers, I’m going to find an auspicious time and day to set up the altar. In my case, I’ll be starting at dawn on a Thursday because Jupiter is the boss of all things money and finances, and dawn because the first hour of the day is governed by the daily planetary ruler (in our case, Jupiter). The idea here is that if I invoke Jupiter on his day and in his hour, to bless my newly dedicated wealth altar, I’ll have a direct line of communication with the God most likely to influence my success. From here on out, I will do Jovian magic on Thursdays (not getting into which hours to use and why at this point) and place my requests, sigils, and offerings where they belong, on the wealth altar. Pretty easy, right? I thought so. What do you think, is this something you would use? How do you use magic to bring wealth and prosperity into your life?