No Travel Altar
I have made travel altars in the past, but I won't be bringing one with me when I leave to California on Friday morning. There are a few reasons, the first being that I respect my mother in law's home. She is a Christian, and thankfully she is a Christian that loves everyone, but I feel that it is disrespectful of me to set up shop, so to speak in her home. I don't think she really understood the depths of Shadow's spirituality, hell, I doubt even I ever will. She was amused that we keep a Byzantine icon of Jesus next to a small statue of the Buddha. She likes to tell Ana that Jesus loves everyone. I agree.
The second reason is that for this journey going from one coast to the other on the rails is, I hope, going to be a meditative experience. I'm going to see states and country side I've never experienced in my life, and I find that magical. I am a person who has walked on 4000 year old roads, but the wild west is new terrain for me.
I recently read an article where the writer stated they had never felt closer to God then when on a train, out in the middle of no where, vast stretches of fields surrounding them. When we ride in the skies, we usually cannot see what is below us beneath the clouds. We miss out on the entire patchwork landscape trying to stay somewhat comfortable in our too cramped seats. Though I will not be outside in said landscape, I can still appreciate it. The train does not wiz by at breakneck speed. I have many hours to be transported across these fields, and mountains and lakes. It will be divine, that is Goddess country.
As a city Wiccan I never get to experience the great outdoors. Yes, the Hudson river is right outside my front door (if I feel like going down the staircase on the cliff-face), but it is walled in by steel and glass. This will be a journey of quiet contemplation with gorgeous views. There will be no sky scrapers, no endless construction of taller buildings, no loud fog horns from the water taxis.
The third reason is practical, as Shadow always jokingly said, he hated how practical I was. I don't need to weigh myself down with extra things. A tiny altar in a tin does not weigh much, but think of all the tins I must carry. A tin of soap, a tin of lotion, a tin of tarot cards depending on what deck I decide to bring. Those tins add up and no one is helping me with what I must carry. I will be packing light. Only the essentials. For me, that's something to read, something to write on and with, and something to knit. There isn't wifi on the train, and I find that marvelous. At certain spots we won't have any reception at all, and that to me is fabulous.
Besides a deck to perform my daily draws, I have a small Goddess pendant in my wallet, She goes everywhere with me anyway. I will also have my usual crystals on my necklace, and my pain relief bracelet. I will not wear my rings for fear of loosing them, especially the moldavite, it is the most expensive piece of jewelry I own and Shadow bought it for me, it will be safer at home. Now, I think I will also re pin the strophalos patch back onto my Tom Bihn Side Kick. Nothing like a bit of protection from the Goddess of the cross roads, I feel it goes with the train travel theme. The one other thing I have is a mini essential oil diffuser. I refuse to not have my oils going while I sleep. I could also bring my mala beads, because I can wear those, it would be nice to do my mantra's outdoors in the quiet.
As with everything else I do, packing will be minimal, simple, practical, and space saving. I will most likely do a spell for safe travels the day before I go. A sigil or two wouldn't hurt as well.
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