Altars: Lararium

My experience with altars is that they are places of devotion. After reading “The Witch’s Altar” by Jason Mankey and Laura Tempest Zakroff, I find that they are also used for blessings, consecrations, honoring, inspiration, magic, ritual offerings, sacrifices, and spellcraft. Afterwards, I looked at my own altar differently. I did do all those things but regarded them as acts of devotion.

My main altar is for devotion to the Roman Gods. Since I practice the Religio Romana, I have the proscribed Roman altar. The Roman religion is exacting in terms of honoring the Gods. Because the Gods, humans, and the Others rely on reciprocity between each other, proper piety (pietas) is important. (Religio Romana is an orthopraxic religion.)

Called a Lararium, the altar is the home of the Lares and Genius (Note 1) (the household and family spirits). It is usually placed by the door to watch over the comings and goings of the family. (The altar is like the door — a liminal space.) Therefore, it is placed near the entrance.

The Lararium has containers for incense (acerra), salt (salinum), and milk (or wine) (gutus). The offering dish (patera) is for food or milk from the household meals. The incense burner (turibulum) is used for creating scents or to burn incense. Finally, the Sacred Fire (Who is the Goddess Vesta) is represented by the lucerna (sacred lamp) where the fire is symbolically kept.

Like the standard Neo-Pagan altar, the Lararium has representations of the elements. Water is represented by the offering dishes for milk and wine. Fire is the lucerna, while Earth is the salt container, and Air the incense burner. Of course, Spirit is represented by the statues of the Lares and other Gods, as well as the Sacred Fire. Roman altars are used mostly for devotion although magic is done by offerings, petitions, prayers, and requests.

There is a standard Roman ritual for consecrating a Lararium. First is the cleansing of the self and the altar with water (Ablutio). The Praefatio is the incense offering to Janus, the Divine Doorkeeper, God of Liminal Spaces. (Note 2) The Precatio is the formal prayers and offerings. The Redditio is the final offering to Janus. Before closing, one final offering is made – the Piaculum, which is to excuse any mistakes that were inadvertently made during the ritual. Then the rite is over.

Notes:

Note 1. The Lares Familares (Guardians of the Family) and Lares Domestici (Guardians of the House) are depicted as youths holding cups and bowls. The Genius, depicted as a snake, is the Guardian Spirit of the Family Line.

Note 2. The two-faced God, Janus, always receives the first and last offerings of any Roman ritual.

Works Used:

Adkins Lesley and Roy Adkins, “Dictionary of Roman Religion.” New York: Oxford University Press. 1996.
Mankey, Jason and Laura Tempest Zakroff, “The Witch’s Altar.” Woodbury (MN): Llewellyn. 2021.
Triarius, L. Vitellius, “Religio Romana Handbook.” Charleston (SC): Masonic Press. 2014.

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Babylonian Month of May/June

In the Standard Mesopotamian Calendar, the month starting from the new moon of May is called Simanu (“Month of the Brick Gods”). The King would lay the first brick in the brick mold. Then brickmaking and construction could begin in earnest. The Gods of Bricks and Building were honored in eight rituals that centered on the brick kilns.

The erecting of a building was re-enacting a moment of creation. It meant digging into the ground which marks the Earth. This foundation now retains a memory of the wild land. Therefore, before anything was done, divination (usually astrology) was done to find the particular time to build at a place. The rituals are done to link the place with that time. In “Creating Places of Power,” Nigel Pennick wrote “This link between this world and the other world preserved the holy moment within a limited, circumscribed area separated from the profane outerworld.”

For modern people, this can be the time to celebrate masonry and other aspects of building. Think of how bricks provide for safe and snug homes. The beginnings of civilization could be said to be represented by bricks and mortar.

The Gods of Bricks and Building are:
Arazu: The God of Completed Construction
Girra: The God of Fire. The God of Kilns
Kabta: God of Pickaxes, Construction and Bricks
Kulla: The God of Building.
Musdama: The God of Foundations. The God of Architects
Nuska: The God of Fire. The God of Civilization.

Note: In Sumer, the time of the inundations of the fields began at the new moon of May. The month of May-June is known as Sig-ga.