If you read our last post on open and closed spiritual practices, you might have walked away feeling clear on what not to do — but maybe a little less sure about where to actually begin. That is exactly what this post is for.
Starting a spiritual practice does not have to be complicated. It does not require a specific background, a perfectly curated space, or years of study. It requires curiosity, intention, and a willingness to show up for yourself. Let's talk about how to do that in a way that is meaningful, accessible, and rooted in respect.
What Is an Altar and How Do You Build One?
An altar is simply a dedicated space that holds objects meaningful to your practice. It is a physical anchor — a place you return to when you want to slow down, set intentions, check in with yourself, or connect with something larger than the noise of daily life.
Altars exist across many cultures and traditions. The concept of a sacred, intentional space is one of the most widely shared spiritual practices in human history. Building a personal altar for your own practice, with objects that carry meaning for you, is open to anyone.
There is no single right way to build one. Here is a simple place to start:
- Choose your space. It does not need to be large. A windowsill, a small tray on a shelf, a dedicated table, or a quiet corner of a common room — any space you can dedicate and return to consistently works. Traditionally, altars are kept outside of the bedroom, as that space is associated with rest and vulnerability. If your bedroom is the only option you have, that is okay — just be intentional about it.
- Start with what calls to you. Candles, crystals, plants, photographs of ancestors or loved ones, meaningful objects from nature, oracle or tarot cards, and a journal. Choose things that feel significant to you personally.
- Add the elements if it resonates. Many open traditions work with the four elements — earth, water, fire, and air. A stone or plant for earth, a small bowl of water, a candle for fire, incense, or a feather for air. This is a framework, not a rule.
🕯️ Fire Safety Reminder: Candles and incense are common altar tools, but please always practice fire safety. Never leave a lit candle or burning incense unattended. Keep flames away from flammable materials like fabric, paper, and dried herbs. Place candles on a heat-safe surface and keep them out of reach of children and pets. Extinguish everything fully before leaving the room or going to sleep. Your practice should bring you peace, not risk.
- Keep it alive. An altar is not a decoration. Tend to it. Refresh the water. Light the candle when you sit down to journal or pull a card. Let it be a living part of your practice, not something you set up once and forget.
- Consider how you want to organize it. Some people keep one unified altar that holds everything — ancestors, guides, deities, spiritual/spell/ritual work, intentions, and tools — all in one place. Others create separate altars for each: one for ancestral connection, one for deity or guide work, one for spell and ritual work, and one for general intention setting. Neither approach is wrong. Let your practice and your space guide you.
- Make it yours. Your altar should reflect you — your ancestry, your aesthetics, your intentions. There is no wrong way to build a genuinely personal space.
A Few Tips Worth Knowing
1. Be thoughtful about sharing your altar online.
I advise waiting until after you have refreshed your altar before sharing it on social media or with others. Your altar is meant to reflect your energy and serve as a sacred space. Sharing its current state on the internet can open it to outside energy in ways that may not serve your practice. That said, some ritual work intentionally uses other people’s eyes on the altar — in those cases, sharing is appropriate. Use your discernment.
2. Keep your altar yours.
Do not let other people touch your altar, especially by adding or removing things without your knowledge or permission. It is your sacred space. That boundary matters.
3. If your altar has to be in your bedroom, protect the space.
If you are sharing a home with roommates or working with limited space, try to place your altar somewhere that is not easily accessible to everyone. Personally, when I had to do this, I placed mine in the corner of my room with a room divider to create a separate, protected spiritual space. It does not have to be elaborate — it just needs to feel intentional and yours.
A Note on Herbs — What to Reach For and What to Leave Alone
Herbalism is one of the most beautiful and accessible open practices available. Plants have been used for healing, ritual, and spiritual connection across virtually every culture on earth. And there is so much available to you.
That said, some herbs are deeply tied to closed or protected practices and deserve the same respect we give to any closed tradition.
Herbs to approach with care:
- White sage (Salvia apiana) — Sacred to many Indigenous nations of the American Southwest and Southern California, and used in specific ceremonial contexts. It has been heavily over-harvested and commercialized. Unless you have a direct relationship with a community that has shared this practice with you, it is worth choosing an alternative. It is also worth noting that other varieties, such as desert sage, are trending toward over-harvesting due to the growing popularity of sage as a wellness trend. When purchasing any sage, source mindfully and consider whether an alternative herb serves your practice just as well.
- Sweetgrass (Hierochloe odorata) — Sacred to a wide range of Indigenous nations across North America, and used in ceremony, prayer, and healing across these traditions. It is one of the four sacred medicines in Anishinaabe tradition. Its sacred ceremonial use is specific to these communities, and it is not meant to be casually burned as an aesthetic or trendy ritual. Please leave this one to the communities it belongs to.
- Palo santo — Native to Latin America and traditionally used by Indigenous and mestizo communities across Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, and Central America for spiritual cleansing, healing, and ceremony. Its commercialization has raised both sustainability and cultural concerns. If you choose to use it, source it from ethical, community-supported suppliers and approach it with awareness of its origins and significance.
- Copal — Used across Mesoamerica by Aztec, Maya, and other Indigenous peoples in ceremony and offering for thousands of years, and it remains sacred in living Indigenous traditions today. Copal also appears in Mexican folk Catholic and curanderismo practices, where some uses have been shared more openly over generations. This one lives in nuanced territory. If copal calls to you, research the specific tradition it comes from, whose hands it passed through to reach you, and whether that lineage welcomes your participation. When in doubt, approach it as you would any closed practice — with slowness and respect.
A note before we move on: if you have unknowingly used something that belongs to a closed practice, please do not be harsh on yourself. I have been there too. The wellness industry does not always make this easy to navigate, and many of us have reached for something without knowing its full story. What matters most is what we do when we learn. Acknowledge it, educate yourself, and move forward with more intention. Some people find that returning those herbs to the earth feels like the most respectful way to close that chapter. Others look for ways to donate to or support the communities those traditions belong to. Both are meaningful responses. And know this — there are thousands of herbs available to you. You do not have to hold on to something that was never yours to keep. There is always another path forward.
Some open alternatives that are just as powerful:
- Rosemary — Cleansing, protection, and mental clarity. Excellent for altar work and intention setting.
- Lavender — Calming and purifying. Wonderful for meditation, sleep rituals, and creating a peaceful space.
- Cedar — Grounding and purifying. Great for cleansing a space or altar before ritual work.
- Mugwort — Supports dreamwork, intuition, and psychic awareness. Burn before meditation or keep near your sleep space.
- Bay laurel — Used for protection and intention setting. Write an intention on a bay leaf and burn it as a simple, meaningful ritual.
- Herbs from your own ancestry — This is always worth exploring. What plants did your grandmothers use? What grew in the region your family comes from? Connecting to your own lineage through plants is one of the most grounding things you can do.
Other Open Spiritual Practices to Explore
Building a practice is about finding what actually works for your life, your brain, and your body. Here are some open traditions and tools worth exploring:
Tarot and Oracle Cards
As I shared in our welcome post, tarot is one of the tools I come back to again and again. It is not about predicting the future — it is a mirror. A prompt. A way of slowing down and listening to yourself.
- Tarot decks follow a traditional structure — 78 cards divided into the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana, each with established meanings that have been built upon and interpreted across centuries. One of the beautiful things about tarot is that this structure remains consistent across all decks, regardless of the artistic theme. Whether your deck features classic Rider-Waite imagery, botanical illustrations, or afrofuturist art, the framework underneath is the same. That consistency is part of what makes tarot so rich. There is a framework to learn and grow within, and once you know it, any deck becomes readable.
- Oracle cards are more free-form. There is no set number of cards or fixed system — each deck is created around its own theme, imagery, and intention. This makes oracle cards especially accessible for beginners. You do not need to learn a system to start. You simply need to sit with a card and ask what it means for you right now.
Both are open practices with no initiation required, just curiosity. If you are just starting, oracle cards are a gentle entry point. If you are drawn to more structure and depth, tarot is worth exploring. Many people use both.
Journaling and Shadow Work
Shadow work is the practice of turning toward the parts of yourself you have been taught to hide or ignore — and getting curious about them instead of afraid. It is one of the most transformative open practices I know, and all you need is a journal and a willingness to be honest with yourself. We will be going deeper on this one in future posts.
A shadow work session does not have to be elaborate. You can simply open your journal, sit quietly for a moment, and write from one prompt. Let whatever comes up come up without editing or judging it. That is the practice — not perfection, just honesty on the page.
A few prompts to start with:
- What emotion do I find hardest to express, and why?
- What do I judge in others that might also live in me?
- What part of myself have I been told to hide or shrink?
- Where in my life am I saying yes when I mean no?
And remember — journaling does not have to be long. One honest sentence is enough. Some days that is all you have, and that still counts.
Meditation and Breathwork
Many forms of meditation have been shared openly and freely, from mindfulness practices, body scan meditations, and breathwork techniques. These are widely accessible and deeply supportive for nervous system regulation, especially for those of us who are neurodivergent.
It is worth noting that traditional seated, eyes-closed meditation does not work for everyone, and that is okay. Movement-based meditation, walking meditation, and eyes-open practices are just as valid. If stillness feels inaccessible, start with breath. Even a few slow, intentional exhales can shift your nervous system and bring you back to yourself.
Some people also incorporate cannabis intentionally into their meditation or breathwork practice as a tool for quieting mental noise, softening resistance, and dropping into the body more fully. If that resonates with you, approach it the same way you would any other spiritual tool — with intention, care, and honest self-awareness about what supports your practice versus what distracts from it.
Astrology
Astrology has roots across many ancient cultures and has been shared and evolved across centuries. Learning your birth chart, understanding your placements, and using astrology as a tool for self-reflection are open and widely practiced traditions.
Ancestral Connection
Connecting with your own ancestors — through photographs, stories, food, music, or simply sitting quietly and calling their names — is something that belongs to you by birthright. You do not need a specific tradition to honor where you come from.
An ancestral space on your altar can be as simple as a photograph, a candle lit in their name, a small glass of water, or an offering of food they loved. You do not need to know the right words. Sitting with their memory and speaking to them honestly is enough.
If you are a descendant of enslaved people, your ancestral connection carries a particular kind of power — one that was deliberately targeted for erasure and survived anyway. Names were taken. Languages were stripped. Spiritual practices were criminalized. Families were separated across generations with intention and violence. And still, something was carried forward. In the bodies, in the intuition, in the ways of moving through the world that could not be fully destroyed no matter how hard the attempt was made.
That survival is not incidental. It is ancestral strength made flesh. The fact that you are here — that you are seeking, that you are building a spiritual life, that you are asking these questions — is evidence of something that could not be broken. Your ancestors held on so that you could exist. That is not a small thing. That is everything.
Your ancestral connection may not come with names or photographs or a clear lineage you can trace on paper. But it lives in you. It lives in what you are drawn to, in what feels like home, even when you cannot explain why, in the practices and rhythms that resonate before you have words for them. You are not starting from nothing. You are continuing something.
Connecting to your ancestors as a descendant of enslaved people is also an act of resistance. Every time you honor them, you push back against the systems that tried to make them invisible. Every time you speak their names — even the ones you do not know — you are saying that their lives mattered, that they are not forgotten, that the erasure did not win.
That is power. That is your inheritance.
And for those whose ancestry includes enslavers, colonizers, or people who caused profound harm, that deserves more than a passing acknowledgment. This is not comfortable territory, and it should not be. The harm done by those ancestors was real, generational, and ongoing in its effects. Spiritual bypassing — using practice as a way to feel good without doing the hard work — is not alignment. It is avoidance.
If this is your lineage, ancestral work may look less like reverence and more like reckoning. It means looking directly at what was done, not softening it, not contextualizing it away. It means sitting with the weight of that inheritance and asking yourself honestly what you are doing with it. Are you benefiting from the systems that those ancestors built? Are you carrying their patterns forward without examining them? Those are the questions that matter.
Honoring your ancestors does not mean excusing them. For some lineages, the most sacred thing you can do is refuse to look away, and then choose, deliberately and repeatedly, to be different. To be the one in your line who broke the cycle. That is its own kind of spiritual work, and it is some of the most important work there is.
Candle Work and Intention Setting
Lighting a candle with a specific intention, color, prayer, or written note is a simple and powerful practice. It exists across countless open traditions and is one of the easiest ways to bring ritual into your daily life.
Here is what a simple candle intention practice can look like: hold the unlit candle in your hands and speak or silently think your intention into it. Be specific — not just “I want abundance” but “I am opening myself to receive what I have been working toward.” Write your intention on a small piece of paper and place it beneath the candle holder if that feels right. Then light it, and let the act of lighting be the moment you release the intention. You do not have to do anything else. Just let it burn with awareness.
Candle work pairs naturally with your altar, your journaling practice, and tarot or oracle pulls. Many people open a journaling session or a card reading by lighting a candle first — it signals to your mind and body that you are entering intentional space.
You Already Have What You Need
Starting a spiritual practice does not require perfection. It does not require a fully stocked altar, a library of books, or years of study. It requires showing up — for yourself, with intention, one small choice at a time.
That is what staying aligned looks like in practice. Not a destination. A direction.
This post covered a lot of ground. Some of it was more common knowledge. Some of it was heavy. All of it was intentional. If parts of it stirred something in you, sit with that. That stirring is information. That is your practice already beginning.
If you are merely beginning, start small. Light a candle. Pull a card. Write one honest sentence in a journal. Tend to a plant. Sit quietly for five minutes and breathe deeply. This is a journey of self, merging the spiritual and physical self.
That is enough. That is the practice.
Stay aligned, one day at a time.
With love, Alesandra Folks
