Altar charms are small objects made to hold a place within sacred space. They may hang from an altar, rest beside an offering bowl, mark a place for an ancestor or deity, become part of seasonal work, or simply remain there as something that carries meaning over time. There is no single correct way to use one. An altar is personal, and the objects placed there become part of the relationship you build with that space.

​

The charms I make usually begin with the materials themselves. Bone, stone, wood, glass, copper, fur, cord, beads, fossils, found objects, and pieces that already seem to carry a history of their own. Many of my altar charms use nine focal elements as a quiet reference to the Nine Realms, while knots, copper, tassels, and the way the piece is bound together become part of the construction rather than decoration added afterward. I am interested in the point where an ordinary material stops being simply a material because someone has chosen it, worked with it, and given it a place.

​

Some people use altar charms during ancestor work. Others place them near offerings, candles, ritual tools, photographs, or objects connected to someone they remember. They can be used as a physical focus during prayer or Seiðr, brought into a working and returned to the altar afterward, or left in place until their meaning changes naturally with time. A charm made with protection in mind does not have to remain only a protection charm. Something chosen for remembrance may eventually become connected to gratitude, grief, family, or a completely different part of your practice. Meaning is not frozen into the object when I finish making it. What happens after it reaches you matters too.

​

That is why I do not give people a rigid set of instructions for these pieces. I can tell you what I was thinking when I made one, why particular materials were chosen, and how I might use it myself. From there, it becomes part of your altar and your practice. Use it in the way that makes sense there.