help me pick a statue
It's bugging me that the centerpiece of my Mary altar is a candle. A really pretty pale blue Virgin Mary-shaped candle that I bought visiting tamchronin in Phoenix nine years ago, but still, a candle. But I can't decide between two statues! So please help me pick: this one or this one? (Caveat: I'm not paying that price for the second one. I found it elsewhere for under $50, but the picture isn't as good.)
I worked on altars this morning, and I'm thrilled with one, not as thrilled with another, and have no clue about the third. When I was still with the cult I created an ancestor shrine. One thing on it is a collage photo frame that has pictures of two of my beloved dead (my dad and my aunt Pearl), the three cats I've lost, and also a photo of my father, mother and I at my wedding. I always felt guilty about this because at least two members of the cult teach that you should never have living people on an ancestor altar, and, IIRC, that you shouldn't mix photos of people and animals. That altar has always felt dissonant to me for that reason, even after I left the group and decided that I could have photos of anyone I bloody well pleased on my altar.
Well, I finally decided that I was going to use that space to make a Virgin Mary altar, and I laid the family photos aside, not knowing what to do with them. On a whim, I cleared some space on top of the jelly cabinet in the living room, laid down some cloth, and remade my family altar, but did it differently. (I promise, when I don't feel so crappy, I'll take and post some photos!) I made a mosaic around a mirror frame in a craft class a few years ago that the teacher dubbed "evolution"-- it has leaves and spirals on it, stones and shells and a glass turtle. That's in the center back.
There's the collage frame, photos of my father and grandmother, candle, bowl, and here's the other thing I did differently-- I also included something Rob bought for me after 9/11. (Some of you don't know this, but my husband was working in the Pentagon when the plane hit, and I'm lucky he's still here. I've always felt a connection to that building, and the attack broke my heart on so many levels. I heard the sound from where I live, and freaked out whenever I heard a backfire or a plane for a long, long time afterward.) Anyway, Rob bought me a memorial from the rebuilding project. It's a piece from the reinforced wall that the plane struck, and a plaque on the front that says "Pentagon Phoenix Project, 9/11/01-9/11/02". I wasn't sure about putting it with the family photos, but now that I'm looking at it, I *love* it. Between this and the mosaic, it says to me "we evolve as the living, we rebuild and we go on, while remembering and honoring the dead". It's also no longer explicitly Pagan or religious in any way, it's just a space for remembrance. And it's completely decoupled from the teaching of that group about ancestor shrines, this is completely something of my own, and it's in a place of prominence in my living room where I'll see it from where I eat and work. I love this altar, and I love its message.
I worked on altars this morning, and I'm thrilled with one, not as thrilled with another, and have no clue about the third. When I was still with the cult I created an ancestor shrine. One thing on it is a collage photo frame that has pictures of two of my beloved dead (my dad and my aunt Pearl), the three cats I've lost, and also a photo of my father, mother and I at my wedding. I always felt guilty about this because at least two members of the cult teach that you should never have living people on an ancestor altar, and, IIRC, that you shouldn't mix photos of people and animals. That altar has always felt dissonant to me for that reason, even after I left the group and decided that I could have photos of anyone I bloody well pleased on my altar.
Well, I finally decided that I was going to use that space to make a Virgin Mary altar, and I laid the family photos aside, not knowing what to do with them. On a whim, I cleared some space on top of the jelly cabinet in the living room, laid down some cloth, and remade my family altar, but did it differently. (I promise, when I don't feel so crappy, I'll take and post some photos!) I made a mosaic around a mirror frame in a craft class a few years ago that the teacher dubbed "evolution"-- it has leaves and spirals on it, stones and shells and a glass turtle. That's in the center back.
There's the collage frame, photos of my father and grandmother, candle, bowl, and here's the other thing I did differently-- I also included something Rob bought for me after 9/11. (Some of you don't know this, but my husband was working in the Pentagon when the plane hit, and I'm lucky he's still here. I've always felt a connection to that building, and the attack broke my heart on so many levels. I heard the sound from where I live, and freaked out whenever I heard a backfire or a plane for a long, long time afterward.) Anyway, Rob bought me a memorial from the rebuilding project. It's a piece from the reinforced wall that the plane struck, and a plaque on the front that says "Pentagon Phoenix Project, 9/11/01-9/11/02". I wasn't sure about putting it with the family photos, but now that I'm looking at it, I *love* it. Between this and the mosaic, it says to me "we evolve as the living, we rebuild and we go on, while remembering and honoring the dead". It's also no longer explicitly Pagan or religious in any way, it's just a space for remembrance. And it's completely decoupled from the teaching of that group about ancestor shrines, this is completely something of my own, and it's in a place of prominence in my living room where I'll see it from where I eat and work. I love this altar, and I love its message.