Romanist Home Altars

Where to start and stages of growth

A home altar is the central location of Romanist worship within the home. They can be simple or complex and some parts are more essential than others. This guide will take you through stages of developing a home altar and resources on where to get essential items.

Humble Beginnings

At this point it’s important to remember that your home altar is a place to commune with the Gods, meditate and pray. It’s not a contest. The person with the greatest altar does not win special favor with the gods. Even a modest altar can be an effective space for worship.

To begin, you will need a few essential items:

Location

The location of your first altar can be a side table or any flat surface where you have enough room to practice. You want to consider areas that will not be disturbed by others. If your home is busy, maybe the kitchen or living room is a bad choice. You don’t need to hide your altar but some privacy will be appreciated.

My first altar was on a busted side table I had in my house. I cleaned it up and put a cloth over the top.

Statue or Icon

The statue or icon should preferably be of Jupiter, Juno or Liber. These are the primary Gods in Romanist worship. If you can have all 3 that is great. If you can only get one, then you should get Jupiter. The Greek names of these gods are Zeus, Hera and Dionysos. You can always get a greek version of the statues if a Roman one is not available.

There are several resources for statues that I would recommend.

This brass Jupiter statue from ARX Mercatvra is fantastic. Since it is solid brass it is a little pricey but will last forever and be a fantastic heirloom piece.

Etsy is also another fantastic resource for statues. You can find them in all sizes and shapes at various prices.

You can also get an Icon of the Gods from our sister company, Cultivate Virtue. If you are tight on space, these printed icons can be a good option since they can be framed and hung on a wall.

Incense

The best way to handle incense at first is to get a simple incense burner and use stick incense. Now, I am a bit of an incense snob and don’t recommend using any incense with a wooden core like most Indian incense. These tend to be very smokey, messy and low quality.

The better alternative is to use Japanese stick incense. These provide much more pleasant scents and are easier to deal with and less mess. Another bonus is Japanese incense can be broken into smaller pieces for daily rituals since it has no wooden stick core. The best daily Japanese incense is Morningstar Frankincense Incense Sticks. One of these packs should last you months and is inexpensive.

Incense Burner

For the incense burner there are many options but I only recommend a few options here. Arx Mercatvra makes a beautiful brass incense burner but like the Jupiter statue it is pricey at around $100. Fortunately there are some less expensive options. My favorite is to use a Hindu dish called an urli. This is a water dish used in daily puja rituals but it is the perfect shape for an incense burner. Link

These are typically made of solid brass and make attractive incense burners. They come in a variety of sizes so make sure you order a small one around 6 inches maximum. You don’t need a 12 inch diameter incense burner! To use it as an incense burner, you will need to fill up the bowl with either ash, sand or rice. Rice can make a nice base to put the incense sticks into. Over time the ash from the stick will build up in the bowl. You can also buy bags of ash or sand to get started.

Candles and Lamps

You will want at least one candle on the altar but you can have two if you desire. The simplest option here is to buy a pillar candle and call it a day. These are cheap and available at most home goods stores. It is best to buy ones without fragrance and white. These votive candles are a good option but any white candle will suffice.

Now, the problem with candles is that morning rituals can be rather short. So, the candles are only lit for 20min or less. This can make the candles burn unevenly which can make them difficult to light as the wicks burn up. I’ve thrown out more than a few candles halfway through their use since they were becoming impossible to light. Also, candles are messy, you need some kind of dish for them to sit on due to the wax melting.

For this reason i’ve come to prefer oil lamps or oil candles. Here is a simple oil votive lamp on Etsy. These are commonly used by orthodox christians so you can find everything you need for them by searching orthodox votive lamps on Etsy. While they are attractive, they do require cork floaters and special wicks to make them work but that can all be found on Etsy as well. Here is a video on how to set one up. How to use an oil vigil lamp

Lastly, there are oil candles. This is what I currently use and it is a great option that combines the aesthetic of candles with the simplicity and reliability of an oil lamp. These look like candles but are filled with oil and have a wick built in.

Here is a link to the ones I use. Lucid Pillar Candles

If you pair these with an attractive pillar candle stand, they will be a great fixture to an altar for decades.

Head Covering

We always cover our head when doing the Roman Rite so the last essential piece will be the veil or head covering. Women have it easy in this since catholic veils are easy to find however they tend to be rather lacy and and effeminate. For men, a simple white scarf will do the best. These are easy to find on amazon or Etsy. I recommend it isn’t too long and made of a lighter material. A veil can get rather hot sometimes, especially in the summer.

Odds and Ends

You may need a few other things in your first rituals like offering bowls or plates, a place to pour a libation, or a cup for washing your hands. These can all be household dish ware. At first, there is no need to buy special items for these purposes. Use what you have.

Advanced Altars

Now that we’ve covered the basics. Let’s look at ways we can maximize our altars to get the most out of them. Over time a simple altar set up may not be enough and having a more dedicated and well stocked alter can be a great help to daily practice.

Location

Let’s revisit location. While a simple table will suffice at first. Over time a more dedicated altar location is preferable. Ideally, you can set a room in your house to be the altar room or sanctum. This is a room where you keep you alter and it is dedicated to spiritual practice and meditation. Hindus often have this type of room called a puja room. In this room they keep a mandir which is a type of home alter or home temple.

These mandirs can be a great option for a more advanced altar set up. Many of them are made custom and could likely be modified to a more western design. However, off the shelf, they are almost always going to have some Hindu specific features that make them less than perfect. When you add the fact that they are rather expensive it may not be a perfect option.

Fortunately, here in the west, we have created a piece of regular furniture that almost exactly matches this style and is readily available anywhere. That is the armoire. Historically armoires have even been used as reliquaries for religious relics however today they mostly hold clothes and TVs. We really are in the Iron age!

One that is designed as a TV stand is perfect since it will have a large open space for you to use as an altar.

The altar can then be closed when not in use and the drawers can be used to hold ritual items and clothing that are not needed for your current ritual.

I use one of these and have found it to be perfect for my ritual needs. This particular one I found on facebook marketplace for a few hundred dollars. If you search around, you can find great options with very western styles for reasonable prices.

Chalice

At first, any cup will work for doing libations to the Gods. We always drink our libations after the rituals, we never throw them away unless we are making an offering to an underground deity like Pluto.

Therefore, as we advance our altar set up, we will want to get a chalice that is fitting for ritual and our level of devotion to the Gods. For this, the Christians already have a great number of options available. What you will want to look for is a chalice and paten set from a catholic church supply store. This will be a matching chalice and offering plate. Some of the companies that sell these are Autom.com and Catholiccompany.com.

Some of these will be astronomically expensive but others like the one above are around $150 for the set. Many are gold plated and make for a chalice and offering plate that will last a lifetime.

Thuribles and Censers

While an incense burner like an urli is always good for daily worship over time you may want to upgrade to the more traditional thurible. A thurible is the type of censer you see used in many church rituals and can be swung on a chain for consecration and purification rituals.

Thuribles are quite expensive but you can also find a simple censer that is handheld rather than used with a chain. like this one here.

Either of these will work by using charcoal tablets which allow you to burn incense resins rather than sticks. Frankincense resin is the most commonly used but there are many other types you can use depending on the ritual. The reason I don’t recommend this at first is that the charcoal tablets will burn for a long time so it is best to not leave these unattended, especially not in a wooden altar cabinet. Ideally these types of burners are reserved for special rituals and holidays where they can be safely watched.

Ablution Cup

At the beginning of our rituals we wash our hands in a purification called an ablution. Any simple cup can be used for this at first but you may want to get a dedicated ablution cup as time goes on. The regular cups i used for ablution would often dry out leaving a hard scale on the cup. Having s covered cup prevents this.

While you can buy a crystal ablution cup from some catholic supply stores (Catholic priests copied this Romanist practice) but they are very pricey. The better option is to find a small covered candy dish like this one.

Conclusion

Crating a home altar and ritual space is a journey. Ultimately there is a great degree of freedom in how you construct your space. Enjoy the process and allow it to unfold as a reflection of your devotion to the Gods. Don’t worry about getting it perfect or having the flashiest items. The best altar is the one you show up to every day with an open heart and a mind toward devotion.