How to make a Guardian Altar by Jose Prado

From Blogger Nellie, of Paper Blog.com. An Ancestral altar she made from a combination of several traditions including the Day of the Dead tradition in Mexico. Her original post may be found here : http://en.paperblog.com/the-ancestor-altar-87785/

For those serious about working with magick the first step is working with your Guardian Spirits. In many religious systems, this is something that is pivotal to magickal or spiritual workings. The First step if you have not done so is to acknowledge your spirit guides. Many clients have asked me "Why didn't my guides protect me?" It's because our guardians cannot interfere with our free will. We must ask them to intercede for us. First acknowledge them by means of an Affirmation (statement of power you say out loud, the forerunner to a spell) here's a general way of doing it. 

Visualization and Affirmation of your spirit Guides

Visualize not only your Guardian Angels, but your Ancestor Spirits, Nature Spirits, Animal Familiars and Totems. Everyone has a small Army of different spirits to help them out not just one species or race but many. Even Guardian Ghosts. Like Ancestors, or people who died in the same hospital you were born in, people from another life that knew you and loved you and so on. But since most people are grounded in just one faith they tend not to see all the different Spirit protectors and helpers they have. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge them all. Once you visualize them around you, say out loud: 

"I call upon thee my
Guardian Spirits, Animal Totems and Familiars, Celestials, Elementals, Guardian Dead, Animal Guides and Totems, Familiars, protectors, teachers, and all Benevolent and Loving Spirit sent out to me by the God and the Goddess to help and take care of me. By the Benevolent Rulers of the Multiverse I acknowledge you, awaken you, and activate you into service and ask the Divine Masters of Heaven and Earth to give to you instructions, powers, energies, and strengths to help me out in any way, shape, or form I may need or is available to me. By the God and the Goddess, Amen."

You should feel a surge of energy being released once you do that and then you'll see and feel them not to mention hear them. They will help you in all you need. Just be sure to visualize a cloak (a wall of energy that makes you invisible) hiding you when you do it, imagine it is also a wall of silence and shadow that blocks out anything that is not your guides. That way you won’t attract any un-wanted spiritual attention. You'll be fine. Once you do that, it's time to make an Altar. Make an altar specifically for them. 

Type in your birth date on this site and you'll know the name of your Ruling Angel. It will tell you who that Angel is and what he does. It will also tell you how to make an altar for that Angel: 

http://www.angelhaven.com/aod/

This will tell you which Archangel of the week (Saturday, Sunday etc) is your guide. Once you do that, look up your Star Sign or Zodiac sign Angel here:

http://www.sarahsarchangels.com/zodiac.html

Then finally, your Angel of the Month you were born in here:

http://www.mysticfamiliar.com/library/angels/Angel_of_the_Month.html

If you know the hour that you were born, go on here:

http://www.circle-of-light.com/Angels/angelsnthings.html

All the way at the bottom of that page you’ll see which Angel rules the hour you were born on.

Once you make the Altar, place a glass of water there and out loud say:

“I dedicate this Creature of water to the service of all my spiritual Guardians. In the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, Amen"

Or modify according to your beliefs.

Clean the Altar and replace the Altar’s water every Sunday or
Monday. Before night. This will make you strong. Never, and I mean never tell anyone the names of any of your Guardians. Doing so puts you in danger. People can cast spells on you and even control you if you're not careful.

Don’t even tell them the nicknames you’ve given to them. And when you are going to commune with them in front of other people do so telepathically or empathically. They can read your minds and emotions and will be able to know what you want them to do. Offer your Guardians white candles (Tea Lights or Church candles depending on the Altar) and incense every night. This candle’s energy will feed them every night.

The reason you need the water is because it's a spiritual conduit. Some of your guides will be stuck as compressed energy, unable to move or asleep until you offer them the conduit. This will allow them to awaken and move about to do their job better. The water also cleanses and blesses you and them. So it is important to clean that Altar and wash the glass and refill it with new water every Sunday or Monday before 12am. That way you won’t be full of compressed or dirty energy since the water also soaks away all of the negativity you’ve accumulated since the past week. 

Now, in Santeria (Cuba’s version of Voodoo and Hoodoo) we usually use a special stone called Piedra De Alumbre (Rock of Illumination) to feed and give light to the Dead and to the Guides by placing it in the Altar’s water. However, it dissolves in water and then you have to go out and buy more. So on that first website Angel Haven.com which told you the name of the Angel of the day of the week you were born on it will show you the incense, colors, and stones that are sacred to that Archangel. Those are some of the main components of your Altar. Use whatever stone is sacred to that Angel to feed and give light to your guides. 

Cheaper than buying Piedra de Alumbre and far more effective. But, if it's a metal oar like Michael's (hematite) use Angelite, it’s a stone that facilitates communication between a person and their Guardians. Put a few rocks in there for them to Ground themselves as well. Let them know that's what the rocks are for. Grounding is a technique for connecting to the Earth to drain un-needed or impure energy that you are filled with.

It is also used to stay ‘grounded’ or connected to the Earth in special rituals or spells to help protect you from spirits that may seek to attack you while you are in a trance. So this will allow them to be safe in case someone tries to steal your spirit guides (yes that is possible) and the loss of one’s spirit guides leads to insanity among other things). More on grounding later.

Put in 4 rocks for Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. The Illumination Stone you choose will represent the 5th Element, Spirit. You need to place a small dish of Sea Salt to represent the Earth, A white feather for Air, the Conduit takes care of water, Candle takes care of fire, and incense will be Spirit and as before use the incense sacred to your Archangel. Now you have a balanced Altar. Make, the dish a bronze, gold, or silver plated dish. You should also look up the Deities who rule the day you were born on.

Once you know the day of the week you were born on, you can look up the God or Goddess who rules that day of the week. There are, many all over the world so it will not be possible to know them all but to know the Norse and Greco-Roman Deities you fall under (based on the Day you were born) please visit this site.

   http://www.crowl.org/lawrence/time/days.html
 

To see which Orisha or Santero Deity/Deities you may fall under please visit this site:

http://webspace.webring.com/people/af/fraterthiosalp/theorishas.txt

In Santeria it’s a little more difficult to know the Orisha you fall under and you usually need to pay a Santero High Priest or Babalawo (Father of the Mysteries or Father in the knowledge of things material and spiritual.) $50 to do a special Divination with cowry shells to know which of the Deities you fall under. You might have a strong kinship with one Orisha and then it turns out that you fall under a totally different Orisha altogether. 

Now for the best piece of information: Your Guides can do almost ANYTHING as long as you remember to ask. Spirits can’t intercede on our behalf because we have free will. The only way they can do things for us is when we ask them to like:  I need help; this is what I need you to do. They are your family, friends, body guards, and army. Ask of them as you will but beware. Never ask them to do evil. Just as we have good guides, we also have neutral and Evil guides as well. 

Asking for something selfish or evil will awaken the bad ones. If that, happens you almost certainly have automatically pledged your allegiance to Hell which means they own your soul after that. You won’t find that in any book. I found that out because one of my first teachers was an ex-Satanist and that is what the group he was once a part of told him. Also my Godmother in Santeria told me that it was true that we had bad guides as well and that she would never even mention the name of hers because he was so violent he could actually cause physical harm to a person she was angry with. 

Never use the bad guides and if you ever seek justice, ask your Deities and Archangel to handle it directly, never your guides. When you need something like a job, or something low level that does not require the aid of a Divinity, ask your guides to help you and then light the candle as an offering. I frequently ask them to intercede for me to have help in finances, speaking to the spirit guides of potential employers to put in a good word for me, or just getting me things I want that do not violate free will. I won’t always get what I ask for however so I always ask that if I do not get what I want that I be given the equivalent or something better. It works.

It’s all a matter of faith and asking your guides to intervene for you. I also evaluate whether the problem I have is an important matter that I need to pray to the Gods and Goddesses for or if it’s something not so important that I can just ask my guides for. It’s always important to ask yourself if it’s a matter for your guides or Gods and if you’re not sure pray and meditate until you know for sure.

You can now fully communicate with them in visions or visualizations, or in dreams. Sometimes you'll hear and see them so clearly it's as though they were physically there. This is a special meditation to help you meet and access them, at anytime that some of the Lightworkers (Magick users who devote their life to helping the world) have developed :

http://thespiritualway_lightworkers.m.webs.com/site/mobile?dm_path=%2Fangelicrealms.htm&fw_sig_session_key=a972888895ab9c6a7f794e3f512e863e8c2d28d710e843fafe625a71346ec139-11461023&fw_sig_is_admin=0&fw_sig=3aab5e8ee66187f3bf061be70c3b8072&fw_sig_premium=0&fw_sig_api_key=522b0eedffc137c934fc7268582d53a1&fw_sig_time=1347987023576&fw_sig_permission_level=0&fw_sig_social=1&fw_sig_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freewebs.com%2Fthespiritualway_lightworkers%2F&fw_sig_site=11461023&fw_sig_access_token=755e3fa4a7e0e884f935ea47772c616a0489e26&fw_sig_tier=0&fw_sig_permissions=none&fb_sig_network=fw#3323

Guardian Stones

A Guardian stone (a stone that for whatever reason matches your energy vibrations) is a type of Nature Guide to protect you) you won’t find that in any  book that I'm aware of, my stone spoke telepathically to me and compelled me to buy him when I first met him. Your Guide Stone will be multipurpose to you and you alone unless you bump into somebody who coincidentally has the same kind of guide. That means this stone or stones will do things for you that for another they wont do. They become multipurpose stones as far as you’re concerned. You can use them for anything. 

I do not know whether or not there are more Guide Stones out there. So far I have only felt that connection with one. Again, tell no one which of the stones matches your vibrations for that information can be used against you. From what the spirits told me it’s hard to use your own stone against you but I like to take caution in all things. You can use them for just about everything there is for you to do magickally.

 Last but not least you need to learn Grounding, Cleansing, and Sealing. 

After all Magick Workings

When you have just cast a spell or done a powerful ritual like a spirit summoning or exorcism, you have generated a large amount of magickal, spiritual, and physical energy that you now need to dispose of. If you don't the consequences are many but here are the three main consequences I have encountered: 

1) Too much un-used energy in your body will light up you like a Roman candle and spirits and other magick users, will be able to see you. I don't think I need to explain further what the ramifications of this is. It is dangerous, very dangerous and you would remain open to other spirits or energies. And even the nice ones can play nasty tricks on you sometimes. 

2) All this pent up energy can cause physical conditions like the body over heating, being too hyper, heightened emotions where you can say or do something you'll regret later (like being drunk on power) and when you sober up you'll realize it only too late. This can also cause mild to severe headaches, nausea and diarrhea, not to mention insomnia. 

3) You can accidently hurt someone and yourself. When that much power is coursing through your veins, literally anything can happen. If you say "Go to Hell!" You might actually curse someone or even hurt them because of the level of power you currently hold. Likewise if you are jealous of someone else, even without saying anything your subconscious mind will channel that power within you to hurt someone else. Maybe break them up with their significant other, or try to cause them to commit suicide and many other terrible things. 

And if you are naturally paranoid, keeping that energy bottled up can cause you to become more paranoid and even curse yourself by accident.

That is why one must be careful when using magick and never use it if you are sick, emotionally unbalanced, or under stress. When you are super charged with that much power even making a joke can speak something into existence and alter your reality. So Grounding is Paramount. To do this you go bare foot under a tree, place your feet on the dirt of the tree and ask the tree to remove all un-needed and impure energies or substances from you. Then imagine your toes turn into tree roots (alternatively you can do this with your hands too) and connect to the Earth then say "All un-needed energies and impurities, be sent to Mother and Father Earth for purification so mote it be!" This will drain the energies from you.

 Just be sure not too drain out too much you can make yourself sick and tired like that. That's why you ask only for those un-needed and impure things to be driven from you. But those pure and needed energies need to remain or you could die at worst or be sick at best. Once this is done the roots will turn back into your fingers and toes again or you'll know in your heart that it's done and you will be able to change them back into fingers and toes using pure will without another visualization. Make sure you have water to offer the tree when you're done and thank him or her with it. 

On another note those energies will be purified by Earth and sent to someone else when the time comes to help them. So you're also helping someone across the world which brings you good Karma at the same time. Now go drink a glass of water as a Seal to help close up those channels you opened up with your ritual or spell.  In Santeria as well as Trinidadian Folk Magick its customary to drink room temperature water after finishing a magickal working to seal or close it, pray over the water like this: 

"Sacred water of healing and life by (whatever divinity you worship) be blessed to cleanse, heal, and bless me and to close whatever doorways or channels I have spiritually or magickally opened until the time comes when I need them opened again. Amen." 

Once you drink it, you will be cleansed, blessed, healed, and those doorways and channels you’ve opened will be closed all at once. Until you need to open them again that is. That way nothing will be able to get at you via those channels or doors now closed. There are many ways to do this but I like to do it like that because its more efficient and gets the job done right. The first time you Ground do it under a tree but after it's been done once under a tree you can ground anywhere. 

But the traditional way is the best way to do it. Blessing the water you’re going to drink should be done before you even start grounding. That way you're not powering up again for another spell because you did it before hand. You can ask three of your Guardians to aid you in this too. One will ground you, the other cleanses you, and the third will close the un-needed spiritual and magickal doors for you.

 It's always important to do these before bed. It will make you safer in sleep. Be sure to bless the water against harmful entities, energies, and intentions so it can protect you also. And visualize the water being enchanted with positive energy to replace the negative energy you removed from yourself for whatever you banish you must replace with something. Otherwise if you banish negativity and leave the void open that negativity will return to you three fold or more.

 So positively charge the water when you bless it with your prayers or affirmations. And you should be set on your journey to the Craft.