When simplifying, where do you draw the line?

[maenad nuri]

As a few of you know, I'm trying to simplify my life, including my religious one. Well, now I'm debating a few of my altars. I don't keep them up well, and space wise, we could use them for other things. When we move into a place of our own, I intend to set small shrines up still.

But, part of me is debating taking them down; Do I offend the gods I so love when I do this? Is it fair to have a shrine that isn't well maintained?

Ideas and thoughts? This was brought on by my decluttering efforts today, where I ditched most of my fake flowers, incense older than my marriage, and a lot of other of my old altar supplies. Just wait until I declutter the pagany book collection.  

[AvalonAuggie]

I think it's not unreasonable that if the gods can have fulfilling relationships with people who are just starting out in their paths/don't have ideal living and space resources/are otherwise restricted in their ability to worship, then on that same spectrum the gods will be able to understand if someone has bitten off more than they can chew and need less in their daily practice instead of more.

If the clutter is preventing you from getting the most out of your faith or forcing you to divide your energy to the point where you can't put a really mindful effort into the maintenance of the shrines, I say by all means scale back. Repurposing a shrine for something you're going to get real use out of is (probably) less offensive than letting it languish and simply take up space.

But of course it'd be polite to ask, first. wink

Good luck in your simplification efforts, though! I'm in preparation for moving and I'm trying to just...get rid of everything. It's difficult.  

[MaegSully]

I also think that it's not at all unreasonable for a person to scale down their rituals, alters, or anything else they have need to. In the end, it's still about staying true to your path, and your path can always change. I had a friend once who went from honoring many, many deities on a daily basis (and I have no idea how she did each individually!) to honoring just three or four daily, and then adding in something respectful for all of the other deities she missed once in a while. She never felt that the gods were angry with her for this change, she thought that she made better connections with them in the end, and that it was definitely a good decision for her. It's a bit of a different context, but a similar enough point, I think.

However, I do think it also depends on how you choose to scale down. Dropping an alter for one deity but leaving intact another would probably have an impact on your relationship with the first deity. As suggested, asking first couldn't hurt, and be sure to be respectful. I don't know how your alters are arranged, as I only have one, but just be sure not to favor one god you've been honoring over another, and I don't really see an issue. Unless, say, you're focusing on Athena and Poseidon, separately, and decide to condense by putting a figurine that's a tribute to Poseidon directly under a small olive tree figurine dedicated to Athena... I wouldn't recommend anything like that.

How are your alters arranged currently, if you don't mind my asking? You'd probably get more specific advice if we knew exactly what you're trying to condense, after all. heart  

[maenad nuri]

Currently, I have a minimalist main altar (which can be seen here

And then, on my dresser I have a Hera Shrine and my marriage shrine. On top of one bookshelf, I have a shrine to Aphrodite and a very small one to Hermes.

I am thinking of condensing them to one, as they are built around a theme, with the exception of Hermes, who I might reset up at work, of love, marriage and devotion. But I don't know what it'll look like until I know what amount of space I have to work with while we condense two rooms down to one.  

[maenad nuri]

So I did end up condensing and simplifying the shrines. And, I think they worked out well. My main altar has stayed the same (except for the load of peacock feathers that my friend presented to me), but I kept only our big wedding photo, the celtic knotwork table runner my aunt made, the cake topper and our goblets to decorate. I decided to keep the dresser more practical for now.

On the bookshelf, however, I set up the rest of my marriage shrine (which I'd really like to turn into a shadowbox if I ever got crafty) on one end, most of the pieces from the Hera shrine on the other. But Aphrodite got the biggest change.

For years I've been using this big, lush red candle I got as a gift as a centerpiece for the shrine. I actually HATED this candle. It didn't smell good, and while the fabric it came on was nice, it really dominated everything. So out it went (saving the fabric for other uses), along with some shells that a student gave me.

I kept a tiger shell I bought in Florida and a delicate glass perfume holder as the two pieces of her shrine that really meant something. I think it works much better now.

I moved my mini Hermes shrine over to my nightstand jewelry box, as a temporary placement. I didn't remove anything from it, but then, it's just a candle, holder and a big key. Not really anything big at all.

What I like best about this is that now the shrine won't be disturbed when people inadvertantly place things on my dresser. That's going to be nice.

When lighting is better, I'll try to take a photo.