Before I went to Germany I had felt the pull to create a public altar to a specific Goddess. It took me some time to identify the Goddess as all I had was a scrap of energy from the barest wisp of Her presence. Not too long before I left for Berlin, I realized it was Holda. Once in Berlin, I spent seven weeks honoring Her, praying to Her, keeping my eyes and heart open for signs of Her presence and I found them. I asked Her to show me what She wanted on Her altar and then gathered those small things as they were shown to me over the course of my stay. Two days before I left, I constructed the altar. The second week I was in Berlin, Holda had told me specifically where She wanted the altar to be set up. It was on a stump of a tree in a fairly busy road right in front of a very active line of shops. Indeed when I went to set up the altar, there was a small throng of people behind me (in front of one of the shops) watching my every move with avid curiosity. I had found several other places that were aesthetically more pleasing and had tried to convince Holda to allow me to place Her shrine there, but She was adamant that it had to be specifically where She wished.
The altar is created out of the following:
*several crow, raven and magpie feathers that I collected over the course of seven weeks.
*Two pink roses that were given to me and another student upon our successful completion of our German course. It seemed appropriate to offer them. This was actually the suggestion of one of the other students, a friend of mine named Kim. She came with me and helped me set up the altar and though she is not Heathen, she is very respectful of the various Gods and Goddesses and was honored to have been permitted to assist. She gathered wildflowers, which were also placed on the altar and suggested that we contribute the roses with which we’d both been gifted.
*A dried rose that I had received my first night in Berlin. It was lovely and I kept it with me the entire time on my traveling altar.
*Several stones and pieces of wood
*A snail shell—Holda was insistent that there be at least one snail shell.
*Several mushrooms, freshly picked.
*A handful of small acorns
*Cigarettes as an offering.
*A four leaf clover---as we were walking to the site where the altar was to be made, I saw a patch of clovers and knelt down to see if I could find a four leaf clover, as this seemed to me perfectly appropriate for Holda. After roughly ten minutes, I was about to give up. I finally told Holda that I’d give it two more minutes but if I didn’t find one by then, I’d have to continue on so if She wanted this symbol of luck on Her altar, to please help. I looked down and right in front of me was a four leaf clover. Kim was astonished. LOL. I picked the clover, naturally (and got bitten by a mosquito doing so---a blood offering I assumed in exchange for the killing of a plant) and it is pictured to the left of the altar.
In retrospect, the only thing I would choose to add would be an offering of my own blood. I made sure that all the offerings were things that could be left out in nature and which wouldn’t hurt any animals that might chance upon them. As Holda is in part a Goddess of the dark, hidden, raw side of nature…those things that are vicious and hungry and cold but which BELONG as part of the natural world, so too is Her altar constructed of things from nature.
-Galina Krasskova
July 26, 2007
California, USA
