Your Altar

Set up your altar. An altar should have the following tools upon it:

1. Two candles, preferably one white and one black for balance;
2. Pentacle, necessary to consecrate tools upon;
3. Athame, sacred knife for ceremonial use;
4. White handled knife for cutting branches, herbs, etc...;
5. Cauldron or a small earthen bowl for mixing things;
6. Bowl of water, a bowl of salt;
7. Incense holder and incense;

Those are basic tools...some people use bells, for ringing in the ritual and ringing out the ritual. Some have statues of the gods on their altar or other representations of the gods (horn for god, chalice for female, etc.), and some have more candles, colors representing the work they wish to do.

You can also have other things on your altar...i have many stones and crystals on mine, seashells, fresh flowers, a picture of a dear friend of mine, feathers, trinkets from my past, poems written to the gods, my Book of Shadows, etc.

IMPORTANT. All this additional ‘tools’ have a meaning for me and for the others like me. Through time and practice I’ve discovered that some objects have a special ‘energy’ that makes me comfortable and helps me.
Think about this....and decorate your altar with the objects that you feel they have a special ‘energy’. You’ll get a better energy yourself and your spell results will be amazing.

Where should these items be placed?

You can make an altar from a simple table or even a box.

I keep my altar out and set up for simplicity, but if this is something your family don't know you do, use a simple box.

The table or box doesnt have to be a certain shape or size.

Just big enough to hold your items.

Hope this helps =)