The History of Altars
Altars have been used from almost the beginning of
human civilization, as far back as the Paleolithic Age.
Yet many people today do not understand exactly what
an altar is outside of a religious structure, and do not
believe they can set up personal altars in their homes.
Nevertheless, on a subconscious level, we set up
varieties of altars without giving any conscious thought
to the process.
It is common to see groupings of family photos
arranged on shelves, tables, or pianos. Many people
place clusters of sentimental objects or collections of
various kinds in glass-front cabinets or on shelves in
various rooms of their homes. It is not uncommon to see
displays of beer cans, thimbles, dragons, model cars, or
similar objects. These are all done without conscious
thought or planning except that we "want to." But why
do we feel drawn to do this?
Why Do We Build Altars?
Carl G. Jung named the deepest part of our subconscious
mind "the collective unconscious," and said that it
connects every person to every single ancestor and
provides access to everything that has been known in
the past. It seems that the collective unconsciousness
within each of us is persuading us to build a personal
altar, such as our ancestors did. The problem is, we