Spiritual path and interior decoration

[pihlaja]

I was wondering do you want to express your religion/spiritual path also with the interior decoration of your home or do you keep everything just in your mind (and closet)? Can your religion be seen in your home? Do you have an altar? Do you express your religion with other things than the altar (posters, statues, colours, the way of arraning things)? Has your path had an effect to furniture, materials and so on? Have you a specific place or room dedicated to religious practice and purposes or would you like to have one? Do you grow your herbs by yourself and so on..

Personally I want my home to manifest my personality and also religion in that sense. But for me it's quite simple as I don't follow any particular path which means I don't need to wonder what people might think about statues of Greek goddesses, pentagrams on the walls, Buddha-statues or anything like that. I do have an altar but it may not seem like one. I also want to decorate with wood, wool, linen, cotton, stone etc. Unfortunately i live in a rented place, so I'm not able to affect to wall and floor materials and such, but if I was allowed to choose, i'd have wooden floor instead of plastic carpet, wooden cupboard doors instead of white ones, chipboard replaced with real wooden pieces of furniture etc. I don't feel balanced in places full of plastic, cold lightning and such, but of course sometimes they just makes your life so much easier that it's hard to avoid them (for example plastic boxes and containers), but I prefer not to decorate with those.

I also like to have lots of plants at home to have some living things there.. And somehow that also makes me fell closer to nature when I don't have time to go and spend time in the woods. I have lots of candles all over the place for creating calming atmosphere and I also like to decorate with things collected from nature (stones, cones, weaved willow baskets etc.). I prefer long-lasting and natural materials and furniture, because I don't want to waste resources, but unfortunately student budget doesn't allow one to buy really well-made things (if you don't look for second hand stuff)..

PS. It'd be nice to see pics too.

[Celest]

Re: Spiritual path and interior decoration

Great thread idea!

The rooms I spend the most time in, (the kitchen, my bedroom, the office,and the garden ) all have things that are special to me and keep me 'connected' spiritually.
I have an altar in my bedroom that looks like an altar, and one in the garden that I put away when not in use.
I have my 'meditation corner' , also in my bedroom, that has a little Buddha statue, some candles, my CD player and a cushion on the floor.
My kitchen, at the moment has so many herbs hanging for drying that it looks kind of silly.
My office has fairy statues, bowls of stones, shells , pinecones and candles.
I have a LOT of candles (which is good, because the power goes out a lot here )

I wish I could post a couple of pics, but the site won't allow the size and even though I have re-sized them, they are still too big and I don't know my way around computers enough to fix this :P

[Arrow]

Re: Spiritual path and interior decoration

It doesn't really show at all in my house. I don't need or wish to use religious symbols, items or other things of spiritual nature for decoration (not that I have any such things either) and I don't have an altar. For me, the center of worship is the offering tree at the backyard. That's the only physical thing in my household that's related to religion, but I don't think we count it as "interior". :P

[Madness]

Re: Spiritual path and interior decoration

As an atheist with pagan tendencies, I don't really have any 'spiritual' stuff laying about, no altar, no ceremonial this or that. But I do have little collections of items like shrines in the cardinal directions of my house for the different elements. I thought I had pictures somewhere, but can't dig them up right now!

For the most part, my interest in paganism is more an interest in the natural world, so there is lots to see around my house with that in mind. I collect stuff - insects, feathers, weird bird eggs (especially witch's eggs!), rocks, etc. So my "naturalist" tendencies are quite obvious in the home.

I was a little surprised actually when my midwife came over after the birth of my babe early this year. The first thing she said after she sat down was "I had a feeling about you!!! I'm a Dianic High priestess." I had no idea what tipped her off and asked. She pointed at the 20+ books on paganism on my bookshelf. Duh. So I certainly don't hide my interest!

[DanieMarie]

Re: Spiritual path and interior decoration

I don't know....I keep my living room fairly neutral, but I have a small alter to the japanese elements on my shelf. I don't even follow an asian path...I just find it calming so I have it there.

Everyone and their dog here has a Buddha statue somewhere, even if they're not Buddhist.

I guess that in Berlin, you just get a lot of global influences and no one cares about religion that much anyway, so no one would really notice unless you told them.

[Raphaeline]

Re: Spiritual path and interior decoration

There's definitely a connection between my spirituality and how my house is decorated; my personal taste happens to mesh with it well. I like decorations that remind me of Dionysos, or India, and generally very gypsy bohemian decor.

[thalassa]

Re: Spiritual path and interior decoration

My house is decorated to my budget with as much accomodation to taste as possible, which includes my spirituality.

[Primitive Artifice]

Re: Spiritual path and interior decoration

Hmm, I collect knick knacks, they are one of my favorite things to purchase as souveneirs or just to fun (usually for fun). I live in a very run down townhouse in a not so nice area and I'm a bit young so I have few possessions, little room for interior decoration, and little desire to invest time, effort in money in decorating a place I intend to live at for less that 1-2 more years. I used to collect my knick knacks and put them on top of my dresser in a way that very much resembled an altar. A lot of my stuff has a nature/pagan look to it too. Right now I have all my stones set up on a mirror on a black rabbit pelt on top of my bookshelf with other knick knacks. My dresser in my closet has all my asian stuff, my suspension ropes, and my oils and perfumes. I have a virgin mary on my desk for old times sake. Other than that there's usually my tarot cards floating around the house.
I would love to have an extensive garden in the future, all sort of magickal tools in the kitchen, maybe a tasteful statue of a goddess or nymph or something but part of that is my love of art. Honestly half of my personal spirituality would be in the garden/kitchen, the other half in my art/studio, if I had those things I mean. I would like to have talismans and blessing and decorate with the elemental associations in mind. Maybe meditate to find out what would be ideal in that room or this for me. I would need my 'own' place if that makes sense.