A year ago, after a couple trips to Lake Superior, I posted how I had begun there a regular practice of creating earth altars—how energizing it was to create them, why and how I created them (as an intuitive co-creation with the life around me and anchored by an intentional blessing), and why I saw each one as “a love offering, a blessing prayer, a piece of art, and an exercise in letting go.” (You can find that blog post here.) In my newsletters I have periodically shared some of the altars created since that time.
This year I created three earth altars during my 11 day trip to Lake Superior, and I’d love to share them with you.
The first one, made several days after I arrived, was an expression of gratitude—for the lake, for the woods and flowers, and for all the blessings in my life, especially my luck to be there.
The same day I made another, in gratitude to the lake and all the waters of the world.
A few days later after a stormy night I made an altar dedicated to Resilience, the strength and adaptability I saw in the flowers blooming among the winds-scoured rocks, the jumbles of driftwood lying here and there, and all the life that persisted here, including birds, insects, lichen and the rocks themselves.
As I explained last year, as much as I enjoy blessing the landscape with Her own beauty, I also love observing how She takes it back into Herself.
While the water altar changed very little over the time I was there—here it is a week after its creation—the other altars gradually became almost indistinguishable from their surroundings.
Here is the Gratitude altar at various stages.
2 days after creation
3 days after creation
4 days after creation
And the Resilience altar:
2 days after creation
1 day after creation
3 days after creation
I find beautiful all the stages of these altars. Like the beauty in each of the seasons of the year. (Hmmm…can I apply that to my own aging self?)
What has been delighting you this summer? I’d love to hear.
(Please click on each photo for a larger, clearer version.)
thank you for reminding us of the beauty in all the stages of life……Mary
Yes, one of the unexpected pleasures of this for me…thanks Mary.
These are each so beautiful, Anne. And inspiring. And wonderfully meditative. Thank you for sharing them!
Thanks Kate. Mother Earth never fails to provide gorgeous materials and a beautiful canvas…