Worshiping Yourself

It sounds kind of funny, doesn’t it? “Worshiping yourself.” I can hear people thinking already, “what kind of actual well adjusted person worships themselves? Only narcissists and greedy jerks think of themselves as gods needing worship!”

But I am here to challenge that notion.

As you surf through the Pagan-sphere you’ll see a lot of shadow work going on, and if you stop to read some of that shadow work, you’ll see that a lot of it stems from a lack of self love and self worth. We as a society (especially women and minority groups, imo) are taught that we are not worthy of our own love. We are taught that we need to put literally every. single. person. on the planet. before ourselves. And in turn, we neglect our own needs, our own wants and desires, and that can lead to some self-destructive tendencies. When I wrote about unconditional love a few years ago, I mentioned that unconditional love also included loving yourself, and that includes making yourself a priority in your own life. In order to help facilitate loving ourselves more, I decided to explore the idea of creating a shrine for yourself.

Or as the title of this post states: creating a shrine where you can worship yourself.

How do we create a shrine to ourselves?

It may seem really confusing at first- figuring out how one makes a shrine to yourself. However, I can say at least this: there are no rules on what a proper shrine to yourself would include! Unlike trying to please a deity or religious obligations and rules in typical shrine creation, you are completely in control of what goes on your own shrine. You get to make the rules, and only put things on your shrine that help you to move closer to self acceptance and love. I know that this is really generic sounding, so to help you get your creative juices flowing, here are some ideas for you!

To start off, here is a list of things that you could start with:

• Pictures of yourself
• Pictures of things that you love, or things that make you happy
• Mantras and affirming statements (for ideas on these, see here, here and here)
• Workbooks and tools to help with your goals
• Journals
• Jewelry or other finery that you like to wear. Things that make you feel good and look good.
• Nice smelling things such as perfume, candles or incense

As stated above, you could include anything on your shrine. Nothing is off limits. It can be large, or small. Something you wear on your person, an image you keep in your wallet, or be a huge shelf in your living room. It’s all about what helps you to be happy. For example, I tend to include stuff that reminds me of my astral family because they make me happy. I also like to include images of my gods because they have played a key role in a lot of my shadow work over the years.

Use whatever makes your shrine yours.

I’ve got my shrine set up, but what do I do with it?

With all of the small spaces that I have set up for myself, I spend most of my time in those spaces being happy and calm. I use my own personal shrines to reflect upon myself and where I am going. I think about where my life is heading, and if I need to adjust anything to reflect where I want to be. I also use these spaces to talk with entities, the same way you might with a deity at their shrine. However, the conversations in my own personal shrine space are either regarding my own personal self work, or are lighter in nature. I don’t go to my personal spaces to talk about other business.

I also treat my personal shrine space as a safe place. I go there to unwind or reduce stress. I have a lot of small spaces in my house where I will stop for just a few seconds as a means to remind myself to breath and calm down. If your space is large enough, you could meditate in front of your shrine, or listen to music that helps you to relax.

Essentially, it is a space that is designed to help you grown and become a better person through whatever methods help with that.

And to help bring it all together, here are some examples for you to look at!

This is my main “me” shrine. It sits by my bedside and is changed regularly as my needs and wants change. This particular version of the shrine has a focus on heart-based magix and has been set up to help my heart heal after what I had experienced during this years Mysteries.

This shrine features a lot of items that I relate to my astral family, including multiple necklaces that my menz have claimed as well as the brass candle holder that my partner has claimed. I keep keys on the shrine to help me remember that I have keys to moving forward. I keep spoons on this shrine to remind myself that I need to keep my spoons and manage my spoons better. I also keep a small icon of Set and Osiris on this shrine because they are trying to help me become more balanced.

Balancing is a primary focus of this shrine, hence the fairly even distribution of items and the symmetry that is present here.

This is a very small shrine that sits in my closet. This is one of those shrines that I see daily while I get ready in the morning, and I use it as a small reminder to make time for myself and to remember that I am worth pampering. I keep very bright, expensive (ish) looking items in the glass case. I use items that remind me to dress well and focus on keeping up with my appearances (because it helps my mental health). The pin for sewing reminds me of the changes I’m making through my clothing. The pocket watch reminds me that my time is valuable. And all of the items in this case remind me of my astral family and the positive things that my family Over There has brought into my life.

This shrine features a star jar, which I use star jars for heka purposes and fulfillment of wishes. Each of the stars in the jar have been imbued with desire and purpose for where I want to go in life. I’ve also placed a picture on this shrine that has a pair of owls on it- which reminds me of my physical partner and helps me to remember to focus on my life here as well. I have a large quartz (I think?) sphere on this shrine that I roll around in my hands when I’m thinking and mulling.

I wanted to show this idea as a concept for everyone because I want people to see that your shrine doesn’t necessarily need to be big or fancy. This type of shrine setup could easily blend into the rest of your house and no one would be the wiser. In this case, the aim is to make yourself a cup or pot of tea. You sit down with your cup of tea and while you drink it, you work on any shadow work or self-work that you need to get done. You could drink your tea and write down affirmations in the book. You could use the book to jot down things you got done today (see: done lists). You could use the journal for doodling or brainstorming. Again, its about whatever helps you to move forward towards a better you.

Hopefully this post has helped to give you some ideas about ways that you can help better yourself. If you guys create shrines for yourself, I’d love to hear about it!