In finishing up the January issue of Shambhala Sun, in the back is an article that surprised and pleased me. I didn’t expect an article that discussed a subject that I had always labeled as pagan in a magazine that I would label as Buddhist. But the concept of a “shrine” is pretty common to lots of traditions.

I don’t label myself as “buddhist” or “pagan” or really anything … I’m not too fond of limiting myself by attaching labels. But I will admit, that I do go through cycles as I rotate through my collection of interests, so running across an abnormality of when my cycles cross … was welcomed.

I thought the beginning of the article set the spirit just right …

In my grandmother’s Ireland, homes still had magical thresholds and doors joining the inner and outer worlds, magical gates symbolizing the gates of perception and magical ladders, stairways and chimneys—preserved in our Santa Claus stories—joining above and below. Home, in my grandmother’s day, was a landing pad for vital unseen forces that went by many names—spirit guests, deities, muses, angels or simply “energy.” A home devoid of this natural presence was, in the words of Samuel Beckett, “a house of non-meaning bound to collapse.”

The author, Helen Berliner, then addresses way to “invite helpful subtle energies into twenty-first century homes” … ideas like setting up rooms for a particular “purpose” and special altars and shrines for particular “spirits.”

What I love about different traditions is that not only are the “names” for the same experience different, but the “explanations” for the same purposes are as well. For instance, most pagans would tell you to make a “shrine” up high for honor and the connection to above … however, if it is up high, you’ll probably notice it more often throughout the day … and isn’t that the purpose?

Also, it isn’t that your stone Buddha drinks that daily cup of tea you offer him, and it isn’t that your picture of Krishna smells the daily offered flowers, and Jesus doesn’t inhale the smoke from the candles and incense … but by constantly refreshing your “physical altar” you re-focus your mind and your resolve to the purpose of setting up the altar in the first place.

I remember the refrigerator at some of my friend’s house who listened to “motivational speakers” had taken pictures of himself, cut out his head, and put the head “inside” a picture of a car clipped from a magazine. The concept of visualization is good, but is magnified when it takes a physical manifestation.

So what is my purpose to writing all of this? Not sure. In my own life, my “altars” to aspects of my character that I would like to enhance are more subtle. I have a bookshelf in my den that has books and objects that remind me of certain “energies” that I wish to remember.

But this article also reminded me of places in my home that need to be cleaned out, reorganized and improved … like like places inside my “inner home.”