Ms. Ella's Altar: A Look At A Spiritual Altar

As soon as I saw this picture I wanted to write a little bit about it because this is a beautiful example of an old school candle altar that a Spiritualist might have. 

This is a photo of Ms. Ella Watson taken by Gordon Parks in 1942. Ms. Watson was a member of St. Martin Spiritual Church, which was an African American Spiritual Church in Washington DC. 

Without going into a ton of historical details, the Spiritual Church Movement is an off-shoot of American Spiritualism. 

Most early Spiritual Churches were founded as Spiritualist Churches, but eventually began to shift closer in terms of doctrine and practice towards Holiness and Pentecostal Churches (while still retaining many unique features as I'll discuss), and eventually dropped the term “Spiritualist” altogether. 

That being said, to make things even more confusing, many Spiritualist Churches have always referred to themselves as Spiritual Churches, and continue to do so. 

If you want to read more about these traditions read Spiritual and Social Transformation in African American Spiritual Churches: More than Conjurers by Margarita Simon Guillory. It's currently the best book on this subject, and has completely replaced almost every other book that came before it, in my opinion. 

Anyway, there are a few interesting features of this photo I wanted to point out. 

1. The Altar is in her Bedroom. 

In American Spiritualism, and in the Spiritual Church Movement, this is a very traditional place for a devotional altar. Those who are more familiar with Spiritism and Espiritismo may find this unusual. 

American Spiritualists, and those in the Spiritual Church Movement, tend to follow the biblical adage of “when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret” fairly literally, and candle altars are considered more appropriately placed in an intimate and private room of the house. 

The main exception is if the altar is for public use, where it is placed in a Church or in a more open location. 

2. Catholic Saints. 

The main Saints on this altar are St. Therese of Lisieux, the Virgin Mary (who has two statues), St. Joseph, St. Martin de Porres (the patron saint of Ms. Watson’s Church), and St. Anthony. There is also a Crucifix, a rosary, and small print of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and what looks like a small print of the Virgin Mary behind the vase of flowers. 

Catholic Saints were (and are still) regularly prayed to in some Spiritualist and Spiritual Churches. The veneration of these Saints and other devotional and liturgical practices were incorporated into Spiritualism and Spiritual Churches from Roman Catholicism. 

The Saints function as a category of Spirit Guides that will also include figures from the Bible, such as Moses, Queen Esther, or John the Apostle. Other groups of Spirit Guides exist in Spiritualism and Spiritual Churches, the most famous being Native American Guides, which include figures such as Black Hawk, Red Cloud, or Tecumseh. 

3. Candles. 

The candles are actually the main focus of the altar, and are placed in a cross formation. Before seven day glass prayer candles were used, most Spiritual people would use stand alone taper candles such as the ones in the picture. 

While most of them are white, you can see that there is a colored candle in the center of the cross formation. This would be the main prayer candle, chosen by a specific color, to assist in manifesting a particular intention for the prayers going on at the altar. This could be set for healing, blessing, prosperity, etc. 

There are also two small votive candle holders off to the side, depending on the system of candle burning being used, these could either be Master Candles used to light the other candles, or a kind of helper candle, assisting the other candles in manifesting prayers. 

3. Miscellaneous. 

The two small elephants with their trunks raised were very popular decorations in the past, that were considered to be good luck, and bring blessings. They also add a touch of “eastern mysticism” that was very en vogue in the past among Spiritualists and Spiritual people. 

The Flowers in the vase are another important piece. Almost all Spiritualist altars have flowers, both for the color of the flowers, and the water in the vase, which are believed to assist in connection to the Spirit World. We also know that St. Martin Spiritual Church, which Ms. Watson attended, held a “flower bowl” ceremony, an example of the importance of flowers. That being said, the flowers in the photo could easily be fake flowers, and just present to look pretty. 

While I don’t want to read too much into this last thing I noticed, if you look in the reflection of the mirror, behind Ms. Watson is a doll in the corner. It’s entirely possible that the doll belonged to one of her children or grandchildren, but dolls are sometimes used to represent spirit guides. 

Some final thoughts. 

I decided to write this because not only is this a beautiful spiritual altar, but it reminds me of altars that my own family has kept. My grandma, and great grandma had altars that looked exactly like this, and while they weren’t Spiritualists, I was moved at how close it looked to theirs. My own personal altar actually looks very similar to this as well.

I also wanted to just show how diverse Spiritualists and Spiritual traditions are. I see so many people arguing over the right way to set up an altar, and I find it refreshing that there is this beautiful old photo of a very old school spiritual altar that belonged to a very spiritual woman. 

Not all forms of Spiritualism keep altars. North American Spiritualism has a huge spectrum of traditions that range from highly philosophical, that place very little emphasis on ritual (somewhat similar to the stricter schools of Scientific Kardecist Spiritism) to highly ritual focused traditions of Christian Spiritualism that include candles, baptism, and various liturgical and devotional practices. 

I personally very much fall in the latter category; some may not, and some may be in the middle. One of the things I love about Spiritualism is that people can find a space that they feel comfortable with (literally and metaphorically), and part of the process of spiritual development is discerning what that means for you.

About this post.

I actually wrote this a few years ago, and have posted a few different versions of it in different places with some edits and revisions. I thought it might be useful to put it on here so it's easier to reference. This version is a compilation of all the different edits I've done, so everything is pretty much included in this post. I also recommend you read my other post that goes into more details on the history of candle altars in Spiritualism.