I have added a new candle holder since I last talked about my altar. Look at this beauty!  It’s very sturdy and shiny and I’m sure would be great with regular sized taper candles. This is the type of candle holder I wanted when I first imagined what my altar would look like. It’s very antique-looking, and it makes me think of women back in the day, lighting candles in their houses to light their workrooms as they mixed herbs and created home remedies for the common cold or something like that. And that makes me feel so witchy! Because part of witchcraft is connecting with those who have come before you, connecting with people who done what you do (or want to do). I’m not talking about practicing magic specifically, but more about relying on herb lore and being a little superstitious and taking care of house and hearth. They probably didn’t call themselves witches, and they certainly weren’t Wiccans. They were probably Christians or Jews or Muslim or any other kind of religious women who believed in their skills and the practices handed down to them generation by generation, and possibly (like me) believed there were forces out there beyond our understanding, and that was okay– they didn’t need to understand the intricacies of the universe to believe. That’s how I imagine myself being as I learn more about what it means to practice kitchen witchery. When I look at this candle holder, I think about all of that.