Altar

An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, modern paganism, and in certain Islamic communities around Caucasia and Asia Minor. Many historical faiths also made use of them, including the Roman, Greek, and Norse pagan religions.

Quotes

 * And Noah builded an altar unto the L ORD ; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.And the L ORD smelled a sweet savour; and the L ORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
 * Genesis 8:20–21 (KJV)


 * Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.
 * Exodus 20:23–26 (KJV)


 * And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits.
 * Exodus 27:1 (KJV)


 * Who are these coming to the sacrifice? To what green altar, O mysterious priest, Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,  And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
 * John Keats, from "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1819)


 * Where, in the coppice, oak and pine And mystic yew and elm are found, Sweeping the skies, that grow divine  With the dark wind’s despairing sound,  The wind that roars from the profound, And smites the mountain-tops, and calls Mute spirits to black festivals,  And feasts in valleys iron-bound,  Desolate crags, and barren ground;— There in the strong storm-shaken grove Swings the pale censer-fire for love.The foursquare altar, rightly hewn,  And overlaid with beaten gold, Stands in the gloom; the stealthy tune  Of singing maidens overbold  Desires mad mysteries untold, With strange eyes kindling, as the fleet Implacable untiring feet  Weave mystic figures manifold  That draw down angels to behold The moving music, and the fire Of their intolerable desire.For, maddening to fiercer thought,  The fiery limbs requicken, wheel In formless furies, subtly wrought  Of swifter melodies than steel  That flashes in the fight: the peal Of amorous laughters choking sense, And madness kissing violence,  Ring like dead horsemen; bodies reel  Drunken with motion; spirits feel The strange constraint of gods that clip From Heaven to mingle lip and lip.The gods descend to dance; the noise  Of hungry kissings, as a swoon, Faints for excess of its own joys,  And mystic beams assail the moon,  With flames of their infernal noon; While the smooth incense, without breath, Spreads like some scented flower of death,  Over the grove; the lovers’ boon  Of sleep shall steal upon them soon, And lovers’ lips, from lips withdrawn, Seek dimmer bosoms till the dawn.Yet on the central altar lies  The sacrament of kneaded bread, With blood made one, the sacrifice  To those, the living, who are dead—  Strange gods and goddesses, that shed Monstrous desires of secret things Upon their worshippers, from wings  One lucent web of light, from head  One labyrinthine passion-fed Palace of love, from breathing rife With secrets of forbidden life.But not the sunlight, nor the stars,  Nor any light but theirs alone, Nor iron masteries of Mars,  Nor Saturn’s misconceiving zone,  Nor any planet’s may be shown, Within the circle of the grove, Where burn the sanctities of love:  Nor may the foot of man be known,  Nor evil eyes of mothers thrown On maidens that desire the kiss Only of maiden Artemis.But horned and huntress from the skies,  She bends her lips upon the breeze, And pure and perfect in her eyes,  Burn magical virginity’s  Sweet intermittent sorceries. When the slow wind from her sweet word In all their conchéd ears is heard.  And like the slumber of the seas,  There murmur through the holy trees The kisses of the goddess keen, And sighs and laughters caught between.For, swooning at the fervid lips  Of Artemis, the maiden kisses Sob, and the languid body slips  Down to enamelled wildernesses.  Fallen and loose the shaken tresses; Fallen the sandal and girdling gold, Fallen the music manifold  Of moving limbs and strange caresses,  And deadly passion that possesses The magic ecstasy of these Mad maidens, tender as blue seas.Night spreads her yearning pinions,  The baffled day sinks blind to sleep; The evening breeze outswoons the sun’s  Dead kisses to the swooning deep.  Upsoars the moon; the flashing steep Of Heaven is fragrant for her feet; The perfume of the grove is sweet  As slumbering women furtive creep  To bosoms where small kisses weep, And find in fervent dreams the kiss Most memoried of Artemis.Impenetrable pleasure dies  Beneath the madness of new dreams; The slow sweet breath is turned to sighs  More musical than many streams  Under the moving silver beams, Fretted with stars, thrice woven across. White limbs in amorous slumber toss,  Like sleeping foam, whose silver gleams  On motionless dark seas; it seems As if some gentle spirit stirred Their lazy brows with some swift word.So, in the secret of the shrine,  Night keeps them nestled, so the gloom Laps them in waves as smooth as wine,  As glowing as the fiery womb  Of some young tigress, dark as doom, And swift as sunrise. Love’s content Builds its own monument,  And carves above its vaulted tomb  The Phoenix on her fiery plume, To their own souls to testify Their kisses’ immortality.
 * Aleister Crowley, "The Altar of Artemis" in The Soul of Osiris (1901)