on fire. There’s nothing more annoying during ritual than having things catch fire when you do not intend them to 🙂
My cast iron cauldron with a chunk of charcoal in it goes in the center of the right hand side of my altar. I prefer cast iron cauldrons and charcoal to stick or cone incense, but your milage may vary and you can use what suits you best, of course. If you’d like to learn more about the different kinds of cauldrons and how to use them, read About Cauldrons. You can also place it anywhere you like, as I am merely using my set up as an example. For more advice on incense, you can check out our article entitled Wiccan Ritual Incense
So we have our Fire (candles) and our Air (incense). Where’s our Earth? For Earth, I use an offering bowl . And in said offering bowl, I place some sea salt . So why would sea salt signify Earth instead of Water? Well, to me it’s a little of both. Salt comes from the earth and mixes with the water of the sea. You can, of course, put dirt in there, or anything else that signifies Earth to you. I put the Earth to the center left side of my altar.
And then, the either totally elaborate, utterly plain, or maybe even paper cup chalice . Anything that can hold water can be your chalice if it has that meaning for you. As we have said, the chalice holds the element of Water that you can use for your ritual. Whether you add salt to it to purify it or not is up to the type of ritual you are doing and your personal preference. I put the chalice in the center center part of the altar, in front of the candles