Your Hand is an Altar

Let's be real - magick can be expensive! And not all of us have the money, or time and ability, to gather all sorts of ingredients and spell materials, let alone the space to store them (RV life makes that a very realistic thing, here). There are a wide variety of reasons we may not be able to access the things we need for magick, but that doesn't mean we are without power.

Anyone who knows anything about magick will tell you: the magick lives in you! Here's a means to access that power without anything but your hands (or feet, if you happen to be hand-less). If any of you happen to be in a situation in which you do not have the usual five digits for whatever reason, please contact me! I would love to help adapt something for you. Where there is a will, they always say!

Part of my focus on the hand as a spiritual is actually quite personal, and a little bit superstitious. On my dad's side of the family, bent pinkies run in our lineage! Mine is exceptionally pronounced, as is my grandmother's, but my dad also has a slight bend. It's called clinodactyly, but it has a few ancient beliefs centered around it, as well. Many sources say that this is the mark of a witch. In times of the witch trials, it would most certainly have been reason enough for a jury to convict any of us who wear this unusual genetic marker of the craft, whether or not we were practicing! I think that the correlation between the bent pinkie meaning someone was magickal is probably more to do with the fact that people with clinodactyly often also have other skeletal deformities of the back, chest, or clavicle, which would have likely made them hermits or mystic folk in ancient times.

Hands have a lot of connection to magick, historically and in many other ways. It's how we place and use our tools and ingredients, if we have them, and it is through our hands that many people will our intent into this physical things. It is with our hands that we create entirely new things, summoned from the invisible and immaterial world of our minds. Understanding your hand as a magick tool, whether or not you use it alone or with tools, can add a lot more magick to your day to day life and craft!

This is all about how I interpret my hand as a magick tool. The approach to each element is taken from a very human perspective or stance, which I feel is fitting, considering the nature of the tool! Feel free to drop your observations or personal way of working with your hands as a magickal tool in the comments - your wisdom is always welcome here.

1. The Thumb: Earth

To me, the thumb can be viewed as being representational of the element Earth for a lot of reasons. Like the energy of the earth, it is the largest, most obvious of the fingers. It is with the thumb that we are able to grasp and take power over physical objects, and are also granted the ability to create physical things. It is our strongest finger, and is used to steady and hold things, both characteristics attributed to the earth. The thumb is also the only finger on the hand which all other fingers can touch with ease. Like the earth or the ground, being able to touch down with this energy is very important while working with less literal energies.

2. The Pointer Finger: Fire

Fire is evident in the energy of the pointer finger in a lot of ways, too. It is the cardinal energy in many Wheels, and it is our pointer finger that most often identified as our primary finger with many people, as well. Fire is often associated with being a guide or beacon energy, and we often point or indicate "where" or "what" with this finger (which is precisely why it is commonly known as the pointer!). The cardinal finger is not located far from the thumb, either - this correlation is interesting because we need to create real world or physical changes in order to see our desires and goals met. This finger is also wand-like (a tool often correlated with the element of Fire), as it can be used independently from the other fingers with ease, and, as such, can be used to direct energies with our intention, much like a wand does.

3. The Middle Finger: Air

The middle finger is representational of air for a few reasons, much like the other fingers! Paired with our thumb, the physical or earth energy of the hand, we are able to produce a physical sound: the snap. The middle finger is also sometimes called "the bird," and used to physically express our inner voice - even if it is the voice of anger! It is not surprisingly located alongside the pointer or cardinal finger, as we often use our voices to express our ambitions or desires over other means. Air is represented in the middle finger because it requires input from all other elements in order to use our voice, or our gift over the power of air, in a balanced way. We must be grounded in our truth (Earth), empowered and clear in our vision of truth (Fire), expressive but in control of our emotions in a way that is healthy and truthful (Water), and guided by a higher motivation (Spirit) that inspires us to invoke our power of voice in the first place.

4. The Ring Finger: Water

The ring finger and water are connected in a lot of ways. For one, it is called the ring finger because it is where was place our wedding bands, or rings of emotional commitment and love. I don't feel like people chose this finger for this purpose accidentally at all! The ring finger is very difficult to move or use separate from our other fingers, which I feel reflects our emotions, and the difficulty expressing them without using our voice, bodies, or some other form of communication from our other "powers." The ring and middle finger are not surprisingly located alongside one another, as we often use our voice to express our feelings, and it is most certainly one of the most direct means of doing so! The ring finger is also the hardest finger to touch to the cardinal finger, which I find very poignant, considering water's oppositional nature to fire.

5. The Pinkie Finger: Spirit

Okay, okay. So I left something out in the introduction! Maybe bent pinkies are also correlated with magick users because they are also very easy to correlate with the energy of spirit, or magick itself. This finger is, like the cardinal finger, very easy to use on it's own as a wand, which is a tool used in magick to help empower and direct intention. It is also the smallest and least obvious of the fingers, which is also true of spirit in relation to the other four elements that we can readily see and feel in the world around us.

6. The Palm: Altar Surface

The palm is a great altar surface when using your hand as an altar. Its broad, and can cup a wide variety of things. Maybe not big enough to do a tarot spread or complicated bit of spell work on, it is plenty big enough to bless and cleanse objects, and do a lot of other magickal things such as energy healing and more. After grounding myself to my source energies, I imagine my energy moving through my palm in a spiral, "activating" each element represented by my individual fingers, one by one. As each element is activated, imagine their energy moving back into you, allowing your energy and the primal power they represent to combine. The amount of time you can use your hand altar, and the tasks you can complete, is a matter of personal discretion - be careful not to over do it, as with any type of intention work! I extinguish each element one by one when I am ready to close my altar down in reverse order, imagining their energies returning back to their elemental sources one by one, before I allow my own energy to resettle. I recommend a good bit of grounded and recharging afterwards, if you can!