The Cup

The sacred drinking vessel is an essential ritual tool in almost every spiritual practice. Entire mythologies have been written solely on the subject such as the Akshaya Pathram, the Holy Grail, the Cup of Jamsshid and the Cornucopia just to name a few. As a tool it is used in any ritual where drinking something is done, be it blood, wine, or some hallucinogenic lubricant. As mentioned in The Sacred Meal, the cup is used to hold the blessings of the divine and to return those blessings to them. 

And of course, in Traditional Wicca there are certain ways that it should be made. As the Receptive Feminine Tool it should be made of feminine materials such as clay or stone. I thought glass would have been fine, but I was told that it was too common and too modern to have the desired effect.

 Silver is an option, but it tarnishes and can have odd chemical reactions with certain things like salt. Furthermore, one must be certain that what you are drinking out of is actually silver instead of plated because other showy metals can be toxic - just ask the Tudors.

As far as the general look of things go there isn't anything expressly traditional. Wiccans call their cup a "chalice" for religious and ostentatious reasons and as such the overall expected look of the sacred cup is that of a stemmed bowl or goblet. Though Indiana Jones would have us believe that the Holy Grail is a simple wooden cup fit for a carpenter and his fishermen buddies, the religious expression of that has been anything but simple. 

Following in the footsteps of other sacred vessels like the Gunderstrup Cauldron or the Ardagh Chalice, most Pagans today like to have symbols of their faith on them. Depending on the tradition they may be simple or ornate, traditionally feminine like moons or symbolic of male deities like grapes.

Of course, there are those that take it too far...

And not all Contemporary Pagans choose to drink from a cup as their sacred vessel. Anything that can hold liquid qualifies and drinking horns are fairly common among Northern European Traditions like the Asatru. I actually use a horn on my person shrine because the stoneware cup I had for years was finally retired by a cat that was too curious about its contents. They generally require a stand to be set down on a surface and this can add some decoration and permanency to the altar even while the vessel is in use. 

I would like to find or make a kylix eventually for my own uses. A kylix is a Classical Greek drinking vessel with a shallow bowl with two handles atop a stemmed base. They generally are decorated with images inside the bowl. The word kylix is the Greek root for the Latin calix that is in turn the root for the English chalice.

~A. Fox

The Sacred Meal

Sometimes called "Cakes and Wine" or "Cakes and Ale," the Sacred Meal is like the Contemporary Pagan version of the Eucharistic. Almost all religions have a sacred meal. Food is brought before the Divine and blessed then consumed. Sometimes the idea is that the god or spirit consumes the essence of the food and then replaces that essence with a blessing.
In Contemporary Paganism we use bread and wine most often, but this isn't always the case. I like to use mead instead of wine when I can. Some use fruits or grains like rice or oats instead of bread.
I learned this from Traditional Wicca, but other denominations have been inspired by other sources. In Traditional Wicca the meal is blessed just after the Divine has been brought down into the bodies of the High Priestess and her High Priest. These two figures bless the wine in a symbolic sexual act, bringing the athame down into the chalice that holds it. As a symbolic act of orgasm the wine is then asperged onto the bread or cakes that sit on top of the altar tile which locks in the blessing. The blessing is then returned in thanks to the gods through libation and then the cup and bread are passed around the coven to be consumed, each member making their own libation before consumption. Whatever works they have gathered for are then carried out with the blessings of the gods within them to empower the works.
In non-traditional Wicca  the sacred meal takes place at the end as an act of grounding out the energies raised during the ritual and libation is often not given.
I prefer to do the meal at the beginning of the ritual and meditate at the end to ground out any unwanted excess energy.
~A. Fox

Tile of the Earth

I've been working on crafting the Earth Tile for my shrine. Calling it an "Earth Tile" isn't the normal name. Before it was called anything else it was simply the Pentacle. A pentacle is an object with a pentagram drawn or carved on it. Traditional Wicca has a slew of other symbols that they include on their's depending on their degree of initiation. The triangles and smaller pentagram represent those degrees, the horned circle symbolizes the Divine Masculine and the back-to-back crescents symbolize the Divine Feminine and the two S's are symbols for "Mercy/Kiss" and "Severity/Scourge."

Like the blade, there are recommended materials to make the Pentacle or Tile out of. Of all the tools, this one is deviated on the most in both substance and in image. It's supposed to be made of a masculine material. Though this is generally a metal such a bronze or better-yet gold the Pentacle is most often made of copper, which is the metal associated with Venus, and hence a feminine material. A masculine wood would work and the most common of those is Oak.

Eclectic (or non-traditional) Wiccans and other NeoPagans deviate on every aspect of the tradition standards of the altar tile, incorporating other symbols, leaving it at just a star (and not always a five-pointed one) in a circle or some other shape or changing the focal symbol all together. These variant tiles have been made in every conceivable material and I've even know temporary ones to be drawn out on paper. The fun part about all these variations is that most of them do not take into consideration exactly what the altar tile is for.

As the tool for the element of Earth the tile is to center and ground or lock energies into place. So, at the end of any ritual in which the practitioner has charged an object with magical or psychic or divine or whatever sort of energy they place it on the tile to lock it into place. When it comes time for the Sacred Meal this tool takes on an even more specific role: the role of the Sacred Serving Plate. The tile becomes either a platter or the base of another platter upon which the cakes at set. 

This last image is what I've decided to put on my altar tile. As a symbol and tool of the element of Earth goes, this one is fairly well rounded. The overall symbol is called a "squared circle" that is a circle with an equal armed cross inside. On top of being the astronomical symbol for our planet it represents the ritual circle that is supposed to be a plain of existence in and of itself. The other four symbols are the symbol for Earth in four different cultures: (Starting from the top left, moving clockwise) Adinkra or West African, European Alchemy, Chinese Hanzi, and  the Mayan Glyph. I've painted this on a round mirror in brown and yellow furthering the symbolism.
~ A. Fox