Ever since I started my witchy journey, I've always felt Athena's guidance. As someone who is afflicted with various mental issues, many of which I don't like disclosing so publically, I want to thank Athena for being that stable guiding figure that I needed, especially as I got into tarot!

The first time I've really started studying how to read tarot was when I really became more serious about my witchy craft, as well as being serious about studying and paying attention to the magic that I've always held in my life. Tarot was when I really started to believe in myself and my ability to divine. I also started learning tarot when I was extremely in a bad mental place, having obsessive thoughts cloud my judgement 99% of the time. Tarot became my escape, but somehow not in a way that fueled my obsessions entirely.

I am very happy that in my first few steps in learning tarot and doing spreads that I did the work to explicitly ask my deck (and whoever was listening) for a guide. Someone who doesn't really hold me but more like put warning signs straight into my face. It's there when I first came into contact with the "High Priestess" herself: Athena.

In my tarot deck page, I described her as a fairly serious figure who knows exactly when to reveal things, when to chastise me, and also knows where I am at in the present moment. She isn't a cruel person by any means, though. She is aware of my lower moments and would take my "can I get a nice reading?" requests seriously (as long as I am not trying to ignore something serious). Athena has also on occassion revealed to me facets of myself that I paid little attention to. It's because of these moments with her that I have searched for who was behind the "High Priestess".

In my heart, I knew that the "High Priestess" card I drew was a stand-in for someone more. And I couldn't be anymore happier with this outcome.

Finding out about Athena's large role in getting me to take studying withcraft and divination and other like things seriously was the push I needed to actually divide my 'general' shrine into smaller dedicated shrines to each god I am devoted towards.

So far, Athena's altar is quite 'messy' in my eyes and still has a long way to go, personally. It's not that it needs to be perfect, but I am a very visual person and having visual symbols help me better connect with her and be able to tell whenever she is communicating with me or not.

Her altar specifically holds my tarot decks and other divining methods. It also holds all the crafted gifts kids have gifted me during my various art assistant jobs. Most of my assistant jobs have to do with crafts or something hands on, and I think Athena especially would love these handmade gifts that came from me playing with the kids and teaching them how to create bracelets and the like.

Some things I learned while collecting for her altar is that thrifted toothbrush holders are amazing! After a very thorough clean of the inside, the holes serve as a good holder for thin objects, such as feathers in my case!

Also, placemats are a perfect way to spruce up an altar. As a texture and fabric enjoyer, it's really important to me the color and visual texture of the space matches how I view her and what I associate her with.