Living Altars: The Lady’s Vanity

With cosmetics, jewelry box, hair brush, comb, and dainty chair, the vanity table was a set fixture in movie making during the 1930s to the 1960s.

In movies, a woman wore lingerie or a negligee as she sat at the vanity, rarely her public attire. She applied makeup after examining her face for signs of aging. She brushed her hair as she looked at herself in the mirror. She may comb it next. She selected her fragrance from a beautifully displayed setting of cut glass bottles that captured and reflected light. She selected her bracelet or necklace from the jewelry box and looked in the mirror to see if it added to her beauty.

The camera captured the facial expressions of the woman as she sat looking at her face. Her thoughts, powerful energy were, no doubt, centered upon her beauty. Positive thoughts about how she looked were expressed. Disappointment was felt about how the beauty will fade. This was a defined place were thought concentration was practiced.

Women and girls still use vanities; whether it is a desk with drawers, a mirror and chair, or the bathroom mirror, it should be the place where we empower ourselves. The vanity is an altar that captures the energy of our thoughts and replays them repeatedly until we change them.

More women are embracing positive self-expression and are ignoring the standards that harm a female’s psyche and, in extreme cases, her body. Our thoughts are unique and we can either harm or enliven ourselves with them.

Science has proven that thought can change many things about our physical being, including how we look and age. Put yourself in the alpha state of mind to create by looking slightly above eye level and defocusing your vision. Visualize or imagine what you desire on your forehead in the mirror. Carry it up there and replay it with improvements, if you like, during the day and in your dreams.

Would there be a need for a vanity if she were sightless? The objects the young girl or woman surrounds herself with would appeal to her senses of touch and sound. Texture and shape, positive, action words and phrases in Braille, or recordings would be the accessories on her table and on the wall around it.

If the user were audibly challenged, her senses of touch and sight would be available to her responding to favorite colors, pleasing textures, and images that invoke joy. For whatever senses are available, bring articles that stimulate, represent goals and ideals, and are memorable in this private space.

The vanity reinforces pride in oneself. Synonyms for pride are delight and pleasure. We can express delight and pleasure for what allows our expressions of beauty. Beauty is not only about the face. A synonym for beauty is magnificence, for the Light, our manifested spiritual energy, in which our bodies and minds are held. Moreover, it is about embracing our spiritual selves. We are more than our bodies.

“Beauty is only skin deep but ugliness is to the bone” is partially true. Beauty is to the bone. Thoughts are not limited to looking beautiful, but for feeling beautiful. Faith and good works carry energy. They radiate through and beyond you. Belief and thought create beauty when they are acted upon.

Sit or stand before the mirror and be thankful for all that has brought you there. Both negative and positive life experiences served you. In Spirit, agreements were made for certain events to take place in order for you to grow. Energize your intentions with positive thoughts. Feel it; mean it. Focus the energy of your thoughts at the altar consistently and you will eventually feel or see them manifest.