Hi guys
I dont actually have an alter or space to set one up
Would my kitchen table be enough to put offerings on?
Also in terms of plates do they need to be steel or can they be tin foiled?
Yepper, that’s cool. I use my kitchen table for all sorts of kitchen witchery 
They can be ceramic, porcelain or paper too if it’s suits ya.
I use a napkin for a lot of offerings. I painted à plate black for my ancestor altar, but with chalk board paint so I could also draw on it…
That stuff chips awful easy and I regret using it but to preserve my faux finish for a little while, I been putting a napkin down before I lay out a cupcake or whatever.
But I don’t even always bother putting an offering on my altar, sometimes I just leave it on the counter a few hours, I’m just clear- I designate that I have an offering and who it’s from when I leave it lay, kinda like if my kids were watching a movie but I made brownies- here it is so and so, come and get it at your leisure but I’m only leaving it hear a few hours… or whatever.
I literally talk or think my way through most processes as the talking or thinking generates energy and then my intentions do stuff with it, so while it’s probably not really necessary to be over the top like I am with stuff, it helps me! 
I could be mistaken but I believe some cultures actually reserve seats at the table, at least at certain times of the year for ancestors, so in some ways I’m sure the table is appropriate even if it seems odd to the mundane mind.
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Thank you
So can i thank them for whatever jobs they have done and leave it for say 5 hours?
Or is there a set time for how long i leave offerings out for?
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Yes that’s fine. I put them on the sideboard sometimes.
You can use ceramic or glass as well… anything really.
I leaver then for a day… try hovering your gand over the offering when you set it, and noticing how it feels. It should be like “yeah it’s just food”, then do that after some time, and see if you can feel how it’s energy changes. For me it starts to feel hollow and weak. Then you know it’s essense has been taken and it’s done. Clear it after that’s happened not before.
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It depends on if your practicing within a system or not, generally people recommend leaving it overnight or for about 24 hours, but I personally find when I take a few moments to think about who it’s for when I leave it, that a long amount of time is not necessary.
But I also try to be generous and appreciative of the spirits like my ancestors that I work off the cuff with and not within a set form, they interject themselves (without being asked to) frequently in my life, so for me they are fairly easy to reach out to.
To start with you may want to go with longer durations, or when the spirit in question is less familiar to you, in order to be sure your thoughts and appreciation go to the right place.
For example when I leave an offering where I’ll see it throughout the day, every time I see it with my physical eyes, I just know who it’s for- so it confirms all around me that offering is for that spirit.
So the act of leaving an offering a while, can be beneficial as it helps reaffirm what the offering is for to you, which in turn does this for the spirits in question as well.
So a long time isn’t necessary, as little as an hour is good honestly (probably even less if you get some sort of confirmation it was accepted) but longer times have benefits too that may not be immediately apparent at a first glance 
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Kitchen table works, one I’d also recommend is one of those pocket alters. A simple but effective way to take your magic or Patron/Matron with you while you go about your day-to-day.
Your devotional plate can be any material that you desire, so long as it can be used with the intent of offering; If it’s just food, make sure that it can be cleaned without causing major damage to the plate/bowl. If it’s things like incense sticks/cones, things that put off heat, make sure that whatever you’re putting them on can take the heat. I made that mistake with a resin ash tray my sister made for me, burned a hole into it because I underestimated how much heat the resin could handle.
The more intent and energy that you put into it, the better.
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I have a scorch mark on the Formica on our kitchen counter…
My metal plate got tooooo hot . Smoke can also leave marks on your walls and ceilings so even if you don’t have flames, heat awareness is always advised!
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It doesn’t taste right either, usually it’s more bland than it would be and often appears to spoil too fast too, like the nutrients or energy was literally siphoned off it.
Like even prepackaged things… I’m a cupcake girl so I’ll buy a box of 12 cakes and eat some and share some…
Let me tell you don’t want to eat the ones you shared outside of invoking… it’s like ew gross what happened here…
I share upon occasion now, but one of my first notable experiences with this was being instructed to consume the offering after the entity had accepted it.
I think mostly because I thought it was bullshit and wind. My mind didn’t understand how food equates to energy and I couldn’t get my mind to accept that physical food was indeed useful to a spirit and not purely symbolic.
Consuming it myself after an entity had taken what they wanted though really got my attention
My mind always wants to be reasonable and logical so sometimes it really takes me a minute to get what’s going on
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Yes! I rarely eat them but I tried it once or twice and you’re absolutely right.
I like to share too: a glass of wine for both of us and a toast to the working’s success. 
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