Any practice as widespread as altar building is will present the appearance of many or at least several motivations for the practice. Looking below the surface, one may begin to discover the deeper similarities between apparently disparate human actions. These fundamental urges we act out, and the subconscious reasons beneath our actions tie humanity to one another, and reminds us of our family-hood.

As stated in the introduction, religion and spirituality can be seen as the maps humans have employed to chart a course on the great adventure of our search for self-purpose and the reason to existence. Charting a path into the unknown is cause for some amount of concern, especially when that trail leads us into the realms in which energies and/or entities exist that are larger than our mortal envelope. In a quest to find a tool with which to interact with these Others, humankind has found some success in the form of the altar. Grand concepts and divine mysteries can be easily symbolized, with objects agreed to stand for these macrocosmic residents.

A portal of communication has been sought to bridge the chasm we imagine exists "between" these human and divine realms. Kay Turner writes in her book Beautiful Necessity: The Art And Meaning Of Women's Altars (1999), "An altar makes visible that which is invisible and brings near that which is far away; it marks the potential for communication and exchange between different but necessarily connected worlds, the human and the divine." Because the answers can not be known on the human plane when charting the course into the unknown, people have striven to receive inspiration and guidance from the divine. The altar is the nexus point at which duality is released and the holy certainty is experienced.

The altars themselves are not representations of the divine. Rather, they house or host space to display the divine. Milt Machlin in the book Joshua's Altar (1991) describes primitive altar-like stones: "The practice of setting up commemorative stones, of maseboth, survives from very ancient times,...The Israelites erected maseboth without ascribing divine qualities to them..." An altar can be said to be a tool that holds other tools. Edain McCoy states in her book Entering The Summerland: Customs And Rituals Of Transition Into The Afterlife (1996), "On the practical side, an altar serves as a place to organize and set out tools and other items that will be needed during the rite, or which lend ambiance to the occasion..."

Symbolically the altar represents the "All That Is," the canvas upon which reality is painted. It raises the sacred objects physically above the floor as symbol of raising the witch's attention of these things...All the objects upon the altar are representations and also channels for the larger ideas and concepts beyond the simple objects. Because of the belief in imminence the altar objects become sacred — reflections and manifestations of the greater Divine."

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