Greetings to all
I have read that an Altar should face east, which confuses me. Does this mean that the front of the altar should face east or as I stand in front of my altar I face east? Struggling due to lack of space and the room configuration.
Blessings three fold to all
el hombre bruja
Super Sunday Bruja (hombre),
My understanding was to have the altar facing the poles. In the Northern Hemisphere that is having Earth element at the North. For the Southern Hemisphere that would put the Earth element in the South. I have Air for the East, Fire for the South, Water for the West and Earth for the North. I am assuming that since Earth changes points from Northern and Southern hemispheres, the Air and Water may change also. Other than that, I really do not know. Someone else may have a more precise answer.
Lady Gene 
My altar is an āend-tableā my high priestess gave me, about 2āX3ā and I keep it in the center
of my office. Desks, shelves, and workbenches line all the walls, room center is empty.
This lets me walk around it during service while I channel, very much what I need for that.
The four sides āfaceā the four cardinal directions, so it doesnāt really āfaceā any one way.
My indoor altar is on the top of my bookcase/nightstand with earth facing north. My outdoor altar is a stump in my backyard, I place my candle south for fire, incense east for air, water west (for blessing at the closing) and the altar itself, the stump, is my earth.
Oh, my indoor altar stays, I change it as needed, my outdoor altar, I take and remove my objects daily, as I have a dog.
When I am out and about, I just face the elements as I silently chant my magick.
Lady Gene 
Greetings Hombre Bruja,
My simple answer is it depends on the tradition. Most common is facing either the East or the North. If your space canāt allow for either of these placements, then the new rule is just donāt have it facing South IF you can avoid it. In my tradition if it canāt face east, the rules are not have any deity statues facing the end of your bed, and not to have it in your kitchen or in the line of sight of your bathroom. āEither in a quiet corner that doesnāt see heavy traffic or in a designated room.ā Placing it in front of an Eastern window being most beneficial.
Cheers. 
Secretive Sunday of the Surreptitious, Strategic Placing of the Altar,
Eureka!! I found it!! A Witchesā Bible: The Complete Witchesā Handbook by Janet and Steward Farrar, 1981, Phoenix Publishing, Inc. ISBN: 978-0-919345-92-8, Part 2: Principles, Rituals and Beliefs of Modern Witchcraft, pages 269-270. States how an altar should be placed, Northern or Southern Hemispheres. I stand corrected on the placements of Air and Water. They need to be Air in the East and Water in the west in both hemispheres. However, North is Earth in the northern hemisphere, where it is South in the southern hemisphere. Both cast circle from the Earth position turning to the East, Air position, That is why one is clockwise, and the other counter clockwise. The picture of the altar placements on page 270, show the altar at the Earth element for each hemisphere at their corresponding pole, and then turning East to the Air, opposite pole for Fire, West for Water, and back to Earth, altar beginning.
Wow, I almost got confused explaining that. I hope it made sense.
Lady Gene
Yes indeed - that was the book that I also learned the standard placements from. The placements of the elements varies a little bit tradition to tradition, but that is the classical western occult orientation.
Cheers. 
Humble, Humble Thank-you Sedim, that is it!!! I cannot upload stuff, so, āright-onā 
Lady Gene
Itās good to know! I didnāt before. My altar is spontaneous, and has all those elements and more,
and now Iāll have the right stuff on the right side!
Do the best you can with the space you have, but you can have your altar according to the books, North or East. I always got confused with reading that myself, so I decided to put my altar in the North and face north, when I do rituals and it depends on what branch of Witchcraft you are following. Ceremonial Magick, that the Golden Dawn Order using insist on place your altar in the East, so you face the rising Sun in the morning. I have three altars, one North, one East and in the center, so when I do a Circle Evocation I am walking around and face any direction depending on what I am doing. I do an adoration/saluation for members of my pantheon 4 times a days, so either I do it outside or around my altar. East for Apollo Sunrise, South for Aphrodite Noon, Hekate for West, Sunset and Nix for North Midnight. We had a spare room in our family house, so I made it an altar room, with wall to wall shelves for my books and items I may use in witchcraft and the Altar in the middle, a small round table with each elemental tool in the proper direction. It irritates me, when people start telling me how to practices my witchcraft especially if I donāt have the space or tool. Consider you Lord and Lady or whoever you call forth, when using witchcraft. A great example is invoking the archangelsā Uriel North, Michael South, Raphael East and Gabriel West. You face East to invoke Raphael. One thing about witchcraft, it can get as complicated as you want from considering the planet involved, sun sign, time, season, moon phase and every single one of those can be assigned a direction. I get longwinded, when I talk about ceremonial magick and witchcraft, but at 63 and I love magick, I can talk for hours on the subject. I just read what another said and forgot about hemispheres, still if you can put your altar in the center of the room all of that would not matter, but most of us canāt do that. I only can do that now, because I had family members pass and I had a room and a two story machine shop my dad had, so I had room. Most books I have read on Witchcraft says either North or East. I still like my altar in the center of the room.
Love that book! I forget every single time I do a circle that during the waxing moon and full moon you walk clockwise and during the New Moon and waning moon your walk counter clockwise.
I have a stand that Iāve been using to store my supplies and books, itās been facing West. I think that I can move it to face Lake Erie, which is North. It is also in a room that no one goes into, where my guitars are. the only windows facing East in my house are in the kitchen and catio.
I am also new!
Welcome, Moon! 
If you can get it to face North, that would be more ideal. But like I said, thereās some leeway for practicality. It matters more on the regularity of your practice and the strength of your intent that affects the strength of your magic. The way your altar faces just helps the energy flow. The fact that you can have it in a separate room is perfect! I wish I could have that lol.
Hope that helps. Cheers.
Exactly. Eastern traditions really emphasize this. Thatās why the āmost idealā is in front of an Eastern window. I donāt know why it is, but thereās a unique power when you align your altar this way.
I admire the way you have your altars aligned. If only I had that kind of arrangement, but I do my best with what I have. Itās just not much because I live in an apartment so I have very limited space. I am almost as regular as you are in my daily practice though, as my tradition quite literally demands it. Every morning I give a devotional or meditational mantra, a smoke offering and meditate with my deities. Then before bed I do a silent meditation with them once more before turning in. I used to do a night mantra too but I found it affected my sleepā¦ I also had to get a dedicated meditation journal too because they are super chatty sometimes.
And I can be the same about talking about this stuff, lol. Always interesting to hear about someone elseās practice. Very cool.
Cheers.
Iām really happy that I found all of you! Iām already learning. I had no idea that an alter should face North or East! I appreciate everyone!
Welcome to the Forum!
Glad to have you! 
Welcome, welcome.
