# Getting started

Chapter 1 of the Altar user guide.

## What's in your download

| File | What it is |
| --- | --- |
| `Altar-1.0.0-altar.zip` | The theme with the **Altar** preset: crystals and a witchy shop |
| `Altar-1.0.0-apothecary.zip` | The theme with the **Apothecary** preset: herbs, ritual candles and botanicals |
| `Altar-1.0.0-arcana.zip` | The theme with the **Arcana** preset: tarot, oracle and astrology |
| `Altar-user-guide.pdf` | This guide |
| `LICENSE.txt` | Your licence: one store per purchase |

The three zips are the same theme. A preset only decides the starting palette, heading font, a few settings, the words, the home page, the product page, the moon, signs and contact pages, and the header and footer, and you can change all of them afterwards. Products, photos and demo text are not included: a fresh install shows your own products, and sections that need a product or collection show placeholders in the theme editor until you choose one.

## Presets

| Preset | For | Palette | Fonts | Home page, in order |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Altar | Crystal shops and witchy shops | Midnight (dark indigo and gold) | Imbue headings, Crimson Pro body | A **Moon orbit** hero ("Stones for every intention", three ticks and a caption card), the **Moon phase** ("Tonight's moon", with products for this moon), **Shop by intention** (Calm, Protection, Love, Abundance and Clarity as tarot cards), Best sellers (8 products), the **zodiac wheel** ("Stones for your sign", with Find your sign), a **Pick your piece** showcase ("Every stone is one of a kind. Choose yours."), the sourcing story ("From small mines to your altar", three steps), testimonials ("Kind words from the circle") and the **Moon notes** newsletter on the night band |
| Apothecary | Herbs, cleansing bundles, ritual candles and incense | Herbarium (parchment, moss ink, oxblood accent) | Montagu Slab headings, Crimson Pro body | A Moon orbit hero ("Herbs and candles for small rituals"), the Moon phase ("For this moon"), a herbs grid ("Cleansing herbs and bundles"), **Ritual kits** ("Everything for one ritual", three kits), Shop by intention (Cleansing, Protection, Sleep, Love and Focus), the garden story ("Picked at the full moon, dried in the dark"), testimonials and the Moon notes newsletter |
| Arcana | Tarot and oracle decks, astrology and birth-chart prints | Nebula (deep plum and lilac) | Oranienbaum headings, Crimson Pro body | A Moon orbit hero ("Decks for the questions you carry"), the zodiac wheel ("Decks and charts for your sign"), New decks (8), the Moon phase (a three-card spread for each phase), Shop by intention (Guidance, Love, Work, Shadow work and Creativity), "Learn to read in three evenings" (three steps), an FAQ ("Before you ask"), testimonials and the Moon notes newsletter |

The presets also differ in a few settings:

* **Card shape** (Theme settings › Product cards): Tarot 2:3 in Altar and Arcana, Portrait 3:4 in Apothecary (bundles and candle jars sit better in a wider card).
* **Intention chips on cards** (Theme settings › Crystals and rituals): 3 in Altar, 2 in Apothecary and Arcana.
* **Collection for intention and sign links**: each preset points at a collection by its handle, `crystals` (Altar), `apothecary` (Apothecary) or `all-decks` (Arcana). Until a collection with that handle exists, the links go to all products (chapter 9).
* **The announcement bar** reads "Ethically sourced crystals", "Grown and dried in Daylesford" or "Free reading guide with every deck", each followed by "Free shipping over $80".
* **The header's menu promos** (chapter 3) sit under a top-level link called **Crystals** (Altar: "Pick your piece" and "Find your sign"), **Herbs** (Apothecary: "Build a ritual kit" and "Shop by intention") or **Tarot decks** (Arcana: "Find your sign" and "New decks").
* **Free dispatch over** (Theme settings › Commerce) is **80** in all three presets, to match the demo announcement. Set it to your own free-shipping threshold, or to 0 if you don't offer free shipping, before you publish (chapter 2).

The fourth palette, **Moonstone** (milky pearl with a slate-violet accent), has no preset of its own; choose it in Theme settings › Colors on any preset.

Every preset's product page has the same buy box: the product type and origin line, the title with its rating, the price with **intention chips** under it, the description, the variant picker (which shows a piece option as a grid of photo cards, chapter 11), the stock line, the buy buttons with Shopify's instalments message, a back-in-stock request, three **trust rows** with the disclaimer under them, the **Moon note** (chapter 10), pickup availability and a specifications table. Under the photos sit the **Crystal properties** panel (chapter 8) and two collapsible rows, "Cleansing and care" and "Shipping and returns". Under the page, "Pairs well with" shows four recommended products. The trust rows, the collapsible rows and the moon note are sample text in Altar's voice in all three presets ("Ethically sourced from small family mines", "Free shipping over $80, from Byron Bay"): rewrite them to your own terms, or remove them.

Every preset also ships these templates, which you assign to pages in admin (**Online Store › Pages**, then the page's **Theme template** field):

| Template | Use it for | What's on it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `page.moon` | A page for the moon (chapter 10) | The **Moon phase** section ("Tonight's moon") with a phase group for each part of the cycle, four scrolling rows of moon ritual kits (one per phase group: "For the new moon", "For the waxing moon", "For the full moon", "For the waning moon") and a "How we work with the moon" text |
| `page.signs` | A page for the zodiac (chapter 9) | The zodiac wheel with **Find your sign** ("Stones for your sign") and an "About the signs" text |
| `page.contact` | Your contact page | The contact form with an order number field and a "Before you write" text column |
| `page.compare` | Side-by-side comparison (chapter 4) | The comparison table |

The presets' buttons and links point to pages and collections that a fresh store doesn't have yet. Create them with these handles, or point each link at your own as you build:

* **Altar**: collections `crystals` (the hero's **Shop crystals** button and the finder collection), `for-the-new-moon`, `for-the-waxing-moon`, `for-the-full-moon` and `for-the-waning-moon` (the moon's phase groups); a product with the handle `citrine-geode-piece` for the Pick your piece showcase (or choose your own one-of-a-kind product there), and `amethyst-cluster-uruguay` for the hero's caption link; a page `our-sourcing`.
* **Apothecary**: collections `apothecary`, `cleansing`, `ritual-kits` and the four moon collections; products `new-moon-kit`, `full-moon-kit`, `cleansing-kit` and `rosemary-and-lavender-bundle`; a page `our-garden`.
* **Arcana**: collections `all-decks`, `new-decks` and the four moon collections; a product `moonlit-tarot-deck`; a blog `journal` for "Read the beginner's guide".
* **All three**: a page with the handle `contact` and the `page.contact` template (the announcement bar's "Visit the shop" link), and a page `reviews` (the testimonials' "Read every review" link). The intention cards and the zodiac wheel need the Search & Discovery filters of chapter 9 before they filter anything.

## Install

1. In Shopify admin, go to **Online Store › Themes**.
2. In the **Theme library**, click **Add theme › Upload zip file** and choose the zip of the preset you want. Don't unzip it first.
3. When the upload finishes, click **Customize** to open the theme editor and make it yours.
4. When you're ready, click **Publish** (on the theme's **…** menu in the library, or from the editor). You can upload a second preset next to it to compare; only the published theme is live.

## First steps

1. **Brand**: Theme settings › Brand: your logo, or the shop name as a text wordmark in the heading font, and a favicon.
2. **Colors and fonts**: Theme settings › Colors › Color palette, then Typography (chapter 2).
3. **Menus**: in admin, **Content › Menus**: build the main menu and the footer menu (chapter 3). Rename or move the header's menu promos to one of your own top-level links.
4. **Product data**: create the metafield definitions in chapter 7 and fill them on a few products to see the crystal properties panel, the intention chips and the piece cards appear.
5. **One-of-a-kind stones**: set up a product with a **Piece** option, one variant per stone (chapter 11).
6. **Filters**: install Shopify's free **Search & Discovery** app and add the **Intentions** and **Zodiac** filters, so the intention cards, the zodiac wheel and the chips can filter (chapter 9).
7. **The moon**: create the four moon collections and choose one in each phase group of the Moon phase section (chapter 10).
8. **Real promises**: the presets ship with demo words. Rewrite the announcement bar, the hero's ticks and caption, the trust rows, the product page's collapsible rows, the moon note and the newsletter so they only promise what you offer, replace the sample testimonials and their "4.9 out of 5" eyebrow with real ones, and keep every claim to tradition and belief (chapter 8).