Is my first altar set up in a way that s

Yes — it holds up, but not for the reason most first altars fail. The reading says the problem isn't the arrangement; it's that the setup is being kept rather than used.

Past — Death, upright. The altar exists because something closed. You let a prior way of doing this go, and the physical space is the visible proof that the closing happened. That's a good foundation to build on, not a small thing.

Present — Nine of Pentacles, reversed. This is the seat that names a thing you can go look at. Reversed, the Nine of Pentacles is care pointed outward at the objects and not back at the person: a surface kept dust-free, items in their place, corners arranged — while the working part of the setup (the spot you actually put your hands, the side that faces you) is the least-used part of it. Right now the altar is tending itself.

Future — Strength, reversed. Conditional on that continuing: the near-term tendency is gentleness with yourself becoming hard to manage there — you go to it expecting the setup to feel like something, and it doesn't, and you leave slightly more tired than you arrived. Strength reversed is self-doubt, not a warning about the objects.

Two of three cards reversed, and the energy is Earth (Nine of Pentacles) against Fire (Strength): care without warmth. Fire and Earth together say this needs actual use before it needs more arrangement.

The conditional: if, when you do one real sitting, the light holds and you touch every object on it and don't feel the urge to straighten it first — then the layout is fine, and the Nine of Pentacles reversed is about *frequency*, not form. If instead you find yourself adjusting things before you can sit, or an object sits in the centre that you never actually use — then the change is one thing moved, not a redesign.

Your step, within 48 hours: light the altar exactly as it stands for one ten-minute sitting with a single card, use it without rearranging a thing, then write three lines about what physically happened — where the light fell, whether anyone or anything interrupted, which objects your hands actually touched. That report is the thing cards cannot give you, and it's what decides "adjust the frequency" versus "move one object."

Want this saved to your journal, or the spread drawn as a picture?