Living with Sacred Space

Living with Sacred Space   
 
The forming of sacred space is a coming together of your being and the Universe so as to allow communion and conversation. Consecrating an item or a space for a particular use happens every minute of every day.  Even now you have spaces in your own home consecrated to specific purposes such as your bathroom which is used for personal hygiene, the kitchen where you prepare meals, the bedroom where you rest and perhaps recreate, and the garage which houses your vehicle and seasonal items.  (And all kinds of stuff you'll use again 'someday' and all the great tools for making things and fixing things...)   This works as well for open plan, loft, and studio spaces as it does for traditional dwellings.  Space delineation and consecration does not require walls. Designers and organizers use consecration when renovating a building, however they call it "repurposing" a space or an item, by which they mean releasing it from its previous purpose and consecrating it to another. 
 
Religious institutions utilize the process of consecration in building and using their holy structures such as churches, temples, shrines, synagogues, mosques, basilicas, and holy sites.  Contemporary Protestant churches in communities all over North America and Europe utilize what in the past had been houses and commercial spaces, turning them into holy places of community and union through the act of consecration. For example, on a trip to Italy a friend asked that we go to Easter service as we were going to be in Rome on the day.  I agreed and started getting excited about Rome and the Vatican and navigating the crowds.  However, my friend had other ideas.  Rome, yes.  Church, Methodist!  We found one, several blocks down the Via Della Conciliazione (the main road leading to the Vatican), in a converted apartment building.  You'd never know it was there and it only held about fifty people, but the people were from all over the world, all fascinating, and the church served its purpose admirably.  In another example, just down the road from my previous house, right next to my Laundromat and the custom skateboard shop, was a storefront which had been consecrated for use as a church.  It was empty a great deal of the weekday, but was hopping on the weekend.
 
While soaring cathedral spaces, religious art, masterpieces of devotion, gold leaf, and bas relief, add a sense of other worldliness, awe and wonder to a structure, what invites and sustains such a space of sacredness is consecration. At the outset an individual or group sets items in place in a space, then states their intention and request for what the space will be, what will be accomplished there, and invites the deity to participate in the process.  Through cooperation and interconnection, the Space becomes a sacred meeting place for the people who come there and for the Universe who meets them step for step.
 
Consecration is not a single act, although it is most often associated with the pomp and ceremony of initially opening a space.  Consecration is an ongoing process, an act repeated and reiterated through time building layers of dedication and actions like the rings of a tree, which grows in stature and majesty year on year.  Each act, each day in which we participate in connecting with sacred space as represented in a specific building, altar or room adds to the consecration of the space and deepens our connection to the Universe and its mystery.  This can be felt distinctly in churches which have stood for hundreds of years, in holy or pilgrimage sites, and in geographic areas where indigenous people have interacted with the Great Mystery for centuries.
 
As individuals we often think our actions are small and ineffectual when measured against others who have power, against things which seem larger than us, stronger than us, or extremely incomprehensible.  Who are we, such insignificant people, to make any impact on anything?  Doesn't it make sense since our lives are brief, our impact negligible, just as the tides wash away our footprints and weeds take over what land we attempt to own?  Aren't we shown through every vagary of the weather, tornado, tsunami, draught, flood, hurricane, that we are nothing and easily swept aside? But each of us is part of the numinous, both unique from and yet interconnected and central to All that Is. Each action we take, each thought we harbor, each emotion we feel, each feeling we express, radiates from us like the tones of a chime.  They can be harmonious or discordant, but they ring out and everything they touch is affected!  And like grains of sand in a container each one added to the others, over time, fills the jar.  The deserts of Egypt used to be ocean!  Who you are is powerful and what you do is valuable and aids us all.  The wonder of it all is we have the ability to choose what actions we take, the ability to control our thoughts, to some extent, and the ability to change our emotions, which are powers very few other beings possess. Each of us has not only the ability but the opportunity to influence our surroundings everyday through who we are and what we do.  And the most readily available place to do so is your home.  It is the place you have consecrated to living your life.  And as all things are part of the Universe and interact with it, so your home has accepted you and lives with you in partnership.
 
Your home is a reflection of who you are in a great many ways.  Either formally or informally it has been consecrated to act in your best interest or your stated needs. It reflects the you of the moment by reacting to what you do in it and without.  It may glow with love even though it is shabby from the need for a bit of attention. It may be a showplace for all you have accomplished.  It may be the cramped space which keeps you safe and motivated to make it to the next step of your journey.  It may be comfortable and durable to survive the family of children and grandchildren whose laughter can be heard in every room.  It can be the fortress of solitude where you can retreat from a chaotic world.  It can be any and many of these things within a matter of days depending on your choices and the rhythm of your life. Whatever you bring to it, it reflects back to you.  Everything in your outer life reflects your inner becoming and if it doesn't, you are uncomfortable and seek to change it or move to somewhere that does.
 
Your home can also house your own personal sacred space.  Just as you have the ability to create altars, you can create a personal space large enough so you can physically participate in sacred action and sacred beingness.  This can be an entire room, a designated area, or something temporary which is recreated again and again as needed, then tucked away when not in use.  Sacred space is the place where you can have full being connection with the divine. 
 
Altars invite the numinous into our homes to help us create, manifest, appreciate and celebrate our lives, but it is a contained process we interact with in a heart centered and mindful way allowing the physicality to reside in the objects of the altar itself.  It is as if they move in a very slow dance interweaving with each other to commune with us and communicate with the All that is.  Personal sacred space allows us to BE the altar.  They allow us to physically enter sacred space, one formed specifically for us, for our intention, and our best and highest good.  We become the living symbol of "I Am."  Our entire being, physical, mental emotional, and spiritual, enters into full engagement with the sacred.  Our thought processes open to experience the Universal, our hearts open to feel all of our true and honest emotions, and our bodies experience fully what it is to feel whole and alive in interrelation with the numinous. With this we are able to enter the timeless wonder of truly being everything as well as our deepest selves at the same instant.
 
While consecration is often associated with buildings, just as with an altar you have the ability to form sacred space anywhere you are.  What acknowledges and activates sacred space, what invites it to you is the act of consecration. Your intent, as felt through your heart and defined by your mind, is formed into consecration through your acts of forming sacred space and speaking your truth.  Creating this space, whether it is a small corner of a room for meditating, an outdoor yoga space, a mirrored room for dance, or a hidden oasis in nature in which to dream, consecrates it as holy space.  Consecration need not be a permanent thing such as is done with churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, and other religious structures.  It can be a temporary space in the moment.  Many native tribes have practices where individuals or groups go to a place of their choosing, use various methods such as herbs, stones, pictures, or cloth to delineate sacred space, which are then consecrated for a one-time event. Once the event is concluded, the space is cleared and cleaned, returning it to its previous purpose and inhabitants.  Yet, each action and thought, each communion with the numinous leaves its resonance in a place.  Just as we grow and become from our experiences, so do all things animate and inanimate. Our spiritual journey, our healing and expression, our speaking of the truth blesses all around us and this resonance carries on long after the event has passed.
 
Creating personal sacred space gives us the ability to work directly with the numinous, including our guides, our teachers, our angels, and helpers.  It removes the barriers to clear thought, positive and clear communication and helps us to remember we are spiritual beings living an embodied experience.  It helps us on our journey, not to remove our bodily needs or wants, but to integrate within them so we can healthily live the life we chose before being born and the path we are walking now.  Our bodies are an integral part of who we are and the experiences we have come into the world to have.  Our bodies come from the All that Is and are just as sacred as our souls.  Integrating them into the process of sacred communication allows us to re-member and become whole.
 
When working with students I often encourage them to take some time and assess where they have already created personal sacred space in their lives, whether it be permanent or temporary, indoor or outdoor, a room or just enough space to lie down in. This can be a spare room, an outdoor space, a quiet corner somewhere, but really any place at all.  I know of people who have small apartments and set up a cushion on the floor next to a small shelf with a notebook and other special items.  I have met people who select one spot in nature and take the time walking to and from this space to meditate and remove themselves from the daily world so when they arrive, they are focused on the spiritual.  There are others who dedicate spare rooms to meditation, yoga, and spiritual work and so the entire space becomes sacred from the color of the walls to the floor coverings.  When I was working in high tech and had to travel often, I created a portable Sacred Space kit with incense and altar items I could set up in hotel rooms. 
 
Once my students know what spaces they already have, I ask they check in on what spaces they don't yet have but want to.  For example, there are those who want to cook and do kitchen witchery, but the way their kitchen functions prohibits them from pretty much anything other than wrestling to get the basics done.  Seeing this as potential sacred space means we can stop managing, back up and start the process of bringing the space into relationship with who we are and how we want to relate to it and the bigger picture.  This can mean repainting, rearranging things, or even going full kitchen overhaul. Or maybe you want a meditation space out in the back or side yard, but it has seemed overwhelming, too much effort or too expensive.  Approaching the project as a spiritual path means you can look at this, not as a one-and-done construction project, but a layering in of intention, from marking out the boundaries to preparing the soil, collecting each piece of equipment to putting each piece in place.  Consecrating this as sacred space is part of the creating process and forms the foundation of your relationship with it and yourself going forward. 
 
No matter what, how much, or what kind of personal sacred space you create, each is a place where you can meditate, work with your guides and teachers, request healing on any and all levels of being, ask for guidance on specific issues, and whatever else you feel inspired to do.