“Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.”
— Joseph Campbell
What Does Sacred Mean to You?
The word sacred is sometimes associated with religious beliefs, spirituality, or an experience of connecting with the divine, with nature, with one’s essence, soul, or spirit. We acknowledge and honor your relationship with and definition of sacred. We experience sacred as the embodiment of any word, thought or action that is intentional, inspirational, and full of heart. As you travel on your own journey into the sacred, you allow your personal values and passions to imbue all the sacred spaces and sacred moments you are living into. We invite you to become surprised and delighted by your own discoveries and experiences of the sacred as you construct and reinforce the architecture of your being.
How to Create Sacred Space
Creating sacred space is both the foundation and scaffolding for connecting to what’s most meaningful to you. It can be a place to reflect your beliefs, ideas, dreams and creativity. Consider how you want it to make you feel and how you would want to use it. Generating sacred space can be something you do daily, monthly or seasonally, and can be shared with loved ones and practiced alone. Here’s some considerations for cultivating your sacred space:
- Dedicate a spot that can become sacred. It doesn’t have to be a whole room. It can be a corner of a room, on a bookshelf, the top of a dresser, or a place in your garden. Choose if this space will be public and open to others’ contributions or private and filled with your own personal touches. Perhaps your scared space is on wheels or on a tray that can be moved in and out of public and private areas. Our space is in the center of our home, on the fireplace. It’s a place we pass by several times a day and is openly displayed for others to see and contribute to. Seeing it helps us remember to pause for a mindful breath, to reconnect with an intention, affirmation, word, feeling, or to simply make us smile.
- Gather what you love. Find and place personal items which are meaningful to you in this space. That may include pictures of family members who are still with you and those who have passed, teachers, mentors, guides, and statues or icons of those whom you admire. It may include your favorite candle, poem, affirmation cards, stones, crystals, plants, flowers and anything that gives you energy, inspires and reconnects you to your intentions. We have included items from our travels, pictures of our teachers, icons of our ancestors, artwork, flowers, a single candle and sage for smudging. Our space is continually being refreshed and evolving with what we feel is valuable in the moment.
- Create a nourishing habit. Once you’ve created your sacred space, decide, how you will enjoy it. Will you use the space to meditate, stretch, pray or set intentions? Will you just sit, with your eyes closed, enjoying a few minutes of peace and quiet? Will you sing, chant, ring a chime, play an instrument? Your ritual can be as simple or as intricate as you like. It can be something you share with roommates, family members or do alone. But whatever you choose, make it nourishing and meaningful to you. Some days, we light a candle or burn some sage while we say a prayer of loving kindness. Sometimes we choose a card from one of our favorite decks to help inform a daily intention. Other days we beat on a drum or resonate with a singing bowl. Drawing from sacred traditions from around the world and our own travels has inspired us to include a variety of resonant, symbolic and nourishing practices.
The process of constructing your own sacred space, filling it with what you love, and customizing your own sacred practices can reinforce the expression of your essence and your connection to the whole. May your journey into the sacred be filled with Metta.
Check out our video: How to Create Sacred Space