Creating Sacred Space

Creating a sacred space within your home is important. Every person needs a special room, or even just a corner, which they can call their own. I have two places: a corner in the dining room where my rolltop desk sits, and upstairs in a rectangular room off the master bedroom.

I suppose at one time the rectangular room could have been used as a closet, but it's unheated, and there is really no place to hang clothes. It would make a huge closet, if there was any place to store clothes. I use it as a place to keep my books, and I have a personal altar set up in the room also. Basically, this room has become a catchall room: not only do I store books, I have all my unfinished and to-be-finished craft projects stored there. If the room were heated, I would spend more time in it. One side has a mirror covering half the wall, and the ceiling rises at a steep angle on both sides. I think the entire upstairs portion of the house was an afterthought! Someday soon, I will have DH put up some shelves in the room so I can get my books up off the floor.

My altar faces north, right behind a support beam that runs from the basement to the roof. I keep candles and other minutiae on the altar, representing the elements. It was a major step to take a small table and set up this personal place to honor my spirituality. Most of the items on the altar were repurposed from elsewhere in the house. For instance, the altar cloth is a scarf I used to wear with my coat during wintertime. In a jewelry box, I found several stones that I had kept for one reason or another, and I now have a reason to use them. Some of the candleholders were ones I wasn't using. In addition, a poster of the goddes Gaia (Mother Earth) I purchased long ago became the focal point when I hung it up behind the altar. A white-handled knife I got for a dollar as part of a refunded purchase at a local kitchen store became my bolline. It is strange how these things I bought for no reason, other than I felt it necessary to buy them, became useful items. Nearly everything was something I already had. I did have to buy some things, like incense and new candles. But by repurposing the old items, I am using items that are already infused with my energy.

To make your own personal altar, you can be of any faith or tradition. The altar is a place where you honor your Self as well as your god(s). Take a small corner knick-knack table and use that. Cover it with a scarf or table cloth with some personal meaning and then add your minutiae--objects of personal significance. You can decorate it according to the seasons or time of year if you wish. Note that you don't have to buy a bunch of stuff to make your altar complete. Then, each day, whether morning or evening, you can sit before it and contemplate Scripture or other type of daily meditation. Perhaps you will spend your time writing a journal entry. By having this personal space, you can actually stop and "smell the roses" that you would otherwise pass by. You can also hear that still, small voice within, if you stop to listen.

But the "altar" does not have to be such a specific space. Some people's desks could qualify as their personal space. In fact, for many people, a desk is about as much space as they can carve out for themselves in their homes.

Downstairs in the corner of the dining room, my desk is another type of personal space. Alas, it is not as inviting as my book room. It's too messy. I should keep it cleared off and then it would be more inviting to sit and write or whatever. My books are stacked up, covering all the available space. All kinds of objects sit on the top shelf: an old clock, pictures of my grandmothers, a box of envelopes, three cups of pens and pencils, and various other items that probably shouldn't be there. Let's not talk about the dust!

Books, notebooks, and magazines are piled high on the surface. I keep telling myself that once I get my shelves built in my book room upstairs, then I can clear it all off, and put it all away in the small bookcase I have downstais--which is currently overstuffed with other books. Books, books, and more books--and that's even after I pared down.

Well, someday soon I'll have my desk set up how I want it and how it will be inducive to creativity, instead of stagnation. Clutter is stagnating. It's easy for stuff to pile up and become choking. Even on a personal altar, you should clear it off every so often, replacing used up stuff with new stuff. Clearing out the clutter will renew and invigorate your spirit.

Perhaps you don't want such a formal space as an altar or even a desk. There are other places in your home you may not even realize are sacred spaces. For instance, do you have a mantel? If you do, you most likely have pictures and other items of significance arranged on it. When you walk by the mantel and see the objects, you feel happy, relaxed, and calm. That is the point of sacred space.

In your bathroom, perhaps you have your own medicine cabinet. Your nightstand by your bed can be another place of your own. And how about your favorite easy chair or your car? Obviously, any place can be sacred, as long as you feel relaxed and as long as you enjoy being in it.

I read an anecdote once about a woman who created her ideal office space in her home in which to write, and the first day she tried to use it, she froze. She felt it was too perfect. I suppose that can happen when you create your personal space, but don't get too worked up over it. Create a place that you enjoy being in, and that you want to be in. For example, I don't like how my desk looks right now because it is so messy, so I don't want to be there. Once I get it set up the way I want to, I figure I will spend more time there. Of course, that could be famous last words!

One final point about sacred space: often, people don't want others in the household to touch the items in their personal space. Desk items may not seem important, but if you have an altar, you definitely don't want people bothering it. It is up to you about what is off-limits. A place you might not think is sacred to you might be sacred to someone else in your household, so ask before touching someone's pile of junk.

Both children and adults need a place to call their own--a small sanctuary in the busyness that is Life. A room, a niche, a desk, even a nightstand if that's all that's available, can be a place to renew the spirit and a place in which to listen to your heart.