“I don’t collect art b/c I move too often, but yours [Earth, Air, Fire, Water] was one of the rare I must take this home pieces. Your work has a beautiful spirituality to it; there’s good energy in the art (and, I suspect, in the artist).…you deserve your art to be seen by a wider audience. It’s beautiful; it speaks. It has the power of femininity, the goddess, the universe in it.” [author of soon-to-be-a-movie,Wicked Lovely, and more] Melissa Marr
What is a “Sacred Space?”
It can mean and be anything you want, but for me it means a space that reminds me to take a breather. It can be big or small or indoors or out. It can be a rock or an altar or a collection of seashells in a jar. What makes it “Sacred” is the energy it carries for you: an intention, a vacation, a talisman of an ancestor.
How do you want the spaces you dwell most in to be?
Are the spare and white or jumbled and a riot of color? Each, and everything in between, can be what calls you back to yourself.
That’s what we’re aiming at here, being called to remember who you choose to be – consciously and serenely.
Sometimes, when we have let the world and it’s hurry and worry get between us and who we authentically are, however, that is reflected in how we fill and occupy the environments where we spend time.
When I was in my 20s (and, let’s face it, pretty lost about even thinking about who I was and in reaction to everything around me), a friend came to my house the first time and said: “Wow, I thought your house would be filled with art!” It wasn’t. There was very little that reflected me in that house. That simple statement has resonated down through my life and today I pay attention to what I invite into my energy places. I tend toward jumbled and riots of color. And even though I make art, my spaces are filled with the art of others because I love the energy it brings.
I do have my own art here, too, and all of it creates an amazingly beautiful web in which I am safely held from high winds and deep waters.
How to Make YOUR Sacred Space
Consider the energy that you use to surround yourself – do you feel safe? are you reminded that a quick breathing out of gratitude can change the whole atmosphere? do you look forward to entering this place when you return from being out in the world – or, if it is at your office, does it remind you to stop and breathe and be in this very present moment which will never again present itself to you? is it your true, heart and soul, really truly you energy? do you check in with yourself and make sure you take note of and reflect the you that is growing and changing? do you lovingly remove the old to make way for the new?
A wall in my office: Far left top and bottom: a crayon drawing by me and a needlepoint of mine from the 70s; middle top and bottom (2) – Story People by Brian Andreaus, center a 3d print by Kathleen Masters who I met years later at an art show – and she gave me another for watching her boothe for her!; middle top right a lovely little oil painting by a British friend I met via FB; far right: a painting gifted me by my husband from one of his travels and a commision from Patriai Federspiel. On the shelf, my sculpture, “Fire Dreaming” who reminds me that I can dream and that I should take time right now to breathe and remember that!
This is my Garden Sprite, I AM! She is about 6 feet tall and sits in a grove I can see from my office window. The sun hits her in the afternoon through the trees and her copper hair glows. She has dangles: a teapot from my Mom who died over 30 years ago; and antler given me by my cousin/sister who died too young 15 years ago; a shell from the Outer Banks of North Carolina – an island that we rented a boat to get to, wind swept and littered with amazing shells; gifts from my son and daughter that I chose to honor here; a “dinosaur” my grandson made at age 3; sage; a bell that lived on the back door announcing neighbors for 46 years at the house where I grew up; and a few of my smaller ceramic creations.
She makes me smile. She stands like a tree looking completely at home. I’m sure the fairies love her
and the pixies dance around her at night. Perhaps she even comes alive and dances with them. Magic happens in Sacred Spaces! That’s why we create them. So we have a place for Magic to reside, and a space to remember and celebrate the unique energy we bring onto this planet and into this Universe!
And Sacred Spaces don’t have to be big! They can be portable, like the art journals here, and here and here – things we can carry with us. Or Talismen that we can wear.
Ways to Create YOUR Sacred Space
You can gather what you’ve made, and take on-line workshops like this (for outdoors) or this (for indoors) or this (to wear). You can take in-person workshops where you live are willing to travel to, or even creative retreat weekends. The options are only limited by your imagination!
I would also invite you to browse the art I make and see if any of it calls to you. And I invite you to consider making your own art in my workshops. Finally, if you feel the need of a mentor in pulling some or all of it together or deciding where to start, I invite you to get in touch with me! I’ll be happy to help you design your Sacred Spaces – either by making them yourself, or finding what your want or some combination.
What are you waiting for?!
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