|
Your Own Sacred Space
by Link
There are many ways to bond with
your own personal sacred places, wherever they may be. Getting to know a place is no different from
any other relationship you might have.
Like any kinship, it requires a two-way exchange of energy, and openness
to what one another has to give. People
and places have formed a special bond all throughout history. This can be as simple as you or I having a
favorite spot near the lake, or an entire nation being driven to protect a
place they consider their home.
Grounding
Grounding
is a very easy two-way exchange we can have with a place. Visualize sinking roots deep into the ground,
taking in the special energies of that place and leaving behind a bit of
yourself. Try synching this with your breathing,
where you “breath in” through your roots what that special patch of ground
might have to give you. Then breathe
out, pushing yourself down into your roots, so that the place can in-turn
“taste” a bit of you. Grounding need not
be limited to the ground! You can also
take in the energies of the ocean, or lake or stream, inhaling them in, and
exhaling what you leave behind.
Sharing Gifts
Besides
just visualizing an exchange between you and your place, there are more
tangible ways to get to know one another.
Snip off a blade of grass, a leaf or berry -- and taste it. When you eat something, it becomes part of
you. This makes a connection that helps
you and your place tune in to one another.
Imagine that every living thing, including your sacred place, has a
unique vibe, a “signature” that makes it just a little bit different than
anything else. Tasting a bit of that
place is a good way to home-in on its unique frequency.
Now that you have
tasted a bit of your place, what morsel might you offer in return? Many people offer libations of food and drink
to special places. Next time you visit
your place, bring a snack. Fruit, nuts,
a crust of bread, virtually anything that will not upset the animals or plants
there will be a very well-received gift!
For a more
personal exchange, try giving your place a little piece of yourself. Clip your nails, or maybe bring the leftovers
from your last hair-cut. The gifts you
leave behind will over time be absorbed into the soil and a bit of you will
become a part of your special place. Just as the leaf or berry you ate becomes
part of your own flesh and blood, your gift to that place provides the organic
material to become…perhaps a leaf or a berry?
Imagine how special it might feel to know that a tiny bit of you
lives on within the place you find so dear.
Likewise, a tiny bit of that place can now travel to far-off lands, read,
write and recite poetry, hear music and feel the warmth of an embrace – all as
a part of you. Many people acknowledge
that giving a lock of hair or other personal gift to a magical partner helps
establish a stronger connection. What
happens when you give that same lock of hair to a place? Some say that Mother Nature’s magic is the
most powerful of all.
Chemically we
aren’t much different from the ground we walk upon. There is no part of your
body that nature will not welcome into its ecosystem – regardless of how human
society may label certain body parts or bodily functions. While people may be repulsed by
saliva, or the sight of blood (or anything else our body produces) nature
is not upset by these things. Not one
wee little bit! Remember that we are
unique spiritual beings (living within an animal body). How do animals “bond” with their favorite
places? You might rediscover that a few
very personal gifts are closer at hand than you ever imagined!
Many
places are equipped with special technology to help them taste a bit of you
whether you offer it as a gift or not.
(We call them mosquitoes!)
Likewise, a pollen-filled field might evoke a nice juicy sneeze, or at
least a watery eye. Each and every
breath brings bits of ourselves into the atmosphere around us. We leave our mark with every footstep. We bond with a place merely by being there.
Places
bathe us in their energies too, whether we know it or not. They shine upon us with their unique colors,
whether grassy green forests or sandy white beaches. Their sounds are also a very powerful form of
energy. Whether rippling rivers or
chirping birds, sounds travel in waves that we absorb like any other form of
energy. While our eyes and ears are
specially tuned to perceive color and sound, the waves of light and sound themselves
fall upon us from head to toe.
Places also have
unique smells, tiny bits of fragrant matter that we take into our lungs, and
into our bloodstream. The things we
inhale are absorbed directly into our blood, and can alter our chemistry and
moods. What special form of aromatherapy
might your place provide?
Any
place will radiate bits of itself for you to feel, even a busy city street or a
crowded recreational event. Large groups
of people all blend their energies together into a group. What do you add to this recipe? What do you take with you when you leave?
Home, Sweet Home
Perhaps
the place most sacred and magical is your own home. Most animals bond with their home, including
the Human Animal. Home is our shelter,
our territory, our comfort, our food source, our mating-ground. There’s no place like home!
The
unique colors and sounds of your home bathe you and your guests in the same
manner that a green forest does, except you pick the colors! Your home radiates all that you fill it
with. Perhaps this is one reason why we
instantly feel comfortable in one person’s home, while feeling “creepy” in
another. We feel places with more than
just our conscious mind. Every pore,
every follicle, every drop of water in our body is receiving the energies that
our surroundings radiate.
Do
you ever feel that your home misses you?
Your cat does; your dog does. Is
your home any less alive? Feel it awaken
when you return from a long journey and slip your key into the front door. See this simple everyday act, where key joins
with lock, as a magical rite, a symbol of the union shared between you and your
home. Keys are a very magical, very
personal thing. You carry them close to
your body most of your waking day. If in
your pocket, they are actually warmed by your body heat, and are as close to
you as any piece of magical metal jewelry you might wear. We give them great importance and focus, and
know exactly where they are at (almost) all times. Keys are magical tools, with which we enter
sacred space -- our home!
Your
home sees everything that you do there.
It hears your every conversation, meets your friends, knows how you
spend your free time. It records
whatever energy occurs there. Tap into
that recording, like asking any eye-witness what they saw. You may not know who broke the cookie jar, or
crumpled the pillow cases – but your home does!
Your Hometown
“Home”
can be more than just a building. Your
hometown, for example, can be your own private Holy Land,
filled with the footprints left behind from many of your life’s rites of
passage. If your parents and ancestors
shared that hometown, your connection to that patch of Earth is even deeper.
As you move on and
leave your hometown (a difficult rite of passage in itself) try to say goodbye
not just to the people who live there, but to the places
as well. The parks, the schools and city
streets all gave you many gifts while you lived in that town. As you “meet” your new location, take a
moment and introduce yourself. Say a
special greeting out of reverence for that place, the way you might greet any
important person for the first time.
Maybe even prepare an offering to give to your new hometown. We often give tee shirts as souvenirs when we
travel; why not give your new hometown a flask of rain water or an acorn from
the place you came from?
Your Workplace
Our
workplace is also very special. Many
people spend more of their waking hours at work than anywhere else. It is one of the places where we make our
contributions to society, and earn the paycheck that decides what food we eat,
schools we attend, activities we pursue, social causes we support. Your workplace is where you do what you do – where
you create things, solve problems, provide services for people who need
them. Ask it for its help with your
vocation. Like any co-worker, your
workplace is in the same line of business as you, and odds are, has been doing
it a lot longer than you have!
See your workplace as part
of a larger whole, uniting all those places that have done similar work
throughout the ages. Your own workplace
is but a single cupful in a great reservoir of energies which helped shape your
profession over time. If you work in a
library, you work in a place where much learning has occurred, sharing a bond
with anyone who struggled to preserve and communicate knowledge throughout the
ages. There have been libraries all
through the world, all through time.
Your library is a part of that! Likewise,
a restaurant or grocery store is connected straight to Mother Earth’s great
bounty, a link in the chain of events that have put food on people’s tables for
thousands of years. What special
energies might you find in your own workplace?
Don’t limit your
“work” place to where you earn your salary.
The place where you do the things you enjoy can be just as special. In fact, they can be the most powerful, since
the work you do there is done by choice.
You may have to earn a living, but you want
to do something voluntary. Remember, the
word “amateur” comes from the Latin root for the word Love. It once meant someone who does something
because they love to do it, rather than someone who does it for
pay. Where do you do what you love
to do?
Your Own Sacred Place
While
there are many famous sacred places in the world, like Stonehenge
or the Pyramids, your own sacred places are no less magical. In fact, they probably have even more
influence over your daily life than the famous places, since they touch you so
closely. Likewise you touch your special
places, leaving your own special footprints upon them as you pass.
Link (Anthony)
6538 Collins Avenue, #255
Miami Beach, FL
33141
AnthLink@aol.com
|
