Honoring Sacred Spaces

by Carolyn E. Cobelo, MSW

Sacred space is a place where we honor the divine in its material form. The purpose of sacred space is to awaken an awareness of our intimate connection to the spiritual world and to the universe as a whole.

The Nature of Sacred Space

The dimensions of a sacred space vary. It can occupy anything from the corner of a room to an altar, a Gothic cathedral, a mountain, the ocean, the planets, the solar system, the universe, or beyond. Sacred space is the microcosm of the macrocosm of our multi-universal existence.

Sacred space in its natural form has existed on Earth since the creation of the planet. During the formation of the Earth, the minerals emerging from its core brought with them an electromagnetic charge. Springs carried this charge to the surface, lakes held the charged water, and rivers carried it to the oceans.

There is a grid of energy lines, known as the tetragrammation, that encircles and interpenetrates the physical Earth. Sacred space forms at the intersections along this grid.

Early human beings, often led by animals, discovered the locations of sacred space. They gathered in these places for fertility ceremonies and healing rituals. They built stone temples near or over them, defining these areas as sacred and separate from their worldly life. As differentiated religions developed, spiritual leaders chose these ancient sites for their temples and churches. Today, the most powerful places of worship throughout the world continue to cover and contain natural sacred space.

Natural Sacred Places

Springs, mountains, caves, groves of trees, single trees, rocks, rock formations, canyons, cliffs, rivers, lakes, deserts, oceans, hills, the Earth, the sky.

Manmade Sacred Places

Earth mounds, temples, churches, cathedrals, pagodas, wells, sanctuaries, stone circles, stone monuments, shrines, ceremonial cities, pyramids, chalk figures.

The Experience of Sacred Space

We are constantly interacting with space. Our senses perceive space as we relate to our physical environment. We see, hear, smell, feel, and taste space. As a result, it has a multifaceted effect on us.

We live in physical space from conception to death. Although we are not usually conscious of it, our physical space affects us deeply. We see a room as the area between walls. We hear the singing of birds outside. We smell turkey roasting in the kitchen. We feel the heaviness of the air when it is about to rain. We taste a delicious food even before it arrives in our mouths.

We also perceive space through our subtle senses with our inner vision, inner hearing, inner touch, and occasionally, inner smelling and tasting. The most common inner perception of space is through touch, or kinesthetic sensation. We "feel" the energy of a place.

A space may feel friendly and welcoming, or hostile and rejecting. We may want to spend a long time in one place, and in another leave as quickly as possible. This intuitive feeling about a space has a real, concrete basis to it, due to the reality of the energy that collects there. We can use this intuitive sense of space as a guide and protector while meeting life's many challenges.

We each live in a personal energy envelope, known as our energy field. This cloudlike field of electromagnetic energy surrounds and interpenetrates our physical bodies. It forms a fine web of energy lines, which holds our physical bodies together in the same way the tetragrammation holds the Earth in place. This web contains highly sensitive, subtle nerves that carry messages to the physical nervous system. The content of these messages appears to us through dreams, thoughts, physical sensations, visions, and intuition.

Our energy fields are very sensitive to those of other people and of the spaces we inhabit. We move through life enveloped in this field of sensitivity, with our subtle nerve antennae continually reaching out to feel the quality of our environment.

Blocks to Energy Flow

When we feel physical or emotional pain, our energy fields contract in self-defense. Knots or blocks form along the pathways of our subtle nerves in response to these contractions. Chronic contractions lead to major blocks in the flow of our energy. These blocks are like dams in a river. If the blocks intensify, they may eventually lead to physical dysfunction or disease. Our energy fields hold the memory of past pain, and the fear of repeating these painful situations keeps the blocks in place. When we release the fear, we free the memory, and the blocks disappear.

We can identify a block in the physical body as a disease, dysfunction, or disability. Emotional blocks manifest as guilt, phobias, addictions, and fear. Mental blocks are reflected in disturbances and disorders of the mind. Spiritual blocks express themselves in thoughts and emotions that obstruct our acceptance of spirit into our daily lives.

We come into life with some blocks already in place. We struggle, especially in the first half of life, to break through these blocks which form perceptual networks known as karmic patterns. They influence our perception of ourselves and the world around us, and they govern the choices we make, until we become conscious of their destructive influence. When we release the blocks, we free ourselves to develop our full potential and our creativity.

The way we transform our karmic patterns is by confronting our fears and healing our pain. This we do best through love. As we release the blocks by opening our energy fields, we become more sensitive to sacred space. At the same time, we enhance the flow of love to and from ourselves.

The Healing Power of Sacred Space

Space records the vibrational frequency of all beings who have inhabited it. This recording is similar to an audiotape or videotape on which sounds or images have been imprinted.

Rocks, trees, soil, flowers, animals, and insects all express a vibrational frequency that becomes imprinted on the space they inhabit. The strongest vibrational influences are the thoughts and emotions of human beings.

The intensity of the electromagnetic energy in sacred places magnifies our experience of them. This energy is a powerful healing force. It functions as medicine for our energy fields, activating our natural self-healing capacities.

Although the effect is unique to each of us, general responses to the healing power of sacred space are as follows:

Physical:

• Relaxes muscles and relieves tension

• Activates the immune system

• Stimulates sexual vitality and the endocrine system

• Increases circulation of the blood

• Opens nerve pathways

Emotional:

• Creates peace and security

• Provides comfort and unconditional love

• Inspires feelings of belonging and oneness

• Releases pain and fear

• Relieves guilt and grief

Mental:

• Releases painful memories

• Facilitates problem solving

• Transforms negative thought patterns

• Enhances decision-making capacities

• Awakens universal knowledge

Spiritual:

• Facilitates telepathic communication

• Stimulates visionary power

• Facilitates healing by spirits

• Accentuates awareness of oneness

• Activates higher consciousness

THE EFFECT OF SACRED SPACE

The effect that sacred space has on us depends on our ability to attune and connect to its power. Sacred space affects everyone who enters it, even those who are not consciously aware of its impact. However, if we approach sacred space intending to communicate and receive healing and knowledge from it, we will gain more from our experience. The effects can vary from aligning our inner personal center with the center of the universe, to guiding us on an inner journey of self-exploration, to accessing knowledge imprinted in the environment.

This article is excerpted from the book:

The Power of Sacred Space: Exploring Ancient Ceremonial Sites
by Carolyn E. Cobelo.

Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Akasha Productions, Santa Fe, NM. ©2000. www.akashainstitute.com.

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About The Author

Carolyn E. Cobelo, MSW, has spent ten years leading spiritual pilgrimages to sacred places around the world. A Santa Fe based psychotherapist and spiritual healer, she is the author of The Spring of Hope: Messages from Mary, Awakening to Soul Love, and Twenty-Five Power Places. She is also the creator of Avalon, the Temple of Connection: A Game of Spiritual Transformation.