What is sacred space and how do you create it?

When I make malas, facilitate a Reiki session or even give a facial massage I like to work in sacred space. But what does that actually mean? And why does it matter? I thought it might be helpful to look a little closer at what is actually happening in these moments of ‘casting a circle’ of protection or 'holding space'.

What makes something sacred?

A good place to start is the meaning of the word. Sacred comes from the Latin ‘sacer’ - meaning holy, referring to that which is purified, dedicated and consecrated. A modern definition describes sacred as ‘something connected to a god.’

This is really interesting to me because in many expressions of spirituality it is said that the Divine exists within all things. Everything comes from Source or God and therefore this Divine energy is in every single particle of matter. That's what I believe and maybe you do too or maybe you don’t, but for the sake of this post, let’s for a moment agree that everything does have something of its source within it, everything is intrinsically connected to the Divine. Does that then mean that everything is automatically sacred, if everything is already connected to God?

Well, not exactly. There definitely seems to be a difference between something that has been declared sacred and something that hasn't. You often feel it when in the presence of a sacred object or in a sacred space. I frequently hear that when people receive their malas they feel tingles, they feel an energy coming from the mala when they open the box. When you are in a space that has been transitioned into a sacred space, you feel safe and calm. And sometimes you might have been in a space that has not perhaps been adequately 'protected' and you feel guarded. What is happening to transition something or somewhere into being sacred? How do you protect and purify a space?

Let’s look at the word ‘consecrate’, which has the same Latin root word ‘sacer’ as its origin and means to dedicate something as sacred. When we consecrate something we are intending a higher purpose or meaning to the object or space and we are dedicating it to that purpose. Through this intention whatever it is we have consecrated becomes more closely connected to the Divine.

Intention is a force I don’t think we have adequate language to define. But I’ll use my favourite analogy for how Reiki energy works to describe the power of intention and consecration.

If you were able to see the individual photons that make up incandescent light, you would see them moving all over the place in different directions and at different speeds. Compare that to the light emitted by a laser and the photons move at the same speed and in the same direction. That organisation creates a force of energy that becomes more powerful as it is directional and concentrated. This state is described as ‘coherent’ and ‘in phase’. It's a great analogy for Reiki as it is focussed life force (or Source) energy. But I think it helps in understanding how something transitions into order on the physical level.

I think of intention as having this ‘organisation’ effect. It instigates an energetic shift that brings something into a more coherent state. And that coherency, I think, is actually the nature of Divinity or God - I think of the Divine as a universal system of total, synchronistic order, like the most intricately choreographed dance. Think of the Divine not as a being, but a being-ness, a state of being.

So if consecration is the act of making something sacred, ie aligning it more closely to its inherent Divine nature (perfect order), what does it mean when something isn't consecrated? Vibrationally speaking it is more aligned to the not-Divine, a.k.a. the 'profane'. And that is why consecration is necessary in creating sacred space. In order to consecrate, as we have already said we need to dedicate and purify something with our intention.

Let's look a little closer at purification too. Purification refers to the cleansing of something, making it perfect i.e. as close to the Divine as possible. You could look at this notion of purity as higher and lower vibrational energy. Higher being more pure, closer to the Divine state.

Lower vibrational energy entrains to higher vibrational energy as higher energy is more powerful. This simply means low vibes are brought up to the level of high vibes. It is the phenomenon called sympathetic resonance.

When we purify something, we are entraining the lower vibrational energy to that of the highest vibration of all. Love.

Love is the Divine frequency. It is the most coherent and synchronistic force that uplifts everything else around it. It is total unity. Unconditional Love. The best way I know to access this energy is through invoking the feeling of love, joy and gratitude in our own bodies. This is our entry-way into this Divine frequency. When we invoke the feeling of love in our bodies, our heart and brain’s electromagnetic fields synchronise and this creates a state called heart-brain coherence. Coherence helps us access our Divine nature, where we embody the highest energy that we can.

This state of being is powerful and is actually what protects too. We speak of clearing energy, transmuting it, alchemising it. When you clear patterns of energy, you aren't sending them anywhere. You are uplifting them, re-patterning them, bringing them into Divine coherence. If you hold the frequency of Love in your body, lower vibration cannot interfere or interrupt and therefore you hold the space or protect the space.

(There are other ways of ‘protecting’ which involve dispelling or deflecting energy too and calling on other forms of energy like the Blue Flame or Ray but that’s for another blog post.)

So let’s talk now about how we can use our intention - how can we ensure we are doing this to the best of our ability?

We covered invoking and embodying the feeling of Love, but there are other props and allies that help us in this process. We can speak words, like prayers, invocations, declarations or decrees. We can use sound instruments like tuning forks, ting sha cymbals or singing bowls that emit a coherent frequency. We can also work with plants and their energetic properties, burning them to create sacred smoke or using their essences and fragrances through vaporising oils. There are energetic practices like Reiki that can be used too. Anything that helps us feel, embody and transmit our intention can be used. Whatever the method, the act of consecration is supported by props but must be led with intention too in order to fully change the state of being on a subtle levels and connect to the Divine within.

Personally, I like to call on the spirits of the elements (air, fire, water and earth), seasons (spring, summer, autumn and winter) and directions (east, south, west and north). This maps out the totality of our reality. I ask each spirit (or aspect of consciousness) to watch over and guide me in my work with love. I use an offering of plant smoke from incense or herbs or spritz my Sacred Space Spray to honour and give thanks for their guidance.

For me it is really important to mark something (an object, a space or even a time) as sacred. In fact, I think it is the very basis of a spiritual practice. As much as we can recognise that the Divine is within everything, if we do not shape our state of being through our intention, we are not consciously connecting to our Divine nature. It doesn't mean it isn't there but we aren't operating from it. We can become be more aligned with lower vibrational states of being. This is why consecration, purification and dedication is so important in spiritual practice. It sparks the change in state.

Creating sacred space becomes a ritual. I really support finding your own ways to create a ritual of consecration but to help you I have a few allies you can work with on the Altar page.

What are your favourite things to work with when creating sacred space? Share with me in the comments! And if you found this interesting or want to hear more about a particular topic, do let me know too!

Thanks for reading.

With Love

Sarah xx