As I zipped up my luggage bag as I got ready to leave for a trip, I realized that I didn’t have anything with me to create a sacred space on my vacation. I ran back upstairs, grabbed an empty bag and looked around my sacred space in my meditation room, trying to decide which items to bring with me. The candle? It was too big, but maybe I could grab some tea lights. I grabbed some incense sticks, but once I held them in my hand I wondered what kind of incense holder I could use to burn them in. My incense holder was too cumbersome to bring, so I put all the incense back in their holder. As I looked around trying to decide what to bring, my Uber arrived and I had to leave without anything.
For me, it’s the ritual aspect that connects me to the external sacred space of my environment. The lighting of the candle and the flickering of a flame that says, “Good Morning! I am here. I am ready to connect to the higher realms.” It’s the lighting of incense and the aroma that signals to my senses that something on a soul level, deep within me, through eons of time and space, is reconnecting me to the source. It’s the visual aspect of looking at a symbol of spirituality, such as Buddha, an Angel, a quartz crystal or a beautiful mandala that represent three simple principles—avoid what is negative, cultivate what is positive and be conscious of your mind. These items help me to connect to the most precious sacred space of all: the internal sacred space within me. Is it possible to connect without these things? Of course, but the ritual of how you enter something creates the space for what you want to create.
After my experience with having trouble choosing what sacred tools to bring with me on my trip, I could create a sacred space wherever I went as long as I have pieces of my daily practice with me. I don’t need to have everything that I have in my sacred space at home, but I need to have those few items that invoke a sense of tranquility, spirituality and bliss.
Photo Credit: Sara Carter