Bruceholsted.com

My second book about the sacred spaces that permeate our lives.  It shiped today from the printer (2/27), and will arrive soon. ($12.95 plus $2.00 postage) Send me your info and I will get one on the way and inovice you, or you can order from Amazon.com by clicking HERE

Sacred spaces are really connection points.  They are the locations on the planet where we feel thinned the veil that separates us from the next world.  They are the places where spirituality comes alive in our hearts.  They can be individual in some respects, but generally they are collective in that they are consecrated, and hence become sacred, by the hundreds or thousands of souls that have preceded us there for similar purposes as we have come.  To call a space sacred implies community. It implies connection, and it implies permanence.

Indeed, a sacred space cannot be defined by physical locale alone.  Any point upon which we might confer physical supremacy is whizzing around the sun at 24000 miles per hour.  Certainly from the perspective of the larger universe, there is no such thing as a static point on the planet.  All physical locations are relative, when viewed from outside our solar system.  This is why the sanctity of the space is defined as much by the collective energy of the community, as by the latitude and longitude; the Jewish Ark of the Covenant being a good example.  The sanctity was a combination of physical location and community energy.  It took both.  It still does.

Such spaces resist individualism.  In fact, ego and individual ownership are abhorred in such settings.  Who could imagine any church structure being owned by one person?  Who would ever submit to such an arrangement?   Religious structures are carefully planned by committee.  The funds are raised carefully and deliberately.  Every detail is debated and discussed until consensus is reached.  No one reaches out to claim authority unless same is conferred by the group.  Seldom does a large group on such a serious endeavor make a major mistake.

Not all sacred spaces are religious, but they are collective.  In order for a space to become sacred it must involve more than one person.  Delivery rooms in hospitals are some of the most sacred places on the planet.  Any location that is a catalyst for the coming or going of life is intrinsically sacred.  Altars and scenic vistas where wedding vows are exchanged are sacred.  Operating rooms where life is preserved are sacred.  School classrooms that carry the collective energy and generations of first graders in their inaugural day can be sacred.  Cemeteries that have collected the bodies of the departed and borne the tears of the mourners are sacred.  Battlegrounds where blood cries from the soil and the agony of death electrifies the air are sacred.  In short, anyplace where tears, blood, fear, love or laughter have filled the air can be sacred spaces.  In any such place the past emotions are written in an indelible spiritual ink.  The ink can be viewed if our hearts can see it.  Peace of mind and quiet contemplation can bring these places to life for us.  Sometimes painful, sometimes joyful, other times revered, we come.  We listen.  We feel. We become present.  And for a moment, we too can become part of it and not separate.  The ethereal gift of our reverence adds to the sanctity.  While we give of our respect to such places, they in turn fill us with that which we came for. We are in communion with that place and with its people, both past and future.