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A
Sacred Space: Home
by Sarah Susanka |
As I prepared to attend an
intensive on the subject of Sacred Service a couple of
years ago, I was in the midst of some major soul
searching. I was trying to understand the nature and
essence of my "true voice." For nine months I
had been working hard on a book. Embodying both the
wisdom I had gleaned as a residential architect, and my
belief that our homes can be our own sacred space, I had
felt joyful throughout the process of the book's making.
Now I had run across a significant obstacle. My
publisher, upon reading the completed manuscript, wanted
a rewrite. He told me that he recognized the power of
the message it embodied--building smaller, better
designed homes, that reflect the personalities of their
inhabitants--but felt that in its present form it was
intelligible only to readers with some existing
architectural understanding, and some esoteric interest.
He wanted me to reconfigure it to speak clearly to a
much larger segment of the American public.
The response that arose within
me was one of deep distress. I felt that my message was
somehow going to be corrupted. For days I sat in deep
meditation. I felt as though I were spiraling into the
Earth, in the hope that through this deep falling I
would somehow find guidance. How could I maintain my
true voice and write a less mystical, less personal
book? This was my state of awareness as I went to the
workshop on Sacred Service, consumed by this great sense
of powerlessness.
For three days we had been
discussing the ways in which opportunities for service
can appear. I had felt the powerlessness transform into
surrender. Then came the epiphany. I was dancing in
front of the altar, alone, on the last afternoon of the
intensive when suddenly I was filled to overflowing with
an aching sadness. I found myself dancing, singing and
weeping as though my life depended upon it...until all
the souls of the oppressed feminine energies of
millennia came pouring forth through me into the world.
I danced their tears, I sobbed their anguish and their
repression, and I KNEW inexplicably, that my role in
this life is to help reawaken this knowing of the
feminine principle, and to rebalance the division
between masculine and feminine energies in the planet
and her peoples. Until this moment, such a thought had
never even crossed my mind. I would have thought it
arrogant beyond words. I felt humbled and unworthy. Yet
somewhere inside a resonance struck loud and clear.
Sarah's Own Sacred Space
in her Attic
The pain and sadness were gone
then. I saw that my real mission in the writing of this
book was to bring our homes into harmony by giving
credence to intuition, to the need for comfort, and to
the home's ability to nurture the lives within--all
aspects of the neglected feminine. Our houses can be
places of beauty and inspiration, they can be the still
point and the place of the heart. And I saw too that my
publisher was exactly right, that without a rewriting,
the book could only affect very few, most of whom would
already be on the path to consciousness. What I needed
to do was translate my message down an octave, to entice
all those with a longing for more meaning in their lives
to look at their homes as the first place for the
befriending and expression of the inner self.
As the second version of the
book evolved, its message became much clearer. There are
many places in our homes today that rarely get used, and
can be disposed of or made smaller without great loss,
as we strive to make them more gracefully accommodate
the way we live today. But there are also places
missing, the most important of which is a small
"place of one's own" for each adult. Children
have their own rooms typically, but, once coupled,
adults share their private space, leaving no place for
what I like to term "inner listening" and self
discovery. By making such places, and giving them
importance in our lives, we can on an individual level
give ourselves the gift of connection to the greater
mystical universe, and we can learn to hear the voice of
the true Self.
Joseph Campbell wrote of the
need for such a place. He said, "You must have a
room or a certain hour of the day or so where you do not
know what is in the morning paper. A place where you can
simply experience and bring forth what you are and what
you might be. At first you may think nothing's
happening. But if you have a sacred space and take
advantage of it and use it everyday, something will
happen". Such a place does not need to be large. It
can be an alcove off a bedroom, an unused corner of the
basement, or an attic, as in my own home. Take time to
make it beautiful, make it an expression of who you are,
whether simple and unadorned, or filled with treasures
collected over a lifetime. And make it a pattern of your
daily routine to spend time there each day, in
meditation, in contemplation, or in creative
exploration. We are amazing creatures, every one of us,
but we forget so easily, when we don't take the time to
listen to our inner being.
With the completion of the
book, I made a pledge to myself. If this book was
successful, I wanted the profits to go towards my
original intention, by transcribing its message back to
a higher level. With a number of friends, we formed a
non-profit corporation, named Maitrhea (pronounced
May'-tree-a) to do just this. The name evolved from a
composition of many words, names and concepts that have
taken on meaning for me over the years.... Ma-at, Eight,
Rhea, Maria, Mare, Earth, Heart. Just as in our homes,
we need to move to a new model of sufficiency,
sustainability, beauty, and balance, so there exists
such a need in almost everything we do today, at every
level. But until we can attune to the needs of our
planet with our inner ear, such changes will be
difficult if not impossible to effect.
Through the medium of sacred
space, Maitrhea's mission is to make places for the
individual, the group, and the culture to hear its own
inner voice.
At the individual level this
place is the "place of one's own" mentioned
above. At the family
level this place is the home. At the societal level this
place is the retreat center. At the planetary level,
this place is the sacred land form, more than a few of
which exist still from times past. And beyond planetary
scale, for our solar system at least, and perhaps much
more, this place is the Earth itself.
At all levels we are sorely
lacking places for such inner work--especially
non-denominational sacred space. We still seem to hold
to the idea that if one is not part of a specific
organized religion, one must not need sacred space. Many
groups of seekers today are not affiliated with any
particular religious discipline. They find places for
their gatherings that are adequate, but often ill suited
to their purposes. We are in need of a new sort of
sacred gathering place--one that encourages
inner-listening, whether this be for a corporation
searching for its greater vision, for a solstice
gathering, or for a spiritual teacher to work with
students. Although there are a few such places in our
world today, we need many, many more. It is our hope
that we can help bring them into reality by naming the
need, and offering services to assist in their making.
As a first step in this mission
of creating sacred space, we have developed a web site
that lists and links to retreat centers around the
country. The web offers such an extraordinary tool for
bringing people of similar vision together. As I travel
in my work, I am amazed at how many people today hold in
their hearts a vision of a retreat center that they long
to bring into reality. But often resources are limited,
and there's no clear path for how to get from here to
there. Maitrhea aims initially to offer its web site as
an information network, bringing together those with
such a vision, and those who are in a position to offer
financial support. In the long term, Maitrhea will
provide architectural design assistance, so that the
sacred spaces that are created truly resonate with the
spirit. We need places that are not only functional, but
also beautiful, and serene. By making sacred space with
consciousness, craft, and creativity, the experience of
being in the space will magnify whatever spirit is
brought to it. Just like the cathedrals, pyramids and
henges of our past, sacred space can harmonize with the
inner voice, and so make it more audible.
The rebalancing of our lives
and of our planet is not something that can be done by
massive planning. But through actions like the making of
such sacred spaces, it will happen of its own accord.
All that is required of us is to tune in and listen to
Earth's requests of each of us, and to act accordingly.
It sounds like such a simple thing, but it requires
clarity, compassion, and collaboration from all those
who can already hear her voice.
My search for my own true voice
has led me on an extraordinary path. By letting go of my
original vision and desire to control the outcome, my
inner ear heard not only my own voice, but also the
voice of the pulse, the power, and the poise that is our
planet, and our universe. I know that in this moment,
like the Fool of the Tarot deck, I step off the
precipice. None of us is alone as we step. We fall into
a myriad rocking arms, singing the one true song,
dancing the only dance there is, to awaken us from our
sleep.
© Copyright Sarah Susanka 2000.
All Rights Reserved.
Sarah Susanka is an architect
in Minnesota, and the author of the book The Not So Big
House. She also writes a regular column entitled Drawing
Board, for Fine Homebuilding Magazine. You can contact
her at her website: www.notsobighouse.com,
and you can read more about Maitrhea, and exchange ideas
with others by visiting their website: www.maitrhea.org.
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