temple making

I recently attended a workshop here in Sedona  with the theme of "temple making."  The leader made an intense study of ancient sacred sites and temples all over the world, and what elements they have in common, which helps understand the effect they have on people who go to them, especially for spiritual purposes, like pilgrimages. 

I found his discoveries very interesting.  I now understand more clearly why, as we have travelled to many places all over the world, I am always drawn to spend as much time as I can in local cathedrals, mosques, shrines, temples, etc.   Silva's explanation (he was the leader of the workshop)  of how such places are constructed to take advantage of locations that have a special energy, or, as the Irish might say, "where the veil between worlds is thin," was quite compelling.  One of the elements of such places is what is called "Sacred Geometry," which goes back many many centuries.  Now geometry is not my forte.  I didn't do so well in geometry in highs chool, and avoided it in college.  I wish now I hadn't.  Education is often wasted on the young!  Be that as it may,  I now find it fascinating.  It turns out that geometric shapes, like the tetrahedon, spiral, and sphere are the very "stuff"  of the created universe, essential building blocks, as it were.  And it also turns out that I/we resonate very differently with different shapes.  F. Silva knows this, because he spent years in the advertising world working with design, etc. and how it affects the human psyche.   We feel quite different in a round room than in a square room than in a pyramid, for example.   Why?  That's the intriguing question.  No, I don't have THE answer. But we did get some clues in the workshop. And we also got some pointers for intentionally creating sacred space in the places we live, indoor or outdoor, by using a basic knowledge of the elements of ancient sacred space.

       This brings me back to my early childhood.  One of my earliest memories  (my mother remembers this quite well)  is of my sitting on the floor of a room in our house in Lahore, Pakistan, making a copy of the tabernacle in the wilderness, using a diagram in a Bible story book we had,  and some small wooden blocks that fit together to make whatever shapes one desired.  How interesting that all these years later, that childhood activity is taking place again in my life, on an adult level.  It does, I find, feel like "Holy Play," and it expresses the fascination with the sacred, the numinous, and the idea of a dwelling place for God on earth that is quite universal in the worlds religious traditions.  

      Today, I was reflecting on how the house we live in here, and the one in Michigan, are really temples too, if that is how I see them, and intend for them to be.   That has a host of implications which I may explore on a later blog, and which you are free to explore any time.

Of course,  the most important truth is that each of us is, as the Good Book says, "a temple of the Holy Spirit."  Or, as the popular praise song puts it, "Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and precious, tried and true.  With thanksgiving, I'll be a living sanctuary for You."

    So, in case you had forgotten who/what you are,  remember you are "A Living Sanctuary," a "walking talking temple of the Living God."   Awesome!  AMEN