Holy Spots

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"Sacred Spaces" – Silf (2001)

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The human heart has always been looking for a way. But a way to what? What are we actually looking for? Where or who is the destination?

The Celtic path resonated with and reveres the spiritual quest of all humankind.

They are way which can be trusted, ways of deep simplicity that truly lead spiritual journeyers closer to the heart of themselves and the heart of creation [or THE CAUSE OF CREATION].

Celts had no doubt that there were two worlds, the visible and the invisible, the material and the spiritual. They were one, and in every way they were interwoven. They were seperated only by a very thin membrane of consciousness. Some places are thin spaces. There the invisble and spiritual is almost palpable. Celts revered such thin spaces.

Those places are stations on our personal journey towards our wholeness, where we stand still in awe, where the barrier between our time-bound and our eternity-seeking selves is lowered. They are sacraments, they hold a mystery and help us make it real. They invite us experience glimpses of transcendence, and give us a light of a vision of a reality beyond ourselves. There we are one with unity, sacred for all. They speak to our hearts personally, as a friend might speak.

Here the invisible, the divine, breaks through to us from beyond the veil. Sacred space has special power. Sacred space, or thin space, has the ability to move us forward. It holds a call towards transcendence, if we have ears to hear. [ WE NEED TO GET EARS]

Space can become sacred wen it is saturated in prayer. Perhaps it had been a place of retreat, for pilgrims through the centuries. Or, it has been touched by eternity. Some natural locations has this quality.

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If we desire it and dare it, we can move onto a different stage of our Becoming. To cross a new breaker line [BARRIER] demands an act of courage and faith [TRUST]. In new depth, we will have to trust in powers beyond our own. We will be challenged to trust that power which holds us means well with us, and that it sustains the totality of creation as well as our own selves.

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The 'way' is a journey

Here are some grabs from Margaret Silf's intro to Sacred Spaces

The 'way' is a journey, not a structure. It is a process of growth, not a system of salvation.

Drawing on the Celtic imagery of 'thin places', where the veil separating heaven and earth, the intangible and the tangible, is drawn aside to allow brief or sustained interaction, Silf connects such places and significant times of transition. For example:

The infinite knot, weaving wholeness out of partialness, and simplicity out of complication, with our seasons of beginnings in our earliest days and years.

The high cross, connecting earth and heaven with times of commitment to the quest for truth and to live true to what we discover.

Hilltops, places of vision, with seasons of setting out on new ventures.

Wells, taking us to the depths of human experience, with times when we return to truth and our deepest sources when we have lost our way.

Groves and springs, the provision of community, with seasons of companionship and communion of intimate friendship.

Crossing places - causeways, bridges, cemeteries with times of significant transition.

Boundaries - the cutting edge of growth and change.

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