Ordinary Numinous

Soulful Environment

“When you're religious in a deep way, you sense the sacred in things—a faint mysterious pulse... In developing a religion of one's own, it's important to cultivate an eye for the numinous, a sacred light within things or an aura around them, the feeling that there is more to the world than what meets the eye.”  Thomas Moore (A Religion of One's Own)

When trying to develop a spiritual practice, one needs to provide an environment for the sacred to permeate everyday existence. My friends, Harry and Sharon, have a room in their house set aside for meditation. It contains an altar, with Kwan Yin's stature and containers for flowers and incense, their meditation cushions and not much else. It is designated sacred space. There are always flowers on the altar, and incense is kept in good supply. In my own house, there is not room for protected space, but my altar moves with me. It was downstairs in my sewing room, and now it is here with me in my office.

Many things have soul. A vase with one or two flowers that draws the eye, an arrangement of icons on an altar, a grouping of bowls of just the right shape and color. I like old things, and, as I have mentioned before, things that have been broken and carefully mended, preserved. I like things with history, like quilts, made by hand and stitched with intention. I like to imagine the women who made them and in my mind's eye can see them sitting around their quilt frame stitching and catching up on one another's lives.

What lacks soul is most things that are machine made in great numbers. Think Wal Mart or Hobby Lobby here. Most of the stuff in either place has been produced in massive quantities. It's hard to find anything that could be described as numinous there. I don't know about you, but I need fortification to go into either place. I dread it and feel assaulted by the shear volume of stuff, and the smell of plastic and dyes. And that is another indication of what does and does not have soul—if you are drawn to it, it probably does, and if you're repelled by it, it likely does not.

Developing a spiritual practice means paying attention to detail in one's environment. If you incorporate things with soul into your living space, they imbue it with a richness that can be felt. If you fill your living space with things that do not have soul, it will feel cold; perhaps attractive, but lacking in warmth. Having an environment that supports a soulful life is an important part of spirituality. Look around you. Does your home lend itself to a soulful life?

                                     In the Spirit,

                                         Jane