survey about sacred spaces in people's homes

[firecat]

A friend of mine who is not on LJ is setting up a sacred space in her house. She sent me the following questions. If you have a sacred space in your home please consider responding in a comment. Feel free to tell other people or relevant communities about this post. I will pass along any responses. Thanks!

I'm interested in hearing about sacred spaces people have set up in their homes. By sacred space, I mean any place dedicated to your spiritual being or practice. It could be an altar in a corner of a room, or a whole room. Or a whole house.

• If you do have a space dedicated to your spirituality, do you have a name for the space? Did you consecrate it in any way?
  
• Do you have a name for your particular spiritual orientation? Do you practice alone, or do you belong to a group of some kind? If both, how much do you use your own space to practice?
  
• What sorts of objects are in your sacred space? Where do you find these objects? (E.g. the beach, a metaphysical bookstore, religious supply house, eBay...)
  
• Do you use incense? What kind, and where do you get it?
  
• Do you use musical instruments? Recorded music?
  
• Do you perform rituals (in your sacred space or elsewhere)? What kinds of objects and music do you use?
  
• How do you determine what kinds of objects/incense/candles etc. you need? (Follow a list in a book, just stumble across 'em, use your intuition, etc.)
  
• Have you made any objects yourself for use in your spirituality? Would you be willing to describe them, and how you came up with the idea for them?
  
• Do you allow people into your space who are not into your type of spirituality?

Comments

[lizw.livejournal.com]

My sacred space at home consists of an altar and a yoga mat, neither consecrated in any way. I am a Christian in the Anglo-Catholic tradition and regularly worship in my local parish church, but also every day in my own space. My most common use for the altar is to sit in front of it while reciting the Evening Office or the rosary. I also practise Sivananda yoga, both at home every day and weekly in a class. My altar currently has two ceramic jugs that were used at my wedding to djm4, a statute of the Virgin Mary, a pink candle in honour of her (from a local store) and pink piece of quartz (also in Mary's honour, a gift from my daugther), a ceramic plate that used to belong to my great-aunt, and a brass Om symbol (from a yoga website). I don't use incense because I have birds in the room. I use recorded sacred music in other contexts, but not in conjunction with the altar or the mat. I decide what to use based on a combination of intuition and tradition. I didn't make any of the objects myself. Anyone who comes into my bedroom can enter the area around the altar; that would be mainly my partners and metamours, my kids and our cleaner. The kids define as Christians, but none of the other adults do. I don't mind them being in the space, but I do prefer that they avoid placing objects on the altar casually (e.g. setting down a cup while looking for something else). The yoga mat is only used by me and is rolled up when I'm not using it, but I would lend it to anyone else who wanted to use it for practise. I probably wouldn't lend it for other purposes.