It is no longer something that is above human beings and accessible only to a select few people who abide in the world as holier, more precious and more whole than everyday people.
There are more and more of us who know and feel that sacredness dwells in each one of us.
I believe that we, women in particular, have contributed a great deal to this awareness. Raised to please, to lose ourselves in caring for others and to exhaust ourselves in excessive work, many of us have found ourselves at a point where we have had to face the painful consequences of alienation from ourselves and the loss of life’s meaning.
We had to stop. We had to start to listen to ourselves in silence. To look deep inside ourselves. To face and feel painful emotions. And to heal the wounds caused by the long abandonment and rejection of ourselves.
We have come to understand that the world we want to live in must first be created within ourselves.
So we began to look for answers to life’s most important questions:
• Who am I?
• What is the purpose of my life?
• How can I live a more relaxed, joyful and fulfilled life?
In search of our unique personal answers, we embarked on a journey of self-discovery and self-exploration.
In doing so, we widely opened the door to our own sacredness.
We started to remember that we are much more than just our bodies. That our true essence resides in dimensions that we had not perceived before because we simply had not paid attention to them. We began to feel that our true essence is infinitely loving, unchangeable and limitless. We experience it when we are fully present in the moment. That is when we connect with the powerful force of Love that is within us and all around us. And when we learn to use it consciously to create the most wonderful creations of life, we are able to create anything we focus our loving attention on.
In this way, we begin to transcend the apparent limitations of being human. We become more than we are. We are no longer just trying to survive because we have more and more experience of being able to rise beyond all the limitations we have set for ourselves in the past. In doing so, we grow, evolve and expand into more health, love, abundance and freedom.
When we live this way, we embody our divinity.
In order to feel it more deeply, we can create a special place for it in our lives.
And this, dear Woman, is what I warmly invite you to do.
I invite you to create a special place for yourself in the safe haven of your home: an altar.
Create it to celebrate your sacredness. Your divinity.
The altar becomes a sacred place when we place the symbols of our sacredness on it:
• A photograph of ourselves when we were still a curious, playful and joyful child.
• A shell from a holiday where we felt the bliss of serenity.
• A nurturing affirmation that brings a sense of calm.
• An inspiring book that helps us to understand ourselves better.
• A heart-shaped pebble that reminds us we are loved unconditionally.
• An angel that gently reminds us that we are never alone.
When a woman sets up an altar to celebrate her sacredness, her divine essence is stirred within her. Slowly, she begins to remember who she really is.
The altar supports the woman to connect with her inner beauty. To awaken her soft, gentle and nurturing feminine energy with loving attention. To renew her strength. Or simply to enjoy the beauty of her precious presence.
A woman’s altar is a symbol of her authentic self. It is a visible metaphor of her soul. It is a bridge between her inner and outer worlds.
It is a space in which she can freely express, in words and pictures, the form and substance of her divine essence.
The altar is the personal space of the Awakened Woman, through which she tells the story of her inner life in a creative way.
It is the canvas on which the woman draws different, often completely contradictory portraits of herself. Once she is a fearless warrior who stands firmly on the ramparts of her truth. At other times, she is a frightened little girl, sinking beneath the weight of life’s mundane, utterly manageable challenges.
The altar provides a loving shelter for the woman to take time for self-reflection. It is a safe harbour where she is allowed to become aware and to piece together the scattered parts of herself into a meaningful whole. It is a nurturing place where a woman creates priceless diamonds out of the apparent meaningless of life in order to decorate the path of her personal (r)evolution with them.
The energy of the personal altar is a gentle reminder, especially on vulnerable days for women, that the vision of our self-realisation here and now is possible. It is realised when we make choices in accordance with our inner wisdom, regardless of external expectations.
And above all, when we dare to create a peaceful, safe and loving haven for ourselves in the chaos of the crumbling old world. For people. And all living beings.
