Personal Spiritual Altars: Tree of Life

Intention

I was given my first alter by my mother as a child while we were living in Thailand. My soul seem to be innately attracted to this idea of having a sacred spot even at an early age. It was made of plaster and hung on the wall. My designs are highly influenced by it.

I started creating alters as a child in the Santa Cruz hills. I would build these sacred spaces by using found materials in nature- sticks, branches, stones, spending hours in blissful meditation as I put my soul into their creation. I always had my personal altar with me at home but the idea of being in the world and making sacred space stayed with me, bringing the world to the personal, and the personal to the world.

While working as a carpenter, I was frustrated by the amount of material that was wasted on the job sites. As I meditated on how I could save this material from the landfill I decided to make an altar for my mother, returning her the gift of her gracious gesture. This was made of material that was left behind as well as stones and paint and some designs based on the imagery my grandmother used for healing purposes. My mother's mother was a healer in the Philipines. I received many comments on how much personal altars were needed in peoples lives and how absent they were and so decided to keep working on this project with the intent of creating something that would bring an opportunity to have personalized sacred space (temenos).

What really pushed me into continuing this project was losing my best friend, my dog of 18 years, Blue. She was my greatest teacher and was the one who brought me to myself and to heart consciousness. I learned so much about my soul, heart and spirit from her. She was an Australian Blue Heeler which seemed very fitting for what she brought to me and others - lessons on love, healing and heart. The Blue Heart Altar was made to honor her life and is now my personal altar. I continue our sacred relationship through this altar.

I have been continuing the theme of giving new life to material that deserves to be kept alive by searching recycled stores and job sites. Using archetypal images like the heart, objects of nature and the cosmos allows the person to bring there own spiritual approach to their practice while the shelf creates a container to add personal objects to bring to this heart space. I recently graduated from Antioch University with a degree in Psychology and Spiritual Studies and have utilized much of this education as a stepping stone in the conscious creation and the intention of these altars. Bringing in the ideas of Depth Psychology, Indigenous practices and personal philosophies that I developed while studying these ideas. The Heart being the most important for me as it was the topic of my Senior Synthesis. While in sufi school I discovered the importance of heart consciousness and have been working towards this in my healing practice as well as my personal spiritual practice. My intention is to bring us deeper into heart consciousness with the creation of the these alters and so deeper into the heart of the world.

Personal Spiritual Altars

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Tree of Life

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