Beautiful Corner – Making Way for a Spiritual Life

Icon Corner - Image used with kind permission of Phool4xc at Flickr

Having an altar in a house is an ancient practice stretching back into prehistoric times. In Romania and other East European countries, especially in small country villages, one would often find a beautiful painted plate, a treasured gilded icon and pictures or photos of family members  or religious figures on the wall decorated above with a beautifully embroidered cloth pinned just so to frame the collection of precious objects. Nearby there may be a small container tacked to the wall to hold a candle or a tiny bowl of holy water. Or underneath the pictures, a small wooden shelf holding a religious stauette and some flowers (maybe even faded plastic roses!).

Home Altar - Image used with kind permission of Violetta79 at Flickr

These “beautiful corners” or ”krasniy ugol” as they are known in Russia are part of an ancient cultural tradition that values the spiritual connection to the home village, to the land it was built on and it’s spirits, to the ancestors who lived and died there and to the source of the divine, to God.  A beautiful corner or altar is a place to focus on a spiritual connection to the divine and to remind oneself of that connection daily. Lighting a candle, cleaning the altar, putting clean water in the bowl or adding fresh flowers all give renewed energy to this focus on spiritual connection.

Altars are many and as varied as the cultures they are found in. Some are large with dozens of objects crowded together jostling for space; crystals, wooden or stone sculptures, bones and feathers and other paraphernalia. Some are tiny and neat with only an incense stick and a candle or a wooden cross and a set of rosary beads. It always amazes me how different altars can be and how creative people are in collecting together meaningful objects and displaying them with in such artistic arrangements.

Easter Altar - Image used with kind permission of hvala23 at Flickr

Whatever it holds and whatever style or aesthetic it pertains to is really unimportant as long as the altar is kept fresh and the energy active in it. Arrangements of objects can change according to the seasons and the reasons. Like celebrating new birth and new beginnings at Easter or celebrating light and insight on the darkest day of winter.  And so the altar is a dynamic, living thing and the person maintaining holds  it and the objects on it as sacred and uses it for it’s proper purpose;  to strengthen their relationship with the divine constantly – a bit like a springboard into the heavenly realms.

And so I am developing my altar. I have been given specific instructions by Spirit about what it should look like and what it should have on it. I had to perform a ceremony before creating this altar and the creation of it is still in progress. I have ordered fresh herbs ready for the first time I use it in it’s newly reborn form. I enjoy using an altar, just burning some sage and seeing it waft upwards to the sky taking my prayers with it makes me feel good. The pungent wholesome smell of burning sagebrush transports me into a certain place or mode of being. The objects I have on my altar remind me of my connection to certain spirits and this is a way of honouring their presence in my life. Spending a few moments on this each day is a beautiful way to bring silence, spiritual connection and peace. I highly recommend it as a lovely gift to give to yourself and the spirit helpers in your life.

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2. Beauty as a healing force
3. Introducing “Creative Magpie” Blog Feature
4. What to do with Nostalgic Clutter