Sacred Self Sundays

Since the beginning of the Temple of the Crane last year, Sundays have been a time where the focus shifts to the Sacred Self. A time to acknowledge on, and indulge in, the concept of seeing and treating ourselves as the sacred vessels that we are.

Sacred means: considered to be holy and deserving respect. This life is precious and our experience of it is unique for each of us. This does not mean we do not have hardships or that the society humans create does not have some serious issues, but the life itself is an experience for the soul.

Body and Soul

Our soul is energy without form. To experience and interact in this physical/ material world, it is housed in a physical body. This body, with all its senses, hormones, emotions, structures, allows the soul to experience in this realm. To interact with it, create in it, reshape it, and connect to others within it. The soul is building memories and understandings in this form, that it will take with it into the next.

I believe there is purpose to life, and that purpose is experiencing life. To experience this physical world. It is good to note here that I see purpose and destiny to be two different things – Purpose is the “why” of us being here, while Destiny is what we choose to do in it, the “How” if you will.

There are many things that our souls, being energy, can not experience without a vehicle to house it. This makes your physical body a Sacred Vessel. It is the vessel that allows our soul to grow from the experiences it has here. All the small transformations of the self in this current physical life are micro-growths in the souls macro-evolution.

They say: “Worship of the Self is bad”

We have been conditioned in so many ways to view the worship of the self as something bad, as selfish, but I assure you it is not. Holding yourself sacred, treating yourself as such, and honoring that through self-care are all ways in which we self-worship. Where the “bad” comes in is when we do not see and respect that sacredness in others. That, for them, they are sacred too and deserve the same respect that you demand for yourself.

We experience this world together. We contribute to each others lessons here. We shape each others experiences through encounters, words, and actions. Some are brief, some are life-long, but all impact us in some way. Each one shapes the wisdom and memories that the soul will carry onward to the next adventure.

Self Worship – the act of holding our body and soul as sacred is not selfish, it’s just a truth in this way of understanding the self. It is something I think we should be doing. Taking time to to reflect and honor that sacredness. This can look like whatever it needs to be for you. For me, sometimes that means taking some time just for myself, doing something just for me that I want to do and has nothing to do with the wants of others. Sometimes it is shutting out the outside world and responsibilities, while spending real time with my husband and children building memories.

Why Sundays?

As a non-christian living in a christianized society, Sundays seem like the perfect day. All the church goers are busy doing things in spaces where I am not. Events, businesses, and so forth are generally low key or closed which helps with lowering the distractions that take away from the focus on the self. So Sundays just work the best in my mind.

Something I heard once from a person in the Temple who was a recent convert from a christian background also stuck with me… Sundays were always reserved for the worship of the christian god and christian faith. By shifting the focus onto the self was helpful for them in breaking down the conditioning and damage they felt from that religion so they could move forward on their new path. I honestly had not considered this when I started Sacred Sundays in the Temple, but I could easily see their point.

Treating the self as Sacred does not mean…

Another conditioning of society is this idea that beauty and health trends are how we honor the body: Your body is your Temple, so you must… work out, eat organic, look a certain way, dress a certain way, and on and on it goes. I am not going to debate healthy choices or lifestyles here. Society has set some unhealthy beauty standards that they do not even live up to – airbrushing/ filters, crash diets, plastic surgery, self-help seminars, fashion trends, all telling you that you are not enough the way you are. All putting that little voice in your head that constantly reminds you to compare yourselves to others, instead of filling yourself with love for who you are.

Honor our Sacred Self is about loving and honoring ourselves just as we are in this moment. Embracing and loving all the scars and flaws. Each one has purpose, meaning, memories, and lessons within them for us. It is seeing yourself as unique and your journey in this life as unique to you. (Nope – we are not debating the word unique here either – because if you really think about it, we are, and that isn’t a bad thing – it also doesn’t mean we are above any other)

One person’s idea of honoring themselves may be to eat a food that fills their senses and brings them joy. Another may be to soak in tub, washing away the old and bringing in the new. Some will get a new hair cut, while others may enforce new boundaries for how they allow others to treat them.

The focus is loving ourselves and embracing our whole self just the way we are right now. Doing something just for ourselves, that makes us feel good about ourselves.

Ending Notes

What focusing on the Sacred Self looks like really depends on you. The point isn’t to focus on the acts, it is to focus on the purpose of the acts – seeing and honoring yourself, your body and soul, as a sacred being, because you are. You are sacred to yourself. You are the one constant in your life from birth to death. Everything else, shifts and changes, ebbs and flows.

Your body is the vessel that allows the soul to experience the physical world. Your soul is energy, thus eternal, and something sacred. I think it is time more people started to acknowledge that, to see themselves as that, to recognize that in others and treat both accordingly. I think we would see a big shift in our world if we did. Perhaps that is the hopeful optimist in me – but I believe it all the same.