Building Altars
By Chris Ng, Stillpoint Executive Director (Interim)
In one of our recent programs, a participant challenged our panel of spiritual directors to define “spiritual direction.” Beyond mentioning “holy listening,” we spoke about walking with someone on their spiritual journey, about being a “storycatcher”; one mentioned two boats coming alongside each other in a river, another described being an archeologist excavating stories, and still another described tending a campfire to welcome sojourners in the wilderness.
It was observed that none of us seemed to be able to talk about spiritual direction without using a metaphor. That sounds like truth. Metaphors describe experience and make connections in a way textbook definitions simply cannot. Each metaphor is a miniature story, touching us on a heart level. If we open ourselves to the metaphor, we can hear the crunch of footsteps on the earth; feel in our bodies the messy work of digging down deep; see the bright, warm welcome of a campfire on the path up ahead. Through metaphor, the members of our panel were not just describing what spiritual direction is, but how it feels. In that moment of sharing our own experience, we connect on a level beyond the rational or logical.
And isn’t that what it’s like in spiritual direction?
In a couple of our programs we use Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith. The title refers to part of the story of Jacob in the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 28:10-21). Jacob, alone and on the run, lays down to rest and dreams of a pathway connecting heaven and earth. When he wakes up, he takes the stone on which he slept and builds an altar to mark the spot where he realized, “Surely God was in this place and I did not know it.” In Voices of the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices, Lara Medina and Martha Gonzales, write about how indigenous cultures around the world recognize that altars or shrines are bridges between the physical and spiritual realms, and visible signs of an intention to maintain a relationship between the two.
This could be another metaphor for spiritual direction. One of the things spiritual directors do is to help others build altars in the world, marking where Spirit has been active in their lives; identifying places where, looking back, they can say, “Surely the Holy One was in this place and I did not know it.”
Spiritual directors meeting in-person often use a physical altar as part of creating sacred space to hold the session. In our in-person programs at Stillpoint we do the same, and we encourage those on Zoom to create such a space at home. Indeed, the spiritual direction session itself might be an altar in the world, a place where the two realms meet, where they are held together in relationship. Maybe I’ll use this description the next time I’m on a panel.
I wonder what metaphors you would use for spiritual direction? How would you describe the experience? Can we see what we are doing in spiritual direction, in our lives, and here at Stillpoint, as building altars together?
Peace,
Chris
Chris Ng is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, church pastor, chaplain, spiritual director, a retired appellate lawyer, and serving as the current Interim Executive Director of Stillpoint. She serves on the Ghost Ranch faculty of Stillpoint and is the Stillpoint at Ghost Ranch program administrator. She holds a Master of Divinity, Juris Doctor, and Bachelor of Arts degrees and did her spiritual direction training through Stillpoint. She also studied the Taoist arts for more than 30 years. Having previously served churches in Southern Florida and Texas, Chris is currently called to pastor First United Church of Christ and Conference Center, Second Life, the only fully authorized church of a recognized Christian denomination that exists only in virtual reality. She lives in Northern New Mexico and also serves as chaplain and EMT with the Abiquiu Volunteer Fire Department.