EPISODE 045: Honouring Your Sacred Space with Ann Théato

You’ll Learn

• What is sacred space?

• How to energise yourself

• How to energise your home

• What methods are best for space clearing?

• What a Harmony Ball is used for

• The importance of setting intention

• How does Feng Shui work?

• The importance of clearing old energy
  
  

TRANSCRIPT

Hello everybody! My name is Ann Théato and welcome to the Psychic Matters Podcast – episode number 45.

Have you subscribed to this podcast yet? Find the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform and click on it – you don’t want to miss any of my upcoming episodes, I have some really wonderful guests lined up for you coming onto the show to talk about topics  that I know you will all find fascinating.  We have an incredible spirit artist coming on the show, we have a very special guest coming along to talk to us about where science meets spirituality, I have episodes lined up to talk about what to expect in a private sitting with a medium; another on what happens at a mediumship demonstration; we will be exploring astral travel, telepathy, past life regression, you name it, I’ll cover it.  In fact, if you do have a particular topic you want me to explore, please do contact me and let me know – [email protected],

First of all, this week you have me!  Yes, this week I am here to talk to you today about honouring your sacred space!

Just before we get into that, what do you think of the quality of sound on this episode?  This is the first time I have used my new Shure SM7B microphone with Rode arm, Cloudlifter and Focus rite, and it is just so brilliant, a) having equipment that doesn’t collapse into my tea!  and b) having a top of the range microphone is just a pure delight and I will be shortly recording some new meditations which will be for sale on my website, so watch this space, I’ll make an announcement here when they are ready.  I have my wonderful Patrons to thank for my new equipment – list patron names here… you guys rock – you have supported the podcast so beautifully and everyone is benefiting from your kindness, so I know all my listeners will want to join me in saying a huge thank you to all the Patrons of the Psychic Matters podcast!  If YOU are interested in becoming a Patron, please visit patreon.com/psychicmatters to find out all the benefits!  Of which there are many! and it’s well worth exploring!

So back to this week’s episode. 

What is sacred space? Well, it can be an entire building that is constructed for religious purposes – temples, churches, or it can be a natural place in the world – a river, land or a mountain – or it could be your body – your inner temple. It could also be your entire house, or a room in your house or a small tiny corner of your house where you have set up an altar.  Importantly, if you want to set up a sacred space – it is something that you alone decree is sacred – simply by setting your intention, you bring it into being.

I have a sacred space at my partner, Lee’s house.  He lives in a beautiful 17^th century cottage in the county of Suffolk, in England so when I go down to see him, I have a sanctuary into which I can escape. I call it my healing space.  It’s a place I can retreat from the world, it is peaceful, it is calm, and it now has the most beautiful energy within the room.  Now, before he moved in, there were other tenants living there and the room I now call my healing space, was used as an office for a guy who was an accountant.  The energy within the room  was not always beautiful, not that there was anything wrong with it per se, but it’s an end room, the energy flows in there gets stuck and stagnant, and it felt energetically heavy.  So when Lee said to me that I could use it for my healing purposes, I was just thrilled.  So how did I change up the energy in that space?

Cleaned, decluttered, hoovered, threw open windows and door; felt the walls – where were the cold spots, hot spots, tingly spots, put on loud music clapped out old energy, felt the walls again, re-clapped places where energy still felt dense, made sure all walls felt balanced, chose the colour, painted every happy memory I could think of into the walls; felt the energy of the space again, have brass ball with bell inside, it is called a Harmony Ball – rang that into walls with my intentions for the space, put fresh flower heads on a plate with tea lights – one on the floor by the entrance, one on my healing couch, one on my desk; smudged with sage.  people can feel it when they walk into the room – they always say, oh my gosh it feels amazing in here!  It really feels good. 

When I go into the space now, I will put an essential oil into a white china oil burner –  fill the bowl at the top of the burner with water and place a few drops of essential oils on the water, then place a lighted tea light below. When I’m working in there on business things, I will burn Geranium oil or Lavender.  If I am doing a reading, I will use either Geranium oil or recently I have gotten into Myrrh and Frankincense, which I find really enhance my readings as you can journey with these oils in your mind – but that’s for another episode! Be especially careful with your dogs and all pets – some essential oils are poisonous to dogs, birds and cats – they are highly toxic – even in an infuser or oil burner. I’m supe careful with my little Yorkshire Terrier, Faelyn,- that is a Gaelic name and it means “little wolf” – I always leave her in the kitchen if I am going to be using any essential oils.

So I work quite hard in that healing space, on the podcasts and teaching classes on Zoom, etc., so often it needs a little TLC in terms of lifting the energy again.  So, I open the windows, let the air flow, play loud music, clap out the old energy, tidy up, keep it fresh, rebalance the energy with my harmony bell, reset intentions for the space.

You can do this with yourself as well.  We work hard, we get weighed down by the weight of the world, by our own personal challenges and difficulties, by our worries and our woes.  It is important to cleanse yourself down too.  How do you do this?  You can cleanse your auric field using smudge sticks, palasanto, crystals…

You could start with a shower, not necessarily a bath – with a bath you lie with your stale energy in the water – like a stale energy soup – that’s not what you want.  You want to have a shower, let that water flow over you, washing away your cares and troubles, let the water begin to shift all the stale energy you carry within.  Water is a powerful healing element that nourishes our bodies from the inside out and brings an energy of cleansing, purification and release. I’m not slating a bath – I do love a bath – it’s one of my favourite things to do – if I want to release my sore muscles, I’ll take a Himalayan salt bath but if I want to release negative feelings, I will shower after the bath – just a quick whip over with the shower attachment while setting the intention to release and let go. 

Then put on fresh clothes.  Clean clothes go a long way to making us feel better.  Doesn’t matter how old they are, as long as they are washed and clean. Another really invigorating thing you can do is wild swimming – I have really taken to wild swimming in the past 2 years – me and my girl friends swim as often as we can in the River Stour, along with many local people and we also swim in the ocean as and when we can.  Being really amongst nature is incredibly healing and of course will fill you with those feel good endorphins afterwards.  Have a look and see if there are safe spaces to wild swim in your local area.

So just back to my little healing space in Suffolk – And if you don’t have a whole room you can dedicate to becoming your personal healing space – which I personally don’t!  I live in a tiny flat in London which is where I spend most of my time!  you can do what I do.  In my tiny apartment, I have two rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs.  That’s it.  That’s my space. It’s where I brought my two kids up, it’s my home and I love it.  But I do have to share the living room downstairs with my family.  So, when I had clients coming over (pre-covid days), I would start by cleaning the living room, then I would light a candle, put on some beautiful harmonious music, burn some essential oil in my oil burner, plump up the cushions on the sofa, get a little side table, lay out my tarot cards on a beautiful purple silk cloth, make sure there were tissues for my client and a sealed bottle of fresh water for them, then I would sit in the energy of my own soul for a few minutes before I began. So I don’t have a space set aside for my readings in London – it’s impossible to do that – but I do create a space that is beautiful and harmonious, before I do any reading.  I do the same thing if I am reading online these days.  It is so important to set our intention, for what we want to bring into the space, harmonise the energy of the space and ourselves as best we can, before we work.

I have also created a tiny altar in my bedroom in London.  It is basically a shelf between the side of the wardrobe and the window – it’s tiny – maybe 30 inches by 30 inches.  It’s is a place  where I remember my loved ones, count my blessings and manifest my dreams.  On there, I have a tiny blue pinch pot that I made in a pottery class with my best friend Sue, over 20 years ago and inside that tiny pot, are scraps of paper with intentions written on them – things that I want to bring into my life. I have photographs on there of my father and I, my favourite and beloved Aunty Mon who is no longer with us, photographs of my partner Lee scuba diving in Greece, soap stone carved heads that I bought in Africa when I visited 30 years ago – it’s a country I’d love to go back to; a small plastic wind up walking dinosaur that lee brought me that reminds me never to let go of my childish playful side; and beneath my very modern altar, is a stable my father lovingly built me out of faux wood and formica in the 70’s, which houses two horses that I used to play with as a child – a white one – called Silver – The Lone Ranger’s horse which belonged to my brother and a brown one – which is mine.  I am still trying to manifest a real horse into my life!  I recently put a small black horse on my window sill in the healing space in Suffolk, to manifest this into being!  I’ve also got a small white and orange VW camper van which was given to me by the Director of Shirley Valentine, which was a one-woman play I was in, where I played 18 different characters to a standing ovation every night I have to say – and I loved the Director of that play very dearly and I loved playing that part and I keep that on my altar too as a reminder of my acting background and a manifestor of new roles in the future!

And in the healing space in Suffolk, I have made this leaping hare – h-a-r-e – sculpture – when we made it in the art studio, the lady who ran the class suggested we put a message or intention into the heart of the hare and she had tied a small glass vial into the centre of the hare for us to put in our manifestations!  Hare’s are very spiritual creatures and so I wrote on my piece of paper, “with my spiritual hare I leap forward into an assured future of giving spiritual tuition in many countries across the world”.  So I know and now you know, the message that is written into the heart of that hare.  And so far it is working. I have bookings next year to teach in Edinburgh in Scotland and in Dublin in Ireland!  So here’s hoping opportunities will open up for me to teach in Europe and Australia too!  Do email me if you want me to come over and teach!  So on your alter, you don’t have to just have candles and crystals.  You can have very personal items as well to make it your own.

But going back to creating sacred space in your home, you can do this for yourself, no matter how small your space.  You could use a window ledge, a small corner of your garden, a window box even outside, the top of a bookcase, a side table.  You can use it to display things that are important to you or things that reflect your spiritual priorities. You could put it in a little…I did this once when I went to a hotel in Budapest, I took a little spiritual, travelling spiritual altar with me in a tiny suitcase, so you can make it very portable and set it up where every you go. Your sacred space should make you feel nourished and inspired and re-energised every time you stand or sit there.  You might want to put a tarot or oracle card for the day on there, a written goal, some shells or stones from the outside, you might want to plant freshly planted seeds, water, anything – you can put anything on your altar that you choose.

Then to use your sacred space, for a few minutes every morning or evening, sit with your eyes closed, enjoying the peace, give thanks for all your blessings and gratitude for all the good things in your life.  And you can ask for guidance or for answers to problems that you are currently having.  Use this space as a place to be reborn and renewed every day, so that you can listen closely to what is in your heart.

Have a think about your own sacred space.  Is it your home, is it in your car, is it your inner temple?  Have you space cleared your car? I know I haven’t done mine – it’s a mess!  But I need to.  It takes me all over the country my little car.  And it is a little sacred space of it’s own.  I do a lot of thinking in that car.  To make it a little sacred space, what I need to do, is a have it valeted or clean in myself.  Clear out the glove box of endless CD’s that fall onto the floor every time I open it.  Buy a fresh car blanket and maybe put a crystal, maybe an amethyst into the door compartment, so that when I am stuck in a traffic jam I can take it out and hold it.  Because Amethyst is a natural tranquiliser which soothes irritability!  I could probably treat myself to some new car mats.  I don’t like my car to smell of garage-bought air fresheners, but I do sometimes put a little essential oil on a piece of cotton wool and pop it under the sun visor or in the door of the car.  I can remember my mother actually, when I had a motorbike – I used to be a motorcycle courier in London- I rode around for 3 years delivering parcels and packages across the capital!  But when I went home on my bike, my mum would rush out with a bottle of Holy Water from Lourdes which had also been blessed by the local priest, and she would shake it all over my bike.  I used to think she absolutely bonkers!  But, what she was doing, when I think about it now, was setting the intention for safety for me and moving through ritual, to manifest that into being.  So now I don’t think she was bonkers at all and I can completely understand why she did that.

So what is your sacred space?  Do you already have one or can you create one, somewhere?  It might just be something as simple as keeping your work desk tidy and maybe using elements of Feng Shui and having a creative corner and a money corner on your desk.

Feng Shui is the art of arranging buildings, objects, space and life to achieve harmony and balance. Feng shui works on the assumption that the world is driven by unseen forces. The idea behind it is to “unblock” the way, so that the forces may flow freely and create balance in your space (or in your life).  I’m not a Feng Shui Practitioner but I do use elements of Feng Shui in my home and in my life.  So for instance, I keep my oven spotlessly clean – its something I’m really passionate about, I’ve always go the, I was going to say the Vim – that’s very 70’s isn’t it? To clean the top of the stove off.  Because stoves have been regarded as “money makers” in homes for thousands of years;.  They are the source of food and warmth and believed to attract abundance for the family.

I also have a three-legged toad at the front door, with a coin in his mouth.  Not a real toad, obviously!  If I hoover and I accidentally knock him and the coin drops out, I have to leap into action and put it back in his mouth!  But he is a symbol of long life and good luck and 3 legged toads, or 3 legged frogs are used to bring in mor financial abundance.  I gave one to a friend once and she won a million pounds. No joke.  Think I gave her the wrong frog, my one’s broken!

I do also try to keep things in pairs – two candles together, photos of the family in one place, I like        air to get around the furniture and circulate so there are no stagnant energetic places or corners, I love fresh flowers in the house, I change up the pictures, I open the windows a lot.

What about decluttering your email inbox?  Or WhatsApp groups that people have added you to that you no longer need?  How many email subscriptions do you have coming in that you don’t want to receive?  Instead of swiping to delete them every day, why don’t you unsubscribe?  Clear out and declutter your emails – delete all you do not need.  In this modern age we have to adapt as spiritual beings and apply these techniques to the digital age.  Honour the sacred space of your smart phone or iPad.  Get rid of all those old photos, delete, rebalance, refresh the photos on your home screen and use something that lifts your spirits.  I have re-named all my app groups on my telephone – instead of BANKING HEALTH, SOCIAL MEDIA, I now call them I AM RICH, I AM FIT, I AM LOVED.  We are adapting.  Adapt with me.

Space clearing is the art of clearing and revitalizing stagnant energies in buildings. All traditional cultures have some form of space clearing. You can clean your house but you also have to clean the energy and maintain it – it’s vital to a healthy home or office

Events that happen within buildings, can leave an indelible mark on the atmosphere and these can be read by our own intuitive knowing. We can feel when someone has had an argument in a space.  We can feel when a place feels inviting or really uninviting.  We can sense when something terrible has happened in a place.  We all feel it.  And we can read the energy of the space with our psychic awareness.  This is called psychometry and needs a whole new podcast by itself.  But you can psychometrise a building.  By allowing images to touch our mind in this way, we can read what types of people would have used & inhabited a building; what types of work they might have been doing and what sort of events might have happened there. You can read the energy of buildings and pick up information psychically by looking at photographs which contain an atmospheric energy or using your clairvoyance (clear vision); clairsentience (clear feeling) and clairaudience (clear hearing).

Energy imprints influence everyone, not just the Sensitive. We’ve all heard of places where history repeats and bad things continue to reoccur time and time again – wars, accidents, arguments, etc. When unaware people pick up low-level residual energy, and take it on, they can unwittingly re-enact the past script.

Most used buildings contain a layer of residual energy — both positive and negative. Empaths pick up on these vibes rather like first impressions. We notice them at first but don’t always continue to if we visit a place often. A very old building with a lot of history, such as an old manor house, a castle, a stately home – if you go and visit it – you may not pick up very much at all because you are one of thousands of people, trooping through that building, creating a new energetic imprint on the space.  But, if you were to visit on a day when there weren’t many others there and stand in a corner or a tucked away place where not many others have stood, you could read the energetic imprint of that place and space and pick up impressions and images from the past.

Do you have this ability?  Can you psychically sense the emotional state of someone else?

Do you find owning used furniture uncomfortable or does wearing someone else’s clothing or jewellery make you feel weird?  

Do you have a strong hatred or dislike towards a specific item and you don’t know why?

If you want to study psychometry and I will create a podcast episode for you on this very topic, we’ve touched the surface of it today – but if you are interested in it – please do join me on Saturday November 27th, from 10am – 5pm UK time zone where I will be teaching Psychometry online for The College of Psychic Studies – so you can join in from wherever you are in the world.  It would be wonderful to see you in class.  But Ann, how do you learn it online if we can’t visit a place or hold any objects?  Aha, it is possible to teach it online because photographs of objects, places and people contain an energetic atmosphere which we can tap into.  So, we will be working with photographs, and I will take you through a series of exercises to strengthen your psychic knowing and extend the many ways in which you might work. We will be looking in that workshop, at the secrets of buildings; the mysteries contained within handwriting and objects and we will be psychometrizing photographs of people.  All of you are welcome and it’s open to all levels of development, so that’s the 27^thNovember at the College of Psychic Studies.  If you want to sign up for that workshop, the link will be in the show notes of this episode.

So just to finish up this episode on honouring your sacred space.  Remember that sacred space is everywhere – both within and without.  When a house or a person is filled with love and happiness it can really feel like the sun is shining. But when a home or a person has been layered and layered with deep anguish, they can feel cold, or that place can Feel cold and frightening, unwelcoming. These energetic imprints can last for years after they have formed and greatly affect the ambience of a place or a person.

Becoming aware of, creating and maintaining a sacred space in your heart and in your home, can become a daily reminder of your connection to the Divine.  Let yourself and your home become a place that is full of love, full of peace, full of grace.  To quote Tony Stockwell – we should all be our own walking sanctuary. 

How will you create yours?

I hope you have enjoyed this podcast.  Remember that all resources, including a full transcript are over on my website under podcasts, so do  head over there and you can pick everything up on the show notes www.anntheato.com. 

Have a little explore while you are over there and take a look at the upcoming courses especially the one I’m teaching online on Psychometry for the College Of Psychic Studies in London.  It would be great to see you in class.

Thank you everyone for being fantastic listeners, I am getting some great reviews in from listeners all over the world and I cannot thank you enough for those.   Please do keep them coming in.  It’s really wonderful of you to take the time to write an honest review because it does because it makes a huge difference to the podcast and the way it moves up the podcast charts.  If you have got any time right now, go to itunes go to Stitcher and write an honest review.

For now, I would like to wish you all a very successful couple of weeks.

Until next time, my name is Ann Théato, and thank you for listening to Psychic Matters!