Overview – Preparing to practice through purification and ritual. Setting aside space and time to sit inside space and time…to impact space and time.

Meditative Journey – Directing Presence

Potential Outcomes – Increase focus and amplitude; building relationship be-tween you, your medicine piece(s), and the space you are in.

Follow-up Medicine Practices1. Do the Directing Presence practice at least twice before going on to Class 2.2. Add one or more medicine pieces to your sacred space/altar area. 3. Work with any one or more of your medicine pieces to get more familiar with its presence and power.

“[Sacred space] is an absolute necessity for anybody today... It’s the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing hap-pens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something even-tually will happen.”

– Joseph Campbell

Befriending Sacred Space – Class 1: Introduction to Creating Sacred Space© Steve Guettermann, 2018

Befriending Sacred SpaceClass 1: Introduction to Creating Sacred Space

and Directing Presence

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elcome to Befriending Sacred Space, a seven-module course and practice in co-creation, communication, and conscious use of energy to, with and from

our most conscious surroundings.WThank you for joining us. I look forward to interacting with you in our private Face-book group, available here. If you have not been added to the group, but would like to, please let me know. Of course, you can always withdraw at any time.

Befriending sacred space is a pragmatic spiritual practice. So, the intent of this course is to bring more positive, malleable energy to your life, as well as more posi-tive energy and well-being to the Planet.

Positive means:

Evolutionary – creatively and responsibly builds upon the old

Uplifting – while enabling our feet to be firmly on the ground

Engaging – joyous expansions of interaction and service

Appropriate – enhancing the highest good

Useful – keeping it real in turbulent times

The challenge is to bring positive energy into play while being intimately involved with life’s demands, yet at the same time being non-attached to outcomes. Thus, each week’s class and follow-up medicine practice are designed to help bring more practical magic into your life. After each class, you will receive an email on medicine practice details of suggestions to do before moving on to the next class. So, to be clear, a class refers to one of the seven modules; course refers to your en-tire program of study.

What is it that we are going to befriend?

The answer is: Sacred space.

Sacred space is a portal and a repository of energy, knowledge, wisdom and spiri-tual wealth. It is a protector, a healing space and a healing tool, a font of creativity, and an alchemical cauldron. It is a smithy of “creativity creating creation,” as Peru-vian shaman don Oscar Miro-Quesada says. It is an animated ally we nurture and nourish to become more intimate with what gives us life to live our highest pur-pose and greatest joys, and create balance with reciprocity. We live within it; it lives within us.

With that said, this course is designed to help the person new to a spiritual path make sense of the energetic basics of creating and using sacred space and medicine pieces. It may also help the more advanced student or teacher guide others into creating sacred relationship, as its practices and explanations work well with yoga, Befriending Sacred Space – Class 1: Introduction to Creating Sacred Space© Steve Guettermann, 2018

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meditation and other spiritual disciplines. Ultimately sacred space and your medicine pieces become teachers and companions.

Many with a spiritual practice, or those who have recently started, normally share a sense of deep connection with our Planet. Yet this seems hard for many to come by. Connection is not just a feeling, but the actual experience of our bare feet on the ground, fun in the sun, loving in the moonlight, and sensing the magic and mystery that is always around us, even in the darkest times and most volatile places, partly because it is more and more difficult to find natural darkness, peace and quiet.

To me, meeting the Planet on her own terms is a requisite for meeting life on its terms. From my conversations with people, even a few who have a spiritual prac-tice, I sometimes hear that a loving and connected relationship with the Planet is important. I feel it is vitally important. This course is designed to help us create and strengthen that relationship, in order to put natural magic and good medicine where it belongs – into our life and the lives of the people we love. This is also what helps heal us from the many hits we take in life. Life, itself, heals the wounds of life, itself.

Befriending sacred space is a powerful way to build a connection with the natural world. And yes, the human environment can be part of the natural world when cre-ated and used in ways that allow the two of us, humankind and nature, to inti-mately interact and interrelate. This does not mean we don’t alter nature; it does mean we don’t destroy what gives us life. Taking this a step farther, it means we are in right relationship with nature, with what gives us life. Right relationship is based on reciprocity, which is also fostered and fine-tuned with our work with sacred space. A documentary I saw recently said something such as the ultimate purpose of civilization is to make art, and art is to reflect life, as well as move it forward into new possibility. Thus art and life are inherent in our natural connection, as both need the natural world for such things as materials, inspiration and nourishment.

I think most people would say a garden is part of the natural world – at least it can be. Our buildings can be, too. So can all of our systems, including education, govern-ment, energy and transportation. Our creative meditations and creative activities are the pathway to achieving this artistic harmony of satisfying our needs in ways that serve all. Sacred space is a stage by which we can practice these performances.

This brings me to the rationale for this course. It’s a quote by Carlos Castaneda. Maybe a lot of his stories were made up, but I think he did do at least a few things. And one of the things he did, of course, was write a lot. One of my favorite quotes of his goes something like this: “I learned to use myself in exceeding more intimate and refined ways.”

That’s the essence for me. The power of sacred space brings about this intimacy. And by sharing stories and lessons we can help one another bring more magic to life and life to magic, and – I have to say it – increase our sphere of good medicine, Befriending Sacred Space – Class 1: Introduction to Creating Sacred Space© Steve Guettermann, 2018

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of good energy. And this is how we really will change the world for today and for seven generations. A sphere of good medicine so strong that regardless of who steps inside our sacred space, including us, fear, ignorance, hate – feelings on the lower level of the emotional scale - simply cannot survive.

If this appeals to you, please leave a comment in our Facebook group. And if it doesn’t, or if you have questions, let me know that, too!

We can learn how to live well and enjoy living in the world without squeezing it out of shape. This is based on ayni, on sacred reciprocity. Without such right relation-ship we go into freefall. When we cut ourselves off from what sustains us we are forced to get everything from a closed system – the Earth – rather than from an open system – the Cosmos. Befriending and right relationship with sacred space opens us up to the possibilities and creative energies of the Cosmos.

Yet, obsessive materiality jeopardizes the existence of every generation. Artfully acting in the ways of right relationship is what sustains the next seven generations and beyond. It draws upon the same forces and intelligence that brought the stars into being, which brought the Star Beings into being, which brought us into being.

We will delve into this more later.

Although sitting within sacred space can certainly uplift us by itself, our approach in Class 1 will be to energize ourselves, with the intent of imbuing our space with this good medicine, thereby attracting and amplifying its beneficial effects in ways that helps us live well and enjoy living in the world.

The intent is to be an introduction to working with spiritual and human energies, yet to move along very rapidly with exercises, ideas and practices that may make working with sacred space or other spiritual practices even more relevant than they already are. We are all teachers. We are all students. And though, in a way, we are all in the same world, the world isn’t the same for any of us. Through our differ-ences I hope our time together will give each of us at least one new idea or sugges-tion every class and from that, give us added insight into our current life and state of being into how we can become even more capable of bringing our unique magic and perception to life. I hope there will be an active exchange of ideas on our Face-book group.

As one of my teachers, Jack Schwarz used to say, “No involvement. No Evolvement.” We are expected to make changes. Actually, that is probably a requirement much more than an expectation. – mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually – and shall we say spiritual energy is a more subtle energy than the others.

Years ago when I was at a Tae Kwon do promotional exam, one of the students was trying to break the standard one inch thick, one foot square, pine board. Breaking a single board is not that tough. The young man trying to break it tried to do so with Befriending Sacred Space – Class 1: Introduction to Creating Sacred Space© Steve Guettermann, 2018

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an elaborate kick. He was a big guy and should have had no trouble with it, but he did.

Our sensei asked to see board. I was sitting off to the side so was in a great place to see what happened. He picked up board in one hand and did a short punch to it with the other. His fist moved only four or five inches, yet the board broke, but it broke before he actually hit it. This was an example of ki or chi energy. So, is ki spir-itual energy or physical energy? It is certainly energy that has an impact without needing to make seemingly physical contact, yet has a physical effect. It has practi-cal utility, although board breaking is not high among them.

Chi, ki, prana, kawsay are all words for this same basic life-force energy. It can be developed and directed through practice. It is often developed through breathing and visualization techniques, as well, which we will do throughout this course.

One of the things to which I am committed is helping you on your spirit path, your medicine journey. So I have one more quick story for you, then we will get on with our creative meditation.

A couple of months ago during a morning meditation, this flash came to me regard -ing both Jack Schwarz and don Oscar Miro-Quesada, two of my teachers. Jack really was quite entertaining and I’ll probably tell more stories about him as we go on. He loved theatre and it was easy for him to assume roles. I think he also had a very strong connection to the hermetic traditions of ancient Egypt and other past civi-lizations. He was tall and slender, very straight. He could use make up and costume to become almost any nationality, any race.

Anyway, in meditation this particular morning, he kind of came to me as an Egyp-tian high priest and told me he had helped prepare me for don Oscar. And of course I know that to be true. Yet Jack’s appearance in my meditation was much like his presence in my life - to intentionally prepare me to learn from don Oscar, rather than by coincidence.

That intentionality helped drive the desire to create this course. I hope it will serve as a way for you to either understand your current teacher or teachers better, or to find a teacher who compassionately and competently serves you according to your personality and what you need now and in the future. So if this course contributes in some small way to you finding your next best teacher, I’ll be happy, as that should lead to very positive experiences and outcomes for you.

So, let’s go into the Class 1 overview – setting aside space and time to sit inside space and time to impact space and time. As I’ve suggested, spiritual practice is meant to be put into action. It’s not enough just to have pleasant experiences and thoughts. They have a place, but that’s not enough. Without putting ourselves into action, pleasant meditative experiences and thoughts can begin to overcharge us and, like a battery, we either need to discharge – take action – or something is going Befriending Sacred Space – Class 1: Introduction to Creating Sacred Space© Steve Guettermann, 2018

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to blow. We do not want to be that caged animal, that over-caffeinated person in an office, that person on a sugar high. A dynamic equilibrium between intake and out-put, between charge and discharge, between concentration and decentration or re-lease is imperative for many things, including our sacred space and our health.

Our medicine pieces may share similar attributes. Through right relationship and expression, they can help brings us greater input and output because of their input and output. This is really energy regulation. We need to know how to allow them to express, which is different than saying we need to know how to use them…although we actually may need to do both.

Directing Presence Meditation

Please note: The Part 1 recording of the Directing Presence meditation is the ex-planation and set up. Much of that information is repeated below, but I suggest you read the narrative first before listening to Part 1. When you no longer need all this preliminary information, but only want to listen to the actual meditation, go right to Part 2.

Another thing: At about 14:35 of the Part 2 recording, I said “mandala room.” I meant to say merkaba room.

And finally…if you have not yet listened to the Deep Breathing video and read the supplemental information in Breathing Patterns folder, please do so before listen-ing to this meditation. That information will help you get the most out of virtually every meditation and journey we do, as well as help you working with your medicine pieces and sacred space.---------------

Before you begin this practice, I will assume you are somewhere where you can re-lax and be uninterrupted. So get comfortable, relaxed but alert. Take your shoes off, if you can, which is something to do for every meditation whenever possible. Whether or not I remember to ask you, try to perceive yourself barefoot during these meditations and meditative journeys, whether you actually are barefoot or not.

This exercise will be an extension of the 4-directions breathing offered in the Creat-ing Medicine Pieces class. Over this course, we will combine different types of breathing patterns – some may be take a while before you get comfortable with them – and energy perceptualizations. I prefer the term perceptualization over vi-sualization as it allows all senses to be used, not just sight. Not everyone visualizes or visualizes clearly. That’s OK. So I use words such as perceive, perception, percep-tionalization to highlight the fact that we want to use as many of our senses as pos -sible, including intuitive faculties, during meditative journeys and sacred space work. Through imagination and perceptualization we will regulate our mind-body energy system. Sometimes we will put that energy into a medicine piece; other Befriending Sacred Space – Class 1: Introduction to Creating Sacred Space© Steve Guettermann, 2018

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times we will consciously put it into sacred space, that space in which we are in now. With practice, these preparations can be done much more quickly than in the first few classes, sometimes with only intent and a breath. Many people find that their bodies enjoy these self-regulation practices, and help to consciously direct the per-son on what works best. What that means is that often you will spontaneously dis-cover what works best for you.

When it comes to the human chakra system or perceiving what are called human energies, not every “system” is consistent. For example, some systems say there are seven major chakras, some eight, others more. And because of that predisposition and teaching, I use Jack Schwarz’s way of perceiving our chakras’ energy flow. It’s not that it’s right or wrong; it’s just the perception. So, trust yours. I’ll guide you, but allow your perceptions to come through.

Jack Schwarz once said virtually every one of our body’s pores is a chakra, receiving and emitting energy, and these create our physical aura. The body is electric and anything electric has a magnetic field. Hence it’s all electro-magnetic, as is light. Therefore, the body gives off light; it just happens to be light outside the so-called visible spectrum. We can take energy in and release it through our entire body. I don’t want to be too suggestive, but it always gives me a good rush when I do that through a practice called “body breathing.” I’ll leave it at that.

As we go through the Directing Presence practice, we will do each chakra three times. When you do it on your own, I suggest doing each chakra until what you take in and release becomes white or radiant. This tells you the chakra is well regulated, taking in, assimilating and releasing or expressing its energy appropriately. Allow all of this to happen spontaneously. Avoid controlling what you perceive. Simply make a mental note of it, which can serve as fodder for deeper meditation later.

The following is a summary of the basic actions, colors and shapes we will work with. This is also explained in the first part of the Directing Presence recording.

Imagine filling a long, rectangular tube that fits over your mouth or face – you can perceive it to be endless - with a red-orange substance for the root chakra. This is a life activating color. Breathe through the mouth to intensify the effect.

Then seated in a clear pyramid about a large as your body, fill the pyramid with a pink substance. This will balance the spleen chakra as you breathe in and release it.

The regulating color of the solar plexus is green. It contains both blue – a cool, re-laxing, as well as volitional, power – with yellow – which is related to the activated energy of the sun However, it stays under control when mixed with blue to yield green. Green is life-preserving. Virtually everything in the natural world is green, preserving the life that has been activated. Form a long, endless green tube over Befriending Sacred Space – Class 1: Introduction to Creating Sacred Space© Steve Guettermann, 2018

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your mouth or face. Fill it with a green substance and breathe it in and out through your mouth.

The heart chakra is gold. I know many systems reverse the color of the solar plexus and the heart chakra. I don’t think it’s that important at the moment. Yet one way to look at this energy regulation is again looking at our planet. We have the green of the natural world, over that is the gold of the sun, and above that is the blue of the sky. So the argument can be made that our bodies emulate this same color/energy scheme.

Gold is often considered to be the color of consciousness and the heart – or heart space – the seat of consciousness. Hence the gold color makes sense. And the heart chakra is responsible for bringing up the lower energies and transmuting them for higher expression, as well as preparing the higher, more subtle energies for the lower energy centers. Unless the lower energies are burned in the flame of the heart, they cannot reach the higher, more aware energy centers of the body. The above and below meet and seek union, integration, in the heart. It is the alchemist’s Holy Grail.

So the heart chakra is an equal arm cross; that means all four arms, both horizontal and vertical are the same length. The arms will be hollow and the cross approxi-mately as large as you are. Fill this with a gold substance and breathe it in and out with your mouth through a tube-like straw coming out of the center of the cross.

The throat chakra color is blue and symbolizes will power and volition, expression. Ideally, it is the center where the human will engages the Higher Will, the transper-sonal will, so both are optimally expressed. The gland is the thyroid, representing creative expression. Its symbol is a crescent. Think of this crescent as a bowl or the container part of a cup, a chalice. Inhale from the cup with your mouth; exhale back into the cup.

Those first five symbols, connected together, are our mandala. Please see the ac-companying document titled Mandala for a symbolic representation.

The sixth center is the brow chakra, connected to the pituitary gland. It is a six-point star, a merkaba, or the Star of David…two overlapping equilateral triangles. Medical science acknowledges some of the body’s crystalline, or pyramidal, in the brain and elsewhere in the body. The pituitary literally breaks down light, refracts it and distributes it to the body. It also synthesizes energies, taking different energy components and integrating, or harmonizing, them. So it’s also busy breaking en-ergy down, synthesizing it again, to maintain the dynamic balance of our mental/physical states in constantly changing internal and external environments. It’s color is represented as indigo…a dark purplish blue.

You will sit on a round disk in a merkaba-shaped room, with no ceiling. Fill it with an indigo-colored substance. Allow either yourself or the room to spin as you in-Befriending Sacred Space – Class 1: Introduction to Creating Sacred Space© Steve Guettermann, 2018

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hale. Then reverse the spin as you exhale. At this point it does not matter which way you spin when you inhale, as long as you reverse it when you exhale.

The crown chakra is symbolized by a very light purple or orchid color – the red of activation, the blue of expression, both infused with white for high vibration reso-nance with ethereal energies. The more refined this integration and expression, the lighter/whiter the crown chakra becomes. Its symbol is the thousand-petal lotus. It regulates the pineal gland.

Through the use of colors and shapes, we will access the symbolic language of the cosmos. Symbols are about as close as we can get to that language. And, like the lan-guage of lovers, what is spoken to you in this way may be something only you can understand. So consider that before you ask someone else what something means, as you may be the only one who can understand what you’ve been given.

As we begin this exercise, remember your intent for doing it. To me, it will be to regulate my flow of energy and get into a high functioning state so I can share this state with my sacred space in resonance.

The first time through this may be a bit confusing, but it will come to you quickly af-terwards. Do not worry about doing things “wrong.” Do not struggle with trying to maintain the shapes and colors I offer. Let things transmute; make a mental note of them if you can, and of your feelings or other perceptions.

As mentioned, I will offer the instructions for each chakra three times, and then we will move to the next chakra. When you do this on your own, you can work with an energy center as much as you want until you feel the need to move on. So just relax. Enjoy yourself. Be mindful of your mind-body state.

I suggest a comfortable seated position. If you can, take your shoes off. If you are cool, get a blanket or extra layer. Keep your spine straight. Relax your jaw. Relax your tongue. In most meditations, breathing is done through the nose. For this one, I ask that you breathe through your mouth to increase the sensations of the prac-tice.

You can think of the Directing Presence meditation as an extension or an elabora-tion of what was done in the Creating Medicine Pieces bonus recording, which you were asked to listen to before Class 1. Of course, each class builds upon earlier in-formation. There will be some repetition of content, but I’ve kept that to a mini-mum.

Energy self-regulation is an excellent way to also amplify the energy and connec-tion with sacred space. In other words, when our energy is flowing, the energy of our sacred space also tends to flow more and be of greater amplitude and utility. As we become more open to the world, we are also charged with becoming more ex-pressive and involved: mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.Befriending Sacred Space – Class 1: Introduction to Creating Sacred Space© Steve Guettermann, 2018

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After you go through this once or twice on your own, you’ll basically be an expert, comfortable with the process, as well as allowing a spontaneous flow of energy that can regulate your entire mind-body system. This spontaneous flow is really an intu-itive flow. Your state of energy will “speak” to you to show you where you may need a bit more attention and direction for an optimal flow of energy in accordance with what you need to do in the moment.

There is really nothing magical, mystical about the chakras. They are simply in-flows and outflows of energy related to organs and glands. There is a lot of informa-tion about the chakras, a Sanskrit word that means “wheel,” or “wheel of spinning energy.” I will describe them according to what I learned from Jack Schwarz, simply because I know he could see their activity and understand their function. There are many chakra explanation systems. So, what I tell you may or may not agree with what you’ve already discovered. Yet, many people who write about them have never seen them. Jack did…all the time. With practice, you may be able to see them, too, if you don’t already, and develop your own intuitive understandings of their workings.

Why do some people see them and other human energy manifestations, but others don’t? It’s because these energetic emanations are outside of what is called the visi-ble light spectrum. Increasing your state of energy can increase your ability to per-ceive outside this visible spectrum, and make the invisible visible, so to speak. Of-ten, when a person begins to see such things, it may happen in quick flashes. In the case of the chakras, a person may begin to see waves of energy without color, like seeing heat come off a hot surface. This indicates becoming more open to perceiv-ing these energy fields.

Back to the chakras. The lower six chakras, these wheels of spinning energy, which spin both clockwise, which is incoming energy, and counter clockwise, the outgoing energy, are located along points of the spine as well as emit energy from the front of the body.

There are many illustrations online to show where the chakras are located. How-ever, I included a simple table on the next page. As you become sensitive enough, if you aren’t already, you can feel them along your spine, or the spine of another per -son, and get a sense for their condition. And although chakras have a predominant color, they are seldom totally that color because of their interaction with other en-ergy centers.

Befriending Sacred Space – Class 1: Introduction to Creating Sacred Space© Steve Guettermann, 2018

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The Seven Major Chakras

Sanskrit name

English name

Vertebra Organ/Gland Major color Shape

MuladharaRoot or sacral

Fourth sacral

Gonads Red-Orange Square

Svadhishthana SpleenFirst lum-bar

Spleen/pancreas/liver Pink Pyramid

ManipuraSolar plexus

Eighth tho-racic

Adrenals Green Tube/cylinder

Anahata HeartFirst tho-racic

Thymus Gold Equal armed cross

Vishuddha ThroatThird cer-vical

Thyroid Blue Crescent

Ajna BrowFirst cervi-cal

Pituitary Indigo Six-pointed star

Sahasrara Crown None PinealRich purple/lavender

Lotus

Many chakra systems say the sequential colors of the chakras follow the pattern of a rainbow. The main difference between the colors of this chart and others is that here the solar plexus is green – which is a life sustaining color. Gold is often consid-ered to be the color of consciousness, and the heart the seat of consciousness. This implies the heart chakra is gold.

All I ask of you now is to consider this chart, work with the meditation as given, de-termine its effectiveness for you, and then make changes based on your intuition. Once you get into this, you won’t be concerned with a system, as you will be im -mersed in the feedback you are receiving from your very own mind-body. The thing is, we are not trying to maintain our chakras at a specific color or energy level. The goal is to vibrate at the highest level possible, which is normally consid-ered to be a radiant white.

You may also want to review the Mandala document for an extra visual.

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