Sacred Ground

A few years ago, I videotaped a Pow-Wow. It was held at Pace University’s gymnasium in lower Manhattan. Before the Pow-Wow began, I was told that the basketball court itself- within the painted rectangle- would become Sacred Ground, and could not be trod upon by anyone not in the tribe holding the Pow-Wow.

Nobody told me at what point the appropriate words/prayers/songs had taken place, and I offended the Tribal Leaders, and Chief. ( Who were understanding, when it was explained by their member who had hired me, that nobody had kept by my side to advise me ). Now, I took the idea of this extremely seriously. I fully intended to carefully avoid stepping into that area until the event was ended. It was a beautiful ceremony, filled with dance, song and spoken word.

I thought of this today. Are there other cultures/groups/religions that do similar things? Declare an area as Sacred Ground for a specific period of time, and then remove themselves at a certain point ( end of ceremony, etc. ) and the ground that they were using is now no longer Sacred Ground.

I am aware that various facilities set aside a room, or a wall even for Orthodox Jews to use in Prayer. In fact, the rest stop on the New York State Thruway near Suffern, NY has a wall specified for Prayer.

Does this happen elsewhere?

Cartooniverse

Well… Wiccans…

There can be more permanent circles (there is instructions on making them in your backyard that can be found… something similar to Stonehenge) but in general one can be formed anywhere.

Livingroom… park… backyard… wherever. You can use tools to delinate them, but if you just want to meditate you can simply ‘draw’ one without tools.