Temenos: The Sacred Space of Spiritual Direction

Painting of the temenos of the enclosed inner garden from the Song of Songs 4:12-15

When a spiritual director meets with a seeker, they are not simply having a conversation. Together, they are stepping into a temenos, a sacred space intentionally set apart from the ordinary busyness of life.

Spiritual direction is foremost an encounter of presence, a sacred dialogue that opens the soul to God's transforming movement. At its heart, spiritual accompaniment is perhaps less about providing answers and more about holding space, and the ancient concept of temenos helps illumine the dynamics of this sacred ground upon which spiritual direction takes place.

In classical Greek, temenos referred to a marked-off piece of land or space set aside for sacred purposes, like an area around a temple or altar. It was not just ordinary ground but consecrated space, often enclosed and protected, where people might commune with the divine, offer sacrifices, or participate in rituals of transformation. Crossing its boundary signaled entry into a different order of space, where humans encountered the divine. The boundaries of the temenos signaled that something different happened inside: here, time moved differently, and one stood in the presence of mystery.

Later, Carl Jung adopted this term to describe the inner psychic 'womb-like' space in which transformation and healing can occur. For Jung, temenos was both the outer protective, symbolic container of the 1:1 soul-meeting, and an inner temple of sorts, where unconscious material could be held, examined, and integrated. Both meanings - the outer sacred precinct and the inner container of soul work - offer rich metaphors for spiritual direction. I love this 'womb-like' metaphor as it connects to ancient descriptions of God in the Hebrew bible as being 'womb-like' in God's holding of us. In ancient Hebrew, the word often translated as compassion also derives from the root word for womb.

'Make your cell within you, and there remain.' Evagrius

The early Christian mystics also recognised the necessity of creating an inner and outer temenos for spiritual growth. Evagrius Ponticus (4th century) described the monk’s cell as a place of stillness (hesychia), where one could encounter God through prayer and vigilance. Yet Evagrius also emphasized the inner enclosure of the heart: “Make your cell within you, and there remain” (Evagrius, Praktikos 6). This inner temenos of the heart anticipates later mystical traditions, including the Interior Castle of Teresa of Ávila, where the soul is envisioned as a sacred dwelling place of divine presence.

This imagery helps us see that spiritual direction-accompaniment, like monastic practice, involves entering a consecrated space - physical, relational, and interior - that enables the seeker to encounter God, or whatever is most Holy for them, in greater depth.

Temenos as the Sacred Field of Spiritual Direction

When applied to spiritual direction, I find the concept of temenos particularly offers a revealing and helpful metaphor for the sacred relational field that takes place between director and directee. The session is not merely a conversation but a shared entrance into a consecrated space. This temenos being marked by several key qualities:

1. Sacred Presence – Like the ancient precinct, spiritual direction assumes the presence of the Holy permeates the encounter.

2. Boundary and Safety – As Jung emphasized, the container must be safeguarded by confidentiality, trust, and clear boundaries. Within this boundary, vulnerability is possible. Tears may fall, doubts may surface, joy may erupt. The temenos holds it all.

3. Hospitality of the Heart – As Evagrius and the desert tradition affirm, all aspects of the soul—desire, doubt, fear, joy—may be welcomed.

4. Liminality – Like the ancient temple gate or the monk’s cell, the temenos is a liminal space between ordinary life and holy encounter. Just as ancient worshippers stepped through temple gates into a new atmosphere, the seeker entering spiritual direction crosses into a time where listening deepens and awareness heightens. It is here on the edges of the known and unknown, that transformation often stirs.

5. Mystery – A recognition that the sacred field is not ultimately controlled by director or seeker, but is animated by a Presence beyond both.

So, for me, the sacred field of spiritual direction is not merely a human construct but a Spirit-filled temenos, where director and seeker alike are invited to “take off their shoes,” recognizing that this work is not merely dialogue but participation in holy ground. It is a sacred field, set apart yet deeply connected to the whole of life, where transformation is nurtured. And this temenos is both inner and outer: a field of safety and reverence in which the soul opens to God's transforming presence, however named.

It is for this reason that, in my own practice and work, I always begin spiritual direction sessions with a time of contemplative practice, to enable both of us to arrive, mark the boundary and pass into this temenos sacred space together.