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Spirituality
Thin Places: Where the Veil Between This World and Another Is Thin
A Personal Perspective: Time away in a thin place is a needed moment of grace.
Posted August 25, 2022 Reviewed by Lybi Ma
Key points
- Thin places, sacred places, and happy places are all transformational experiences.
- Thin places provide us an opportunity to step away and be rejuvenated.
- Spending a little time in a thin place might be the best medicine for living a calmer, more centered life.
Thirty years ago, our family was in Brittany, France, looking for a picnic spot. When we pulled into the parking lot of a state park, a sign at the trailhead announced that we had entered a sacred Druid Forest and were welcome to hike and picnic if we did so in silence.
After a short discussion, we all agreed to give it a try.
The trail was narrow and the woods on either side of the trail were dense with vegetation; we hiked single file for about 20 minutes along the shaded trail, until we crested a hill and found ourselves in a large sun-drenched clearing where there wasn’t a tree or bush in sight. In the middle of the clearing was a circular outcropping of large flat rocks.
We sat on the rocks and ate in silence.
On returning to our car, we felt as though we had, for that moment on those rocks, entered a sacred space. It was a place and a moment I don’t think I will ever forget.
The ancient pagan Celts, and, later, Christians used the term, thin places, to describe locations, such as that Druid Forest, where the veil between this world and another world is thin, thereby bringing us closer to that other world.
In contrast to thin places, in all the other places in the world, according to the Celts, heaven and earth are three feet apart.
When we walked in that sacred Druid Forest those many years ago, we did not know about thin places. We only knew that we had experienced a place unlike the world we usually inhabited. Being there was both eerie and uplifting at the same time.
If you browse the internet, you will find dozens of locations around the world that are officially noted to be thin places. Some are buildings, like St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul; others are places in nature, like the Druid Forest we discovered. All are places where people have reported coming upon a sacred space that brought them closer to a different world.
If Sacred Spaces Are Thin Places, What About Happy Places?
Sacred spaces are recognized as thin places. But the jury is still out as to whether happy places are true thin places.
Although happy places may not necessarily be thin or sacred places, a truly happy place, an activity, or a location that brings an overwhelming sense of joy and peace, does seem to qualify as a thin place. A happy place allows us the tools we need to be separate from the everyday pull of things we should do and allows us to refuel and regroup before we return to the tasks at hand. Happy places, like sacred places or thin places, are transformational, they change us.
It is said that you cannot go looking for thin places, that, if you are open and attuned to your needs, the thin place will find you. Sounds like a happy place to me.
For people not accustomed to talking in spiritual terms, the term happy place is perhaps as close to a definition of a thin place as the term sacred place might be for someone who is spiritual.
As for spiritual places, those are yours to find. Being in a spiritual space requires that you slow down and be willing to let go of whatever it is that is holding you back from stepping through that three-foot wall between where you are and what you need.
Finding that place requires an open mind and a willingness to experience something out of the ordinary.
That’s what happened to us when we came upon the sacred Druid Forest. We were given instructions on how to access the area and made a conscious decision to respect the place and be open to the experience, which led us to a clearing in a densely wooded forest and a moment where we could just be quiet and calm and enjoy a transcendent moment.
Thin spaces.
In this crushing world of COVID, international tensions, political chaos, and economic uncertainty, the idea of a thin place where we can step away, even for a moment to refuel and redefine who we are, is intriguing and could also be an uplifting interlude in these hard times.
