PRAYERCRAFT: Craft as Spiritual Meditation

Embodiment

Craft and artistic expression are a powerful means of embodying our spiritual experience. Handwork can bring a new integration of body, mind and spirit. Most of the time we are caught in a web of ideas written in words and that causes us to live in our heads and become disconnected from our bodies. We forget that the word “inspiration” is the act of God breathing life into our body. Craftwork engages our senses.  The visual impact of pattern, the vibration of color and the rhythmic sound of the needle, all pull us into a deeper awareness of the spirit within. Fabric artists talk about the hand of the fabric – the feel of the texture and how it drapes. Quilters often speak of the slip of the calico and batting between their fingers as the motivation for continuing to work on a demanding and time intensive pattern. Feeling the movements of the hands and the physical encounter with the work is a way to enter a non-verbal meditative state.

History

We may say that needlework belongs to a slower time but that is not exactly true. In the United States today, crafting is a fast growing ten billion-dollar industry and the average crafter spends 7.5 hours a week. Before the mass production of the industrial revolution, working by hand was a necessity. There are still some crafts like tatting and some types of beadwork that are not possible to manufacture by machine. The methods are passed down orally from each generation. For example, my Grandmother, Agnes Louisa, taught me needlepoint when I was about 8 years old. She patiently showed me how to work with the yarn to produce even stitches and did not criticize when I chose a garish orange color for the background. I still have that pillow. The pieces that she made are very precious to me because the hours of her life that were woven into the tapestry.  In The Knitting Sutra, Susan Gordon Lydon talks about this connection with our ancestors. She states, “It feels as though invisible teachers were guiding your movements. You don’t know it’s there until you tap into it by accident, with a particular motion of the hands, and then suddenly, with an almost electric shock, the body remembers.”

Individual Work

Individual concentration is especially important during the initial design and during complicated execution. When we work alone we can connect with our internal rhythms. We enter “flow time” – a time outside of regular time when we are unaware of passing minutes and time becomes a flowing river. People continually ask crafters how long it takes to complete a project. The answer is always given with some reluctance because it is somehow irrelevant. The process is far more important than the end result. As the piece takes shape it also changes direction. Sometimes it is not even clear how the finished product will look. The act of the creating something unique and beautiful is the goal. The constant, repetitive motion calms and quiets the mind and brings focus to our thoughts. That energy can be used for prayer and meditation.

Craft Groups

When we work together, the group enters this state collectively. The hurried pace of everyday time slows. Conversation is leisurely, punctuated by long silences in which each individual is lost in their own work without the need to fill the space with chatter. Many times the topic turns to life’s challenges and there is time to share deeply. There is also the sense that others are listening deeply and holding the concerns in their hearts. It is a time of body prayer where our work can be infused with hopes, wishes, dreams and blessings for ourselves or for the recipient of the work. Sometimes people will say a prayer for each stitch or each bead as it is sewn in.

Intercessory Prayer

Craft can be a method of expressing our emotions. Making a gift for someone is a special kind of intercessory prayer. All of us know people who begin knitting or stitching as soon as they hear about a pregnancy. They are sending their spiritual energy out to the baby and mother. At a recent Bead Society meeting a woman showed a piece that she had made during a time of grief after the death of a friend. The action of creating the necklace helped her to work through her feelings of loss and sadness. I once made a beaded amulet bag for a friend who was very ill. Because she was in Intensive Care, I could not deliver it personally, so I sent it by priority mail. Although she received a flood of other cards, the nurse saw the priority envelope and was so worried that it contained something of importance that she brought it to my friend in ICU. The nurse gasped in surprise when she opened it. She had expected a business problem - not a work of art. However, they both decided that because it contained concentrated prayer it was very fitting that it was delivered at that exact moment.

There are three stages of craftwork that each has their own type of spiritual energy:

·        The initial inspiration when the elements are gathered together to form a plan

·        The repetitive, meditative time of production

·        The blessing of the final product

If we take the risk and dare to begin, each stage can bring us to a deeper connection with God.