On the Word Templum
This article contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. The word is Latin. It predates the church, the cathedral, the chapel. It predates organised religion entirely, at least in the sense we understand it now. Templum. In its earliest usage, a templum was not a building. It was a clearing — a space marked out by an augur, a Roman priest, who would stand in an open field and trace an invisible boundary in the air with a staff. Everything within that boundary became set apart. Sacred, not in the sense of forbidden, but in the sense of deliberately different . A space where ordinary time was suspended and attention was restored. No walls. No roof. Just intention, and a line drawn in the air. A sanctuary is not a place you find. It is a place you make. We chose this word carefully. Not because we have any particular reverence for ancient Rome, but because the idea at the heart of that word — a spa...
