The first fabrics I used for my sacred spot at home were 4 pieces of hemmed muslin with some moth eaten holes and some candle wax drops here and there. I had found them in a box of extra Godly Play supplies in a closet: one red, one green, one purple, one white. These were the colors of the year and I was glad to have these well-used and then long-stored cloths. I have no idea what altars or focal tables they might have graced, our supplies were a hodge podge of donated items. But they were the beginning for me of bringing these colors into my home. I had a few green and white linens, but not a single purple or red one! As I was trying to bring the liturgical colors into my home, these simple cloths were my only cues to start with. First, the green growing time, ordinary time. Most of the year was this. Growth in the ordinary, the color that became so familiar it was like a neutral, like the way grass and trees become the neutral color when you are outside. Then the purple, not my favorite color, so it felt intentional when i brought that color out. I played with the tones, but that first piece was a dark plum color that feels like churchy purple to me. Serious. Expectant. Royal. Then the white, for pure celebration. The “pure” white had some holes and matchstick marks, and I very soon began to play with this color, feeling icky about white being the color of “pure celebration”. That stuck in my throat. Wanting to get away from that tradition, but caring about the colors led me to bring in gold as my color of pure celebration. Gold, a traditional celebration color alongside white, I began to use just gold instead. A color that reminds me of sparkling stars, gleaming moonlight on the water, precious metal, dazzling autumn leaves, the glowing pollen center of a flower, the eye of a wolf, the soft fur of a dog or cat.
And then, RED. For just a week of the year is it up at my house, the week we celebrate Pentecost-hot hot hot! For some reason, this color in this context is funny and hot and weird and bizarro. And all that really does fit. The muslin piece I first had was a very dark plain red. I was quick to add yellow and orange and even a little blue to make the color more like FIRE when we pull it out.
Those are the colors of the year. In those colors, I like to find every color, but from them I take my cues and play with their meanings and their moods. The liturgical colors are ones that the sacred spot’s underlays reflect, but also sometimes it’s just in the house or found in nature and brought to the spot to remember the time we are in.