Sound, Spirit, and Survival: How Alice Coltrane Held Sacred Space

✍🏽 For SurvivorAffirmations.com

Some Survivors find their way through words.
Some through silence.
And some—like Alice Coltrane—find their way through sound.

When her beloved husband John Coltrane passed away in 1967, Alice didn’t just mourn him.
She didn’t just move on.
She moved inward.

And from that stillness, she created sound that healed.

But this wasn’t music for applause.
This wasn’t jazz for fame.
It was ceremony.

Alice Coltrane became Swamini Turiyasangitananda, a spiritual mother and teacher.
She built an ashram.
She taught people to chant.
She taught them to breathe.
To grieve.
To listen.

She held space where others had none.
She lit candles in places others left dark.
And she did it all with a harp, a synthesizer, a Sanskrit prayer, and the power of sound to touch the Divine.

🎵 She showed us that sound can be sanctuary.

That music can be a form of prayer.
That the body can remember peace through vibration.

In her ashram, she didn’t shout.
She chanted.
She didn’t demand attention.
She opened the door to stillness.

Alice’s music wasn’t always understood.
Some called it strange.
Some called it too spiritual.
But Survivors—those of us who’ve walked through fire—we recognize it.

We know what it means to make sacred space from sorrow.
We know what it means to lead people back to their breath.
We know how healing sounds when words are too small.

🔮 Affirmation:

“I carry ceremony in my breath, in my rhythm, in my silence.
Like Alice, I create sacred space wherever I go.”

Alice Coltrane didn’t just carry on.
She transcended.
And in doing so, she left behind a soundscape for others to rest, reflect, and rise again.

You don’t have to explain your healing.
You don’t have to rush it.
Just hold your sacred space—and know that’s enough.

🌒 Affirmations for Sacred Space and Spiritual Healing

1. I am allowed to heal in silence. My breath is enough.

2. My stillness is powerful. My quiet is holy.

3. I create sacred space wherever I go—just by being.

4. Sound can hold me. Music can bless me. Spirit can soothe me.

5. I trust my inner knowing to guide me toward peace.

6. I carry ceremony in my body, in my rhythm, in my presence.

7. I do not need to be loud to be heard by the Divine.

8. My grief is not a flaw—it is a doorway to truth.

9. I am rooted in Spirit and rising in strength.

10. Like Alice, I transform pain into beauty. I survive with grace and power.

She Traveled Deep Within: A Spiritual Portrait of Alice Coltrane