Santa Fe: The Sacred in the Land of Enchantment

Visitors from all over the globe delight in the art, architecture, and amazing cuisine of Santa Fe. Less understood is the thread that ties all of these elements together: the Sacred.

On our tour, explore more than 400 years of Santa Fe's diverse spiritual traditions through museum visits, guided walks, seminar discussions, a Pueblo excursion and more. Understand the connection between land, people, and the Sacred in the Land of Enchantment.

Santa Fe and the surrounding mountains are held sacred by the many Indigenous Pueblo tribes who still make their home there. These tribes have done a remarkable job preserving their traditions — and piecing them back together when lost or stolen — and have maintained their sacred traditions through dance, feast days, and arts like pottery and weaving.

When Spain claimed New Mexico for its own, European Catholicism came with the conquistadors, and many Pueblo tribes have syncretized their original spiritual ways within the broader framework of the Catholic Church. A diaspora of Jewish immigrants in West Texas and New Mexico eventually made Santa Fe their home as well, so that a deep stream of Judaism can be found throughout the town, perhaps most famously in the farolitos that are placed on the rooftops of traditional homes each winter — a secret way of letting other Jews know that this would be a home where they would find safety and sanctuary.

From the early 19th century to today, Santa Fe and northern New Mexico have been a kind of magnet that pulls in various spiritual traditions — from Zen Buddhism to Kundalini Yoga — and have become synonymous with spiritual wellness.

The early 1900s also brought European and American painters and printmakers such as Gustave Baumann, Allice Schille and perhaps most famously Georgia O’Keeffe. We’ll take advantage of Santa Fe’s superb museums, robust art market and designation as a UNESCO City of Crafts and Folk Arts to explore how ideas of the Sacred were expressed visually.

One of the most magical aspects of Santa Fe is how these different traditions speak to and enrich each other while staying true to their specific origins. The town, land, and people have all benefited from the power of the Sacred that seems to spring up from the very ground.

Let yourself be enchanted by Sacred Santa Fe.