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Sacred Spaces
an article by Blackhawk
As
the sun breaks over the horizon on a crisp midsummer
morning, light exploding upon the land and casting
into sharp relief the age-old standing stones which
form the ancient monument of Stonehenge, we are
reminded of the history and the power of that specific
location. Time snakes back through war, industrialisation,
empires and kings to a time beyond all that we know
- a time of magic and legend, of druids and tribes
and nature in a world much younger and much more
alive than our own.
But
what makes a place ‘sacred’? Is it the mere presence
of a structure such as a cathedral, standing stones
or a burial site? Is it the convergence of powerful
Ley-lines? Are places made sacred by the attentions
of Man? Are individual locations inherently sacred,
or do events promote sites from being a natural
formation to being worthy of special status? To
a ‘primitive’ tribe which worships a god with the
head of a crocodile, the sighting of an ancient
rock formation with remarkable similarity to the
head of a crocodile may be enough to promote the
site to ‘sacred’ status, yet the same site would
be classed as merely ‘interesting’ by a modern-day
mobile-phone-owning, Volvo-driving city-dweller.
The
truth is, that though any of these reasons would
be sufficient for us to declare a location sacred
- and for us to feel the power which emanated from
such a place - none of these reasons would appeal
to everybody as justifying special treatment :
‘The
Holy Land’ is rich in such sites, from the Temple
Mount and Wailing Wall to the Tomb of the Patriarch
and the birthplace of Jesus. These places are rich
in significance to Muslims, Jews and Christians,
and are guarded jealously. Wars have been fought
over these places for a thousand years. Yet, to
a person who had never heard of Islam, Judaism or
Christianity these places would be nothing but stone
buildings in a desert. A mosque on a hill, the ruins
of an old temple, a couple of battered tombs, and
monuments to ancients long since dead.
The
Americas have pyramids and ancient, long-lost cities,
so too does Africa, and the Celtic lands of modern-day
Europe have their burial mounds and magical stone
circles. Temples and shrines abound in India and
the Far-East, while in Aboriginal Australia the
sacred places are made of trees and rocks, rivers
and mountains. Men and women, from different races,
across a timespan of millennia, have discovered
or created spaces and places they have named “Sacred”,
which to outsiders have been seen as relics of primitive
times or savage races; as curiosities or photo-opportunities.
Sites
that are held to be sacred, holy or sacrosanct are
links between the world of Man and the realm of
God/s; between the mortal and the immortal; between
our limited knowledge and the infinite. They are,
in effect, doorways to the spiritual world. In these
places we can focus on a higher plane; meditate
on the creation of Nature, and the nature of Creation;
communicate with Deities; worship that which we
find Holy. All of this we can do, yet none of this
actually makes a place Holy or Sacred.
So,
what really makes a place ‘sacred’?
The
truth is that no place is uniquely endowed with
sacred qualities. No one space is more concentrated
with holiness than all others. The truth is that
all places are sacred. Every spot on this planet
- on land, under the sea, in the air, from the stratosphere
to the molten core of Earth - and on every planet
and star in this universe, and all the ‘empty space’
inbetween, is sacred.
Pick
a spot, any spot. The white-sanded shoreline of
a tropical island. The cloud-wrapped summit of a
Tibetan mountain range. The rock pool at the end
of your garden. The lone tree surviving by its wits
in a sea of concrete and steel. Any place which
allows you to reach out and touch Nature. Any place
which allows you to make contact with the twin wonders
of Eternity and Infinity. Every spot can be a doorway
to the spiritual world, a place worthy of meditation,
respect and worship.
But
what about the houses of Man? How can we touch nature
in a barren office block, a prison or casino? Surely
these places are not sacred?
True,
some places make it extremely difficult for us to
see the Holy within their walls. Places filled with
suffering and pain, mindless brutality or soul-destroying
boredom and repetition; places without hope; temples
to rampant commercialism and the worship of Money.
These are the places which test us most when we
look for the Sacred within everything.
The
answer is to see beyond what these places contain
or represent, and look to what they are : structures
created from a design originating in a creative
mind (based on knowledge built up over tens of thousands
of years of Human learning, observation of ‘the
natural world’, accidents, random dreams, daydreams
and musings; taught to each consecutive generation
by a new teacher, spanning generations, languages
and civilizations) and formed from materials which
have, at times been living matter, minerals, air
and stardust.
So,
though we may find it easier to feel the power of
creation rushing through a thousand-year old cathedral,
or at a convergence of Ley-lines beneath a carving
made on the ground by unknown people before the
pyramids were built, we should realise that same
power is everywhere. The power of Nature and of
Life is in the air, in the earth, in wind and rain.
It is in fire, creating and destroying, in birth
and death and change and time. The essence of Creation
runs through our veins, fills our bodies and minds;
occupies all individual beings and all the spaces
inbetween.
Sacred
Spaces - © Blackhawk 2003 |
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