According to a scholar, sacred space is that which marks a break in the concept of mundane from the holy. These breaks provide access to the center, also an axis mundi - a break in plane which creates a connection between cosmic levels. It is breaking into this sacred connection when one is able to connect with a higher being. Since the center stands apart as the extraordinary place where the real is integral, it is always a sacred place, qualitatively different from mundane space.
The concept of space, again like many other ambiguous terms, is difficult to give a clear cut definition. Though it is defined as “the infinite extension of the three-dimensional region in which all matter exists,” it is much more than that to an individual. Isaac Newton believed he had “conceived of space as God’s means of experiencing the world and of time as an absolute structure with an endless past and future, as well as a uniformly moving present.” Space and time are hard concepts for the human mind to grasp, but I feel like Isaac Newton was explaining that there is no beginning and no end to either of them, and in that I think that in certain places we can become more connected with these truths that are so elusive and difficult to grasp.
Shiner, Larry E. Sacred Space, Profane Space, Human Space
Journal of the American Academy of Religion > Vol. 40, No. 4 (Dec., 1972), pp. 425-436
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/
Drew Harrell
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment