Landscapes of the Sacred Post 1

In Lane’s Landscapes of the Sacred, a place becomes described as “ become, in this instance, determinant of one’s very existence-choosing the individual long before he or she is able to respond with a conscious choice of her own”(Lane, 22) and this idea supports the main axioms that determine a sacred place. There are no said boundaries to what can encompass a subconscious experience where a sacred place chooses an individual. In fact the axiom, “sacred place is not chosen, but chooses” clearly supports this claim. Moreover, a sacred place can be anywhere from a small spot in nature to a massive rock formation. The idea that a place chooses the individual makes sacred communication evident in human culture. For example, American Indians found that all nature was sacred to them. These people did not choose all nature to be their spiritual connection, but they found they felt connected to nature because it supplied them with their everyday needs for life. I find that if an individual chose a sacred place themselves, nothing but just word of mouth truly makes the place sacred.