9/18/14 Landscapes of the Sacred: Lane and His Axioms

            Lane’s axioms really helped me understand the idea of sacred place. The way in which he describes the make of a sacred place is simple, yet descriptive and to the point. A sacred place is ordinary made extraordinary. Simply states that you can’t envelope a place in tons of special materials just to make it sacred. It has to happen in almost a natural sense, more of an unintentional force that drives to make a place sacred. Lane furthers this point by saying that a sacred place is not made, it is found. This axiom shows that you cannot just wish up a sacred place. You have to come across the place as if you weren’t looking for it. The Egyptians built the pyramids as tombs and trap houses. They didn’t think they would become a place sacred to the entirety that is Egypt today. Sacred place can be centripetal or centrifugal. The focus can be either towards the center or towards the outer parts. The way I took this was that a place could be sacred to an individual as well as to a group of people, even an entire population can hold something sacred. Individuals are usually very secluded when they enter their sacred place. Whereas a group will make it better known, because they stand together and have people to back them up. There are cultures that aren’t spiritually open to everyone; therefore we don’t know what their sacred place is. Leading into Lane’s last axiom, a sacred place can be tread upon and not entered. Meaning that you may be in someone’s spiritual place but not feel the power like they do.