Allen Landscapes of the Sacred

In the book Landscapes of the Sacred, Lane talks about the four rules or "axioms" that guide the American spirituality to understand sacred place. What describes sacred place? Lane describes what a sacred place is and how to find it through his four axioms. Lane describes the first axiom is a sacred place that is not chosen, it chooses. A personal example would be "finding" a red piece of sea glass on the beach. I did not find it, it found me because of my strong attraction for the ocean. The second axiom says that sacred place is ordinary place, ritually made extraordinary. For the example of the found sea glass I looked up and out to the water to find the sun glaring down through the clouds causing the light to look as if someone, my grandma, was watching over me. This spot will forever be in my memory and is a place I visit very often now. The third axiom is that sacred place can be tied upon without being entered. Lane talks about a clearing that he observes where the light shines and he sees the clearing as holy ground. The fourth axiom is that the impulse of sacred place is both centripetal and centrifugal local and universal. Lane speaks that god is never confined to one single place, he can be anywhere and everywhere.

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