Helmer Landscapes of the Sacred Chapter 1

Above everything else, a sacred place is a storied place. Places become sacred by the way people see them and explain them to other people over the years. The places which are seen as the most sacred, are seen as this based on the number and power of the stories that are attached to them. The best way to introduce a place as being sacred is to tell a story about the place, which proves that it is sacred in a holy way. The author describes the four different axioms which are able to be a guidance for people when seeking to understand the character of a sacred place. The axioms include: the sacred place is not chosen, it chooses; sacred place is ordinary place, ritually made extraordinary; sacred place can be tred upon without being entered; and the impulse of sacred place is both centripetal and centrifugal, local and universal. Lane describes an event where these axioms came into play for him, which was one day when he was hiking through the woods. He heard some sort of noise and knew he needed to stop there. Something was telling him this was a special place, and in this moment he believed God opened him into this place and he led him to find it. He saw this place as falling under each of the four axioms and he knew at that moment it was some sort of sacred holy place. He was destined by God to discover this place and in doing so he has been able to share this story with other people, which also makes it more sacred. In order for somewhere to be considered a sacred place, it must follow through with each of the four axioms, and if it does it is considered a real place. Through the imagination of the holy people and the guidance by God, we are able to discover new places and also use the four axioms to discover the sacredness of the location, and how holy it really is. 

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