Landscapes of the Sacred #1- Four Guiding Axioms

lane states that there are four axioms, or rules, that can help the American student of spirituality to understand the character of sacred place. The first of these is that sacred place is not chosen, it chooses. Only after a person has stopped frantically searching and seeking out God, the divine, or a spiritual discovering can such event occur. Entering a state of "flow" allows for these occurrences to take place. A person must stop projecting their material life 'buzz' onto a place to allow for the divine to reveal themselves unto you. A person cannot predict when or where this will happen; the place chooses. lane was not expecting to have a divine encounter or discovery at the river, but the river revealed itself as a sacred place to him.
The second axiom states that sacred place is ordinary place, ritually made extraordinary. Some sacred places are neither sublime in setting nor functional, and are visibly unremarkable. It is through the tradition of rituals a place is made extraordinary.
The third axiom is sacred place can be tread upon without being entered. Experiencing a sacred place is a reflection of the persons consciousness. A state of flow and recognition of sublime must be reached to enter a sacred place. Recognizing the sublime evokes elevated emotions in a state of pain, pleasure, danger and awe. Lane had tread through a particular area of river multiple times before, but unexpectedly he had stopped projecting into this place and thus entered it as sacred place and thus entered it as sacred place, and experienced the sublime. A person listening to music on the AT would not be able to have this experience. If the wilderness was ordered reality it would not be able to be entered as a sacred place.
The fourth axiom is that the impulse of sacred place is both centripetal and centrifugal, local and universal. Humans are continuously seeking out centerdness. A person may seek the divine in one location, such as a church, but the closer a person comes to experiencing the divine, they will realize that God is diffused, and therefore not centralized. At the river, Lane realized that the divine is part of the river, constantly flowing and moving, therefore not centralized and in fact engulfing of everyone and everything.
Under these four guiding axioms can a student more clearly understand scared place.

Lane, Belden C. Landscapes of the Sacred: Geography and Narrative in American Spirituality. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2001.

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