Kaile Judge - Reading Reflection on Landscapes of the Sacred

In Belden C. Lane's, Landscapes of the Sacred, he talks about the rules, or axioms, that guide one to spirituality and the understanding of sacred space. There are four of these axioms:

1. Sacred place is not chosen; it chooses,

2. Sacred place is an ordinary place, ritually made extraordinary,

3. Sacred place can be tred upon without being entered, and

4. The impulse of sacred place is both centripetal and centrifugal, local and universal.

These axioms work together to understand and know sacred places; however, the first axiom is very special. As humans, we often find things or want things and take ownership or claim them for ourselves. A sacred place can not be sought after, like the nicest cars or biggest houses; on the contrary, a sacred place is about where one is, physically yes, but more so spiritually. Dipping into axiom three, one can be in a place physically yet simultaneously absent from it. Therefore, we understand the greater importance of spirituality and mental wellness to that of physical standing. In today's world, everything moves so quickly; we have the world quite literally at our fingertips, but how is it that this is true, yet a large majority of people are completely and utterly absent from the very world they are seemingly engulfed in. When you are absent from the world mentally, you are also spiritually absent from it. Even if you are in a sacred place, you can be so far from it, in another world, playing video games, scrolling online, or talking with people far away from the beautiful and wonderful place that surrounds you. Lane talks about genius loci, which is the spirit of the place where God is met. How would the genius loci of place be if everyone were on their phones instead of communicating with the place they are at? I believe that unless you are open and in the space and listening with all senses, the place will not reveal itself to you because you are disinterested in it. Interest and respect for place is a two-sided street; that is, you and the place must participate. Lane says that the place chooses "the individual long before he or she is able to respond with a conscious choice of her own." The statement says that the place knows you and chooses you before you ever arrived and before you even respond to it; how awful it would be if you arrived there and completely disregarded the genius loci that was around you. Sacred place chooses you, but you must be there wholeheartedly and not mentally elsewhere to understand it and accept it for how it is.