Sacred Spaces

[Eleisawolf]

The purpose of this thread is for our resident Pantheists--or anyone who would like to--to show, list, and/or discuss places and natural phenomena that inspire that leap into transcendence or a state of reverence.

Of course, this is with the understanding that all of nature and culture and what-have-you inspire such belief in us. But if you have a "moment" that you capture on film or in your memory that stands out to you in particular, feel free to share and discuss it here.

I look forward to learning more about what inspires each of us and about the various cultural or geographical underpinnings might weave through each person's beliefs.

Peace,
E

[Eleisawolf]

72421

The above are the Spanish Peaks, near a little town called La Veta in Colorado, where my husband and I spent New Year's weekend. The south peak is a little hard to see because it's behind a tree, but if you open it up, you can see both clearly.

The Spanish Peaks were originally known as Wahatoya (also by other spellings, including the Spanish "Huajatolla")--their Ute name--which means "breasts of the Earth." The tribes of the region believed that this was the center of the world and the source of all life.

From a Ute creation story (as related on this site (http://www.undiscoveredcolorado.com/MagicalMountains.html)):


"Huajatolla are two breasts as round as woman's, and all living things on Earth, mankind, beasts and plants, derive their sustenance from that source. The clouds are born there, and without clouds there is no rain, and when no rain falls, we have no food, and without food - we must perish all."

Many tribes revered mountains in the Rockies, or just the range itself--the western direction, as the dwelling place of the spirits who brought rain--Thunder Beings to some... And understandably so, as much eastern Colorado weather does come from over the mountains. Wahatoya seems to have taken on an even deeper meaning, though, because of its evocative shape and the abundance of wildlife surrounding.

I took the picture above because as the clouds from the blizzard last week began to lift, they seemed to be glowing with energy. Here is another photo, focusing in on the north peak specifically, to show the glow more plainly:

72420

This kind of image sets my heart on fire, just as the mountain seems on fire. It's easy, looking at this picture and having been there to see this bright glow in person, to understand why the people thought this place was the center of the world and saw it as sacred above all others. It's glorious!

Peace to your hearts...

[Windsmith]

Oh, what a fantastic thread! I adore it.

I have so many sacred places, but 5 stand out in my mind.

Closest to home (other than home itself, which is one of the most sacred places I know!) is Oak Hill Park (http://www.stlouispark.org/maps/OakHillPark.html), where my wife and I were handfasted in May (http://wedding.thesane.net).

Across the bridge in St. Paul is the Bergey Excel wind turbine (http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2003/04/23_losurem_turbine/) at my alma mater. Several times a year I drive over to campus and just sit at the base of the turbine, listening to the blades spin. As my user name might give away, I am quite a fan of wind turbines. Yeah, there are a few kinks that need to be worked out (largely in regards to siting), but I see them as one of the great modern examples of humankind turning its amazing ingenuity to doing some good, rather than blowing each other up or trying to build the world's biggest mall.

45 minutes away is Whitewater State Park. Since 2004, it has been home to the Midwest Winter Witchcamp (http://www.winterwitchcamp.org/gallery/albums.php) of the Reclaiming witchcraft tradition. Which means that not only does it have amazing inherent beauty and energy, but it has the sacred energy of a place that has become a pilgrimage site for one group's spiritual work.

About an hour and a half away is the Valley Grove Oak Savannah (http://valleygrovemn.com/photoTour.cfm?EID=8) in Nerstrand, Minnesota. When I interned with a local sustainable development nonprofit, I did a case study on the Valley Grove community. They're a group of farmers who woke up one morning to discover more than 100 acres of land around their homes and farms was for sale for residential development. They pooled their money and bought it themselves and are in the process of restoring it to oak savannah.

And over in Oregon is the Illinois Valley - and, in particular, Takilma and Cave Junction (http://honeymoon.thesane.net), where my wife and I spent our honeymoon.

[cheddarsox]

Hmmm...the first thing that comes to mind is not a place but a time of day...just after the sun slips below the horizon, and the air itself seems to be "lit up", the trees are black against the glowing sky, and the air is purple...I feel like that is a magical time and I try to be outside to catch it and "ground".

I also love meteor showers, waterfalls, the Grand Canyon, clover patches, outcrops of rock.

Today I went hunting four leaf clovers. I found a couple of five and six leafers as well. I like spending time lost in a clover patch.

cheddar

[Marcasite]

I also feel the way you do about a bunch of snow on a quiet morning. It's so soft and it calms the whole place.
Another place I enjoy being is up in a tree. I'll climb a (study!) tree and look out across the forest, it's a wonderful view and so private.
I also love warm, humid summer nights in the forest. My favorite is the Elise Perrin Williams Estate which was the Estate of a rich woman which was turned over to the city upon her death. It's a huge park and you can walk off the paths into the wildnerness for miles.
Anyways, my favorite spot there, the one place in the world that I feel is most connected to the divine for me is a little enclave by the river. Every spring, the entire space comes alive with a sea of tiny blue forget-me-nots. Rows and rows of tiny delicate blue wildflowers. I love to sit there and meditate.

[SailleSeeker]

I live near the Blue Ridge Parkway, and driving almost any section of it can be a spiritual experience if I'm in the right mindset for it. I particularly love the sections closest to my home, around Grandfather Mountain and down to Asheville. I love going up Mt. Mitchell, even though the trees look so sad, all scraggly and acid-rained-on.
The definition of summer, to me, involves blooming rhododendrons, and I love getting a chance to go to Roan Mt. TN when the rhododendrons are in bloom, though the Rhododendron Festival that they have there gets a little too busy for me.
Once, I took my bf at the time up to the site where the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games are hosted. We went a few days after Thanksgiving in the late afternoon. Usually I'm there during the Games, when it's crowded and hot and loud, but that evening it was beautifully serene, with wide open fields and the shady groves where the bands play. It was absolutely gorgeous and very spiritual.
We have a little trail that goes by a pond on our college campus, and a walk down the trail is one way that I can almost automatically connect with that part of myself when I'm living the crazy college life.

Outside of my own region, I've felt spiritually connected to places that I wouldn't expect to find that connection. It happens a lot in cities, oddly enough - I think it's my own amazement at how many people are there and how much is going on all at once.
When I was on a bus travelling from London to Stratford, I fell asleep for the beginning of the trip - when I woke up, it was mid-morning, and we were travelling through fields and fields full of green grass and sheep.
I figured out some of the things that I want to do with my life while lying on my back, looking up at the stars in the Texas sky one summer night at a boyscout camp...

[Eleisawolf]

What wonderful places! I can't wait to hear more.

I'm also interested in the day-to-day... for example, if you have a moment today that just strikes you as profound, meaningful, macrocosmic within your microcosm, or the like, please feel free to share it here!

For example, we had really high winds in Denver today, and the snow was blowing across everything, piling up in huge 4 to 6 foot drifts. It's scary when driving, but when you can just sit and watch it, it's beautiful--it looks like a white river, flowing. Or like it has a mind of its own and is trying to get somewhere or build something. It looked to me like clouds had come down to earth and were trying to carry the earth away with them in the wind.

:shift:

Anything that happens in the course of your day, that makes you feel that pause in time, reminding you of everything you believe... put it here!

:idea:

I'll have another favorite place later, too--though it's certainly not one I can visit... :)

To be continued...

Peace

[Eleisawolf]

Did you know that? Yes, light, being both a particle and a wave, echoes.

Check here (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051127.html) and here (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061103.html). Click on the image on each page to fill your screen with it and get the full sense of each one. They're of the same region of space, in the Milky Way even, where a star "flash" occurred--an enigma that happened in 2002 and has never been seen by scientists before then.

These images are of light echoes from that flash, taken almost exactly a year apart.

Seeing these images and making that connection gave me one of those "Eureka, this universe is amazing and inspiring--and I'm lucky enough to live here!" moments.

This looks like God to me. And again, of course, everything does, but something about this brings me to transcendence...

Peace

[equinox2]

My stone circle (built in my yard) is a sacred space. I use it for rituals as well as for just stepping into sometimes, such as on a quiet morning before going to work, at sunset, or whatever. It looks different each time - lighting, seasons, snow, plants, moon position, etc. It is a nearby, familar yet ever new, sacred place for me. I can describe how we made it if anyone wants.

Have a sacred day-

[Amythyst]

My Dad has the coolest sacred spaces of anyone that I know personally-- the 12,000 foot peaks of the Rocky Mountains...waaaayy up above the timberline.

Warning-- don't try and run up there, take your time, and dress warm.

[Eleisawolf]

My stone circle (built in my yard) is a sacred space. I use it for rituals as well as for just stepping into sometimes, such as on a quiet morning before going to work, at sunset, or whatever. It looks different each time - lighting, seasons, snow, plants, moon position, etc. It is a nearby, familar yet ever new, sacred place for me. I can describe how we made it if anyone wants.

I'd love to hear...


Have a sacred day-

And you as well.

Peace

[Birdy]

Wow, what beautiful responses and images. I second Marcasite on snow. It's like catching the Earth sleeping. Total rest, total peace and silence.

I am very lucky to live in British Columbia, there are countless such places for me. Going through the southern interior in some places I am surrounded by this dark, mysterious sort of majesty, with the totally tree covered mountains that you know no one walks upon, draped in mist and pines that are very, very tall and majestic but very delicate with their thin trunks and curving bowers at the same time. Then there are mountains with sheer rock faces looking so great and old it's like the mountain itself could be some sort of God or power that be. It feels eternal, and it goes on and on and on into the distance.

Then there is Stanley Park (in Vancouver) which is, I think, semi-temperate rainforest. When you walk the trails in the spring there is all this wild pacific bleeding heart blooming everywhere with very delicate foliage and flowers in large beds contrasted against these big ferns and massive trees and huge broken trunks. It's so delicate and fragile and yet it exists happily amongst them. Since it is so rainy here life grows straight out of death, everywhere there are dead trees and stumps with new little trees and plants growing out of them everywhere and of course theres moss, lots of moss.

A special time of day for me is in the evening of a sunny day when the sun is going down and turns it all yellow. The whole forest glows with this warm , dappled yellow light. That is my favourite.

[Tranquility]

I'd have to say that the entire world is sacred space for me. I, too, love the inbetween times, dawn and dusk, and enjoy basking in the fading rays of sunlight. Other special times for me have been when I stalk through the woods and catch a glimpse of a rare animal, like an Owl in midday, cuddling with the tree tops. Seeing a hawk up close, or watching the pink clouds accomodate the winter sunset have been special times as well. I even get "that" feeling when I see a beautiful woman sometimes. Usually, when it's in the presence of a woman, it's more of a feeling of beauty and innocence.. if it feels at all sexual I completely lose the feeling of wonder. It's at these moments when I get "that" feeling, and the only thing I can say is "Wow".

[equinox2]

Equinox wrote:

I can describe how we made it if anyone wants.

I'd love to hear...

Here is the link to the pictures (they are on a mysticwicks album).

http://www.paganforums.org/photoalbum/thumbnails.php?album=913

Making it was easy – I used local stone by asking farmers if they would mind if I took stones (fist sized) out of their field – they said “sure…”. I marked out a circle using a string tied to a stake. The entrances at N S E &W are lined with logs. It’s surprising how many stones you need – I probably used about 600 pounds of stones. I put weedblock fabric down in the center area, then filled it with gravel. The gardens in each quarter are planted with plants so as to “do something” at the appropriate time on the wheel of the year. I have holly in the NE (winter), violets (spring), wildflowers (summer) and burning bush (fall) in the gardens. Big stones mark the directions (NSEW) and cross quarter points.

Oh, I also have a central flame. It is really easy to make one. You’ll need a hammer drill and some carbide bits. Use a rock with a flat area on top for the stone for the center of the circle. Use a large bit to hollow out a central area around the size of a measuring cup. If possible, leave a few “posts” of rock from the spaces between the drill holes. If they all break off, then use a smaller bit to make little holes, then screw metal screws into them. Then drape a few scraps of old blue jean material over the posts. Put a chunk of wax on the cloth, and light it, allowing the wax to melt, soak the cloth, and fill the cup shaped hole. Blow it out (better to smother with aluminum foil), and let it cool. Now it can be lit anytime, and you just need to add more wax from time to time. The posts are to keep the wick from sinking into the wax.

One can also get a lot of ideas from looking online, or getting landscaping books, both about “landscaping with stone”.

Blessed be-

[Eleisawolf]

Thanks, Equinox--That's beautiful and very meaningful.

:fpraise:

My hubby and I don't have tons of land, but I might see if we can come up with a small space like that... to be considered, anyway.

Peace

[skilly-nilly]

That's really beautiful!!

I have a Magic Circle Garden as well, and you've inspired me to photograph it...maybe tomorrow or the next day, depending on work. I wouldn't have considered it without the prompt because now everything isn't growing---but actually that makes the shape more apparent.

[Oddzilla]

I used to have a favorite fallen tree to lay on, down the street from my house aways in a little greenbelt. It wasn't really the sort of place you'd expect to find any sacred feelings in. Right next to a busy road, the whole thing was always full of litter. But I would trot down there and perch on one of the branches, and all the urban nastiness would fade out a bit. It always made me feel a lot calmer. Sadly the city decided to have it cut up and hauled off, so the tree itself isn't there any more. But the area is still nice to sit in. My new place is under a really low hanging branch- in spring and summer the leaves create a nice little hideaway.

[Willow Rosette]

My favorite time of the day is first thing in the morning. My duaghter has just woken up and is all cuddly and peacefull. It makes my world perfect and totally alligned.

This is Mt. Bachelor and where my heart calls home. I can feel a constant pull from it like the mountain is calling to me. It is truly a humbling place to be. Like the whole world is there before you and so big and amazing. On a clear day you can see from Bachelor (in the middle of Oregon) to Shasta (at the top of California). Love it!!!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/clsilvus/oregon/Mt-1.jpg

[Willow Rosette]

Sorry it turned out so big. Thats my first time posting a pic like that. Can someone trim it down???

[Eleisawolf]

...Here's another of my favorite "spaces." It's another part of space.

It's a galaxy cluster (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070516.html).

The interesting information in this picture is about the dark matter, and what we're learning about the properties of dark matter. But what struck me about it today is something that I've been struggling with lately.

Perspective.

My job is beginning to resemble a drawing by Escher. The musical I'm currently starring in, The Sound of Music, is taking every available bit of my focus left over after trying to get through the Escherian universe of work. My dog has had three surgeries in 8 months, and may need a fourth. My house is a mess, and my yardwork isn't getting done. My bills are getting to be overwhelming. Every day, some new little thing creeps in to add yet another weight to the mess that is currently my daily life. And this is precisely why each new thing, no matter how trivial, seems to threaten the very fabric of the existence I have tried to craft for myself.

Then I look at a cluster of galaxies and realize that I'm not even a mote of dust, nay not even the tiniest fragment of an atomic particle, compared to that vastness. And it makes me feel as if I can handle anything, because none of it is that big, in the grand scheme of things. And I can go home and be with my family, and I can go to rehearsal and be with the show, and I can be at work and be with every moment of topsy-turviness, and revel in the fact that I am here experiencing anything at all...

That's sacred space, to me.

Peace

[cheddarsox]

I feel tingly, reading your post. Not only that another person exists who has this type of experience...but that I have been lucky enough to have my path cross with yours.

Thank you for sharing the pic and the explanation.

whew..I needed to see/read this today.

cheddar