The Story of the Sacred

The story entwined with the environment, be it natural or man-made, is what creates a sacred space. When one steps into one of these places it is impossible to feel anything but awe and a sense of one's own impermanence. Be it a magnificent cathedral, such as the Notre Dame in Paris or a graveyard used by Native American peoples for hundreds of years, the immediate emotion of the sacred space is one of being only a small part in an ever unwinding tale of life on Earth. In the second chapter of Genesis, we are given a specific location for the Garden of Eden: the middle of Iran. What otherwise might have been just another bit of desert is given special significance through the story of Adam and Eve and reminds all who visit the land of our origins and just how massive the human legacy is.

Sacred spaces do not inspire this feeling of insignificance in devoted religious practitioners. As someone who does not adhere to a particular religion, I have always had a strange relationship with places considered sacred. I have never felt the sense of security in a church that Carolynn has described to me. However, I know exactly what she is trying to describe when she speaks of how small being in a church makes her feel. The Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde in Montréal is equally imposing to my agnostic self as it is to those who attend mass in the scale replica of St. Peter's Basilica every Sunday. Just the physical presence of the cathedral is enough to make one pause and think, however briefly, of the history behind the monument and the events far into the future to which it will bear witness.

Due to the nature of being held sacred, these places often stand the test of time better than other monuments or parts of nature giving them not only religious significance, but secular as well. While the religious context is often emphasized due to the zealous faith of believers, the importance of the secular history of a place cannot be discounted as unimportant. The obelisk of Hapshepsut in the Temple of Karnak is a testament to the ancient Egyptian gods Amun, Amunet, and Mut, however the wall built around it tells another tale of a vengeful nephew attempting to erase evidence of his Aunt's reign. The stories that converge with a space to make it sacred are continued through time and tell the history of entire nations through architecture, story, and what the peoples felt was worthy of surviving throughout time. This contribution to the world is just as important as the space's religious importance and gives us a secular reasoning for the significance of these places.