The importance of sacred places is one of the topics examined by Galina Angarova, Program Associate for Community-Based Initiatives for Pacific Environment, in “The Sacred Land Of Altai, Russia,” brought to us by the Pacific Environment blog. Angarova tells us about a conference on sacred sites that she had attended in Siberia, where she was born in a village, and had been brought up with traditional shamanistic practices as part of her everyday life. She went on to be educated in several places including the United States, and to work for various foundations, the activities of which span the globe. Despite this very international perspective, Angarova is acutely aware of the importance of the sacred sites in any region:
These sacred places are living organisms that interact with people the same way a believer prays in a church… When someone comes to take this away by building a gas pipeline or a huge hydro-electric dam on the land where your ancestors prayed for centuries, it feels like someone is coming to destroy your church. It feels as if they are coming to destroy your soul.
In Awakening to the Spirit World, Carol Proudfoot-Edgar discusses what she calls the indigenous spirituality of place, which encompasses every aspect of the landscape, the “entire ecology of being and Beingness that occurs within some landscape of the world.” She notes that spiritual practices are shaped by what the environment allows, and that, essentially, shamanism arises from a place. By worshipping and praying in the same places where the ancestors had worshipped and prayed we can build a bridge of connection to them.
In the same book, Proudfoot-Edgar presents an exercise “For Connecting with Place.” To really connect with a place, she advises visiting it in four different seasons. It involves asking the place to show us its spirit and some of its inhabitants. We want to put our good feelings into the place, in a way that can be absorbed, perhaps singing a song of gratitude to a stone. It’s like leaving a thank-you note. We might say something like,
I give thanks to the spirit of this place, this house, this land, for all that I receive. I give thanks to the spirit of the earth, the air, the water, and the sun for the life you give me so I may thrive. I give thanks to my ancestors for my life.
In the February issue of her monthly newsletter, “Transmutation News,” Sandra wrote about oxytocin, a natural human hormone associated with love, nurture, bonding, and other very pleasant human conditions. It gives the feeling of being embraced and not alone. It’s like the chemical opposite of norepinephrine, which mainly has to do with fear. Oxytocin as a curative agent is being investigated for such purposes as helping autistic people become more social. Here’s what Sandra says about it:
Shamanic practices replicate these effects. When we send our energy/light and hold some person or place in love we may be creating that oxytocin link and also be limiting overriding fears.
In Hunga Dunga: A True Novel, author Phil Polizatto traces the route of three friends as they travel to the East in search of truth. In Sri Lanka, they visit Sri Pada or Adam’s Peak (shown at the top of this page) where, 7,300 above sea level, there is a footprint-like indentation in a stone, which Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Hindus respectively believe to be that of Adam, the apostle Thomas, Buddha, and Shiva. Followers of four different religions peacefully worship together. As an added blessing, it’s the only place in the world where you can see the sun rise twice. The full account of this visit to a sacred place is just exquisite. Through his character Giacco, the author describes the constant stream of pilgrims flowing both skyward and earthward:
They lent this mountain so much spiritual energy, the peak really was all that it is believed to be… Sri Pada gave refuge to people of all beliefs. How nice for a change.
We look forward to hearing your experiences of the spirituality of place.
Source: “The Sacred Land Of Altai, Russia,” Pacific Environment blog, 2/10
Source: “Awakening to the Spirit World,” Amazon.com
Source: “Transmutation News February 2010,” Shamanic Visions website, 02/10
Source: “About the Author,” Hunga Dunga: A True Novel website
Image by dainee, used under its Creative Commons license.
This article put me in mind of Jackie Kennedy’s efforts to
rescue the ancient Egyptian temples at Abu Simbel which were threatened by the flood waters created by the Aswan Dam.
And on the flip side, of the Taliban deliberately blowing up
the two ancient hillside carvings of Buddha. And I recently
saw pictures showing enormous buckets of tiny pieces of rubble and yet the Afghan people are convinced they can restore these two enormous figures. Faith at work.
For myself there is a Victorian Cemetery in Rochester, NY
known as Mt. Hope. While undergoing treatment for cancer
I had visions of people of the Victorian era standing and
picnicking in the cemetery. My window was directly across
from Mt. Hope and I had several mysterious encounters with the cemetery people. It is also where Susan B. Anthony is buried and I try to do an annual pilgrimage to visit her grave, a place I consider well and truly sacred.
I write this not because my book is referenced in this article (though I am humbled and delighted that it is), but because the entirety of this blogsite continually inspires me. Just reading the articles by Ms. Hartman and passages from Sandra’s books, brings me a feeling of well-being.
Perhaps “sitting” in meditation first thing every morning would be better for me, but lacking that discipline (am working on it,) this is about the next best thing. Just reading these articles and following links brings me peace and hope.
When I came here this morning and saw the picture of Sri Pada, I was overcome with longing. Giacco “is” one of those people climbing skyward and then, after experiencing the sheer wonder of so many people of so many different religions and paths, all meditating, worshiping together in peace, “is” returning to earth. I can see him right there in the distance. What a long trek, but what a worthwhile one.
Giacco wonders why this “spirituality of place,” where people of divergent views gather peacefully, has not infiltrated those parts of the world where religion is the root cause of so many wars.
Giacco takes these lessons and tries to incorporate them into real actions that might make the world the heaven on earth it should be.
Will it come down to changing one person at a time? Is that the secret? That all strife, divisiveness, intolerance, greed, are within us? That we must work to rid first ourselves of these feelings, and then hope by our behavior, others will model it and thus make for a slowly, but inevitably, more loving and tolerant world?
Thank goodness for these places of spirituality. They are most special. They are a beacon of light that hopefully will shine bright enough to bring about the “aha” realization in someone that we are all one, we are all connected.
Much thanks, love and peace to all beings,
Phil