If you are like us, by this time of year you've reached the saturation point with all the gasping of conventional religionists about "sacred" spots and "sacred" places. The recent BS about a house found in "Nazareth" is just the latest gasper, one more example of a manufactured tourist trap. It's no better than the "graves" of Arthur and Guinevere, "discovered" when a big ol' church had a fire and decided to bait a lot of tourist/pilgrim revenue. Don't lose sight of the fact that Nazareth itself is an invented town; no such town existed in What's-His-Name's purported time.
Anyway, the question now is : What spot is sacred to you, and why aren't you (and we, for that matter) putting pictures and descriptions of pagan/Wiccan sacred sites on the web? There are hundreds of thousands of them. The Wells (Red and White) of Glastonbury, the Bend of the River Boyne, the tombs of Brittany ... everywhere you go there are places eligible to be called sacred. In fact, of course, the tree in your front yard or the one growing alone in the forest is also part of a sacred place. The very grass and foliage all make up the Sacred.
Think only of Britain's New Forest, site of the Rufus Stone; Glastonbury; the whole peninsula of Cornwall. The tombs of France; Carnac with its stone alignments; Gavr'inis; Beziers and Montsegur, where Cathars died in their thousands for their spiritual beliefs. In North America Yucca Mountain and Illinois' Cahokia, just for starters. Peru's Machu Picchu and the Nazca Lines.
What occurs to you? Where have you felt connected to the spirituality of times past?
Recently we saw the film Avatar and were pleased at the tremendously powerful message it portrayed from beginning to end, of a people who held their natural environment sacred in every way. How vividly their mindset contrasted with that of those who would destroy the planet to get at deposits of an important metal, here called unobtainium.
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As you know, we Frosts are continually criticized for our honest and basic real-world attitude to gender relationships. Of course the majority of people can think of "deviant" relationships only in terms of the pejoratives applied to sex by the culture in which we life. How about considering that those relationships should be sacred and that sex done to produce children should in fact be a sacrament carefully thought out and reverently performed?
Identify for us your favorite sacred sites. We'd love to learn about them.
Blessed be those who hold themselves open to the sacred. Gavin and Yvonne
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6 comments:
Hey i am interested in Wicca and host a radio show on Blogtalk Radio. I would like to have you on as guests if that is possible. i know a lot of my listeners are interested in Wicca as well and it would be a good way to inform people about Wicca.
Please email me at cesarsghost@yahoo.com
Monticello is now available for Private Events. I am going to try to make Pagan Pride 2010 at Monticello happen.
Blessed Be
Bonnie aka Wyldbirch
Two places in Kentucky you might want to check out-
1. Red River Gorge (which includes Natural Bridge State Park)which takes in parts of two or three different counties, including Wolf and Powell Counties. It was saved in the seventies by environmental activists (one of the few good things any of them ever actually done) when the state wanted to flood it and damn the river to make a reservoir. It would definitely be worth your time, if you could ever find the time to pay it a visit.
2. Cumberland Falls-In Pulaski County Kentucky, the closest town I think being Burnside, also fairly close to Somerset. Site of one of the two known places on earth where the "Moonbow" can be observed.
There are other places in KY of course, but I guess this will suffice for now. I especially recommend Red River Gorge.
I entirely agree... why should one place be sacred and not another. I am certain that any place visited by humans on this planet (and others) is sacred to someone. That said, if it's so sacred then why would you want hundreds or thousands of people wandering all over it? It's a little less sacred then isn't it? I can understand historical monuments or places, but those aren't sacred they are public knowledge, history. A place for reflection maybe but not sacred. As you said, the entire planet is a sacred sanctuary for all of those who occupy it.
It is good you have expressed your feelings towards the strong message of the movie avatar. Any pagan, wiccan, witch, or christian can attest that our environment and land must be healthy in order for us to be happy and healthy.
Please do not mix this positive energy with your ignorance towards christianity, history, and/or archaeology(sciences), as it can cause confusion and lead people down the right path.
Do some research before you make strong claims against anything, whether it be true or false.
"Some have argued that the absence of textual references to Nazareth in the Old Testament and the Talmud, as well as the works of Josephus, suggest that a town called 'Nazareth' did not exist in Jesus' day.[30] However, in 2009 Israeli archaeologist Yardenna Alexandre excavated archaeological remains in Nazareth that she claimed date to the time of Jesus. She stated, "The discovery is of the utmost importance since it reveals for the very first time a house from the Jewish village of Nazareth.](31)"[Noteworthy is that all the post-Iron Age tombs in the Nazareth basin (approximately two dozen) are of the kokh (plural:kokhim) or later types; this type probably first appeared in Galilee in the middle of the first century AD.[33] Kokh tombs in the Nazareth area have been excavated by B. Bagatti, N. Feig, Z. Yavor, and noted by Z. Gal.[34]
References:
(30)-^ T. Cheyne, “Nazareth.” Encyclopedia Biblica. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1899, Col. 3360.<>The Jesus the Jews Never Knew New Jersey: American Atheist Press, 2003, pp. 1-2
(31)^ House from Jesus' time excavated (December 23, 2009) in Israel 21c Innovation News Service Retrieved 2010-01-05
(33)^ H.P. Kuhnen, "Palaestina in Griechisch-Roemischer Zeit," (Muenchen, C. Beck, 1990, pp. 254-55).
(34)^ Gal, Z. Lower Galilee During the Iron Age (American Schools of Oriental Research, Eisenbrauns, 1992) p. 15; Yavor, Z. 1998 "Nazareth", ESI 18. Pp. 32 (English), 48; Feig, N. 199 "Burial Caves atNazareth", 'Atiqot 10 (Hebrew series). Pp. 67-79
Brushwood... for me that is a sacred place.
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