Myth: Sacred Places

Sacred Places:

• Have the power to heal the human body, raise enlightenment and creativity
• Places such as Pearl Harbor, Gettysburg, Egyptian pyramids, and Stonehenge in England are sacred because they provide a location that represents nationhood, individual identity, culture, and historical unity.
• Around the world sacred places can be actual places. It is a literal location where you can go visit, stand on, look at, and know that you are in the place.
• They are also mythical because they become symblic of and embody meaning of their cultural values.
• Thay are also imaginary places, where the place is imagined to be far more than any place can possibly be. The sacred site, which is somewhat abstract, becomes real because of its connection with its real place, the real place that we can see, and remember.

Andrew Guilliford’s 9 Categories of Sacred Places

• Specific to describe historical events and spiritual pratices of American Indian sacred places.

Vine Deloria’s 4 Categories of Sacred Places

• Although Deloria’s categories of sacred places also focus on Native American culture, Deloria’s categories differ from Guilliford’s 9 categories of sacred places because they are open-ended enough to be applied to sacred places around the world.
• These 4 categories are arranged on a scale of “agency” which is a hierarchy from “entirely human agency” to “Higher Powers”
• The first category is “entirely human agency” which is when the site is sacred because of the human events that occurred there, for example Pearl Harbor and Ground Zero, the location of the descruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11.
• The second category, is “deeper, more profound,” a place that becomes sacred because “the sacred, or higher powers have appeared in the lives of human beings.” An example of this is Prometheus, a greek god, who stole fire from the gods to give to humans for survival.In the second category, there is an interaction between the human and the divine .
• The third category is when “Higher Powers” are no longer unseen, and “have revealed themselves to human beings.” An example that Deloria provides an example from the Old testament which is when Moses speaks with the Burning Bush.
• Deloria’s fourth category is allowing the presence of new sacred places which are sacred due to the changes or circumstances of the present day.

Sites of Fear and Longing

• Sites of Fear are sacred because they dramatize our fears of the inevitable, including death, aging, disease, and weakness. These places are reminders of human mortality.
• Sites of Longing are sacred because they dramatize the longing for comfort and security, and rejuvenation, and make immortality seem possible. A peaceful place such as a garden, forest, lake or fountain.

How to Read Sacred Place Myths

• Consider the type of myth being presented
• Myths of Sacred Waters
• Myths of Sacred landforms (mountains, canyons)
• Myths of Sacred trees, forests
• Myths of Magic Realms