SACREDNESS
The word “sacred” refers to whatever is the object of veneration and awe. The term
comes from the Latin “sacer”, meaning restricted or set apart. A person can be
designated as sacred, as can an object or a place which is regarded as extraordinary
or unique.
The term sacer is closely related to numen meaning “mysterious power” or
“god”. Numinous is used to describe the sacred to indicate its power. Many
traditions around the world have a term which correlates with sacer. In Hebrew the
term is qadosh, in Greek hagios, in Arabic muqaddas, and in Polynesian tapu.
Correlates of numen are found in the Sanskrit word Brahman, in the Sioux wakanda,
the Melanesian mana, and the old German word haminja meaning luck.
In his book, “The Sacred and the Profane”, Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) notes
that the sacred always manifests itself as a reality different from normal realities.
We become aware of the sacred when it shows itself as something different from the
profane.
The presumption is that the divine or some supernatural or spiritual force is
manifesting itself to theperson, who feels privileged as a result. It may be argued,
however, that it is often the case that the person who, perceiving something
mysterious/inexplixable, a strange vision or event outside the normal, 'explains' it in
terms of the supernatural and invests with the sacred.
The perception of the divine is usually completely convincing to the beholder,
who can become instantly a believer in whatever supernatural force of divinity is
being made manifest thereby. It is a feature of manifestations of the sacred that
they are usually interpreted or identified within the context of the religious beliefs of
the person (or, in the case of people who are otherwise non-religious previous to
their experience, with respect to prevailing religious beliefs of their culture). For
example, the vision of the French Catholic peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous at the
grotto of Lourdes was of the Virgin Mary and not of a deity of another religion or of
an earlier Celtic or pagan goddess. In other words, the sacred manifests itself only
in the context of the beliefs of the person or his/her community (or, to put it another
way, the person can perceive the sacred only in their own terms). It may be
concluded that it is the person who creates the sacred and invests it in the objects
around him or her.
Many of the world's religions -- from the most 'primitive' to the most highly
developed -- were established through manifestations of the sacred. It is of vital
importance to religion that the manifestation is perceived not as generated by the
person but as the purposeful revelation of God (or some lesser deity or saint) to the
mortal person. Fundamental to human psychology is the belief in the supernatural,
of a world inhabited by spirits and gods and other powerful primeval forces beyond
human comprehension. Eliade therefore chooses the term hierophany (something
sacred shows itself to us) to describe and define the act of the manifestation of the
sacred.
It has long been a tendency among human beings to perceive and believe the
sacred to be present in anything, ranging from trees, or stones, to human beings.
With respect to trees and stones, Eliade points out that what is involved is not a
veneration of the tree, or stone, itself. The sacred tree or sacred stone is not
venerated as a stone or a tree but, because of hierophany, as something sacred. As
a sacred tree, or a sacred stone, the tree is no longer just a tree and the stone no
longer just a stone. The same applies when the sacred is invested in human beings;
they are no longer “simply” human beings because of their sacredness. It is the
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central belief of Christianity, for example, that the sacred is manifest in the person of
Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ himself is in fact the incarnation of God.
Sacredness can be invested in human beings when they behave in significant
ways or perform acts that indicate both the presence and/or manipulation of divine
or supernatural forces (commonly called 'miracles'). Often, the experience or event
in which the sacred human being is participating in or is present at takes place at a
spot or location in the landscape which itself often also acquires sacredness.
Obvious examples include Mecca, St. Peter’s Basillica in Rome, the Western Wall in
Jerusalem, the River Ganges and Bodh Gaya.
In other instances, the place itself may already have an ancient sacred identity,
and an individual through contact with it and its sacredness may thereby himself or
herself acquire sacredness. It may be suggested that Lourdes, a grotto with a
healing spring, was already sacred before Bernadette had her vision of the Virgin
Mary. The encounter both identified and claimed the grotto and its water as sacred
to Christians, and also made Bernadette a saint.
Similarly, it can be suggested that Mount Sinai was already a sacred mountain
before Moses had his encounter there with God (who appeared to Moses in the form
of a burning bush. Again, this encounter confirmed the sacredness of both Moses
and the mountain. The sacredness of Mount Sinai and the burning bush is made
clear by God who told Moses when he approached: Come no nearer! Remove the
sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. [Exodus 3, 5].
At the same time, it is important to recognise that an individual's sacredness is
often confirmed, or at least enhanced, through association with an established
sacred place or object. The Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya, beneath which Siddhartha
Gautama meditated and achieved enlightenment was already a sacred tree in India.
It is significant, for example, that Jesus Christ was born in a grotto or cave, was
baptized in the River Jordan, was tempted by the devil on a mountain and was
crucified on a mountain, Mount Calvary, on a wooden tree-cross, and was buried in a
rock-cut tomb, the entrance to which was blocked by a large stone.
Other sacred places may be intrinsically sacred, occupying an area of the
landscape which has forever been regarded as holy. Frequently these places
will show evidence of nearly continuous occupation and reverence dating from
the earliest times. Examples of such sites would be those currently occupied
by Chartes Cathedral, and the Mosque of Córdoba. Many other sites , such
as Stonehenge, were clearly sacred at one time but are now no longer
regarded as such, and have fallen into ruin.
A final but important point is that many sacred sites, especially those in the
ancient world, but also even those associated with the major world religions, are or
were to a greater or lesser extent intimately associated with divination. Divination,
based on the belief that the gods or other powerful supernatural force can reveal to
humans knowledge otherwise unknown about the present and, especially, about the
future, was practiced almost universally throughout the ancient world and continues
to be practised today. Several sacred sites, such as Delphi, where Apollo's famous
oracle was located, or Dodona, where Zeus's oracular oak tree stood, were first and
foremost centres where people sought information about the present and the future.
Various religions past and present have catered in one way or another to
allaying through promises the human fear of the future and anxiety about the
present. The Old Testament, for example, is filled with the utterances of prophets (a
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Greek term meaning 'foreteller') about the future, while the New Testament claims
special knowledge about the correct path a person should take which, if pursued and
fulfilled according to the tradition of the Church, will lead to a future afterlife.
The popularity of sacred sites, many of them today visited by pilgrims, seems to
offer a hope about life today and the future. Not surprisingly, as the oracular history
of some of them would indicate, many ancient sacred places were associated with a
fundamental knowledge or wisdom, divine in origin, which a number of people today
feel it is possible to recapture.
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