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TimeGhost
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I am very much in agreement with AQ and Morfe, in this marvelous thread, when they say that the ancients could/would not make a distinction between the sacred and the non-sacred. I think that this does not just apply to their perception of space alone, though, but also to their perception of time. There is an ineradicable urge in human nature that drives us to mythologise the world around us. The world's myths and legends alone are proof enough of that, and neither are they the end of the proof. But it seems to me that this doesn't end with the sacred land alone - what about the sacred sky? It is in the sky that our mythologising of time takes place. All of our measurements of time are based upon observations of the sky. And more than that, all of our measurements of time are based upon observations of cyclical, circular motions. A wheel turning. Ancient monuments do not define a sacred space, they try to remind us of the sacredness of all space. Similarly, festivals marking the passage of time are there to remind us of the sacredness of all time.

I do not believe the ancients had a religion, just a *feeling* for the sacredness of space and time, a feeling that found expression in monuments, ritual acts and mythologies. Its most immediate expression was probably spontaneous singing, dancing, and generally freaking out! This *feeling* only becomes religion when the myths and rites are carved into tablets of stone, usually because somebody wants to control other people. Who can blame people for being mistrustful of the word "sacred" when it brings to their minds the word "religion"? Until we learn to see beyond the narrow definition of the word "sacred" that all these centuries of monotheism and its power-games have ingrained in us we cannot come close to understanding what "sacred" meant to the people of ancient times. Oral traditions have been shown, many times, to be living, growing things, constantly evolving as time wears on and tales & myths are re-told and re-told. In ancient times there was no writing, and in my view that makes religion, as we know it today (with all of its stifling of freedom of thought and expression), impossible. The people of antiquity had no religion, but they were probably far more aware of the sacred than people are today.

That's what I think, anyway...


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TomBo
Posted by TomBo
31st July 2003ce
11:25

In reply to:

Sacred Landscapes (nigelswift)

3 replies:

Re: TimeGhost (BrigantesNation)
Re: TimeGhost (Jane)
Re: TimeGhost (FourWinds)

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