On Sacred Space......Again - A Reflection

Sacred Space - Will we ever find it?

By Chloe Y

 

 

I have already pondered for quite some time in my earlier blog post about sacred space, and my view of sacred space, and where I find it. Or, at least, where I think I find it. Which, according to Durkheim is the wrong place and I'm not in sacred space at all.

 

Alas, a lecture for another subject at uni this week got me wondering if I had actually found it. Or, more importantly, if one doesn't subscribe to a traditional, specific, pigeon holed, or easily identified religion - can they EVER find sacred space?

 

I do not consider myself to really be part of any organised religion. I don't go to church, temple, mosque or a solstice. I generally don't talk to other people about my religious beliefs (only because I don't feel the need to, I could if I wanted to I'm sure). So I can walk into a sacred space such as a church, and walk into its sacred sanctuary, but to me it isn't sacred, because I don't recognise the symbols, motifs and preachers as authorities of my religious beliefs. Having been educated in staunch and traditional Christian environments, however, I understand how sacred those places are to believers.

 

The lecture that got me thinking about this was on Kant. More specifically, Kant's theory on phenomenon and nuemenon. Kant suggests that what we perceive to be reality through our cognitive capabilities and senses is "phenomenon" and that reality in and of itself exists beyond that as "nuemenon", which is inperceiveable to human senses. To bring it into a modern media context; I found this meme -

 

 

So; my reflection is this - am I as close as I can get to sacred space on the bus? But is it really sacred space? Is this what Eliades dialectic refers to in manifesting the sacred in the every day? And, does it matter? If i feel the peace, solace, transcendence and esotericism that I would expect of sacred space on the bus, does it matter that its not philosphically true? This, I think, in itself gives a good suggestion of the bones of my personal spirituality.

 

Picture Sources:

http://tattooedphilosopher.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/2_1.jpg

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/250x250/19162899.jpg