Ashley Bowles- "Landscapes of the Sacred"

In Belden Lane’s book, “Landscapes of the Sacred” he talks about the four axioms of sacred place.  The first “is that sacred place is not chosen, it chooses you.”  Someone can be simply walking down a road in the desert with nothing around them, just flat and dirt for as long as they can see and God can reveal Himself in some way.  We never know when, where, or even why.  We never know when the spiritual moment may happen. 

The second axiom “asserts that sacred place is ordinary place, ritually made extraordinary.”  There is no certain criteria that must be at a place for it to be sacred.  It can be literally anywhere.  It is once the spiritual moment happens that the place turns into sacred.  We cannot choose where these things will take place, therefore your sacred place may be different from someone else’s sacred place.  And one person may have many scared places. 

The third axiom “would insist that a sacred place can be tread upon without being entered.”  

For example with the story of Moses and the burning bush in the Bible.  On the side of that mountain where this took place is now considered as a sacred place.  If someone was to go and visit today they could "tred" upon it without actually entering the spiritual connection that Moses had there with God. 

The fourth axiom “suggests that the impulse of sacred place is both centripetal and centrifugal, local and universal.” A certain place such as a famous church that people go to see can be a scared place if you have a spiritual moment or connection there.  With it being famous and a place that many people travel to go see and possibly have God revealed to them in some way it can be seen as universal but when you are actually there it is local.