Harley Guenther- Lane's Axioms (Sacred Landscapes)

According to Belden C. Lane, the author of Landscapes of the Sacred, places are a huge part of spiritualism. He makes this quite clear in his book when he talks about the four axioms of sacred place. The first of these axioms states that a “sacred place is not chosen, it chooses.” An example of this is Moses and the burning bush, Moses didn't choose to walk up the side of the mountain to catch a goat, just to have an experience with God. God chose to speak with Moses at that particular spot, when this took place, that location automatically became sacred. The second axiom states a “sacred place is ordinary, ritually made extraordinary.” The spot where Moses Spoke to God through the burning bush was just and ordinary mountain, until this religious experience took place and then it became ritually extraordinary. The third is a “sacred place can be tread upon, without being entered." Moses had an experience at that particular spot, but another person could enter the same area and have no religious encounter at all. The fourth and final axiom states a “sacred place is both centripetal and centrifugal, local and universal." Moses had the encounter happen on the side on a mountain, but because of the magnitude of importance of this encounter, the experience was not just important on the side of that mountain that one particular day, it was and still is important all over the world today.