Defining and Defiling the Sacred - The Devolution of Humanity's connection to Spirit

Often I hear people asking "is nothing Sacred anymore?" and I find myself wondering whether people take the word Sacred for granted. In a world where materialistic atheism is the order of the day, and where the drive for progress and expansion results in the abandonment of tradition, the word 'Sacred' is one which has been severely devalued almost to the point of being a mere colloquialism.

The origin of the word 'Sacred' is found in ancient Latin with the word 'Sacer' meaning 'holy'. other words derived from this include 'Sacrare' denoting 'to devote' and 'Sacren' meaning 'to consecrate'. 'Sacred' widely refers to that which is properly dedicated to a person or deity with the purpose of veneration at the centre of one's daily life. In ancient Rome, as well as in many other ancient cultures, the lives of the people, from the bottom of society to the top, revolved around service to and worship of the Gods and the divine order of the Universe. It was believed that the Gods governed every aspect of their lives in accordance with the divine order, from commerce to safe travel, to longevity of household items, to victory in battle. Worshiping the Gods was quite literally a matter of life and death as far as the ancient world was concerned, and therefore it was seen fit that particular objects, texts and places be dedicated solely for use in service to the higher powers. A devotee of Mars would likely have an altar to the God of War and Victory, and upon the altar would be placed an array of items which could not be touched or moved except for when conducting a ceremonial act to the God. This in and of itself rendered such items as Sacred. Furthermore, said items would have had to have been blessed in accordance with the tenets laid down by the priesthood for them to be worthy of dedication to the specific God/Goddess. The act of blessing an object or place with the pure intention of honouring a tradition held by one's ancestors for centuries imbues them with heavenly power, making them infinitely more valuable than any mundane item. In this sense, a dagger forged from Iron would be more valuable than one of Gold for the simple reason that Iron is a metal which is directly linked to the God of War, so if said Iron dagger was used in dedication to Him, it would become even more sacred. The same was true of buildings, caves or forest groves which were prepared and consecrated solely for the use of the initiated to venerate the Gods and their divine order; to enter such a site without due respect or appreciation for its function and significance was to corrupt the site with worldly ignorance and interrupt the connection between the site and the Gods and/or 'Spirit of Place' (guardian spirit of the site). Failure to adhere to these principles was commonly thought of as the primary cause of all misfortune, for the devotee had not maintained the cosmic balance between their soul and their Patron God/Matron Goddess.

The Sacred Valley of the Inca, a gateway to the Gods and location of vast numbers of temples.

In ancient Greece, the students of Pythagoras held reverence for what we know as the Five Platonic Solids, for within them was encoded all of the divine mathematical principles governing symmetry and proportion derived from the Phiφ ratio (1.618), visual representations of the divine blueprint of the Gods. They held the Dodecahedron in highest regard for it is the most complex and therefore the most perfect geometric form in all existence, and as a mark of its importance, the students were forbidden from speaking the word aloud outside of the Pythagorean school in fear of unenlightened folk overhearing the name of the Sacred form. Breaking this law resulted in the student being killed instantly by the guards if it became known they had transgressed. Later, Aristotle relaxed this rule, but even then would not speak about the Sacred form publicly.

The Platonic Solids, geometrically perfect in every way.

Sacred Geometry, evolving out of the Phiφ ratio in the Flower of Life (fig. 1)

In later religious cultures, even more emphasis was placed on Sacred objects and places as a symbol of status for the spiritual elite. As 'divinely appointed leaders' and 'representatives of God on Earth', it was imperative that the priesthood should adorn themselves with regalia to distinguish themselves and each other from 'the profane' (or those who had not been initiated into the mysteries of God.) such clothing became Sacred because none other than the priesthood could wear them. The same was said of the tools used in their ceremonies for the same reasons as outlined above. The word of God had become the law which governed the lives of no just individuals but entire empires, and such laws if broken, could could bring the kingdom of God crashing down upon itself and thus failure to adhere to these Sacred Laws was punishable by death, such was the severity with which they were upheld. Despite the choice context of the church's use of 'Sacred', the word still held weight and when applied to the majesty of nature as God's creation, it lead to a reverence for nature and a general unwillingness to damage of destroy it  other than to harvest that which was necessary for survival. This view of Sacred Nature can be seen in texts from the Old Testament, which is wonderfully encapsulated in the Film adaptation of Great Flood, Noah (2014), starring Russel Crowe, in which Noah explains to Hem how every plant and animal is important in God's plan and by taking that which they do not need to survive and not giving thanks for the plant/animal's sacrifice, they are disrupting that plan. Such views were shared by indigenous cultures across the globe, from the Aborigines of Australia to the Native American Tribal confederation. It is this belief which drives people of tradition even today, and which has sparked the outrage towards the Dakota Pipeline plans resulting in the Standing Rock protests. The pipeline threatens to poison the water which gives the plants, animals and people life; it threatens to rupture or explode, scorching the Earth which is the home to all things, and the resulting fires would pollute the air through which their ancestors communicate to them through the stars, the wind and the birds that dwell there. Tribal traditions around the world maintain that everything in the world is connected to everything else, "in a circle, in a hoop that never ends." and that in hurting nature we are in fact hurting ourselves. Disregard for nature in the pursuit of more efficient means of accumulating material wealth are tantamount to killing for money, casting one or more lives into the ether and tearing them away from those who care for them so that one may live in more comfort than is required or deserved. This is why nature is Sacred.

However, since the 'Enlightenment' era, emphasis has shifted away from the concerns of heaven and Gods, and towards the understanding of the physical universe and mastery of the forces of nature. During this time, the word 'Sacred' took on another dimension of meaning, for it denoted those aspect of science which could be so empirically demonstrated so as to never be questioned. Newton's fundamental laws of motion are one such example, for at the time it was agreed that what went up always came down, and that objects always needed more force behind them to go faster. And so, over time the Sacred nature of the very word was diminished in value, though not so much as to not be taken seriously.

People holding to the traditions of their forefathers viewed scientific exploration as profane, for it disregarded the sanctity of life for the pursuit of knowledge, cutting down ancient trees to count the rings to determine their age, so to speak. "How high does the sycamore grow? If you cut it down, then you'll never know." - Pocahontas. It became acceptable, and eventually normal to dissect animals and humans in order to explore their inner workings, in extreme cases while the subject was still alive; such practice propagated the theft of dead bodies from mortuaries and cemeteries, further cheapening the idea of the dead and their resting places being Sacred and incorruptible. Of course, with the advent of Nihilism and hyper-rationalism, even the elementary principles upon which science was founded were stripped of their tenuous sanctity and called into question. Aristotle's 'Scientific Method' became a punchline to proponents of modern science who held that nothing was true, even if proven with empirical evidence, for new evidence could always overturn the old. The word Sacred, was further demoted and applied to those aspects of everyday life which an individual believed they could not live without, and so national sporting events came to be described as a 'Sacred Tradition' from which feeble minded spectators could not deviate for fear that they would have nothing to contribute to the pointless analytical conversation with their work colleagues the following day; meanwhile the true Sacred Traditions of indigenous peoples were systematically disregarded, ridiculed, oppressed and annihilated from history to make way for the Progressionist movement. So when I hear people asking "is nothing Sacred anymore?" when coverage of their favourite sport is aired on Sky Sports 2 instead of 1, I like to think that everything is in fact Sacred, the Gods and Goddesses, ancient cultural traditions, the trees and wildlife, the Earth, Water and Sky upon which we depend for life, our beliefs and moral principles, our freedoms, our love for one another... though maybe not prime time sports coverage. Keep life Sacred! To all, Namaste.

Enki Endymion. O(