When defining a sacred space, the clear definition that comes to mind would probably be a church or a chapel, like the Saint Joseph’s Chapel at the Holy Cross Center. To anyone, they could have their own sacred space, as long as it matters to them and is significant to them in some way, where they can feel a sense of stability. Mircea Eliade, the author of The Sacred & The Profane, made this book to serve as a general introduction, to the history of religions, since it describes the modalities of the sacred and the situation of human beings in a world changed with religious values. Eliade’s point about the difference between sacred space and profane space tells a lot about how truly different they are. Eliade says that sacred space matters, and is significant in some unique way. While a profane space, is nothing special, but it’s nothing bad as well, so it’s just a neutral space that doesn’t matter. The sacred spaces that Eliade refers to, are a place where an individual can communicate with the higher powers. This is why in the bible, all the stories where they communicate with the higher powers, they are on mountains because they believe they are closer to heaven to speak to them.
Sacred space matters and is significant, but why is this important for each sacred space? Well, each sacred space matters to each human being and significant to them in some type of way, because if it wasn’t significant to them, then they wouldn’t call it their sacred space. To support how a sacred space matters and is significant, in The Sacred and The Profane it states, “The underlying meaning of all these facts seems to be the following: for religious man of the arhaic cultures, the world is renewed annually; in other words, with each new year it recovers its original sanctity, that sanctity that it possessed when it came from the Creator’s hands.” (p.#75) Connected to this quote, would be an example from the Chapel of St. Joseph, and this example would be that candle that is always lit right on the side of the tabernacle. The reason why this candle is so significant, is because it means the Eucharist is in the tabernacle and that Jesus is present. This example from St. Joseph Chapel fits Eliade’s idea, by because the world is renewed annually in the Church when Jesus rises from the dead on Easter, and is brought into heaven by God, to open the gates of heaven for us, so that we wouldn’t be able to never get cleansed of original sin.
The orientation in a sacred space provides a fixed points and grounds you as a human being, because its not chaotic but peaceful instead. In regards to The Sacred and The Profane, “Revelation of a sacred space makes it possible to obtain a fixed point and hence acquire orientation in the chaos of homogeneity, to ‘found the world’ and to live in a real sense.” (p.#23) An example from the St. Joseph Chapel that provides a fixed points and grounds a person, is whenever someone enters the chapel of St. Joseph and to the right and left are fonts that are filled with holy water, and are used for people to bless themselves when they walk into church. The reason why people bless themselves is because they are putting themselves in the presence of God, and it grounds them to the mass that they are about to participate in. The example from the chapel of Saint Joseph fits the Eliade idea, by whenever a catholic enters, they are entering a sacred space, and when they bless themselves with the holy water, they’re acquiring themselves in a sense of orientation. When there is all chaos that is happening around, like temptations and sins that have been committed in the past.
The main characteristic of a sacred space is a way to communicate with the higher powers. A hierophany helps support this, which is something sacred showing itself. In The Sacred and The Profane, it supports this main characteristic by it states, “When the sacred manifests itself in any hierophany, there is not only a break in the homogeneity of space; there is also revelation of absolute reality, opposed to the nonreality of the vast surrounding expanse.” (p.#21) At the chapel of Saint Joseph, there are pews that catholics can kneel down in, and communicate with God, by praying to him, and asking for him to watch over your family and friends. This example fits the Elide Idea, by catholics realize that God is truly listening to your prayers, and believing in God that he’s really listening and it also comes back to how strong your faith is in your religion.
In conclusion, sacred space fits in a pattern, because when identifying a sacred space, is that the sacred space is unique that person, and that it’s a peaceful place for them to be at their best. This goes across all sacred spaces, and creates a set pattern that all sacred spaces are the same and that is they are significant to that one person and they have a true meaning to them, because if not then they wouldn’t make that their peaceful place, and feel safe there. This pattern happens everyday in daily life everywhere, like at churches they are always so peaceful and it’s significant to be there, also another pattern that is peaceful is in a library and there is no noise, and it’s just dead silent and the most peaceful feeling ever, and there’s no chaos going on.