Landscapes of the Sacred by Rob Dufour

This was a book that I had to read for my Pilgrimage along the AT class, but I recently got it out and was looking it over and found a section that pertained to seeking a sacred center in Native American spirituality. The section talks about how the most sacred place to their culture is that which as been internalized from within – which makes me think they are talking primarily about an inner beauty. Keeping this in mind the sacred center is then a non-geographic space, rather it is a place created ultimately as an illusion. However the sacred center is a place that is “more real than real” because this culture sees the most important places as ones that are not written down on any map. The goal of this sacred center is to encounter God through ones own being – this is the ultimate goal of all worship. So it is apparent how integral a “center” is to a primal culture, but furthermore the ideas of space and time are just as important, along with symbols of specific language. There is a symbolic language of place – a set of symbols can give the people of the culture an orientation to space and time. It is also found that in many Native American cultures things such as landscapes, villages, and common homes replicate the process of the cosmos. Later in the section a quote is presented by Claude Levi-Strauss, he says “all sacred things must have their place, being in their place is what makes them sacred. If taken out of their place, even in thought, the entire order of the universe would be destroyed.” In addition to this importance of place the representation of the circle is a symbolic form that is revered in almost every Native American tradition because they believe that the power of the world is done within a circle. I’m left to wonder what kind of importance do place and time have in our culture. Certainty they are important to us , but do we view them with such reverence as the Native Americans do?