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"Sacred" as a prehistoric adjective...
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Paulus
Paulus
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Re: "Sacred" as a prehistoric adjec...
Aug 08, 2005, 22:22
Hmmm...a few things there. First of all, the word 'numinous', deriving from the Latin 'numen' doesn't mean "a deity"; rather 'divine will, divinity' (Oxford Dictionary English Etymology, 1996) which aint the same thing at all. It relates to something ineffable, which may well be a deity to some people - but to many it doesn't have to be.

And so onto your first issue:

""Sacred" does seem inappropriate to me as it is essentially about something being dedicated to a deity or some other religious concept."

Like I say - mebbe to some people, but not to all. When we have North American Indians (see McLuhan's 'Touch the Earth') and Australian aborigines (Lawlor's 'Voices of the First Day') saying, "to us, all the Earth is sacred", how are we to take this?

A few years back I went for a walk with Northern Earth Mysteries editor John Billingsley to show him some new archaeological sites I'd come across on the hills above Hebden Bridge. As we wandered thru the heather, I nearly stood on a hare which was resting or snoozing quite happily until my feet crashed to its side. As it took off & sped across the moors, John exclaimed, "Aw Wow!!! A hare!! Everytime I see a hare, I know that the goddess is looking over me" - or words to that effect.

Instinctively I bent down, for on the ground where the hare had been sleeping was a cluster of hare-shit pellets. Picking them up straight away I
said to John, "Look! Everytime I see hare-shit or rabbit-shit on the ground, I know the goddess is looking at me!" (or words to that effect)* My point being: if you need to see something like a hare to acknowledge this 'ere 'goddess' thing's actively involved in your life, it isn't actually an active and integral part of what you are. (I personally don't adhere to this modern goddess-stuff by the way)

'All the Earth is sacred.' If y' don't gerrit, it doesn't matter how much intellectual wanking or discussing the semantics of words you do, you simply won't gerrit.

Although saying that, it's a good idea to explore the roots which gave rise to the curious belief/attitude that there is a separatism between humans and nature. Therein lies a rather large rupture - whose tendrils in society are huge are unconscious - about our relationship with ourselves and the cosmos, that has gnawed-away at this thing folk argue over and call 'sacred.'

And in the words of FourWinds:
"To use an old phrase - You need to get out more!!! "

* I actually stopped myself saying those exact words a split-second before they came out of my big mouth - simply cos I knew he'd be embarrased or upset by what I meant.
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Re: "Sacred" as a prehistoric adjec... (PeterH)		 Replies:
Re: "Sacred" as a prehistoric adjec... (PeterH)
Re: "Sacred" as a prehistoric adjec... (Kozmik_Ken)
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