The Sovereign Freedom of Sacred Place

The Sovereign Freedom of Sacred Place

(Belden Lane/Landscapes of the Sacred)

August 31, 2015

Religious History scholar, Belden Lane, gives four principles that serve as the foundation for his study of the nature of American sacred space. The first principle, which I found most interesting, is that “sacred place is not chosen, it chooses.” The holy has a mind of its own, unswayed, untouched, and uninfluenced by human will. More often than not, we encounter the holy in the most unexpected places and the most unexpected ways. Sacred places catch us off guard. They seem to have their own sovereign freedom, manifesting their numinous qualities, revealing their divine messages, and singing their unique songs to those who were never seekers or pilgrims to being with.

Last spring, towards the end of the semester, my best friend Matthew and I decided to take a break from the college scene and venture out into the wilderness for an overnight backpacking trip to Signal Knob, in the Shenandoah Valley. The week leading up to that friday had been a stressful, challenging, and confusing couple of days for both of us and we longed to find peace, solace, clarity, and connect with God in the mountains.

We stuffed our packs with all the essentials for out journey, and headed out in the afternoon. About an hour and a half into our car ride we realized, to our dismay, that we had put the wrong address into the GPS. Annoyed by the loss of time and frustrated by the waste of gas, we quickly filled up the tank and switched routes. By this time we were expecting to arrive at 8pm and have to find a place to set up camp in the dark. Too far and too stubborn to turn around and drive back to campus, we ate dinner in the car and kept moving. 

As we were driving through the mountains, the sun began to set. It was one of the most grace-filled, majestic sunsets I have ever witnessed. Just when we thought that the sun had finally retired for the night, we would ascend another hill in the road only to see the sunset again, at a new angle. With each new view of the sunset it was as if God were reminding us with a big sunny smile that he was still there, watching over us. What seemed to be an inconvenience turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

We arrived later that night, in the dark and hit the trail with our headlamps, singing songs  and feeling a strange healing sensation from the mystery that surrounded us. Finally, we found a place to set up camp. Struck by the eeriness of being alone on a mountain at night, we suddenly heard a noise off in the distance, a rustling in the woods. As the sound got closer, we perceived the voices of children. Within a few minutes, a group of boy scouts had come upon our campsite. Their laughter pierced through the numinous moment, lightening up the whole environment. 

That place will always be a sacred spot to Matthew and I. Everything special about that trip seemed to choose us. We needed the delay, the many sunsets, the night hike, and the company of the young boy scouts. Though she was hidden in the mysterious shroud of darkness, it was as if Singal Knob had chosen us that night and welcomed us with open arms. Matthew and I did not go to Signal Knob expecting to make a sacred place out of it, rather we discovered a place that was eagerly waiting to share it’s treasures with us. As Mircea Eliade says, “the place is never chosen by man… the sacred place in some way or another reveals itself to him.” I am reminded that scared places cannot be created. They are as uncontrollable and unpredictable as the wild terrain that characterizes them.