By Geophile
Ran across this book description recently. Thought it was worth bringing up for readers to discuss here. My first thought is that the list of sites mentioned, although I'm sure they're not all the sites in the book, is disappointing. Mystery Hill, from what I understand, was largely destroyed and then reconstructed to match the ideas the person doing it had after looking at info on European sites. Dighton Rock, while interesting, may be unconnected to any other sites. The Newport Tower was most likely built in the early years of European settlement.
I would love to see a book that included sites like those on this blog, along with discussion of the concepts included in any understanding of the concept of sacred landscape, with an emphasis on helping the reader see the landscape on which he or she lives in a new light. It would discuss the difference between cultures based on individual, shaman-like relationships with the world (those in which everyone, regardless of power and social standing, live in the same sort of housing and are responsible, as long as they're capable, for providing their own food) and those based on hierarchies (those in which the wealthy and powerful can use the lives of others to create monuments to themselves), and how those differences affect what kind of structures are created.
It would discuss various concepts of spirits on the landscape (now grossly misunderstood by our culture), ancient understandings by cultures on both sides of the Atlantic of places like hilltops, mountains and springs, as well as the significance of stones in general and stones of certain colors and types.
It would list various kinds of sacred sites (Jim Swann's list--I'll find it and add it in a comment on this post--would do, or at least be a starting off point) and discuss why stone structures might be built at some of those types of sites.
It would have people like Norman and Peter and whoever they recommend, discussing the meanings they have come to see in certain features or patterns when they notice them. And there would be a chapter at the end about the reasons for preserving the sites and how understanding these sites could inform our vision of the earth we live on.
What book would you like to see written--no, not just written, but backed and promoted?
And, to add another question, does anyone else think it might be useful to have a rock pile listserve, one of those email lists on which the group can discuss topics in depth when they come up?
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9 comments :
I wish I could write that book.
That book description reminds me of Barry Fell's America B.C. Barry's long gone, but his spirit lives on, and on... Books like the fiction promoted by Mr.Goudsward sell, but the truth has a much harder time attracting readers, unfortunately.
Jim Swan compiled this list while working with native Americans, but it has a wider relevance. He lists kinds of sacred sites, not all, of course, likely to have stone work, but it gives an overview of possible uses for sites we may find and reminds us that we are probably looking at many kinds of sites.
This is not his wording. I found it somewhere paraphrased from his book The Power of Place: Sacred Ground in Natural and Human Environments.
burial grounds and sites
purification and healing sites where people bathe in sacred waters, fast, meditate, etc.
special flora and fauna sites, containing special herbs and/or animals
quarries where special stones and gems are found
vision questing and dreaming sites (includes springs, hills, sites with extraordinary stones or landforms)
mythic/legendary sites
temples and shrines, where human building enhances a place (for example, places where structures stand that were built before the group memory)
spiritual renewal sites used for pilgrimage
historical sites meaningful to a particular people
sunrise sites to honor the rising sun at imortant turning points of the year
I find it can be helpful to think of this list when I look at a site.
I forgot 2 from his list:
fertility sites
baptismal sites for bathing and honoring newborns
Paul Devereux's "The Sacred Place" is the best book about what constitutes a sacred place that I have ever come across. This is not one of the potboilers that he frequently writes, but is instead a serious piece of scholarship peppered with excellent illustrations. Plus, Devereux is an excellent writer.
Norman, I have great respect for Pauk Devereux. His book Symbolic Landscapes influenced my thinking a great deal. I don't always agree with everything he says, but he asks questions that need to be asked and makes important connections between seemingly unrelated things. I'll look for that book. Thanks.
Where do you draw the line on how much discussion you have about "spiritual energy"?
See, this is why we need a listserv, for conversations like this!
For me, I draw the line where it passes from reality to fancy. Name theories as theories when we speak of them, comsider possibilities if they could be related, but always come back to the sites themselves and what's really there.
I think that in order to understand the sites, it helps to read a little about shamanism--not modern day make-a-buck shamanism, but practices by indigenous people around the world who view connections with the 'spirit world' in a down-to-earth way. It has a lot to say about landscape and place.
I think it's a narrow walk. You can't let yourself fall off on the side of fantasy and sentimentalism, but you can't let yourself fall off on the side of Newtonian/Cartesian Western views that deny some important realities, either. Like Thoreau said, the intellect is a cleaver. You have to use it that way. You can't say it better than he says it in Where I Lived And What I Lived For. He was dealing with the same basic issues when he wrote. Only say what's true but don't be so afraid that you don't see the truth when you look at it.
I have a lot to say about this, but the comment is too long already. I'll just say that I think so far this blog is doing pretty well.
Just for the record, my book is primarily a historical overview of a wide variety of sites, ranging from Eben Horsford to Barry Fell to Cotton Mather.
I do touch very lightly on the concept of sacred landscape but only as an alternative explanation of certain sites, such as the Gungywamp complex. So, while there are passing references to such topics as Mavor and Dix's work in Manitou and Haviland's research into petroglyphs as entoptic phenomena, the book is just a straightforward history of the sites, warts and all.
The publisher selected the title. My personal choice was Myth & Megalith.
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