We all have chaos in our lives, but the way we cope and handle chaotic situations define who we are as a person in society. While discussing the Eliade reading we conversed about “the real” known as cosmos and evil threats known as chaos, throughout pilgrimage. When first reading this I was overwhelmed with the many different perspectives on what was considered to be “scared space.” After discussing the reading in class I found this concept to be very intriguing, while allowing each student in class to form their own individualistic opinion about their sacred space.
Cosmos are known as “the real” because they are the most sacred spots known to individuals. These sacred spots are the places that are closest to the center of the Earth, which is peaceful, safe ground with no chaos or conflicts. At this time they believe the Earth was flat so each group would attempt to find axis mundi, which is known as the connection between Earth and heaven. Examples of axis mundi are ladders, mountains, trees, stairways, and anything that may signify a pathway to heavens doors. For many of us our safe center is a place in our homes due to familiarity. My personal sacred space is my bedroom. This is where I feel most comfortable and at-ease.
Chaos can occur anywhere, but Eliade believed the closer you are to the center, the farther away you are from evil and despair. A section in our reading discussed the choices of sacrifice that may be needed in order to create to restore peace in a cosmo. An example of this would be drama during middle school. For example, many girls had to chose to be someone they were not, and sacrifice who they really are, or they were their own person, but made the sacrifice to be “shunned” from the popular group of girls. But while being in their sacred space, such as a bedroom or living room, they were free to be who they wanted to be without judgment or chaos.
I feel that everyone should be able to relate to this reading because everyone has, or will, go through chaos and conflict sometime throughout their lives. On the contrary, everyone has a sacred place to unfold, and be at peace in life.
I found your post to be very similar to mine since we kind of discussed basically the same topics from the reading. I definitely agree with you on the fact that everyone should be able to relate to this reading because everyone goes through times of chaos and conflict at some point in their lives, if not very frequently. I know every day in my life I am confronted with various things that cause me stress and all I want to do is go to my sacred space to get away from all of it. I’m sure that you can relate to that too. That is also something I liked about this reading, because it really opened my eyes on the concept of having sacred space, and like you I had found it very intriguing. I agree, it was very overwhelming at first being able to see all of the different perspectives mentioned on the topic, but it is much easier to look at it from a personal level. After breaking it down like that, it was much easier to understand for me.
Like you, I also mentioned that I consider my house my sacred place, more specifically my living room. On your comment to my post you asked if I had any places on campus that I would also consider my sacred space and after thinking about it, I can think of a couple. Besides my dorm room, I also would consider the softball field one of my sacred places. That is where I spend a lot of my time practicing and playing games and when I step on the field my worries and all the chaos in my life can be forgotten for awhile. I am glad that you brought that up because I never would of even thought about that. Do you have anywhere you can go besides your room, that just helps relieve all the chaos in your life? Your post really made me think deeper into this topic and understand it more than I did while writing my post!