The Innate Sacred

Lightkeeper · #1 (**permalink**) 13th November 2007, 04:31 PM

Quote:

The Innate Sacred: It is about the sense of connectedness with their world that most people seem to lose in childhood, but which some individuals retain throughout their lives. When you feel essentially connected with your world, you feel that it is in some sense sacred.

The innate sacred must be distinguished radically from the unmediated sacred. The former is a matter of a permanent relationship with the natural, the latter of discrete encounters with the supernatural.

The innate sacred goes unrecognised as such among those who live with it because our culture does not provide them with knowledge of it as a possibility. This can cause them great difficulties. For example, it is probable that the art of Vincent Van Gogh was an expression of his experience of the innate sacred and that at least some of his problems resulted from him not being able to cope with that experience.

In our culture, the only resource people living with the innate sacred have had in trying to make sense of their experience has been supernatural religion. Thus they may have supposed that what they were feeling was the presence of God in their lives. It seems probable, for instance, that over the centuries many Catholics have interpreted their experience of the innate sacred as a vocation for the religious life and become priests or nuns as a result.

It probably needs to be emphasised that the innate sacred has absolutely nothing to do with the supernatural or anything comparable.

http://www.bytrent.demon.co.uk/versions.html

Nick_A · #2 (**permalink**) 13th November 2007, 04:52 PM

Quote:

It probably needs to be emphasised that the innate sacred has absolutely nothing to do with the supernatural or anything comparable.

All this means is that this person hasn't experienced the sacred. He is still OF the world. The sacred though is above the world and its source. We feel the sacred in that which connects us to this source.

aged hippy · #3 (**permalink**) 13th November 2007, 10:12 PM

Thank you for that link, Lightkeeper,
The entire article - and several others on the website - offers some fascinating insights into the "sacred".

For instance it had never occurred to me that:

Quote:

The Conventional Sacred
The conventional take on the sacred does not apply to Spencer. In this perspective, the sacred is about the supernatural manifesting itself in the natural world, but strictly in the context of ancient and exotic religions. This usage derives from Protestantism: basically, Protestants have used sacred when talking about other religions and holy when talking about their own.

Emphasis original

Another interesting page is "The Sacred in English Religion"
http://www.bytrent.demon.co.uk/sacengrel.html

Quote:

The Sacred in English Religion
In his masterpiece, Religion And The Decline Of Magic (1971), Keith Thomas documented the drive of the Protestant Reformation to banish magic from English culture. That impetus was associated with something very much bigger, the drive to banish the sacred - in the sense of the supernatural being mediated in the natural world - from English culture.

Emphasis original

All in all, a site full of insight - in my opinion.

Life is a continual learning process, isn't it.

Peace, Love, & Light

**angeleyes** · #4 (**permalink**) 14th November 2007, 05:32 AM

I agree with aged hippy - cool website! I read alot of the William James stuff (summaries of some of his lectures). Thanks, LK.

As far as the "inner sacred" goes, I tend to think of it all as "inner," since we give everything the meaning it has for us.

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