This page groups sacred sites by whether their sacred status is still actively maintained. Wikipedia notes that Mircea Eliade "argues that while the concept of a sacred space is often associated with religious traditions, it is not exclusive to them," since secular societies can keep treating a place as significant too. Browsing this way lets a visitor tell a site with living religious observance apart from one preserved mainly for its history.
Facts
Contested Use
Contested or Appropriated Modern UseSourced to the subject's own accountObjected to by name by the peoples whose places these often are. The Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality, adopted at Lakota Summit V in June 1993, names New Age appropriation of ceremony and of sacred places specifically, and it is a standing objection rather than a historical one. 3 Contested or Appropriated Modern UseThe New Age repertoire draws heavily on Native American, Andean and Asian material reworked for a Western audience. The borrowing is selective and is made without reference to the traditions it draws on. 2 Overview
What Defines This GroupingPlaces designated sacred by the modern New Age movement on the strength of claimed earth energies, ley lines or vortices. The designation is made by visitors rather than by any custodian community, and it commonly attaches to an ancient monument or natural feature whose documented history has nothing to do with it. 2 Origins
Origin PeriodTwentieth century. The New Age movement took shape in the 1960s and 1970s, and the sacred-energy reading of these places is that recent whatever the age of the places themselves. 2 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryUsed, and disputed. New Age is a term of convenience for a loosely bounded field of alternative spirituality; scholars disagree over its boundaries, and many of the people it is applied to do not use it of themselves. 2 Learn More
New Age sacred sites
This small group holds a site treated as sacred in New Age spirituality, a place understood by modern seekers as a centre of spiritual energy or transformation, often an ancient monument or striking natural feature reinterpreted through recent esoteric ideas.
The browser will find the site the atlas classes here. The entry describes the modern significance attributed to it, distinguishing recent New Age interpretation from the site's documented history.
In active religious use
Filter Results1 entry
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought
Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Brill, 1996on New Age sacred geography and earth energiesView the Source 3. Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality
Lakota Summit V, 1993the declarationthe holders' own account
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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