Mountains and Sacred Spaces

 

    As we discussed this week, sacred spaces are paramount to the faith of many religions and religious or secular people. Mountains with their prominence piecing towards the sky, make great axis mundi points to the heavens above. In The Sacred and the Profane, we see that the mountain, whether real or metaphorical, are points of axis mundi, in which people have a closer connection with God and the heavens above (“The Sacred and the Profane,” 38). Furthermore, we see this played out in the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac to God, where God tells Abraham to take Isaac to the top of a mountain where Abraham can make a sacrifice to him (Genesis 14: 1-2). Now the location of this mountain is not confirmed. However, there are real mountains that hold significant value as sacred space.

  Real mountains are instrumental to sacred spaces: Mount Sinai, Mount Zion, and the Mount of Olives, to name a few. These are real-world places with the implications of sacred spaces throughout the Bible. First, with Mount Sinai, Moses stayed for forty days and nights and eventually received the Ten Commandments directly from God. Therefore, this real-life sacred space acted as an axis Mundi point for God’s message to Moses. However, the current Mount Sinai is not universally confirmed as the same Mount Sinai, which doubts whether it is a sacred space. Second Mount Zion, wherein King David defeated the Jebusites and created the City of David (2 Samuel 5:7). Although, there is a discussion between which three hills near the city of David are the actual Mount Zion. Mount of Olives is the only one of the three whose location is not disputed. Finally, the Mount of Olives is a sacred space, primarily for Christians, as it was the location in which Jesus ascended to heaven (Luke 24:50). Once again, showing an axis mundi point transferring Jesus from the physical earth to heaven above.

    Even in modern times, as I was attempting the Colorado Trail last summer, a mountain is seen as a sacred space for Christians. That being Mount of the Holy Cross. The appearance of a cross is shown from the mountain. Due to the way the mountain is structured, most of the snowpack is melted during the summer. As a result, this sacred space within a time frame is flooded with pilgrims who climb to the top of the mountain, presumably to be closer with God.