The Scary Sacred

transmutations in the human mind

The most sacred place in the world is your mind

〰 Rick Beneteau 〰

freestocks on Unsplash

Sacred Geometry

We stopped checking for monsters under our bed

when we realised they were inside us.

〰 Charles Darwin 〰

I’ve been fascinated by the intimate relationship between the words SACRED and SCARED ever since I spotted a typo on a friend’s website. It happened about 20 years ago.

This friend of mine, a textile artist, had been working on a new website and asked me to take a look. She created mandalas related to sacred geometry. The moment I visited the website, a word jumped out at me like a spider pouncing on a fly.

in BOLD PINK letters

ONE MISSPELT WORD made me wince, flinch, and squirm. The clash with the serene images on the screen made a mockery of the website ~ in my mind.

Isn’t it odd how powerful one small error in a single word can have?

How two swapped letters can shatter the integrity of an entire homepage?

The explosion triggered by the poison scared ~ in place of a poised sacred ~ blew up the deeper message my friend intended to convey.

This devastating effect happened entirely in my perception. My friend hadn’t even noticed the error. She laughed it off. Many, if not most visitors to her website might have glossed over it too.

I could not.

Once you’ve seen something you cannot unsee it. This is true in general. And it applies especially to sacred geometry.

We carry our own perception with us wherever we look. Once you see geometric patterns in nature you see them everywhere ~ as for instance in these illuminated sea urchin skeletons.

Marco Busdraghi on Wikipedia

Trick or Treat?

Geometry is frozen music.

〰 ¿who said it first? 〰

Attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Gœthe and/or the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, the intriguing definition “geometry is frozen music” is tricky to confirm but a treat to behold.

The concept of sacred geometry goes back to the idea that a divine geometer has created our natural world. No matter whether you take this literally or metaphorically, the intimate relationship between geometry & sacredness has woven long and vibrant threads through many human traditions and cultures.

Although often associated with mystery, mysticism and secret spiritual knowledge, the meaning of sacred geometry is straight forward and relatively mundane. In essence it simply means measuring the earth with integrity.

Sacred geometry is home to the so-called divine proportions ~ measures found in natural structures ~ such as the golden ratio, the golden spiral, the Fibonacci numbers.

Sacred geometry is a field of study and practice where mathematics meets art. It has inspired especially, but not exclusively, spiritual art and architecture, e.g. churches, temples, and the mandala paintings of Eastern Religions.

Geometry [from Greek Gaia = earth + metron = measure] is the craft of measuring the earth. Geometry has its roots in the study of nature and the ancient belief that the universe is built according to geometric plans.

Sacred [from Latin sacrare = to make sacred, hold sacred, sanctify] came into English in late 14 c. via Old French sacrer = consecrate, anoint, hallow, in the form of the verb sacren = to make holy, immortalise, set apart, and also accurse.

the old English word for sacred was godcund = the knowledge of God

Making something or someone special through religious decree ~ e.g. sacred cow ~ becomes particularly poignant when we look at the related word sanction.

Sanction [from Latin sancire = to consecrate] originally an ecclesiastical decree (1560s), gradually developed into a punishment (1630s) “a penalty enacted according to a provision in a law to enforce obedience to it.”

The modern sense of “economic or quasi-military action by a state against another,” was introduced in 1919.

No wonder the sacred has become scary!

Scare [from Old Norse skirren = to frighten; shun] has been known in English since 1590s in the sense of to shrink from; prevent, avert.

The noun scare, “sudden panic, sudden terror inspired by a trifling cause, false alarm,” is synonymous with dread, fear, fright, panic, terror.

The adjective scared, synonymous with timid, shy, afraid of, frightened, alarmed, relates to the person experiencing a scare.

Scary, another adjective from the same root, relates to an action, object, or phenomenon that triggers a scare.

Ksenia Yakovleva on Unsplash

All Hallows Eve

Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

〰 William Shakespeare 〰

The neighbourly ties between scared and sacred are the patron sainthood of the seasonal Halloween ~ a word impossible to miss while all shops and supermarkets pull their tricks and treats out of storage.

Hallow e’en, the last night in October, the eve before All Saints Day, formerly known as All Hallows… or All Holy people…

Hallow [from Old English halgian = to make holy] the religious sounding verb originally meant to sanctify, consecrate. Now also used in the sense of revere, honour, it is etymologically a fraternal twin of the verb heal.

Hail [from Old Norse heill = health, prosperity, good luck], originally used as a greeting rich in well wishes, shares an intimate bond with health, whole, and holy. All four words carry the essence of integrity, a harmonious state of completeness.

The hallow in Halloween hails from the same family… which sparks the baffling question::: if it’s all about celebrating integrity ∞ wholeness ∞ and health ∞

¿?¿ how did the eve of all Saints become the spookiest night of the year?¿?

The explanation is eerily familiar. All Saints, the ‘Christian holiday’ was appropriated from the much older Celtic festival Samhain, celebrated by our ancestors who believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth that night and had to be warded off with spooky masks and costumes.

Contemporary Halloween celebrations ~ manufactured of mock-spooky jokes and scary amounts of candy sold in American grocery stores, vanguarding the surge of consumption called ‘Christmas’ ~ invite renewed contemplation.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

〰 William Shakespeare 〰

Flying Lessons by Transmutation

Halloween came to be because 
the human mind is a scared place, 
ever since humans turned 
their inner world into a troubled vale, 
and the outer followed by transmutation. 

Which means it can unbe, 
whenever the ghosts of dead Saints
return to Gaia to check if we are 
still playing those scary tunes, 
frozen in time.

As long as we wreck and ravage Holy Land 
by dehumanisation, intimidation, annihilation, 
those hallowed ghosts will keep 
coming back and offer flying lessons.
For free.

Shakib Uzzaman on Unsplash

Here we are in the land

of sacred story, chant, shrines,

altars and grottoes, parables,

and soldiers in camouflage are carrying guns.

What does that say about holy?

〰 Naomi Shihab Nye 〰

excerpt from the poem And That Mysterious Word Holy by Naomi Shihab Nye