Rel 110 Writing Assignment #2 The Sacred and the Profane The Nature of Religion PDF

Preview

Summary

The Sacred and the Profane The Nature of Religion analysis...

Description

Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion  covers the meaning of what is sacred as opposed to the profane, the sacred’s manifestation through hierophany, and his idea of religious man. Eliade’s view of religion in this world also draws many parallels to Lame Deer’s “Alone on a Hilltop.” To Eliade, religion represents the ultimate reality. For religious man, anything in nature can be sacred, and he will try to live in the presence of the sacred because he desires to access the ultimate reality. The sacred can appear in nature through a hierophany—   a profane, everyday thing that represents some aspect of religion. Eliade states that religious man is different from non-religious man in that they do not live in a “desacralized cosmos” (Eliade, 13). While non-religious man may experience the world as predominantly neutral (nothing is sacred), religious man experiences the world as non-homogeneous, partly sacred and partly not so. In The Sacred and the Profane , Eliade first covers aspects of sacred space. Eliade explains that a common feature of many religions is the concept of an axis mundi . The axis mundi can present itself as a central post or pillar, for example, the central support of a yurt. The central pole like figure would be “conceived as a ladder leading to heaven,” connecting the three cosmic dimensions: earth, heaven, and the underworld (Eliade, 53). An axis mundi  would be something that represents closeness to the heavens or reaching for the heavens. For Lame Deer’s first vision seeking, he was positioned on a hilltop which can be regarded as an axis mundi because, as Eliade says, “it is the place nearest to heaven, [and] from here… it is possible to reach heaven” (Eliade, 39). Similarly, the smoke from Lame Deer’s pipe can be viewed as an axis mundi because the smoke “goes straight up to the spirit world,” once again, providing a connection from earth to the heavens (Deer, 2). In this first chapter, Eliade also covers the

significance of thresholds, that thresholds of religiously significant places represent a bridge between the sacred and the profane. The entrance to the pit in which Lame Deer experiences his visions can be regarded as a threshold because it acts as a gateway between the sacred rite of passage he undergoes in the pit and the profane world around him. Eliade’s second chapter introduces the concept of sacred time. Eliade claims that sacred time is experienced during religious events such as prayer, rituals, or festivals, while profane time is a setting for “acts without religious meaning—” the average day-to-day events (Eliade, 68). Lame Deer’s vision seeking is inherently a religious experience because his goal is to come into contact with Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit. His time in the pit can be regarded as sacred time because he is on a religious journey to contact the divine. Chapter 3 of The Sacred and the Profane  examines hierophany in nature, focusing predominantly on the sky, earth, and water. Lame Deer expresses himself to be no stranger to hierophany, stating that “The spirit is everywhere. Sometimes it shows itself through an animal, a bird or some trees and hills… a stone, or even from the water” (Deer, 2). Eliade describes the human experience of the sky as necessarily religious because it “exists absolutely for it is high, infinite eternal—” the sky is inherently religious because of its godly qualities, its infinite height and width suggesting transcendence (Eliade, 119). Many religions have divine beings dwell in the sky. In “Alone on a Hilltop,” Lame Deer experiences visions of wings and flight. At some point, he finds himself in the sky where he comes in contact with the fowl people and his deceased relatives, showing similarities to Eliade’s statement that many religions have their divine dwell in the sky. Eliade also describes water as an important religious symbol because of its representation of formlessness. Water can symbolize the idea of new beginnings. Immersion

in water can be seen as a death, or “a dissolution of forms,” and emergence is rebirth, the consolidation of form (Eliade,130). Water is also considered to have a cleansing property, as in washing away a past self or past wrongs. In “Alone on a Hilltop,” Lame Deer must partake in a sweat bath to purify himself before going up the hill. There is also mention of earth symbology in Eliade’s piece which includes a feeling of belonging to a place. Lame Deer feels a connection to the hill he sits on because “his forefathers crouched on the hill before” him (Deer, 4). The hill in conjunction with its history gives Lame Deer that sense of belonging to a place that is present in earth symbology. Chapter 4 discusses initiations, which Lame Deer is going through in “Alone on a Hilltop.” Eliade describes initiations as subjecting individuals to some kind of symbolic death, “he must die to this first (natural) life,” followed by rebirth as a new person, “reborn to a higher life” (Eliade, 187). This occurs in Lame Deer’s story where he is placed in a pit, which can symbolize a grave, coming back out from his deathbed reborn, “he was no longer a boy” (Deer, 7). Eliade also discusses the concept of grappling with one's unconscious during initiation and how initiation is “closely linked to the mode of being of human existence” (Eliade, 208). Initiation represents human life because it is also a set of struggles, such as Lame Deer’s four-day experience without food or water, which one comes out as stronger, Lame Deer comes out as a man. Life’s ordeals and struggles are reiterated in the ordeals of initiation. In these various ways, “Alone on a Hilltop” and The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion d raw many parallels. In both pieces, it can be seen how there is a religious ultimate truth that exists beyond the profane reality, manifesting itself through hierophanies in the

everyday world which change one's experience of reality to be non-homogeneous—   sacred and not so.

Works Cited

Deer, Lame, and Richard Erdoes. “Alone on the Hilltop.” Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions . New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972. Print

Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion: The Nature of Religion . New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1959. Print....