Chris Estes, 4 axioms

Chris Estes 4 axioms

Lane talks about the 4 axioms that deal with sacred places. The first axiom is "that a place chooses you" (Lane 19). This means that the place chooses that there will or not be a sacred place. The lake where the kings threw their swords into is an example of the first axiom. The lake chose where those two people would be to create a truce, and the lake is now sacred beacuse of this action. The next axiom Lane describes is that a "sacred place is an ordinary place, made ritually sacred" (Lane 19). To some people, when something happens to a part of their family it's now a sacred place that was ordinary beforehand. The third axiom is "sacred place can be tread upon without being entered" (Lane 19). This axiom relates back to when a tragedy happens in a family, no one besides the people affected by it can tread on that territory. The last axiom is "the impulse of sacred place is both centripetal and centrifugal, local and universal" (Lane 19). This exclaims that the religoius impulse moves toward and away from the center point where contact with the holy is found.