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Stolen Spiritual Symbols - So What?

4/6/2015

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A new book by Peter Knight is my treasured purchase from my recent pilgrimage to Scotland and England. Stolen Images: Pagan Symbolism and Christianity is an exhaustive exploration of symbols from all world religions and how they migrate from one pantheon and spiritual world view to another, emphasizing symbols from ancient pagan religions and how they show up in Christianity.
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  Here is the cover of the book and a photo of the author that I took last summer at the entrance to West Kennet Long Barrow on the night of a full moon. This beautifully produced book is in soft cover with more than 600 color illustrations.
Worldwide Spiritual Symbols

The idea that the cross and the halo, for example, were sacred symbols in religions before Christianity is not new. Similarly, we have heard that the Christian sites for abbeys and cathedrals are on land that has been deemed sacred forever and that most, if not all, of these magnificent buildings are built over the original holy well from antiquity, with cathedral coming after smaller churches, coming after temples built on the exact same site. Peter Knight, however goes into hundreds of symbols that were brought forward from the old religions: doves, labyrinths, the holy trinity, God’s extended hand, to name just a few. Additionally, the Madonna and child, lions, and lambs make sense when we think about older religions contributing symbols to Christianity, but he shows how countless other symbols including eggs, spiders, pelicans, dandelions, and geometric shapes are all a part of our sacred psyche from antiquity, brought forth into Christianity. The images here are of the moon goddesses, Venus of Laussel from 15,00BC and the Virgin Mary standing on a crescent moon from the 1500s.


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Don’t Blame the Christians

It is not only the Christian religion that has stolen images from its predecessors. Peter shows how this works in other wisdom traditions as well. But is this a bad thing? It is a very old sales technique to say, “Oh, yes, I know how important that is [whatever it is} to you and we have one a lot like it, only better.” Conversely, it also makes sense to demonize some precious symbols of old religions so that conversion to the new religion takes solid root. Peter shows how this was done with serpents, dragons, and apples, among other symbols, as Christianity took hold.


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Why is This Important for You?

In his book Peter writes, “Symbols…could be described as visual shorthand, acting as a conduit to unite our outer sensory and inner subconscious worlds.” Symbols grow us – spiritually. If you have a shape, an animal, or an object that is your reminder of the sacred, use it. Deepen with it. Find ways to have it in your environment. Contemplate it and let it work you. Have it on your home altar or find a way to wear it. Love it and let it be a part of your spiritual practice. All real religion is personal; let yours be personally powerful, as well, with the images that you, too borrow from others.


...Summer Solstice Ritual

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Making Your Spaces Holy

4/4/2015

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How would you describe what you experience in the spaces you inhabit? What words would you use to describe the spaces, themselves? Would you use words like homey, efficient, cluttered, beautiful, tidy, or adequate to describe your home, your bedroom, or your office? How would you feel about experiencing the spaces you inhabit if the first words that came to your mind to describe them were sacred, holy, and spiritually nurturing? It is possible to court the felt sense of the divine Presence and deepen your spiritual experience in all of the places you spend your time.

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Enhancing the Sacredness of Personal Space      
W
hen you take on a project of enhancing your connection to Spirit by adding to, taking away, or shifting the décor in a room, you begin with the same question you would use for any spiritual practice of change: “What do I want to experience?” The answer might be “peace or love or Oneness.” The answer might be “connection to a time or place or season or person.” The answer might be “to remind myself of my creativity,” or it could simply be “to feel my connection with holiness.”


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Remembrance of the Sacred

Starting out, you might make, find, or buy a physical representation of a deity or angel and add it to the décor of any room in your home. You may bring together other universal symbols of the sacred, such as circles, stars, crosses, candles, bread, flames or goblets and put these with your holy image. Other symbols and colors of personal, sacred meaning can be added to the mix, such as photos, sayings, and any other precious things. Put these items together in a pleasing arrangement to create an altar. You can create altars on any flat surface, in any nook or corner in your home or yard. The idea is to put spiritually meaningful objects and symbols in your living space so that they will continually remind you of your Source or another spiritual message that you want to communicate to yourself.


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Enhancing the Sacredness of Your Space While Traveling
You can make a hotel room feel more like a holy site with the addition of a travel altar. Every hotel room has a desk or nightstand where a small altar may be created. When you are packing for a trip, business or pleasure, think about what you want to experience on your trip and take some sacred objects that will remind you of your desire. Add a candle and you have a travel altar. Although many hotels do not allow an open flame, I find that an unlit candle holds the power of illumination just as well as a lit one. This is a photo of my travel altar on a window ledge in Ireland. It has the green man, who felt right at home in Ireland, a bit of my mother’s ashes, which found their way into the chamber of Newgrange among other places, and the snake dancer from Crete, who travels on all airplanes with me.


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Making Public Space Sacred         
The idea of acknowledging the fact that unseen support nurtures human endeavors transcends religions. Knowing that solutions and answers, courage and perseverance come to us from the realm of the formless to serve us in the realm of time, space, and form are notions that most people could agree upon. Creating sacred space for group work can be very powerful even if you refer to it as “establishing a receptive environment” or “helping our space become ready to support learning.” As a business leader, teacher, or group facilitator of any kind, you can use the principles of acknowledging sacred space to deepen the work that your group accomplishes.


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Have fun and satisfaction making all your spaces sacred.

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