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 Since
the dawn of human time people have described certain places as being
holy or magical, as having a concentrated power or presence of spirit.
Ancient legends, historical records and contemporary reports tell of
extraordinary, even miraculous happenings at these places - the sick are
healed, deities appear, artists receive inspiration, prophets see
visions and sages attain spiritual enlightenment. It is a curious fact,
however, that these sacred sites, so significant to human culture are so
little known beyond their own religious traditions. Of enormous
importance, they have received only limited attention from social
anthropologists, cultural geographers and religious historians. Why this
remarkable omission of awareness and understanding?
The story of the sacred sites, and certainly its finer analysis, is a
journey through mythic realms and a witnessing of things that can be
felt but not measured. Such matters, beyond the limits of possibility
agreed upon by the establishment scientific community, are marginalized
and conveniently disregarded. Additionally, a truly comprehensive study
of the holy places inevitably introduces the student to deeper levels of
their own being, territories sometimes frightening for overly rational
minds. Yet the holy places and their mysterious spiritual magnetism call
us to a deep exploration for they contain a knowledge of vital
importance to the well being of humanity and the planet we live upon.
In this short article I will share some of the understandings I have
gleaned from twenty years of intensively studying the world’s pilgrimage
traditions and sacred places. The vantage point I bring to these
investigations is three-fold: I examine the sacred sites as an
anthropologist, visit them as a pilgrim, and photograph them as an
artist. This multi-mode, objective/subjective approach, practiced at
more than 1000 holy places in 80 countries, has allowed me to penetrate
to the core mysteries of one of the worlds most compelling enigmas.
 Why do human beings make pilgrimages to sacred sites? How do we account
for the historical fact - evident in nearly every culture and era - that
sacred places have been and continue to be the most visited places on
the planet? Two answers sometimes suggested are the momentum of
religious tradition (an old condition) and modern day tourism (a recent
effect).
The reasons for visits by contemporary tourists are easy to understand
but give little insight into the enigma of the sacred sites or their
power of attraction on human beings. Tourists find themselves at the
holy places, not usually because of any spiritual interest on their part
or that of the managers of their tour agencies, but rather because so
many of the great pilgrimage shrines are repositories of monumental
architecture and beautiful art. Being the sort of photogenic places that
look enticing in tourist brochures and travel guide books, many sacred
sites quite naturally draw large numbers of recreational tourists.
By contrast, pilgrims journeying to sacred sites for religious reasons
are a far more revealing focus of study. There are several questions we
can ask of these pilgrims. What is the root cause of their pilgrimage
tradition? What is the original generator of the spiritual magnetism of
their holy sites? What do the earliest myths and legends of their sacred
sites reveal? Seeking answers to these questions we discover that there
are several distinct categories of founding legends associated with the
sacred sites. The examples are fascinating:
Certain places were recognized by shamans and sages as manifesting
or radiating a feeling of power, a sense of energy, a mysterious
luminosity.
Spirits, elementals and angels were seen to appear and consecrate
specific geographical sites.
Pilgrims reported miracles of healing and extraordinary answers to
prayers.
Spiritual seekers attained sublime levels of metaphysical consciousness.
Among the rich collection of foundation myths there are several common
denominators, a crucial one being that nearly all the myths indicate
that something extraordinary was seen or experienced by human beings.
Various social anthropologists and cultural geographers, such as Turner,
Bhardwaj, Nolan and Morinis have done valuable work in cataloguing the
variety of founding legends but have usually terminated their studies at
that level. Seldom have the behavioral scientists looked more deeply
into the myths and symbols of the holy places, to inquire into the
nature of the extraordinary phenomena that gave rise to the founding
legends. This is a key insight into the unstudied condition of this
great global phenomena: the specific myths that could help solve the
riddle of the sacred sites remain unexamined because they are dismissed
as being just stories, as being nothing more than simplistic and
fantastic imaginations of preliterate and/or non-rational minds. How
wrong this notion is! The founding myths of the sacred sites are
actually descriptive metaphors revealing to the insightful student the
character, quality or power of particular places. The arcane legends
passed to us from archaic times are siren calls to our minds and souls,
calling us to a new science and a transformation of human consciousness.
 The really important question then - the unasked one - is how do we
explain these extraordinary reports about the sacred sites? What unknown
power could be causing the astonishing phenomena reported at pilgrimage
places all over the world? Are they really miracles or are they simply
unexplored realities? St. Augustine once said that miracles do not
happen in contradiction to nature but only in contradiction to what we
currently know of nature. Here lies the problem: we have not yet looked
deep enough to comprehend the nature of the holy places.
That penetrating inquiry has been the passion of my life. Based on
twenty years studying and visiting the sacred sites, I suggest that
there is a definite field of energy that surrounds and saturates the
immediate locality of certain pilgrimage places. Concentrated at
particular holy sites is a subtle, multidimensional field of influence
extending in space and continuing in time. How then may we explain the
origin and continuing vitality of these site-specific energy fields? How
is a power place a power place? What invigorates their undeniable
spiritual magnetism? Thus far I have recognized twenty different factors
that may contribute to the localized energy fields at the sacred sites.
In the detailed writings on my web site,
www.sacredsites.com,
I classify and analyze those twenty factors according to the following
four categories:
1) The influences of the Earth.
2) The influences of celestial objects.
3) The influences of the structures and artifacts at the sacred sites.
4) The influences of the accumulated concentration of a charged field of
psychic power deriving from the focused intention, prayers and
meditations of millions of pilgrims over long periods of time.
In the category of the influences of the Earth, there are the
geophysical characteristics of the sacred sites, including localized
magnetism, gravitational anomalies, geothermal activity, the presence of
underground water, ionization, ultrasound and radioactivity. Paul
Devereux and the Dragon Project, having conducted more than two decades
of exhaustive studies of the geophysical anomalies at sacred sites,
present striking evidence that ancient people recognized the powers of
specific sites and utilized them for a variety of therapeutic,
spiritual, shamanic and oracular purposes. How archaic humans discovered
these power places was by an intimate exposure to the feel of the land
and its subtle energies. With this sense they felt those particular
places on the living earth that expressed a more highly charged
vitality. These pagan ritual sites became the locations of the first
shrines and temples. Over hundreds or thousands of years and the process
of continuing construction at the sites, these places became the most
visited and venerated sites on the planet: the great pilgrimage centers
of Jerusalem, Compostela, Lourdes, Guadalupe, Bodh Gaya, Banaras and
Mecca.
 The second
category of factors contributing to the power of place regards the
influence of celestial objects on the local energy fields of the sacred
sites. For reasons only little understood, certain power places
demonstrate regular periods of increase in their emanations of
geophysical energies that seemingly correspond to cyclical movements of
the sun, moon, planets and stars. Many ancient peoples were concerned
with the movements of the heavenly sphere and this evidence is
particularly abundant at the oldest holy places. Over the ages of people
living at or near certain power places, it was observed that there were
cycles of increase and decrease in the power of place and that those
periods were linked to the movements of specific celestial bodies. These
periods of energetic increase, for example the solstices, equinoxes and
various lunar dates, became the first festival times of prehistoric
peoples (I am speaking here of regularly occurring events as opposed to
irregular celebrations of the hunt). These festivals were earth-spirit
ceremonies that actually predate agriculture (and correspondingly
predate the less ancient agricultural myths that would later be
associated with the earth-spirit festival dates).
The young science of archaeoastronomy (astronomy itself being vastly
older) has brought to light remarkable evidence that a large proportion
of the pilgrimage sites of deep antiquity are topographically situated
to be in precise alignment relative to the position and movements of
particular astronomical objects visible from each site. The most ancient
science of our species, only recently being rediscovered, was the
interweaving of terrestrial astrology and sacred geography. There is a
great galactic symphony of subtle forces playing upon our planet by
virtue of the cyclical orbits and particular positions of numerous
different celestial bodies relative to the earth. The power places,
because of their profound energetic resonance with different celestial
frequencies, are ideal portals where humans may access those forces. The
times most suited to interdimensional access at these holy places are
the particular dates encoded in each of their founding myths.
The third category of factors contributing to the power of the sacred
sites concerns the design, construction and ornamentation of the
structures that humans have placed at the sacred sites. A particularly
fascinating example is the Sacred Geometry used in the construction of
the pyramids, temples, mosques and cathedrals at the sacred sites.
Sacred Geometry is the formulating geometry evident in many facets of
the natural world, such as sea shells, crystal structure and musical
intervals. Numerous early cultures, observant of the mathematically
repeating patterns of nature, sought to encode those same patterns and
proportions in the architecture they created at the sacred sites.
Similar to how the mathematically precise shapes of musical instruments
create and enable specific sounds, the purposeful shapes of some (not
all) sacred structures assist in the generation of specific fields of
energy and influence. Contributing to and amplifying these fields of
influence, shrine builders also made use of sound, light, aromatic
substances, jewel-encrusted icons and gold/silver-plated sculpture. The
German philosopher, Goethe, once remarked that sacred architecture is
frozen music; this is a palpable reality for many visitors to the great
pilgrimage shrines.
 The fourth factor contributing to the power of the sacred sites is the
most mysterious, the least understood. This is the accumulated and
concentrated power of human intention. As photographic film (a small
piece of earth) can record the energy of light, and as audio tape
(another small piece of earth) can record the energy of sound, so also
can a sacred site (a larger piece of earth) record, remember or somehow
contain the energy and intention of the millions of humans who have
performed ceremony at the holy place. Within the shrines and
sanctuaries, countless priests, priestesses and pilgrims have gathered
for hundreds or thousands of years. Dancing and chanting, praying and
meditating, they have continuously charged and amplified the etheric
fields of love and peace, healing and wisdom. The megalithic stone
rings, Celtic healing springs, Taoist sacred mountains, Mayan temples,
Gothic cathedrals, Shiite Islamic ziyarats, Hindu Jyotir Lingas,
Buddhist stupas and Egyptian pyramids are repositories of the
concentrated spiritual aspirations and attainments of all humanity.
Here, too, are the places where Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Zoroaster, Guru
Nanak, Mahavira and other sages and shamans awakened to the deepest
realizations of spiritual wisdom.
The vast numbers of pilgrims visiting the sacred sites, both
historically
and in contemporary times, are not conceptually familiar with the
different factors contributing to the power of the sites. They are not
visiting for such reasons. They come because it is the momentum of their
religious tradition that draws people to the holy places. Buddhists go
to the four major places of Buddha’s life; Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Saranath
and Kushinagar. Hindus visit sites sacred to gods and goddesses such as
Shiva, Vishnu, Krishna, Saraswati, Shakti and Kali. Christians visit
Lourdes, Rome, Jerusalem, Compostela and a host of sites associated with
saints and the apparitions of angels. Taoists climb the sacred mountains
of China; Muslims visit Mecca, Medina and the shrines of the Shiite
Imans; and Jews go to the Western Wall and the shrines of great Rabbis.
Given my long fascination and familiarity with the power places, you
might ask what is my philosophy regarding them? I believe it is highly
beneficial for people to make pilgrimages to the sacred sites because of
the transformational powers available at the sites. These legendary
places have the mysterious capacity to awaken and catalyze within
visitors the qualities of compassion, wisdom, peace of mind and respect
for the Earth. The development of these qualities in more members of the
human species is of crucial importance, considering the numerous
ecological and social problems occurring in the world. At the root of
all these problems may be found human ignorance. Human beings are out of
touch with themselves (both their bodies and deeper states of spiritual
consciousness), their fellow beings, and the Earth they live upon. The
sacred sites and their subtle fields of influence can assist in the
awakening and transformation of human consciousness and thereby in the
healing of the Earth.
In closing, let me say a few words regarding what I have learned about
how to approach and benefit from the sacred sites. The experience of a
sacred place actually begins well before a pilgrim arrives at the site.
First of all, choose an area of the world whose power places you would
like to explore. Next, consult the categorized bibliography on my web
site which will give you the names of books (and other web sites)
concerning sacred sites in the region of your interest. In the weeks or
months prior to your journey, perhaps later in the evening when you are
near dream state, read about the places you will soon visit and begin to
journey to them in your imagination.
When you finally reach the immediate area or city of the pilgrimage
place make the conscious mental effort to approach the shrine with the
focused intention that you are going to plug into the power of place as
you would plug an electrical appliance into a wall socket. This metaphor
is very helpful to embody; it actually predisposes you to a more intense
connection with the sacred sites. Then go to the site with a free and
open mind. Maybe you will wander around first and then meditate or maybe
it will be the other way around. Maybe you will take a nap or pray or
play. There are no rules. Simply let the spirit of the place and your
own being come into relationship and then let go to however that flows.
If you want to learn a really effective way of plugging into the sacred
sites and their energies, try the easy meditation technique shown on my
web site.
The energy transference at the power places goes both ways; earth to
human and human to earth. The wondrously magical living earth gives us
tiny human beings subtle infusions of high octane soul food and as
pilgrims we give the earth a sort of planetary acupuncture in return.
True, the power places were mostly discovered in old times but they are
still vital today, still charged and emanating a potent field of
transformational energy. Open yourself to this power. Let it touch you
and teach you while the planet is inturn graced by your own love.
Places of Peace and Power: The Sacred Site Photography of Martin Gray
(www.sacredsites.com)
This extensive web site features the photographs and writings of
anthropologist Martin Gray, who visited and documented more than 1000
holy and magical places in 80 countries. This comprehensive and award
winning site also features comprehensive bibliographies, a rich
collection of maps showing global pilgrimage places, a stunning
collection of relevant links, and details regarding Martin's slide show
presentations around the world.
If you would like to see Martin's
slide show in Vancouver, please indicate your interest!
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