Explains sacred time and sacred space - keyed to Studying Religion Through Cases, Gary Kessler

1. Ritual Symbol Myth
Sacred Space
Sacred time

2. Sacred Space and Time
— If we understand Ultimate Reality and Sacred Power as the
organizing principles of a religious world, then creating Sacred
Space and Sacred Time are the modes of access to that reality
for religious people.
— Time and Space are ordinary (profane) until they are made
special (sacred) by those who want or need to enter them.
— Rituals help religious people construct sacred space/time and
are the scripted behaviors that they perform within it. Myths are
the stories that explain why these times and spaces are
important to create and inhabit for a particular religious group.
— The most important function of sacred time and space is its
ability to orient religious communities; to give them a meaningful
space in which to dwell. Religion sets boundaries and orders
human life; sacred space and time are among the most powerful
ordering mechanisms that religion offers to human beings.

3. Types of Sacred Time
— “Timeless Time” or eternity, which is the abode of the gods,
spirits and other immaterial, immortal beings or the
immeasurable nonmaterial realm of sacred power. The
important feature is that this time is paradoxically not
measurable. Creation stories or myths sometimes explain how
time that we experience as humans (linear, progressive and
irreversible) began. See, Genesis 1 for example.
— Holy days on the religious calendar—commemorations—that
mark divine or supernatural events: Easter (resurrection);
Passover (liberation from Egypt); Christmas (birth of a
human-divine savior); Shavuot (Torah given to Moses on
Sinai); Eid al-Adha (near ‘sacrifice’ of Ishmael); Ramadan
(revelation of the Koran to Muhammad). The sacred time
humans recreate on a cyclical basis is an attempt to
overcome the linear progression of ordinary, profane time and
to experience the ‘timeless time’ of the Sacred.

4. Sacred Time
• Sacred time represents or
commemorates the intrusion of
sacred power into the ordinary
world
• Qualitatively different from
ordinary or profane time
• Certain extraordinary actions
may be required, or normal
actions forbidden in sacred time
• Religious people often recreate
sacred time on a regular, cyclical
basis: holy days, calendars,
rituals and rites, pilgrimages
e.g.

5. Two Forms of Sacred Time
— Primary: The sacred intrudes into the
human realm
— Some myths, like creation stories,
describe these primary experiences of
sacred time.
— Miracles and stories about miracles
record episodes of “sacred time”
— Religious practitioners claim to have
primary experiences of sacred time
through meditation, trance states, or
other techniques that suspend normal
states of consciousness.
— Near death experiences can also be
examples of entering ‘sacred’ time’,
although they are not necessarily tied
to pre-existing religious belief.
— Religious people create sacred
periods in time to
commemorate a supernatural
event
— Holy days or times are usually
marked by a beginning ritual
and an ending ritual
— Sacred times are usually
connected to sacred spaces.
These can be as small as a
Muslim prayer rug or a Jewish
tallit or as grand as the
Ka’aba or the St. Andrew’s
Cathedral.

6. Sacred Space
• Marks or commemorates a place
where Sacred Power or Ultimate
Reality intruded into the profane,
or where religious people may
come into contact with this power
or presence.
• Sacred space is marked by the
same ambivalence that
characterizes sacred power. Access
is usually regulated to mitigate the
danger of inappropriate contact.
There is almost always a protocol
to follow; special actions or dress
may be required; sometimes only
certain individuals are authorized
to enter or perform sacred actions
in these spaces.
Screen shot of a virtual Buddhist shrine available as an iPhone app. Sacred space is sometimes portable;
now it can even be virtual. Virtual sacred spaces eliminate the restrictions that traditionally accompany
entering sacred space, leaving the individual responsible for creating his/her own encounter with the sacred.

7. Moses at the Burning Bush
— Myths can contain stories of divine-human
encounters, like the Biblical story of Moses and
the burning bush.
— Here, the sacred eruption into profane space is
revealed to Moses as an alteration of the natural
order. A bush burns but is not consumed. A voice
calls out but no body is present.
— When profane space has been touched by the
Sacred it becomes sacred too; humans must
treat the space differently.
— Here Moses must remove his shoes in the
presence of the sacred. The ground has become
too sacred for ordinary shoes.
— Although the divine voice speaks to Moses
personally, Moses hides his face – fear and
fascination are often the mixed human response
to an encounter with the Sacred in religious myth.
— Neither Jews nor Christians memorialize this
ancient encounter in ritual, but it is frequently
depicted in Christian art. Mosaics, stained glass,
statuary, icons, paintings, and frescoes are
common media for depicting sacred beings and
events in non-iconoclastic religions
Byzantine mosaic of Moses at the burning bush, commemorating Moses’ divine call to redeem Israel from slavery: “Take your
sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. Moreover He said, ‘I am the God of your father …’” (Ex. 3:5-6)

8. Creating sacred space
— Sacred sites anchored in natural phenomena were once considered the center of
the world. These sites provided an axis mundi, or point of connection between the
physical, visible world and the invisible, spiritual world of the gods or ancestors.
Indigenous cultures, like Native American communities in the U.S., for example,
have struggled against the forces of assimilation and the demands of secular
society to be able to maintain their sacred connection to the land. The San
Francisco Peaks in Arizona are a good example of this phenomenon, both from the
religious and the secular perspectives.
— For most Western societies in modern times particular geographic sites or natural
features of the landscape are less likely to be sacred or to serve as physical
centers of a religious world. This is mostly because contemporary populations
have migrated, or been uprooted and transplanted by means of wars, exile,
colonization, and slavery. The roots that once connected people to a specific piece
of geography have either been lost or, where retained, have necessarily been made
portable. Modern religious communities often build sacred spaces in the absence
of any naturally orienting features of the physical landscape. Instead of sacred
mountains or trees, we have cathedrals and temples, shrines, and mosques.
— When original sacred geography is unavailable, members of religious communities
may travel on sacred journeys called pilgrimages to visit those distant, sacred
sites.

9. Types of sacred space
— Natural
— Especially trees, mountains, waterfalls, rivers, and any unusual or odd features or events of
nature. Awe-inspiring natural phenomena are seen as evidence of divine or sacred
presence. These features will usually be designated as sacred either by taboo (regulating
access) or by physically marking the site off from the surrounding landscape. Buildings
may be erected alongside the site and rituals may be performed in or on the site.
— Buildings
— Shrines, temples (stationary fixtures that house sacred objects or mark sacred sites. In the
U.S. temples can also function as congregational meeting places)
— churches, synagogues, mosques, etc. Not sacred spaces in the technical sense of the word
although they may contain holy objects and designated sacred spaces within (Catholic
altar, Jewish ark for the Torah). These buildings are used for congregational gatherings,
which include occasions for marking sacred time.
— Objects
— Prayer rugs, tallits and Torah scrolls, household altars or shrines, roadside memorials …
(these are used to create small, often personal and portable sacred spaces for prayer,
sacrifice, or other forms of contact with the Sacred).

10. Art and Music
— Art and idolatry are interconnected concepts in religion.
Iconoclasts (Muslims, Jews and some Protestant Christians)
consider images and statues to be idolatrous and forbidden
according to their religious laws.
— In most religious traditions, imagery is rich and crucial to the
religious experience. Icons in the Orthodox Christian tradition
serve as focal points for encountering God; Hindu images of
the gods serve as temporary (or sometimes permanent)
‘residences’ for sacred power.
— Music is a ubiquitous feature of religious worship. This can be
in the form of ritualized chanting, congregational hymn-
singing, or a more formalized “performance/audience”
experience. Music frames ritual activity, which in turn signals
the beginning and end of sacred time.

11. Image Sources
— Year of Grace Liturgical calendar:
http://www.mccrimmons.com/product/207/1992
— Virtual Buddhist Shrine:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ishrine-virtual-
buddhist-shrine/id328373556?mt=8