Hilary Sheppard - Lane's Four Axioms

Lane's four axioms are perhaps one of the most important things to know when try to understand sacred place. I didn't have an essay that I really wanted to relate these four axioms to, and I was drawn to explain them in relation to a place I consider sacred. My family owns a lake house in NH surrounded by forrest and I consider this to be a sacred place. My grandparents and cousins also have lake houses here and it has always been a huge part of my childhood. I constantly feel drawn to the place and it is where I can find comfort when I am going through tough times.

1. A sacred place is not chosen, it chooses

Although my grandparents did choose this place to build a lake house, they did not choose it as a sacred place and I don't think they planned to have it turn into what it has when they lived there so many years ago. The place had to choose to reveal itself as sacred to me.

2. Sacred place is ordinary place, ritually made extraordinary

Without the memories and experiences I have at the lake, it would not be sacred to me. If I had never spent time there as a child and not made the memories which connect me to the place, then it would simply be a plot of land with a house instead of a sacred place.

3. Sacred place can be tred upon without being entered

Not everyone who comes to the lake thinks of it as sacred. I bring friends to the lake house all the time, but none of them think of it in the same way I do. They can go to my sacred place and not experience what I do, so to them it's just an ordinary lake house.

4. The impulse of sacred place is both centripetal and centrifugal

Like I said I am constantly drawn to this place no matter where I am or what I am going through, but if I spend too much time there I am pushed away. It is a special place for me and I believe I will always be drawn to it but I will also always venture out in search of other places.