One persons myth is another persons religion Wendy

“One person’s myth is another person’s religion. ” Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty

“One person’s myth is another person’s religion. ” Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty • To what extent is one’ person’s sacred place profane place? • Are there any places which are universally sacred?

Myths as Products of the Mind Individual Mind Sigmund Freud (1856 -1939) id / ego / superego dream world of the individual

Myths as Products of the Mind Individual Mind Sigmund Freud (1856 -1939) id / ego / superego dream world of the individual • Are sacred places part of our individual dream world? • I. e. , do they spring from our unconscious?

Myths as Products of the Mind Collective Mind Carl Jung (1875 -1961) dream world of society collective unconscious archetypes: recurring myths characters, situations and events archetype as primal form or pattern from which all other versions are derived

Myths as Products of the Mind Collective Mind Carl Jung (1875 -1961) dream world of society collective unconscious archetypes: recurring myths characters, situations and events archetype as primal form or pattern from which all other versions are derived Or does our sense of sacred space spring from our collective unconscious?

Students of Jung Ernst Cassirer (1874 -1975) Mircea Eliade (1907 -1986) Victor Turner (1920 -1983) Joseph Campbell (1904 -1987)

Mircea Eliade (1907 -1986) Eliade's analysis of religion assumes the existence of "the sacred" as the object of worship of religious humanity. Myths reflect a creative era, a sacred time, a vanished epoch of unique holiness.

Mircea Eliade (1907 -1986) Eliade's analysis of religion assumes the existence of “sacred time”. Eliade claims that for religious man there were two types of time, sacred and profane, the former experienced in religious festivals, the latter in ordinary daily life.

Mircea Eliade (1907 -1986) Eliade's analysis of religion assumes the existence of “sacred space”. Eliade claims that, whereas for non-religious man the spatial aspect of the world is basically experienced as uniformly neutral, for religious man it was experienced as non-homogeneous, partly sacred and partly not so. In particular, religious man experienced the world as having a sacred centre and sought to live there.

Mircea Eliade (1907 -1986) Eliade's analysis of religion assumes the existence of “sacred space”. The major differentiation of space for religious man was that between cosmos and chaos. Traditional societies understood their own territory as cosmos, a world created out of primordial chaos by their gods, with surrounding territory remaining as chaos. Any extension of its territory was understood by a society as a repetition of the cosmogony, of the original divine act of creation of its world.

Mircea Eliade (1907 -1986) Eliade's analysis of religion assumes the existence of "the sacred" as the object of worship of religious humanity. Myths reflect a creative era, a sacred time, a vanished epoch of unique holiness. To what extent does our sense of sacred space reflect our understanding of, yearning for a creative era, sacred time, vanished epoch of holinesss?

Sacred Space and Feminist Theory Mary T. Condren “Sacred Spaces: What Makes Them Sacred”

Sacred Space and Feminist Theory Mary T. Condren “Sacred Spaces: What Makes Them Sacred” In contemporary feminist work on religion, in all its many aspects, the words sacred, holy, profane, divine, numinous, religious experience, supernatural are often used. It is assumed, I would say uncritically, that women occupy the realm of the profane, which appears to be synonymous with impure.

Sacred Space and Feminist Theory Mary T. Condren “Sacred Spaces: What Makes Them Sacred” It is further assumed that women inherit the negative side of the dualisms of patriarchal thinking. In addition, words like sacred or God are used as though everyone meant the same thing.

Sacred Space and Feminist Theory Mary T. Condren “Sacred Spaces: What Makes Them Sacred” My argument is this: that in Western culture the sacred is produced by excluding all reminders of the unconscious, semiotic energies; maternal bodies and their fluids for the sake of the profane world of politics, philosophy, Western consciousness, and religion.

Sacred Space and Feminist Theory Mary T. Condren “Sacred Spaces: What Makes Them Sacred” When we talk about sacred spaces we need to understand the profound cultural and religious changes that took place when matri-centred religions were superseded by those of patriarchy and when definitions as to what counted as holy, or sacred were changed radically.

Sacred Space and Feminist Theory Mary T. Condren “Sacred Spaces: What Makes Them Sacred” To what extent does our sense of sacred space reflect a patriarchal sense of the world? Tow what extent is our sense of sacred based on rationality vs. irrationality, male vs. female?