Sacred Communication/Journey 2021

     One of the things that I found interesting while reading, was how different religions view religious objects. Some religions believe that an object is religious because that object is considered holy. An example of this would be the Catholic church using Holy Water to wash away sin. Other religions believe that an object is sacred because it allows "access to the holy." (Lane 1988). This is true with Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States. For example, the Hopi tribe in Arizona uses a type of spirit mask to warn children and help them behave. The children fear the mask and try to be careful as to not upset the figures with the masked face. When the children are 7-10 years old, it is revealed to them that the masks are not scary creatures, just their male family members wearing scary-looking masks. The masks allow the children and their tribe to feel closer to their spiritual beliefs. This was an interesting section to read.

       A bit of background before I begin, I am an Eagle Scout. I was part of the Boy Scouts for 6 or 7 years and in that time I have had many interactions with nature. I have crawled through pitch-black caves in the Appalachia, canoeing on the Roanoke, and hiking/camping in regions all in between. I have gone to week-long summer camps for every year I was part of the Boy Scouts. Even before I was in Boy Scouts I would frequently walk along the creek that ran next to my house as a kid. To say I already had a connection to nature would be an understatement. my love for nature is bigger than even I give it credit for. The reason for that is something I'll get into later.     I did not plan to walk as much as I did.     My first thought about this assignment was that it was nothing more than something that had be be endured for a little bit for the sake of the class. I first thought that I could procrastinate getting a ride to the Lion's B...

 I personally am non-religious. I was raised in a household where my parents are both  agnostic in their beliefs and my grandparents are religious. My mother’s side is catholic and my dad’s is christian. To me I never really understood prayer. Page one already states “Perhaps the most important answer is that prayer connects us to the divine, to something beyond ourselves and beyond immediate reality,” however I find this hard to relate to. Why would prayer be that one source? Many of those I know who are even a little religious find other ways to connect to the divine without praying. For example, many of my wiccan/pagan practicing friends find their connection through ancestral guides. They find this connection through meditation and tarot as opposed to prayer. I also find the idea of it being practiced in groups quite fascinating. Though I can understand why groups may pray for a similar reason like hoping for well-being after a detrimental event, or praying for the sa...

 1-30 phenomenology of prayer  From the beginning of chapter 1, the introduction, there is some explanation about what prayer is... My highlighted explanation was: the moral and spiritual discipline that introduces and directs us to the sacred dimension that infuses and undergirds all that is. Prayer is the connection to the divine, an experience that not only shows devotion but it’s humbling of one's self. Often associated with “the stripping the soul of its pretense.” When praying to a God, there seemed to be no secrets or vail to hide upon because the acceptance of a divine is to know there is an omnipresent force that knows all, sees all and is all. This allows a participant in prayer to show up fully and authentically because there is nowhere to hide.  Prayer is an experience, but not always is it an individual act. In some cultures, it’s collective, but another part of the prayer is extremely intimate. As I’m reading as I’m journaling… I’m thinking.. prayer is a har...

  Page 4 Michael Taussig would suggest Juan's understanding of the meaning of a place emerges out of the process of an imitation of all the “differences” that we discern there. We mimic (in language and action) the full range of sounds,movements, and other sensory perceptions that come to us from the more than human world.”  It’s hard to put a place that strikes us as sublime into we’re words; we can try to describe it as a feeling and try to put language to that feeling, but sometimes the feeling of the beauty of nature or the power of a sacred space is too big to try to translate or make sense of.  Would every place and experience be subjective, and would the discourse be the same? Would the mountain top make me feel the same as another? Or does my personal experience with the natural world and divine keep it intimate/ unique, or would my experience be relatable enough? The author uses the messiness, ambiguity, and mystery of people's deeply personal experience of place...