CURRENT MOON

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Sacred Space


Under ~sigh~ "Strange News," CBS reports that: Rangers at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park are launching a program to stop people from leaving religious offerings at the summit of Mount Kilauea - including food [that] they say attracts rats and cockroaches.

. The article sparked an interesting debate over in the comments section at Eschaton. Why must the rangers "stop" people, rather than seeking some other compromise? They can't designate some altars to Pele and then clean them at the end of the day? Really?

Jason, at the Wild Hunt has had a number of recent posts concerning the need for compromise between tourists, historians, and Pagans over the use of sacred sites. This is an issue that, as recent demands by Greek Pagans for access to "historical" religious sites in Greece demonstrate, isn't going to go away. We're going to need to find some way to accomodate everyone's needs, and "everyone" includes the Pagans. I'm willing to agree that it includes the historians, preservationists, and archeologists, but I'm going to demand that it also include the Pagans who claim the right to worship in their own religions' sites.

Let's start by admitting that, in a purely legal sense, the "right" of some Pagans to certain sites is less than legally-well-drawn. Somewhere between the ancient priestesses of Hygia, the Vestal Virgins, and me, the title to the land got lost (stolen, burned, attributed). And let's also admit that this is part of the problem. I belong to a religion where my need to worship at New Forest, Stonehenge, Mount Kilauea, and Great Capacon Park isn't defined by legalities as much as it is defined by religion. But the "legal" title to, for example, Mount Kilauea can't be used to deny me the ability to exercise my religion. The dominant culture can't destroy almost every vestigage of my religion, build their own churches over my sacred wells and groves, steal the land of my ancestors and co-religionsists, and then use "legal title" to prevent me from exercising my religion.

Someday in the future, xianity won't be the dominant relligion. Notre Dame will be a primarily historical site, one with serious archeological value. Should it be possible for the dominant culture at that time to prevent xians from saying Mass at Notre Dame? I don't think so.

In my "perfect" world, there would be acknowledgement -- legal, practical, architectural, social, artistic, and academic -- of the fact that, literally, every inch of the Earth is sacred, is a site for worship, is part of my "church." In my religion, there aren't, actually, sacred spaces in the modern world; it's that the whole world is sacred. There aren't mundane spaces and sacred spaces. The entire world is divine, is alive, is a manifestation of divinity. Buildings would have small altars outside, parks would specify the offerings that the deities of that place preferred, attendants would collect coins from the fountains and use them to feed the poor, park rangers would be respectfull of the need to leave offerings, xian megachurches would be required to plant trees in their parking lots.

Actually, Notre Dame, for example, already allows for lots of tourists who aren't there to worship; they're there to see a historical site. England has worked out a system, less than perfect, for allowing Pagans some access to, for example, Stonehenge, while still preserving the site and allowing archeological access.

Paganism is one of the fastest-growing religions. Pagans trace their roots, even if those roots are only theological and emotional, back to sacred sites all over the world. The notion that a site once considered sacred can become simply a park or a historical site is outdated. We're going to have to come up with a new way of viewing the world. It's going to be interesting. It's not going to depend upon a purely legalistic chain of title to land, nor is it going to depend upon mere assertions by various religions that site X is their own sacred site. It's going to be more interesting that that; it's going to acknowledge that the planet is crowded and that your sacred site may have been built illegally upon my sacred site and that it's now too late to undo what's been done. I imagine it's going to inovolve learning to share.

If anyone is aware of any legal writing on this topic, I'd be grateful for a citation. It occurs to me that this is an area that could benefit from some law review articles.

8 comments:

Anne Johnson said...

You have been nominated for a "Thinking Blogger" award by "The Gods Are Bored." 4/21/07

Interrobang said...

Can you go to Jerusalem and arbitrate the dispute over the Dome of the Rock/site of the Second Temple? It sounds like you might just be able to pull something off, and then much of the rest of the world would be able to sleep more soundly.

Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

Anonymous said...

Sigh.

Mount Kilauea is not your sacred site. It does not belong to you. It belongs to the Hawai'ians, who have their own ecologically correct ways of worship at that site.

No, I'm not a Hawaiian either, but both my parents grew up on Oahu back in the 1920s & 30s. They learned some very good rules of behaviour & and to respect other peoples sacred spaces. And they learned to respect Pele & company.

If you want to make offerings at Mt. Kilauea or any other place on the Hawai'ian islands, the tourist board will be happy to help you find an appropriate and non-invasive way of doing it. One that won't use up limited resources of the park rangers cleaning up after you.

There are some damned good reasons why specific areas have specific ways of doing things.

Hecate said...

Mount Kilauea is not your sacred site

Well that begs the question, doesn't it? What makes one site "belong" to one group, but not another? Is religious affiliation purely a matter of genes or of who got to someplace "first"? If I'm an American Catholic, is Notre Dame "my" sacred site? Is it being Catholic or being French that determines ownership? If I have Anglo Saxon ancestors, does that make various sacred sites in England "mine" -- even if the Angles and the Saxons appropriated those places from the Picts? What if, ancestry and accident of birth aside, my spirit is, say, Buddhist, I study Buddhism, and sincerely convert ot Buddhism? Can I make offerings at Buddhist sites throughout the world? Just in the U.S.? Nowhere? IMHO, the world is far too complicated and people have been moving around far too long for any site to "belong" to any one group.

Do you have a link to the information that the tourist board provides? If so, I'd be very appreciative. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

When you visit someone else's home to you, how do you behave? Do you ask where things are and if you may use them? Or, do you just barge around?

Not every pagan and/or indigenous culture is as confused and lost as many Europeans and their descendants assume. Hawai'ians have a long history of struggle on the ground and in the courts to protect their sacred sites and for those sites to be treated with the respect they deserve.

When someone from off-island walks in assuming they know all about how to approach the Hawai'ian dieites/ancestors, then they are making a huge mistake. Such arrogance and ego is NOT rewarded. Well, not the way they think it will be.

As for providing links and what not ... you should know better. You say you are a lawyer in DC, Hecate. If so, then you should have access to any resources a body could want for the purpose of researching this or any other issue. And you should by now know how to use them. Try doing some serious research for a change, instead of just swallowing whole the first story you run into that tells you what your ego wants to hear. Things might start going better for you, kiddo.

Hecate said...

Anonymous,

I'm doing great; thanks!

i don't see that anyone is trying to be rude by leaving offerings, nor does the article indicate whether those leaving the offerings are natives or visitors, not that I believe that should matter.

You may, although you've not addressed that point.

If you don't have any links that's ok; I was hoping that you actually did as I'd like to see what the tourist board you referenced has to say.

SOPKA said...

i remember walking in a small crater in volcano national park. near the middle where equipment to monitor the inside crevice were set-up I climbed up and looked down and I said "Hello Madam Pele good day" it started a sequence of mystical happenings on the Big Island that began my Pagan quest I am very fond and grateful to Her I would love to leave Her an offering

SOPKA said...

Hawaiians have always left offerings there for Pele especially during eruptions. Why the big deal right now.