Holy mountains
March 12, 2018 at 6:09 am
(This post was last modified: March 12, 2018 at 6:13 am by Fake Messiah.)
LOL I wanted to put this in Religion form and not in athiesm - my mistake.
Considering that mountains hold such central place in all religions I just wanted to open a topic and mention few. I mean from the ancient Greece, Middle East and native America to Tibet to China mountains are the shit in their mythologies, especially people who live close to mountains and not just any importance, but its their Axis Mundi (center of the world).
Why is that? Well perhaps it's because they are the highest places on earth and thus they share some of the values of heaven. Values like transcendence or being on high or vertical or supreme. Mountains almost automatically become the homes of the gods for four people who have mountains in the area. And also because they're high they are hard to reach and therefore ignite human imaginations of what might be going there and who lives there.
BIBLE
Mount Sinai is a central symbol for Judaism Christianity and Islam. Nobody knows precisely where is Mount Sinai, but some traditions see it as one in the southern Sinai Peninsula which is called Mount Moses.
There, according to book of Exodus, Moses saw and talked to a burning bush telling him not to come any closer becasue this is holy ground.
Then later on Moses returns there with Israelites. The people were supposed to purify themselves and they were not supposed to touch the mountain which was a very holy place. With thunder and lightning and trumpet blasts God descended as a fire and smoke and gave Moses the 10 Commandments with some other infamous obligations.
Mountains in fact run through almost all of the Old Testament. Most of God's important revelations to his people happen on mountains. God makes his covenant with Noah on that one Mount Ararat at the end of the flood story. On a mountaintop Abraham offers to sacrifice his son Isaac because God had demanded it where God saves Isaac and then renews his covenant with Abraham.
The prophet Elijah defeats the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. David establishes Jerusalem next to Mount Zion. That holy hill gave the Zionist movement its name and that was the movement that led eventually to the creation of the country of Israel.
Christianity and Islam took up this the imagery of mountains as an Axis Mundi. If we just remember how many important New Testament events occur on mountains: Bethlehem where Jesus was born lies in a high ridge south of Jerusalem. When Jesus is tempted by Satan after 40 days in the wilderness the last occurs in a mountaintop where Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. Jesus most famous sermon is the sermon on the mount. The Transfiguration in which Jesus appears with Moses and Elijah occurs in a mountaintop and their God speaks out of the cloud just as he had done on Mount Sinai.
Jesus crucifixion happens on Mount Calvary and as for Axis Mundi: Christian tradition considers it the center of the world going so far to claim that Adam is buried there, so that the blood that was spilled on the cross falls directly on the Adam skull. Jesus appears to his disciples after his resurrection on a mountain in Galilee and by one tradition he ascends back into heaven from the Mount of Olives.
Of course the final battle will also happen on mount Armageddon.
Quran
Islam, likewise, borrowed the idea, so most important important events of Mohammed's life happen on mountains like when he receives his call from the angel Gabriel at the summit of Mount Moriah the site of Solomon's Temple. By tradition, the place where God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is the place from which Mohammed ascended into heaven on his famous night journey where he met Abraham and Moses and Jesus and other prophets. The final revelation of the Quran came on Mount Arafat, just outside Mecca, where pilgrims to this day gather.
AMERICAS
The San Francisco peaks above Flagstaff Arizona are sacred to a number of Native American peoples of the Southwest United States particularly to the Hopi. These peaks don't just commemorate something that happened a long time ago, they are not just historical sites, but they still give access to that same power now for the Hopi. The San Francisco peaks are the home of the Kachinas. These are spirits of nature who were also spirits in some ways of their ancestors. The primary blessings of the Kachina is that each year they bring the grains that are needed for agriculture.
Hopis believe they discovered Kachinas by noticing strange creatures moving around the foot of the peaks. Then they sent their warrior who had a long talk with them. Kachinas said that from now on they would form rain bearing clouds over the tops of those mountains when the people prayed to them.
Also the mountain according to the Hopi contains an opening that leads down to the heavenly underworld were their ancestors live. They emerge from the that opening at certain times of the year (bringing messages) and they return at certain times based on the agricultural calendar. Hopis hold ceremonies to honor the Kachinas to make sure they're not offended and because the Kachinas are not in bodily form they have to provide the bodies for the Kachinas.
ASIA
Mount Kailash in Tibet that is part of the Himalayan range may be the most sacred mountain in the world given the number of people who consider it sacred: Hindus and Buddhists and Jains and Sikhs and bonds the last members of that indigenous religion of Tibet before the coming of Buddhism. The four major rivers of the Indian subcontinent start there and the Indians also consider at the source of the Ganges which flows, according to their story through it, but not in reality. To the Hindus the mountain is the dwelling place of Shiva and his consort Parvati.
Mythical Mount Meru is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes. Most Hindus consider Mount Kailash to be the earthly manifestation of that Mount Maru directly beneath the pole star the center of the world. This makes Mount Kailash really important. The peak is also, according to the Buddhists, the home of 500 Buddhist Saints who have achieved nirvana. Some people claime to be able to hear those 500 priests chanting from the top of the mountain in the clear Tibetan air. For both Buddhists and Hindus the mountain is the site of the most sacred pilgrimage.
They belive those that go there and take the 32 mile walk around it completing that circuit once atones for the sins of a lifetime. Doing that circuit 108 times achieves nirvana immediately, but for all of the benefits it may be one of the least visited sacred mountains in the world. It's extraordinarily difficult difficult to get there. Throughout much of Tibet's history outsiders haven't been very welcome and each year quite a large number of pilgrims die either getting there.
Mount Tai Shan is in China and is far more accessible then say mountains of the Himalayas. This mountain is in fact has 3000 years of religious devotion. There are 7000 steps that lead upward from the bottom to the Temple of the Jade Emperor at the very top. In between the slopes are covered with shrines and temples and inns and booths selling food and religious supplies. Every ridge, every tree, every boulder has its own name by this time it has been visited so often there's one great slab of rock covering an entire hillside that has been inscribed with the diamond Sutra which is a Buddhist text that reminds travelers of the passing nature of reality which is symbolized as you climb.
Chinese emperors have offered sacrifices at the bottom of the mountain and then climbed to the top and offered sacrifices. They are and have built temples all the way along the stairway to the summit. The mountain became so important that the Chinese came to believe that souls who died would assemble just below the highest peak where Tai Shan himself would pass judgment.
OTHER
There are so many other sacred mountains in the world: Mount Fuji in Japan or some of the peaks of the Sierra Madre in Mexico, that were sacred to people long before the coming of the Spaniards. Some peaks of the Andes in Chile and Peru and some of volcanoes of Hawaii.
Considering that mountains hold such central place in all religions I just wanted to open a topic and mention few. I mean from the ancient Greece, Middle East and native America to Tibet to China mountains are the shit in their mythologies, especially people who live close to mountains and not just any importance, but its their Axis Mundi (center of the world).
Why is that? Well perhaps it's because they are the highest places on earth and thus they share some of the values of heaven. Values like transcendence or being on high or vertical or supreme. Mountains almost automatically become the homes of the gods for four people who have mountains in the area. And also because they're high they are hard to reach and therefore ignite human imaginations of what might be going there and who lives there.
BIBLE
Mount Sinai is a central symbol for Judaism Christianity and Islam. Nobody knows precisely where is Mount Sinai, but some traditions see it as one in the southern Sinai Peninsula which is called Mount Moses.
There, according to book of Exodus, Moses saw and talked to a burning bush telling him not to come any closer becasue this is holy ground.
Then later on Moses returns there with Israelites. The people were supposed to purify themselves and they were not supposed to touch the mountain which was a very holy place. With thunder and lightning and trumpet blasts God descended as a fire and smoke and gave Moses the 10 Commandments with some other infamous obligations.
Mountains in fact run through almost all of the Old Testament. Most of God's important revelations to his people happen on mountains. God makes his covenant with Noah on that one Mount Ararat at the end of the flood story. On a mountaintop Abraham offers to sacrifice his son Isaac because God had demanded it where God saves Isaac and then renews his covenant with Abraham.
The prophet Elijah defeats the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. David establishes Jerusalem next to Mount Zion. That holy hill gave the Zionist movement its name and that was the movement that led eventually to the creation of the country of Israel.
Christianity and Islam took up this the imagery of mountains as an Axis Mundi. If we just remember how many important New Testament events occur on mountains: Bethlehem where Jesus was born lies in a high ridge south of Jerusalem. When Jesus is tempted by Satan after 40 days in the wilderness the last occurs in a mountaintop where Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. Jesus most famous sermon is the sermon on the mount. The Transfiguration in which Jesus appears with Moses and Elijah occurs in a mountaintop and their God speaks out of the cloud just as he had done on Mount Sinai.
Jesus crucifixion happens on Mount Calvary and as for Axis Mundi: Christian tradition considers it the center of the world going so far to claim that Adam is buried there, so that the blood that was spilled on the cross falls directly on the Adam skull. Jesus appears to his disciples after his resurrection on a mountain in Galilee and by one tradition he ascends back into heaven from the Mount of Olives.
Of course the final battle will also happen on mount Armageddon.
Quran
Islam, likewise, borrowed the idea, so most important important events of Mohammed's life happen on mountains like when he receives his call from the angel Gabriel at the summit of Mount Moriah the site of Solomon's Temple. By tradition, the place where God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is the place from which Mohammed ascended into heaven on his famous night journey where he met Abraham and Moses and Jesus and other prophets. The final revelation of the Quran came on Mount Arafat, just outside Mecca, where pilgrims to this day gather.
AMERICAS
The San Francisco peaks above Flagstaff Arizona are sacred to a number of Native American peoples of the Southwest United States particularly to the Hopi. These peaks don't just commemorate something that happened a long time ago, they are not just historical sites, but they still give access to that same power now for the Hopi. The San Francisco peaks are the home of the Kachinas. These are spirits of nature who were also spirits in some ways of their ancestors. The primary blessings of the Kachina is that each year they bring the grains that are needed for agriculture.
Hopis believe they discovered Kachinas by noticing strange creatures moving around the foot of the peaks. Then they sent their warrior who had a long talk with them. Kachinas said that from now on they would form rain bearing clouds over the tops of those mountains when the people prayed to them.
Also the mountain according to the Hopi contains an opening that leads down to the heavenly underworld were their ancestors live. They emerge from the that opening at certain times of the year (bringing messages) and they return at certain times based on the agricultural calendar. Hopis hold ceremonies to honor the Kachinas to make sure they're not offended and because the Kachinas are not in bodily form they have to provide the bodies for the Kachinas.
ASIA
Mount Kailash in Tibet that is part of the Himalayan range may be the most sacred mountain in the world given the number of people who consider it sacred: Hindus and Buddhists and Jains and Sikhs and bonds the last members of that indigenous religion of Tibet before the coming of Buddhism. The four major rivers of the Indian subcontinent start there and the Indians also consider at the source of the Ganges which flows, according to their story through it, but not in reality. To the Hindus the mountain is the dwelling place of Shiva and his consort Parvati.
Mythical Mount Meru is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes. Most Hindus consider Mount Kailash to be the earthly manifestation of that Mount Maru directly beneath the pole star the center of the world. This makes Mount Kailash really important. The peak is also, according to the Buddhists, the home of 500 Buddhist Saints who have achieved nirvana. Some people claime to be able to hear those 500 priests chanting from the top of the mountain in the clear Tibetan air. For both Buddhists and Hindus the mountain is the site of the most sacred pilgrimage.
They belive those that go there and take the 32 mile walk around it completing that circuit once atones for the sins of a lifetime. Doing that circuit 108 times achieves nirvana immediately, but for all of the benefits it may be one of the least visited sacred mountains in the world. It's extraordinarily difficult difficult to get there. Throughout much of Tibet's history outsiders haven't been very welcome and each year quite a large number of pilgrims die either getting there.
Mount Tai Shan is in China and is far more accessible then say mountains of the Himalayas. This mountain is in fact has 3000 years of religious devotion. There are 7000 steps that lead upward from the bottom to the Temple of the Jade Emperor at the very top. In between the slopes are covered with shrines and temples and inns and booths selling food and religious supplies. Every ridge, every tree, every boulder has its own name by this time it has been visited so often there's one great slab of rock covering an entire hillside that has been inscribed with the diamond Sutra which is a Buddhist text that reminds travelers of the passing nature of reality which is symbolized as you climb.
Chinese emperors have offered sacrifices at the bottom of the mountain and then climbed to the top and offered sacrifices. They are and have built temples all the way along the stairway to the summit. The mountain became so important that the Chinese came to believe that souls who died would assemble just below the highest peak where Tai Shan himself would pass judgment.
OTHER
There are so many other sacred mountains in the world: Mount Fuji in Japan or some of the peaks of the Sierra Madre in Mexico, that were sacred to people long before the coming of the Spaniards. Some peaks of the Andes in Chile and Peru and some of volcanoes of Hawaii.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
