Between the mundane and sacred
Yesterday, we walked through thousands of Torii gates. In the Shinto tradition, the gates are the threshold crossings between the mundane and sacred.
To deliberately cross a threshold that asks us to be fully conscious of entering the sacred is a symbol and act I find missing from the majority of Western culture.
To pause, open our hearts, connect with spirit and then cross a threshold, be that into a forest, temple or home, is to remember the divine part of us, guests, for a moment on our precious and very sacred planet.
Carl Jung had the following inscription on the doorway of his home. VOCATUS ATQUE NON VOCATUS DEUS ADERIT. Invited or uninvited, God is present.
I am not a religious person. I do not believe in a central singular God and dislike the Western anthropomorphic male symbol of an Abrahamic God.
Yet Spirit. Spirit is everywhere. In our breath. In Nature.
In our haste to do and build and create, we might deliberately create gates to remind us that the sacred is present, whether called or not.
Photo Taken August 2nd 2023
