The Sacred Place: The Ancient Origin of Holy and Mystical Sites [Hardcover]

Paul Devereux (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2001

Take time out from the stress of modern life and return to the venerated natural spaces that still hold the ancient sense of the sacred. Visit Mayan caves and Australian aboriginal rock art, stand in awe before the megaliths of Creevykeel, Ireland, and the sacred notched mountain of the Teotihuanicos of Ancient Mexico, commune with the spirits of Minoan temples and sacred lakes. Enhanced by many unusual photos, the prose speaks with intelligence and reverence of sacred places in all their ancient forms, natural or constructed. Not only may it remind you that landscape was to our ancestors full of myth, imagery, memory, spirits, and powers, but also it may rekindle your appreciation of the spiritual power of the natural world.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Cassell (June 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0304355917
• ISBN-13: 978-0304355914
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #274,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The sacred in mind and nature, July 9, 2004

By 

Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Sacred Place: The Ancient Origin of Holy and Mystical Sites (Hardcover)

This compelling work investigates holy places and their relationship to mankind's spiritual awareness. The author believes that monuments and temples have their roots in natural features of the landscape that inspired the religious impulse.

Part One: Ancient Mind, Holy Land looks at the spirit of place, memory and the variety of sacred places, whilst Part Two explores rock art in Southern Africa, the Americas, Australia and Atlantic Europe, Palaeolithic cave paintings and natural sacred places like ritual caves, sacred mountains trees and wells.

Part Three investigates magic markings, shadow play, quartz and rock art, and Part Four deals with the geographies of the ancient soul as it manifested in stone age sacred geometry, stone circles, standing stones, Minoan and Greek temples.

The author concludes that here have always been profound interactions between mind and nature and that there is a spiritual power in the natural world that resonates within the heart and mind of mankind.

This thought provoking book is lavishly illustrated with full color photographs and maps and concludes with a bibliography and index. I also recommend The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art by David Lewis-Williams.