A NEW PROJECT!

[Philip]

Greetings Everyone!

It's great to see this new forum on the board. And the photos and accounts already posted are great!
Over the last year I've been working on a book that will be published in April 08 by Borders Books called 'Sacred Places - A Guide to the World's Most Sacred Sites'. In the course of researching for this, I've discovered how big and fascinating this subject is, and since so much of the research couldn't fit into the book I figured we could start a website with that as the starting material, but then others - such as yourselves could contribute more - expanding the collection I've made of fifty sites to as many as we like!
I have a domain name - http://www.sacredplaces.info - and have set up pages for the first 50 sites. I want to add in movie clips, photos and links to interesting web material, which should take about another month, and then I'll publish it to the web.
So if you have a site or sites you'd like to contribute - please post them up here. Then I'll contact you directly when I have time to ask if you can supply any photos, more info etc., and then I can paste it up, with your authorship credited or not as you wish. Just please make sure what you write is not just pasted in from another site. Of course you can quote from other sites, but make clear it's a quote and give links. If you find a good Youtube clip, give the URL. If you have a photo, make sure it is ok copyright-wise.

Here's what I discovered in my research:
* Many sites suffer from too many visitors
* 'Spiritual tourism' is big business and along with conventional pilgrimages accounts for serious environmental impacts
* Much of this is sadly just yet more consumerism. In the old days a pilgrimage was a serious undertaking, today for many its a question of curiosity combined with a desire to 'take energy' from a site rather than contribute anything to the world
* Despite this, there is a growing awareness of their importance and we can help to foster a different approach.
* As Druids we can try to foster a 'think globally, act locally' approach. In other words study sacred sites over the globe and then see if you can create a sacred site or care for one in your locality.
* This is not a 'killjoy' approach that says 'never travel' - but wait until it is really a deep soul-need not just a whim!
* With the internet armchair pilgrimaging can be satisfying. You can fly there on Google Earth. If you set a good viewing angle you can have great fun - try flying up the Brahmaputra river, along the banks of the Ganges, or over Machu Picchu in Peru!
Then you can watch some movie clips on youtube about the site, to get a feel for what it's like.
Then you can research it on the web.
A few hours like this (a fraction of the travelling time) and you will know more about the site than most people who have flown there.
Then you can tune in and 'fly' there in your meditations and dreams.

Even accounts of this process would be nice for the site.

This project I feel fits very much for us as lovers of the Earth, so do get the word out and I look forward to reading your contributions!

Many many blessings,

Philip /|\

[Explorer]

So if you have a site or sites you'd like to contribute - please post them up here.

Hi Philip, Ah, what a great idea! But what exactly do you mean with here? Do you mean this forum on DHP or do you mean your website?

[Philip]

hi Exoplorer!

I mean here in this forum, which we can use as a kind of transit station! The other web site isn't ready yet.

[Explorer]

hi Exoplorer!

I mean here in this forum, which we can use as a kind of transit station! The other web site isn't ready yet.

Excellent idea!

[Raole]

Hi, great idea!

what about links to google earth? unfortuneately i can't find out how to post some locations in a forum to find it with google earth. Google Earth is such a great thing; you can download it for free:

http://earth.google.com/

Raole

[Garan Gwyn]

Well, I for one am excited by this new project! And I am looking forward to Philip's book. I have been in search of some local sacred sites that I might visit because I want to get in touch with the spirits of this area where I live. As yet I have not been able to locate any, although I am told that there are many that are known to the Native Americans in the area.

Of course, I was also reminded that ALL the earth is sacred.

Thank you, Philip, for this project, and thanks in advance to all that contribute!

(PS...our little budding seed group of three heard a rumor that one day there might be an OBOD gathering at Yosemite National Park here in California, USA -- only an hour away from the little valley vortex in which I live...any truth in that?? )

GG

[Michael C. Page]

Dear Phillip,
Sorry about finding this forum late. One question; are you still working on the book? Do you need any more data? ooppps thats two questions... sorry. Get back to me when you can. Peace

[Blaiddwen]

Philip,
I have a written account of how the Triskele was successively walked on Serpent Mound (Ohio) on 18th Marck, 1997 by a group of people that included Celtic, Romany, Wiccan, Kabbalistic, Alchemical, Runic, Norse, Reiki, Druidic, Templar, and a Blackfoot Shaman.
The author of the account is known in some circles as Geraint ap Hoel Galed, I know him as Douglas, and can only use the word "adept" to describe him. In this account I have learned that the caretakers (father and son) have been stewards of this site for several lifetimes. Also, beneath the head of the serpent is a burrial ground. In effect, these pilgrims "woke the sleepers" in this place, bringing it back to that which the ancestors honored.
If you're interested, I will obtain permission from Douglas, and forward the account to you.

cheers,
Mark

[Damascus-Templar]

Here is the main pilgrimage site in the Upper Mid-West of USA, pipestone MN. Native Americans traveled here to mine the soft red stone to make their sacred pipes. One interesting fact is that warring tribes were not allowed to fight here.

http://www.nps.gov/pipe/

[Blaiddwen]

I fail to understand why "no thank you" is not an appropriate response on this board. How is it so easy for people on this board to simply ignore others while claiming to be "anchors of light"? This habit of ignoring others is growing on this board, not just my posts, but many I have read that have seen little or no response. Are we so superior that others must meet our standard before they merit even a thought?

Mark

[honor_your_life]

It's been two days.

[Art]

I can fully understand that it can be frustrating to post to an individual and not receive a response in a timely fashion. At the same time, please do remember that not everyone can or does visit the board every day due to the press of business, travel or other life contingencies. It may be advisable to send the individual a private message if you haven’t received a response simply to highlight that there is a post directed to them that requires attention. This is particularly true when the query is in an older thread such as this one.

[Philip]

Greetings All!

I've been away from the board for a while due to work commitments, and a little technical detail. My internal posting to my email address from the board has been switched off because I was receiving dozens of posts a day on the admin function (new registrations etc) and for this reason I do not receive notifications when a post is sent to a thread I have posted to. I'm asking Selene if we can sort this out.

I can understand your frustration Blaiddwen but I see you posted on Saturday and it's only Monday! If I'd been away for ten days for example (as I will be in May in Germany) then I wouldn't reply to any email or posting for say a fortnight. I think it's important that we don't allow this wonderful technology of the internet to tyrannize us.

As regards your idea - yes please do ask your friend - I would imagine it would make for interesting reading.

With greetings from across the ocean,

Philip /|\

[Philip]

Greetings All,

I would still very much like to realize the project I outlined in the opening post of this thread. My time and web skills are however somewhat limited. Do please keep contributing to this forum. At some point I hope that I - or more likely someone more proficient on the web - will be able to turn to this forum and 'mine' it for content to put up on the web site. So please post as much information as you can!

In the meanwhile some news on the book. It will be published next month in the USA and in August in the UK. Amazon has it listed as coming out in August in the US - but I hope they will correct that soon! The Amazon entry shows the US cover which is quite different. In the UK it'll look like this. And here's a bit of inside information - it's not about 50 sites, it's about 51, but that sounded too odd for a subtitle!

[Philip]

Why don't I go the whole hog and include the publisher's blurb? I think there's some rule about no advertising in the forums but there must be some exceptions I hope
Publishers write blurbs in a certain way. You can sense it straight away can't you?

Journeys to sacred places or shrines undertaken as acts of religious veneration or penance have been a feature of religious observance from the earliest times. Ancient religions had holy sites, temples and groves, such as Delphi and Dodona in Greece, where oracles and their priestesses were reputed to be able to tell the future. Even older is Stonehenge – whose original religious purpose is still shrouded in mystery – and the Pyramids of Giza which stand in the Egyptian desert, defying all attempts to fathom their mysteries.
During the medieval period Christian pilgrimage – to Jerusalem, Rome, Constantinople and Santiago de Compostela – was a sacred obligation and a trial of faith. On the other side of the Eurasian landmass, the Golden Temple and Dome of the Rock became two of the holiest sites of the Sikh and Islamic faiths, with pilgrimage to Mecca, or hajj, becoming one of the Five Pillars of Islam.
Whether for reasons of divine providence, immemorial tradition or sheer visual power, certain locations have long been imbued with a sense of spiritual significance. Philip Carr-Gomm tells the stories of 50 sacred sites across all five continents, including sites venerated by all of the major religions.
Many of the world’s holiest sanctuaries and landscapes are here examined in a series of concise, informative and lavishly illustrated essays.
Involving, instructive and steeped in spiritual insight, Sacred Places offers a dramatic and distinctive perspective on more than six millennia of world history. Book website: www.sacredplaces.info

(I'd better get cracking to tidy that site up!)

[Jingle]

We, the Moderators of the Sacred Sites forum, do hereby grant Philip Carr-Gomm permission to advertise his new book "Sacred Places", because he is, after all, The Big Kahuna!

Dryadia2 and Jingle


Here is the link to the Amazon page. You can actually sign up to be notified when the book is available.
We'll also set up a link to the OBOD bookstore once it's available there (we assume it will be).

We are really looking forward to the new book!

[Philip]

Thank you Jingle - I knew there was a perk to this job!

Today the publisher told me that the publication will now be August, not May, in the USA as well as the UK.

[Michael C. Page]

[quote="Jingle"][color=#008040][b]We, the Moderators of the Sacred Sites forum, do hereby grant Philip Carr-Gomm permission to advertise his new book "Sacred Places", because he is, after all, The Big Kahuna!

BIG KAHUNA? .... Philip is from Hawaii?!! .... Man! I'm sooo going to the next Druid Camp!

[Dryadia2]

The Big Kahuna!

It's an inside joke.