Sacred Earth: Places of Peace and Power by Martin Gray. New York, NY: Sterling, 2007. Append.; biblio.; illus.; index; 10.5 x 15.25 in.; 276 pp.; $35.00 (paper).
Reviewed by Timothy White. Reprinted from Shaman's Drum, Number 77.
American photographer Martin Gray, an enthusiastic champion of the path of spiritual pilgrimage, has visited and documented more than one thousand sacred sites in eighty countries over the last several decades. In Sacred Earth: Places of Peace and Power, he presents an impressive collection of more than two hundred spectacular photos that he took at some of the world’s most renowned sacred places.
Some Shaman’s Drum readers may remember the 1991 article by Gray that appeared in issue #25 of the magazine. Several of the photographs featured in that article—including his photos of the Intihuatana stone at Machu Picchu, the grotto of Asklepios in Athens, Tibetan monks meditating by the Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya in India, the healing stones of Men-an-Tol in Cornwall, England, and the Greek Orthodox monastery of Rousanou built on the precarious rock cliffs of Meteora (“rocks in the air”)—also appear in Sacred Earth, together, of course, with many images of other sacred places.
As Gray explains, many shamanic and spiritual traditions around the world teach that there are certain special places where it is easier than normal to contact transpersonal spiritual energies for healing and spiritual transformation. As reports accumulate of spontaneous visions and healings occurring at the sites, people begin to visit them in search of personal miracles and spiritual understanding. As successive waves of pilgrims invest spiritual energy into the sites through ritual practices and focused prayer, the sites often evolve into spiritual gateways where people can call forth dreams, physical healings, and transpersonal visions.
The photos presented in Sacred Earth bear testimony to Gray’s photographic skills, as well as his dedicated efforts to document sacred places around the world. Gray’s skilled architectural photos ably convey the glorious grandeur of many world-class religious shrines—such as the Golden Temple of Amritsa, India; the Great Mosque of Ka’ba at Mecca; and India’s impressive Rameswaram Temple complex. In addition, his scenic landscape photographs capture the awesome beauty of many natural sacred places—including the towering snowcapped abode of the gods at Mt. Kailash, Tibet; the massive Aboriginal dreamtime monolith of Uluru (Ayers Rock) in central Australia; and the graceful slopes of two legendary volcanoes near Puebla, Mexico, said to embody a Nahuatl princess, Iztaccihuatl, and her lover, Popocatepetl.
Sacred Earth includes some insightful photos of humans worshipping at sacred sites—the demure image of a young woman being blessed by the colossal Mihintale Buddha in Sri Lanka; a photo of pilgrims playfully engaged in devotional practices on the rocks at Sabarimala, in southern India; and a portrait of stately Shinto priests welcoming Kami spirits at the Izumo Taisha Temple in Japan—but the great majority of Gray’s photos are devoted to documenting sacred religious structures and sculptures. Considering that sacred sites are a product of human perceptions and are sanctified by human rituals, I find it ironic that Gray’s photos often seem to depict humans as passive bystanders, or ignore them altogether. For example, the spread on the Kumbha Mela at Allahabad, India, offers a single photo—a panoramic view of rows of desolate tent shelters, devoid of all but a few tiny figures in the distance—and no images of the millions of sadhus and other pilgrims who are the highlight of the Kumbha Mela festival.
While the majority of Gray’s photos concentrate on the buildings and shrines erected at sacred places, Sacred Earth does include some marvelous photos of natural sacred sites that have figured prominently in indigenous shamanic and spiritual traditions. For example, there is a photo of a sunrise scene of the holy Andean mountains, Ancohuma and Illampu, towering above Lake Titicaca; an elegant photo of the legendary Mount Iztaccihuatl worshipped by the Aztec peoples around Puebla; and an awesome scenic photo of Haleakala Crater, Maui, venerated by the Hawaiian people.
As Gray frequently points out in his text, many of the architectural monuments and shrines found today at sacred places are relatively new constructions created to celebrate the potent energies and healing powers that have manifested spontaneously at those sites for millennia. For example, in India, a fifty-nine-foot-tall Jain statue of Sri Gomatheswar—the world’s largest freestanding statue—was carved in the tenth century out of the solid granite top of an even larger stone mountain, known as Sravanabelagola (literally, “monk on the top of the hill”), which had served as a retreat for ascetic hermits and mystic monks for many centuries, dating back as far as the third century C.E.
Sometimes, the original indigenous shamanistic use of sacred sites can be deduced only through indirect references and informal folklore. For example, an apocryphal Christian legend claims that, upon his arrival in Zaragoza, Spain, around 40 C.E., the apostle St. James (the brother of St. John) reportedly saw an apparition of Mary on a megalithic standing stone and was instructed to build a church at the site. The presence of a megalithic standing stone hints that the local inhabitants already recognized the site’s extraordinary powers. Significantly, the site continues to inspire visions and healings and is known as the Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar (Our Lady of the Pillar). In a similar vein, the Christian shrine of Notre Dame at Le Puy-en-Velay—located on Mt. Corneille in central France—was officially founded in 430 C.E., after a local woman suffering from an incurable disease reported seeing visions of Mother Mary instructing her to climb Mt. Corneille and rest near a prehistoric menhir (standing stone) at its top. After the woman climbed the hill and was miraculously cured, she was instructed in other visions to ask the local bishop to build a church at the site. Interestingly, because local peasants continued to seek visions at the menhir, the Church initially left it standing inside the sanctuary, while reconsecrating it as the “Throne of Mary.” Local pilgrims continued to visit the site in search of visions and healings even after the menhir was later torn down and pieces were incorporated into the church floor.
Gray indicates that the practice of erecting Christian churches directly on top of pagan sacred sites eventually evolved into official Church policy. In an attempt to encourage people to abandon “their idolatry and yet continue to frequent the places as formerly,” several Catholic popes issued edicts calling for the destruction of pagan idols but the conservation of former temples. As Gray points out, the sequential appropriation of power places is a transcultural phenomenon that has happened in many parts of the world. For example, the transcultural usurpation of power places can be seen at Mont-Saint-Michel, a small “island” located on the coast of Normandy, France. The Celts once worshipped their god Belenus on the island, the Romans later built a shrine to Jupiter on it, and Christian hermits lived amidst its rocky crags for centuries before a local bishop had a vision of the archangel Michael, in 708 C.E., telling him to build a chapel there. In a similar vein, Gray explains that the Islamic shrine known as the Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem, now honors the spot where Muhammad reportedly ascended miraculously to heaven, but the present dome is only the latest in a series of shrines built on top of the massive rock—it previously hosted a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter, and before that, two Jewish temples.
While the successive usurpation of popular power places can be seen as an aggressive political tactic, the appeal of these sacred sites has been sustained by the cross-cultural recognition that special powers can manifest at those sites. Significantly, as successive religious cultures have taken control of power places, they have often adopted and integrated the indigenous shamanistic traditions connected to the sites. For example, in Athens, pilgrims continue to pray for healings at a Christian Orthodox shrine, which was built inside a small grotto that was originally part of an Asklepian healing sanctuary. In a similar way, modern pilgrims visiting the Men-an-Tol stone in Cornwall have preserved the ancient pagan practice of seeking healing by crawling through the hole in the site’s doughnut-shaped stone.
Although Gray often mentions cases when sites were originally connected with shamanistic traditions, he rarely elaborates on the nature and structure of those traditions. For example, he briefly notes that a quartzite peak in County Mayo, Ireland, known today as Croagh Patrick, was originally worshipped as the home of the Celtic deity Crom Dubh. Although the text describes the story of how the peak was sanctified by St. Patrick, who allegedly spent forty days there in 441 C.E. during his crusade to banish dragons, snakes, and demonic forces from the region, it doesn’t mention that archeological evidence hints that Celtic fertility rituals were once conducted on the peak, or that Christian pilgrims have for centuries climbed the mountain in order invoke the site’s alleged fertility powers.
Since Sacred Earth is organized according to geographic region, I recommend it as an informal spiritual traveler’s guide to many of the world’s best-known religious shrines, providing a wish list of potentially inspiring places to visit on future travels or pilgrimages. Each photo is accompanied by a short descriptive text, which briefly introduces the mythic and religious importance of the site. Many of Gray’s photos are marvelous stand-alone works of fine art that effectively capture the special spirit of their subjects. However, I think that providing additional alternative views and detail photos for each site—as Gray often does on his Sacred Sites website—would have enhanced the book’s educational value. Readers interested in seeing more images and learning more about specific sites are encouraged to visit his website, www.sacredsites.com.
Given the consistently superb quality of his photos and the broad coverage of his Sacred Sites portfolio, I would encourage Gray to consider developing a series of regional pilgrim’s guides to sacred places. Since he has already visited and photographed more than one thousand sacred sites around the world, compiling a series of pilgrim’s guides might be a wonderful way to inspire more people to embark on the path of pilgrimage. In addition to offering multiple photos and more detailed texts focusing on each major site, such a series could feature a broader sampling of spiritually significant sites. For example, Sacred Earth includes photos of only seven sites in North America, representing less than a third of the North American sacred sites identified in the book’s appendix—and that list includes only a small fraction of the hundreds of vitally important sacred sites found across this country. As Gray indicates, there are literally thousands of other sites around the world, waiting to be explored and celebrated.
In the meantime, I am appreciative that Gray’s Sacred Earth provides graphic testimony to the exquisite beauty and visual power of so many sacred places. Priced at only $35.00, this hardcover volume with its magnificent color reproductions is an extraordinary bargain. Indeed, this well-crafted art book could make an exquisite gift for friends or a marvelous addition to most any library.
Timothy White is founding editor of Shaman’s Drum.
Reviewed by Timothy White. Reprinted from Shaman's Drum, Number 77.
American photographer Martin Gray, an enthusiastic champion of the path of spiritual pilgrimage, has visited and documented more than one thousand sacred sites in eighty countries over the last several decades. In Sacred Earth: Places of Peace and Power, he presents an impressive collection of more than two hundred spectacular photos that he took at some of the world’s most renowned sacred places.
Some Shaman’s Drum readers may remember the 1991 article by Gray that appeared in issue #25 of the magazine. Several of the photographs featured in that article—including his photos of the Intihuatana stone at Machu Picchu, the grotto of Asklepios in Athens, Tibetan monks meditating by the Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya in India, the healing stones of Men-an-Tol in Cornwall, England, and the Greek Orthodox monastery of Rousanou built on the precarious rock cliffs of Meteora (“rocks in the air”)—also appear in Sacred Earth, together, of course, with many images of other sacred places.
As Gray explains, many shamanic and spiritual traditions around the world teach that there are certain special places where it is easier than normal to contact transpersonal spiritual energies for healing and spiritual transformation. As reports accumulate of spontaneous visions and healings occurring at the sites, people begin to visit them in search of personal miracles and spiritual understanding. As successive waves of pilgrims invest spiritual energy into the sites through ritual practices and focused prayer, the sites often evolve into spiritual gateways where people can call forth dreams, physical healings, and transpersonal visions.
The photos presented in Sacred Earth bear testimony to Gray’s photographic skills, as well as his dedicated efforts to document sacred places around the world. Gray’s skilled architectural photos ably convey the glorious grandeur of many world-class religious shrines—such as the Golden Temple of Amritsa, India; the Great Mosque of Ka’ba at Mecca; and India’s impressive Rameswaram Temple complex. In addition, his scenic landscape photographs capture the awesome beauty of many natural sacred places—including the towering snowcapped abode of the gods at Mt. Kailash, Tibet; the massive Aboriginal dreamtime monolith of Uluru (Ayers Rock) in central Australia; and the graceful slopes of two legendary volcanoes near Puebla, Mexico, said to embody a Nahuatl princess, Iztaccihuatl, and her lover, Popocatepetl.
Sacred Earth includes some insightful photos of humans worshipping at sacred sites—the demure image of a young woman being blessed by the colossal Mihintale Buddha in Sri Lanka; a photo of pilgrims playfully engaged in devotional practices on the rocks at Sabarimala, in southern India; and a portrait of stately Shinto priests welcoming Kami spirits at the Izumo Taisha Temple in Japan—but the great majority of Gray’s photos are devoted to documenting sacred religious structures and sculptures. Considering that sacred sites are a product of human perceptions and are sanctified by human rituals, I find it ironic that Gray’s photos often seem to depict humans as passive bystanders, or ignore them altogether. For example, the spread on the Kumbha Mela at Allahabad, India, offers a single photo—a panoramic view of rows of desolate tent shelters, devoid of all but a few tiny figures in the distance—and no images of the millions of sadhus and other pilgrims who are the highlight of the Kumbha Mela festival.
While the majority of Gray’s photos concentrate on the buildings and shrines erected at sacred places, Sacred Earth does include some marvelous photos of natural sacred sites that have figured prominently in indigenous shamanic and spiritual traditions. For example, there is a photo of a sunrise scene of the holy Andean mountains, Ancohuma and Illampu, towering above Lake Titicaca; an elegant photo of the legendary Mount Iztaccihuatl worshipped by the Aztec peoples around Puebla; and an awesome scenic photo of Haleakala Crater, Maui, venerated by the Hawaiian people.
As Gray frequently points out in his text, many of the architectural monuments and shrines found today at sacred places are relatively new constructions created to celebrate the potent energies and healing powers that have manifested spontaneously at those sites for millennia. For example, in India, a fifty-nine-foot-tall Jain statue of Sri Gomatheswar—the world’s largest freestanding statue—was carved in the tenth century out of the solid granite top of an even larger stone mountain, known as Sravanabelagola (literally, “monk on the top of the hill”), which had served as a retreat for ascetic hermits and mystic monks for many centuries, dating back as far as the third century C.E.
Sometimes, the original indigenous shamanistic use of sacred sites can be deduced only through indirect references and informal folklore. For example, an apocryphal Christian legend claims that, upon his arrival in Zaragoza, Spain, around 40 C.E., the apostle St. James (the brother of St. John) reportedly saw an apparition of Mary on a megalithic standing stone and was instructed to build a church at the site. The presence of a megalithic standing stone hints that the local inhabitants already recognized the site’s extraordinary powers. Significantly, the site continues to inspire visions and healings and is known as the Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar (Our Lady of the Pillar). In a similar vein, the Christian shrine of Notre Dame at Le Puy-en-Velay—located on Mt. Corneille in central France—was officially founded in 430 C.E., after a local woman suffering from an incurable disease reported seeing visions of Mother Mary instructing her to climb Mt. Corneille and rest near a prehistoric menhir (standing stone) at its top. After the woman climbed the hill and was miraculously cured, she was instructed in other visions to ask the local bishop to build a church at the site. Interestingly, because local peasants continued to seek visions at the menhir, the Church initially left it standing inside the sanctuary, while reconsecrating it as the “Throne of Mary.” Local pilgrims continued to visit the site in search of visions and healings even after the menhir was later torn down and pieces were incorporated into the church floor.
Gray indicates that the practice of erecting Christian churches directly on top of pagan sacred sites eventually evolved into official Church policy. In an attempt to encourage people to abandon “their idolatry and yet continue to frequent the places as formerly,” several Catholic popes issued edicts calling for the destruction of pagan idols but the conservation of former temples. As Gray points out, the sequential appropriation of power places is a transcultural phenomenon that has happened in many parts of the world. For example, the transcultural usurpation of power places can be seen at Mont-Saint-Michel, a small “island” located on the coast of Normandy, France. The Celts once worshipped their god Belenus on the island, the Romans later built a shrine to Jupiter on it, and Christian hermits lived amidst its rocky crags for centuries before a local bishop had a vision of the archangel Michael, in 708 C.E., telling him to build a chapel there. In a similar vein, Gray explains that the Islamic shrine known as the Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem, now honors the spot where Muhammad reportedly ascended miraculously to heaven, but the present dome is only the latest in a series of shrines built on top of the massive rock—it previously hosted a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter, and before that, two Jewish temples.
While the successive usurpation of popular power places can be seen as an aggressive political tactic, the appeal of these sacred sites has been sustained by the cross-cultural recognition that special powers can manifest at those sites. Significantly, as successive religious cultures have taken control of power places, they have often adopted and integrated the indigenous shamanistic traditions connected to the sites. For example, in Athens, pilgrims continue to pray for healings at a Christian Orthodox shrine, which was built inside a small grotto that was originally part of an Asklepian healing sanctuary. In a similar way, modern pilgrims visiting the Men-an-Tol stone in Cornwall have preserved the ancient pagan practice of seeking healing by crawling through the hole in the site’s doughnut-shaped stone.
Although Gray often mentions cases when sites were originally connected with shamanistic traditions, he rarely elaborates on the nature and structure of those traditions. For example, he briefly notes that a quartzite peak in County Mayo, Ireland, known today as Croagh Patrick, was originally worshipped as the home of the Celtic deity Crom Dubh. Although the text describes the story of how the peak was sanctified by St. Patrick, who allegedly spent forty days there in 441 C.E. during his crusade to banish dragons, snakes, and demonic forces from the region, it doesn’t mention that archeological evidence hints that Celtic fertility rituals were once conducted on the peak, or that Christian pilgrims have for centuries climbed the mountain in order invoke the site’s alleged fertility powers.
Since Sacred Earth is organized according to geographic region, I recommend it as an informal spiritual traveler’s guide to many of the world’s best-known religious shrines, providing a wish list of potentially inspiring places to visit on future travels or pilgrimages. Each photo is accompanied by a short descriptive text, which briefly introduces the mythic and religious importance of the site. Many of Gray’s photos are marvelous stand-alone works of fine art that effectively capture the special spirit of their subjects. However, I think that providing additional alternative views and detail photos for each site—as Gray often does on his Sacred Sites website—would have enhanced the book’s educational value. Readers interested in seeing more images and learning more about specific sites are encouraged to visit his website, www.sacredsites.com.
Given the consistently superb quality of his photos and the broad coverage of his Sacred Sites portfolio, I would encourage Gray to consider developing a series of regional pilgrim’s guides to sacred places. Since he has already visited and photographed more than one thousand sacred sites around the world, compiling a series of pilgrim’s guides might be a wonderful way to inspire more people to embark on the path of pilgrimage. In addition to offering multiple photos and more detailed texts focusing on each major site, such a series could feature a broader sampling of spiritually significant sites. For example, Sacred Earth includes photos of only seven sites in North America, representing less than a third of the North American sacred sites identified in the book’s appendix—and that list includes only a small fraction of the hundreds of vitally important sacred sites found across this country. As Gray indicates, there are literally thousands of other sites around the world, waiting to be explored and celebrated.
In the meantime, I am appreciative that Gray’s Sacred Earth provides graphic testimony to the exquisite beauty and visual power of so many sacred places. Priced at only $35.00, this hardcover volume with its magnificent color reproductions is an extraordinary bargain. Indeed, this well-crafted art book could make an exquisite gift for friends or a marvelous addition to most any library.
Timothy White is founding editor of Shaman’s Drum.
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