Cathedrals of the Spirit: The Message of Sacred Places (1996)

The entire cosmos, whatever is still or moving, is pervaded by the divine. - Isa Upanishad, The Venanta, Ancient Hindu Scriptures (CA. 2500 B.C.)

This book is about sacred places. It is about landscapes of the holy as centers of inspiration where human consciousness is temporarily set free. The experience of a sacred place and thus sacredness itself is re-entry into a state of wholeness - an introduction to your true origins. Hence the goal of this book is to reintroduce you to yourself.

There rose a tree. O magic transcendence! Orpheus sings! And in the ear a tree! - Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Sonnets to Orpheus (p. 85 - Arboreal Cathedrals)

[E]very great locality has its own pure daimon [attendant spirit], and is conveyed at last into perfected life . . . Every great locality expresses itself perfectly, in its own flowers, its own birds and beasts, lastly its own men, with their perfected works. Mountains convey themselves in unutterable expressed perfection in the blue gentian flower and in the edelweiss flower, so soft, yet shaped like snowcrystals. The very strata of the earth come to a point of perfect, unutterable concentration in the inherent sapphires and emeralds. It is so with all worlds and all places of the world. We may take it as a law. - D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), "The Spirit of Place"