chairos - chronos

dialect of the sacred

light

magic

myth

profane

psychoanalysis

religion

religious experience

religious phenomenon

sacred

sacred space

shaman

time

water

nationality

Romanian

occupation / innovator as

historian

philosopher

historian of religion

university professor

University of Chicago

innovator in the field of

history of religion

mythology

philosophy

ritual

anthropologist

diplomat

journalist

university teacher

pedagogue

novelist

playwright

literary critic

mythographer

essayist

biographer

scientific organization

Belgium Royal Academy of French language and literature

diarist

cause of death

natural causes

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

religious studies

Romanian Orthodox Church

anthropology

is the essentially unresolvable paradox that because the sacred always manifests itself in a (profane) object, the absolute somehow becomes 'limited and relative'.

For Eliade, this would seem to represent a shift in experiential modes. According to Eliade, 'the sacred always manifests itself as a reality of a wholly different order from 'natural' realities'. An object that manifests the sacred 'becomes something else' it 'is transmuted into a supernatural reality'. On the other hand, from the perspective of the outside observer (as well as from the perspective of the believer, according to Eliade), the believer is still worshipping an 'object' 'the sacred is always manifested through some thing.' For Eliade this represents an essentially unresolvable paradox: the absolute somehow becoming 'limited and relative'. This paradox Eliade refers to as the 'dialectic of the sacred' and he considers this dialectic to apply to every hierophany: 'this paradoxical coming-together of sacred and profane, being and non-being, absolute and relative, the eternal and the becoming, is what every hierophany . . . . reveals'. The Christian understadning of the 'paradox of the incranation' Eliade sees as an explicit formulation of this dialecic.

is not something that comes from light, but from darkness.

Light does not come from light, but from darkness. Mircea Eliade

is able to make himself completely in proportion to his ability to desacrilizes himself and the world. He will become himself only when he is totally demysticized. He will not be truly free until he has killed the last God.

Man makes himself, and he only makes himself completely in proportion as he desacrilizes himself and the world. The sacred is the prime obstacle to his freedom. He will become himself only when he is totally demysticized. He will not be truly free until he has killed the last god. Mircea Eliade

is a narration of a sudden and dramatic breakthrough of the sacred (or supernatural) which establishes the world and makes it what it is today.

Myth narrates a sacred history... it relates an event that took place in primordial Time, the fabled time of the 'beginnings.' In other words myth tells how, through the deeds of Supernatural Beings, a reality came into existence, be it the whole of reality, the Cosmos, or only a fragment of reality-- an island, a species of plant, a particular kind of human behavior, an institution. Myth, then, is always an account of a 'creation'... it relates how something was produced, began to be. Myth tells only of that which really happened, which manifested itself completely. The actors in myths are Supernatural Beings. They are known primarily by what they did in the transcendent times of the 'beginnings.' hence myths disclose their creative activity and reveal the sacredness (or simply the 'supernaturalness') of their works. In short, myths describe the various and sometimes dramatic breakthroughs of the sacred (or the 'supernatural') into the World. It is this sudden breakthrough of the sacred that really establishes the World and makes it what it is today. Furthermore, it is as a result of the intervention of Supernatural Beings that man himself is what he is today, a mortal, sexed, and cultural being.' (Mircea Eliade. 1963. Myth and Reality.)

is a narration of sacred history... it relates an event that took place in primordial time, the fabled time of the 'beginnings'.

Unlike Cassirer, Mircea Eliade does hazard a definition of myth. He understands a myth to be ' before everything else, a tale. . . . Modem man's attraction to myths betrays his latent desire to be told stories.' These are, of course, more than just entertaining stories. Eliade defines myth as a narration of 'sacred history... it relates an event that took place in primordial Time, the fabled time of the 'beginnings.''

is, before anything else, a tale that betrays modern man's desire to be told stories.

 can be transformed into the sacred. For those to whom a stone reveals itself as sacred, its immediate reality is transmuted into a supernatural reality.

Lynch points out however that for Eliade, the profane can be transformed into the sacred. According to Eliade 'for those to whom a stone reveals itself as sacred, its immediate reality is transmuted into a supernatural reality.

is ever unable to utterly abolish the past, since it is itself a product of the past. The profane man forms himself by a series of denials and refusals, to acquire a world of his own, he has desacralized the world in which his ancestors lived... but to do so he has been obliged to adopt an earlier type of behavior, and that behavior is still emotionally present in him, in one form or another, ready to be reactualized in his deepest being.

Do what he will, he [the profane man] is an inheritor. He cannot utterly abolish his past, since he himself is a product of his past. He forms himself by a series of denials and refusals, but he continues to be haunted by the realities that he has refused and denied. To acquire a world of his own, he has desacralized the world in which his ancestors lived... but to do so he has been obliged to adopt an earlier type of behavior, and that behavior is still emotionally present in him, in one form or another, ready to be reactualized in his deepest being. Mircea Eliade

is the everyday, the ordinary and mundane. It maintains the homogeneity and hence the relativity of space.

The profane for Eliade is the everyday, the ordinary and mundane. About the profane experience, he writes, it 'maintains the homogeneity and hence the relativity of space. No true orientation is now possible, for the fixed point no longer enjoys a unique ontological status... it appears and disappears in accordance with the needs of the day (23).

 justifies its importance by asserting that it forces you to look to and accept reality, but a very particular reality which is conditioned by the materialistic and scientific ideology of the historical product which is psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis justifies its importance by asserting that it forces you to look to and accept reality. But what sort of reality' A reality conditioned by the materialistic and scientific ideology of psychoanalysis, that is, a historical product. . . Mircea Eliade

is capable of transporting the individual emotionally and psychologically, allowing him to connect to a mystical place or plane.

For Eliade religion and religious experiences can transport the individual emotionally and psychologically allowing them to connect to a mystical place or plane.

is a viewpoint whereby all nature is capable of revealing itself as comic sacrality, all that is ordinary can be transformed into the holy.

In other words, for those who have a religious experience all nature is capable of revealing itself as comic sacrality' (12). The importance therefore is not the physical material or object but rather the belief that the religious experience can transform ordinary into the holy. According to this thesis, any thing, person or even event can be sanctified. Institutional theologies determine how and what can be made sacred not the object itself and the theologies can and do change over time and space.

is only recognized as such if it is grasped at its own level, that is to say, if it is studied as something religious. To try to grasp the essence of such phenomenon by means of physiology, psychology , sociology , economics , linguistics, art or any other study is false... it misses the one unique and irreducible element in it the element of the sacred.

A religious phenomenon will only be recognized as such if it is grasped at its own level, that is to say, if it is studied as something religious. To try to grasp the essence of such phenomenon by means of physiology, psychology , sociology , economics , linguistics , art or any other study is false... it misses the one unique and irreducible element in it the element of the sacred . Mircea Eliade

is that with which an encounter can transform the individual who comes to feel in touch with something otherworldly in character.

For him, encounters with the sacred can transform the individual because they believe that, as Pals writes, they 'feel in touch with something otherworldly in character... they feel they have brushed against a reality unlike all other they know, a dimension of existence that is alarmingly powerful, strangely different, surpassingly real and enduring' (165).

 always manifests itself in a (profane) object, forming a reality of a wholly different order from 'natural' realities'.

is a thing which to encounter is to feel like one has brushed against a reality unlike all others, a dimension of existence that is alarmingly powerful, strangely different, surpassingly real and enduring.

, when it manifests itself, ontologically founds the profane world. It creates an infinite expanse in which no point of reference is possible and hence no orientation can be established. It is there that it reveals an absolute fixed point, a profane center.

When the sacred manifests itself in any hierophany, there is not only a break in the homogeneity of space... there is also a revelation of an absolute reality, opposed to the nonreality of the vast surrounding expanse. The manifestation of the sacred ontologically founds the world. In the homogenous and infinite expanse, in which no point of reference is possible and hence no orientation can be established, the hierophany reveals an absolute fixed point, a center. Mircea Eliade

is that which man becomes aware of because it manifests itself, shows itself, as something wholly different from the profane . . . In his encounters with the sacred, man experiences a reality that does not belong to our world yet is encountered in and through objects or events that are part of the world.

Man becomes aware of the Sacred because it manifests itself, shows itself, as something wholly different from the Profane . . . In his encounters with the Sacred, man experiences a reality that does not belong to our world yet is encountered in and through objects or events that are part of the world. Mircea Eliade

is the prime obstacle to man's freedom, whereby man will become himself only when he is totally demysticized. He will not be truly free until he has killed the last God.

Mircea EliadeThinkers

Mircea Eliade