"The Basic Ideas of Mircea Eliade's The Sacred and the Profane"

called the place Beth-el, that is, "House of God" (Genesis 28:10-22). One finds many
examples of these kinds of hierophanies in which people had visions or auditions of Gods
in or near (what became) sacred forests, sacred trees, sacred lakes, sacred mountains, and
the like.
Sometimes the hierophany is invited. For example, if goodly numbers of Roman
Catholics move into a certain area, the local diocese will establish a parish in that area
and then build and consecrate a church there--that is, they will do prayers and blessings,
celebrate Mass, and thereby invoke a theophany. During this first Mass, they consecrate a
Tabernacle to hold the reserved Eucharist where they believe that Christ is present in a
special way. Thus when Roman Catholics enter the church, they consider themselves in
the presence of God in a way that is not true outside the church building.
People who are in a sacred place will exhibit different behavior than they do in other
(profane) places. For example, a Roman Catholic might shout out a greeting to a friend in
the parking lot, but they would not do so in the middle of the church itself.
In the Genesis 28 story, Jacob also called the place where he slept the "gate of heaven,"
because in that place he came in contact with the world of the divine. This illustrates a
key feature of sacred space: a sacred place is a threshold, that is, a point where one can
cross over from the common (profane) world of everyday life to a sacred world. This
sounds rather unusual, but we experience a similar kind of thing every day. For example,
the doorway to a classroom is a threshold; in the hall you can act more freely than you
can inside the classroom. Or again, when you cross the threshold of your own room, you
enter a space with where different values apply than in the classroom or the living room
of your home. Religious examples of this are the threshholds of churches, synagogues, or
temples. Individual families sometimes reflect the religious nature of their homes by
putting a mezzuzah or cross or even a small holy water font on one of the door posts.
These signs remind those who enter that this house (and family) is dedicated to God;
thus, inside this house certain values are maintained no matter what may go on outside.
Part Two: Sacred Time
The creation of the world is the great cosmogonic paradigm, the most important thing the
Gods ever did and the model for all which we should do. This cosmogony, although a
spatial creation, also took place at a certain "time." Hence, we find the notion of sacred
time. The term for sacred time is chairos, while the term for "normal" (profane,
quotidian) time is chronos.
When the Gods created space, they also created time. First of all, time could not begin
until those things which measure it came into existence; likewise when space disappears,
it will be the end of time. This at first seems strange to us because we have separated time
from space; we consult watches or calendars, not the sun or the moon, to gauge time. But
if we think about it, we realize how closely the two are related. For example, a year is not
365 days; in fact, a year is almost six hours longer which is why there is need for an extra
day every four years (leap year). A year is actually the time it takes the earth to orbit the