Some science behind the scenes

Sacred geography - natural hills

Some natural hills have been used symbolically because their shape lends itself to being used symbolically as a hill!

The symbolism of the hill has been used extensively in our actual landscape, thus hills rising from a flat Earth plain, preferably surrounded at their base by Water and rising high into the Air, were ideal as representations of wider spiritual truths, even better if a winding spiral path ascended to the top like the spiritual path.

I have picked out two examples for special mention - Uluru and Glastonbury Tor, but there are numerous other examples I could have used, for example:

Dunadd - Dunadd is a hill in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, a little north of the present day Lochgilphead. It was once an island but now lies inland near the River Add. The surrounding land, now largely reclaimed, was formerly boggy and known as the Mòine Mhòr 'Great Moss' in Gaelic. The hill was used by neolithic and bronze age people and then later by Iron Age peoples who built a fort on the hill. The site in older times was sacred. There are cairns and standing stones around the site and it is known for its unique stone carvings below the upper enclosure, including feet print. On the same flat outcrop of rock is an incised boar in Pictish style, and in inscription in the ogham script.

Mount Zion - Mount Zion is a hill just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and is an important Jewish religious site. As Jerusalem itself is symbolic, the juxtaposition of Mount Zion matters more than its height, which is relatively insignificant. The term "Zion" became a synecdoche referring to the entire city of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel – in effect ‘the Promised Land’ of the Israeli people . Thus Zion is the symbolic name given to the spiritual world of the souls of the tribe of Israel – the Jewish people.

St Michael’s mount Cornwall - St Michael's Mount is a tidal island located 400 yds off the Mount's Bay coast of Cornwall, England. It is united with the town of Marazion by a man-made causeway, passable only at mid to low tide, made of granite setts. Saint Michael’s mount was a sacred site and according to Wikipedia “may have been the site of a monastery in the 8th - early 11th centuries”. An abbey built on the site was a resort of pilgrims.

Mont-Saint-Michel - Mont Saint Michel is the French equivalent of St Michael’s mount. Larger, it is like its English equivalent, a rocky tidal island located approximately one kilometre off the country's north coast. Mont Saint Michel also has religious buildings located on it and was also a sacred site. It too was and still is a resort for pilgrims.

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Sacred geography - natural hills

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