Landscapes of transcendence: The aniconic sacrality of mountain geographies

Abstract:

This study presents a philosophical and theoretical overview of the process by which “geography and spiritual growth converge” in the construction of sacrality and experience of transcendence in the aniconic mountain sacredscapes of the world. Parallel concepts such as apophasis and archetypicality are explored in order to emphasise their points of convergence, It is supported by a literature review that explores the commonalities between Buddhist Insight Meditation, geo-phenomenology and major Western discourses on transcendence and the wilderness as a restorative landscape. In this fashion, common ontological and epistemological ground is sought against the backdrop of what is evidently a rapprochement between these traditions in the modern era. This paper, therefore, is an attempt at integrating South and Southeast Asian notions of sacrality with Western psychobiological perspectives. The outcome shows the challenges and possibilities for the resacralisation of mountain sacredscapes the world over.

Keywords: “sacredscape”; mountain; transcendence; aniconic; archetypal; nature; phenomenology; apophatic.