Salt Cathedral
14 stations of the Cross carved into an active salt mine by miners devoted to their faith - minors turned scultpers ! very impressive ... in a modern monolith sort of way - the sheer scale, abstraction, simplicity and devotion make you feel its ancient yet its barely 70 years old
50 foot illuminated cross
Heres an excerpt from the web, lazily cut and pasting, as its worth noting/ remembering some facts and why it was worth a day trip from Bogota
the Trinity carving that filled me with shivers
Heres an excerpt from the web, lazily cut and pasting, as its worth noting/ remembering some facts and why it was worth a day trip from Bogota
The story of the Cathedral of Salt of Zipaquira is certainly one of persistence. The original cathedral was carved out of an active salt mine beginning in 1950. Inaugurated in 1954, the cathedral only lasted for 36 years before authorities, worried about its structural soundness, shut it down. This, however, did not deter the town of Zipaquira. In 1991, only a year after shuttering the old cathedral, work began on a new salt church some 200 feet below the old one.
The current salt cathedral is roughly 75 meters long and 25 meters high, with a giant cross carved into the back wall. It can theoretically accommodate 10,000 people. Smaller naves dug out around the main chamber illustrate the life of Christ from birth to crucifixion. While clearly devoted to Catholicism, the salt “cathedral” is not in fact recognized by the Church, and has no official status. This doesn’t stop the 3,000-plus visitors that come to the cathedral on most Sundays from praising the glory of both God and his mineral-ensconced home.
The current salt cathedral is roughly 75 meters long and 25 meters high, with a giant cross carved into the back wall. It can theoretically accommodate 10,000 people. Smaller naves dug out around the main chamber illustrate the life of Christ from birth to crucifixion. While clearly devoted to Catholicism, the salt “cathedral” is not in fact recognized by the Church, and has no official status. This doesn’t stop the 3,000-plus visitors that come to the cathedral on most Sundays from praising the glory of both God and his mineral-ensconced home.
To me it seemed to bypass the pomp and ceremony of Catholicism and directly invoke the experience of Jesus and the symbol of the Cross . A lot of attention was paid to portraying the 'feeling' of every station of Jesus' path , by changing angles, positions, and light play of the cross, ie sunken into the ground, towering above, hollowed out to invoke weight, burial, ascesnsion, etc,
The timing for me was perfect for meditations on the Teachings of Light , which this sub-terranean experience helped trigger - build using abstraction but still as a literal representation of Gospel events - but so relevant now as the Lost Teachings of Jesus are being revived (i will add reading list on this topic to my profile ) and the understanding of the cross and christ consciousness as an internal alchemy that is available to all of us as tools for resurrection in our human lifetime.
My body filled with energy waves twice (i call these cosmogasms as they are undeniable rushes of energy thru the whole body where light codes are entering my ethereal body from a live energy portal and i am I experiencing Truth in the intention and execution of a devotional structure ) - at station 12, the Ascension, here the cross was hollowed out and its shadow projected on the stone - the illusion , or reflection of what was, a transcendence of the material world . While the other stations were interesting, the story is a distortion, but this station, the ascension is an ongoing teaching of ascension that is there for us all to experience, and so it was where the energy resided.
The next undeniable wave came at station 21 (number on the audio guide , this wasn't a station of the cross but i mention it for fellow cosmic number lovers ) where there was a stone carving of the trinity , divine mother father child, entwined at peace , the grown son being held so lovingly. and amazing large hands which i learned were a way of honouring the indiginous tribes
The timing for me was perfect for meditations on the Teachings of Light , which this sub-terranean experience helped trigger - build using abstraction but still as a literal representation of Gospel events - but so relevant now as the Lost Teachings of Jesus are being revived (i will add reading list on this topic to my profile ) and the understanding of the cross and christ consciousness as an internal alchemy that is available to all of us as tools for resurrection in our human lifetime.
My body filled with energy waves twice (i call these cosmogasms as they are undeniable rushes of energy thru the whole body where light codes are entering my ethereal body from a live energy portal and i am I experiencing Truth in the intention and execution of a devotional structure ) - at station 12, the Ascension, here the cross was hollowed out and its shadow projected on the stone - the illusion , or reflection of what was, a transcendence of the material world . While the other stations were interesting, the story is a distortion, but this station, the ascension is an ongoing teaching of ascension that is there for us all to experience, and so it was where the energy resided.
The next undeniable wave came at station 21 (number on the audio guide , this wasn't a station of the cross but i mention it for fellow cosmic number lovers ) where there was a stone carving of the trinity , divine mother father child, entwined at peace , the grown son being held so lovingly. and amazing large hands which i learned were a way of honouring the indiginous tribes
Seeing the large hands sent me into a flashback of just over a year ago where i was in deep meditation and i had what i felt strongly was a Jesus healing , when an anointed teacher layed his hand on me and when i opened my eyes his hand grew so large, tripling in size as it moved my through my auric fields
Something about that and the truth of the ascension pathway and something about the sheer ambition of the project and the weight of rock and mineral in this very old mine (cathedral modern but salt mined here used since 5th century), left an energetic imprint on my being and so i share here
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