Your ideal temple.

Convictions, morals, other societies and religions.
obnoxion
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Your ideal temple.

Post by obnoxion »

If I find a spot with a stone by a tree, idealy close to a body of water, that is all the church I really nead.

But if I had magnificen resources for it, I would certainly get excited about building a magnificent temple.

Have you considered what kind of temple you would build, if the resources were practically limitless?
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
Angolmois

Re: Your ideal temple.

Post by Angolmois »

obnoxion wrote: Sun Mar 29, 2020 6:26 pm If I find a spot with a stone by a tree, idealy close to a body of water, that is all the church I really nead.
My favourite "temple", when I was living in Jyväskylä in 2016, was exactly like this. I used to go there every Day to swim, pray and hang out for hours at a time.
obnoxion wrote: Sun Mar 29, 2020 6:26 pmHave you considered what kind of temple you would build, if the resources were practically limitless?
My long term dream has been the building of a "Temple of Väinämöinen" which would be built on the basis of synthesized European Pagan, Medieval Christian and Vedic aesthetics. It would be a place of worship, a teaching place in the manner of a Platonic Academy, and also a public forum for discussion about Philosophy and Esoterism. It would include a gallery of all the great sages and philosophers of the world.
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Nefastos
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Re: Your ideal temple.

Post by Nefastos »

Same here with the tree, stone & body of water.
obnoxion wrote: Sun Mar 29, 2020 6:26 pmHave you considered what kind of temple you would build, if the resources were practically limitless?

Ah, all the time :) Not often to the details, though. Let's think...

Take an old gothic Catholic cathedral, place it in a little grove of deciduous trees (still near the center of a European metropolis) and old ivy-covered cemetery, and let a little path made of stones wind its way from the iron gates through the grove to the steps leading to double doors. They are sided by 2½ meter statues of Christ at the right hand, half-smiling Lucifer at the left. Above the door, double pentagram rose window of different hues is seen, large as life. If one takes some trouble, he may find the steps also to the crypt, or the very little chapel in the woods behind the church itself.

When one has passed the doors (hopefully noticing the smaller playful half-human faced gargoyle reliefs in doorframes) he comes to a large but not vast space, this one also decorated by statues. Three on each side and one at the elevated altar space at the other end of the hall. (The visitor might remember that in each of the seven churches thus built, different one of the figures is at the altar and the rest six in the hall. Half of these temples are more spherical and lower in shape, half a higher cathedral, like this one.) High windows are mostly stained glass depicting sacred animals, but if one takes one of the winding stairs to the balcony above, in the corners he will also find little rooms for four feminine guarding spirits, and from these corner chapels, lower deep-set windows allow view outside to the trees & treetops through clear glass.

If visitor resists the urge to go straight to the statue at the altar, instead circling the balcony level, he will notice an asymmetry in the otherwise even four-angled temple. In the right side there's a large round tower going through the cathedral, perhaps a place for the clergy, and/or some esoteric ceremonies, he might ponder. And indeed, when one of the church brethren comes through the doors when he is watching, he glimpses a large and richly engraved magic circle in the floor. Similar was pictured in the church floor below, but there he thought it to be mostly decorative.

...And here, at the latest, I think we should leave our astral tourist or, hopefully, a fellow pilgrim. Great topic to think about, sodalis!
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
obnoxion
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Re: Your ideal temple.

Post by obnoxion »

My ideal temple would be hypaetheral and circular, almost exactly like the 64 yogini temples in India. But instead of carved stone, there would be 64 black blocks of unhewn stones. Then there would be a gigantic black stone in the middle, unhewn of course. And when the temple would be in use, there would be three eyes painted on the forehead of the central stone, and the whole circle would become alive with energy.

This structure would be on a hill with a view to a river. Under the hill there would be a cemetary and a small gothic chapel. There should be about ten miles of untouched forest around the area in all direction, which would be considered as part of the temple complex.
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Nefastos
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Re: Your ideal temple.

Post by Nefastos »

obnoxion wrote: Mon Mar 30, 2020 11:24 amThere should be about ten miles of untouched forest around the area in all direction, which would be considered as part of the temple complex.


I am right now reading Pentti Linkola's essays, and he would love your temple (as do I!).

By the way, for some reason in my post I wrote "right" when I thought to have written "left" for the location of my church's esoteric chambers. A lapsus like this always means something, so I let it stand.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
obnoxion
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Re: Your ideal temple.

Post by obnoxion »

Nefastos wrote: Mon Mar 30, 2020 12:21 pm obnoxion kirjoitti: ↑There should be about ten miles of untouched forest around the area in all direction, which would be considered as part of the temple complex.


I am right now reading Pentti Linkola's essays, and he would love your temple (as do I!).
I am not a big fan of Linkola, but there are ideas we share. The need for much more untouched forests is one of them. But I am not a misanthropist, and I don't enjoy fishing.

Basically, if I see three trees, I am in a forest. And I am content to pray in the bathroom. But If I will have a proper temple, I shall have it in a proper forest.
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
Angolmois

Re: Your ideal temple.

Post by Angolmois »

Beautiful descriptions.
obnoxion wrote: Mon Mar 30, 2020 11:24 amThis structure would be on a hill with a view to a river. Under the hill there would be a cemetary and a small gothic chapel. There should be about ten miles of untouched forest around the area in all direction, which would be considered as part of the temple complex.
It may come as a surprise, but I have always pictured the Temple of Väinämöinen being located in the centre of a city (not a modern city though), but it would also most certainly be on a hill-top, and there would be a huge garden surrounding it with sacred groves and ponds here and there.

To stretch the topic a little bit, in my manic phase a few years ago I dreamed of being an architect and building whole cities - or at least governmental buildings that would make the basic structure of the city around which everything else would be built - according to kabbalistic sephiras and/or according to the ancient Norse tree of life. I think I would put a little futurism also there.
obnoxion
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Re: Your ideal temple.

Post by obnoxion »

Boreas wrote: Mon Mar 30, 2020 3:53 pmTo stretch the topic a little bit, in my manic phase a few years ago I dreamed of being an architect and building whole cities - or at least governmental buildings that would make the basic structure of the city around which everything else would be built - according to kabbalistic sephiras and/or according to the ancient Norse tree of life. I think I would put a little futurism also there.
I study with admiration the nepal-mandala, that is, the kaula/tantric mandala on which the state of Nepal was constructed. But as I am impressed by it, at the same time it is plain to see how such ideal models will not guarantee happiness for all, or even to those at the very center of the model.
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Polyhymnia
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Re: Your ideal temple.

Post by Polyhymnia »

Your temples all sound wonderful! I would be so happy to bide my time in every one.

My friend recently went to the temples of humankind in Italy, and I've since been obsessed with building a temple inside of a mountain. I haven't gotten much further than that in my daydreams though. Definitely by a forest and a body of clear water.
Ooo. And some stained glass. I love that stuff. 8-)
"Limited love asks for possession of the beloved, but the unlimited asks only for itself." -Kahlil Gibran
Amantes
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Re: Your ideal temple.

Post by Amantes »

I have been thinking long time that my english is too bad to really communicate, but im not sure how true that is. This topic gave me so beatiful and clear images to my mind that I wanted to share it. Hopefully my words can reah you brothers and sisters.

My ideal temple would be located in desert. Heat, sand, cold and dark nights with lots of stars. There would be naturally formed, sand covered, cave where the church had been found. Lots of bones, skeletons, ash, dry roses (and other dry flowers and plants), burning herbs, smoke, little on-going bonfires, lots of bottles of boose and other plant made potions. It would be asymmetric but still monotonic, singing only one worded silence where the restless and violent mind is naturally forced to drop that act because the bridge to source is too bright and clear. There would be some holes in the "roof" where the sun or night can enter in the cave. Bloodstained altar stones and crafted stones, like in gravyeard, with symbols and/or short poetic koan-like texts, or only one word, which you can comtemplate to the ends of time; to kill the time.

At the lowest floor stage there would be passage to little, colourfull and rich garden. There would be hole on the ground which led us to clear, pure and little bit bubling fountain. That would be home of some frogs that would be chanting "croack, croack".

This topic is interesting, because these kinds of imaginated journeys to paint from mind what one can see as beatiful and holy can reveal something very essential of ones soul. I think these kind of clear pictures of place of spirits are in a way present in every breath we take.
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