Certain natural phenomena are generally associated with sacred places in nature. There isn t space in this essay to go into detail, so the following discussion is necessarily over-summarized. I hope it will pique your interest and empower you in your own encounters with the sacred. Openings may be caves, springs, grottos, canyons, abysses, volcanic craters, lakes, wells, doorways, tunnels, and so on. Openings are significant because they are considered conceptually to open into another unseen realm, often downward.
Axes are necessarily vertical and therefore suggest transcendence.
At either end of an axis is an implied opening. The Axis Mundi in its various forms illustrates the idea, as do the cross of Jesus crucifixion, the poles of the Sundance, and many others. Both axes and openings have obvious parallels in the human body, as well as in many micro and macro dimensions. Not surprisingly, people have given them male and female tones. The center is marked by an axis together with an opening, linking the above, the below, and the here, and forming a pathway for communication with all the realms.