Edges are illustrated by the joining of a meadow with a wood, or by shorelines of lakes, ponds, and streams. Ecotones are zones of overlap between two major life zones such as the meeting of the High Plains and the Rocky Mountains. The result is a mixture of the life from each, and often the ecotone is more diverse, complex, and rich than either life zone alone. Culturally-designated sacred places are often ecotones. The destination areas for outdoor recreationists are often ecotones, or along edges such as lake shores, or both.
Earth includes the soil and rock, the planet itself, and the animals and plants that inhabit it.
Imagine rock as hierophany. The sacred shows itself in rock as irreducibility, absoluteness, power, hardness, permanence, beyond time, and so on. Rock is enhanced as a symbol when its erodibility is included. Soil offers substance and form which appear lifeless but which give rise to life. Animals and plants reveal truths about relationship and interdependence.