“The Sacred and the Profane”: A Pioneering Study of Religion
Mircea Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion is a seminal text in the academic study of religion. Unlike theology, which approaches religion as an unquestionable truth about the universe, Eliade delves into it as a phenomenological subject—exploring how the religious experience shapes human consciousness. If you have taken a Religious Studies 101 class, chances are you encountered Eliade’s work. While the book may feel dense to modern readers, it offers timeless insights into the human tendency to create order out of chaos, which is the psychological essence of religious belief.
Ordering the Universe: One of the fascinating concepts explored in the book is our innate inclination to establish order within our lives. For homo religiosus (religious man), space is not uniform. There are sacred spaces—strong, significant, and real—and profane spaces, which are amorphous and devoid of structure. Religion serves as a centralizing force that defines our identity, purpose, and the boundaries of our existence. It creates a sphere where everything within is considered “cosmos” (order), while everything outside is “chaos.”
The Axis Mundi: The Achilpa and the Sacred Pole
To better understand the formation of religious ideas, Eliade examines the mythology of the Achilpa, an Aboriginal tribe of the Aranda people in Australia. These tribes, existing in isolation from the Western world, offered a unique perspective on religious development. The Achilpa were nomadic, wandering a harsh environment that necessitated constant movement. Yet, they were never truly “lost” because they carried their center with them.
The Legend of Numbakulla
According to their mythology, a divine being named Numbakulla “cosmicized” their territory, creating their ancestors and institutions. From the trunk of a gum tree, Numbakulla fashioned a sacred pole (kauwa-auwa) and, after anointing it with blood, climbed it and disappeared into the sky. This pole became the tribe’s Axis Mundi—the center of the world connecting heaven and earth.
The pole served a practical and spiritual function. During their wanderings, the Achilpa carried it with them, and its direction determined their path. As long as they had the pole, they were in their world; they were connected to the sacred order established by Numbakulla.
Eliade’s Interpretation: Chaos vs. Cosmos
Mircea Eliade uses this example to illustrate a profound psychological truth: humans cannot live in chaos. We must orient ourselves around a fixed point of value. For the Achilpa, the pole was not just a stick; it was the structural support of the universe.
Eliade recounts a tragic event reported by anthropologists Spencer and Gillen: when the sacred pole of the Achilpa was once broken, the tribe did not just lose a tool; they lost their existential anchor. They wandered aimlessly for a time and eventually sat down on the ground to wait for death. Without their connection to the sacred center, their “cosmos” had reverted to “chaos,” and life was no longer sustainable.
Relevance to Jungian Psychology
The connection between Eliade’s history of religion and Jungian depth psychology is unmistakable. What Eliade calls the Axis Mundi or the “sacred center,” Carl Jung identified as the Self—the organizing principle of the psyche.
Just as the Achilpa could not survive without their pole, the human psyche cannot survive without a sense of meaning and order. In therapy, we often see patients who have “broken their pole”—they have lost contact with their values, their community, or their sense of purpose. This state of inner chaos is what Jungians call neurosis or fragmentation. The goal of individuation is to re-establish this connection to the center, turning the chaos of the unconscious into a livable, sacred order.
Order and Chaos in Modern Life
The book highlights that even modern, secular humans (“profane man”) rarely live in a completely desacralized world. We still create private myths and rituals—the home as a sanctuary, the birthplace as a site of pilgrimage, or the “sacred” nature of a flag or constitution. We are perpetually engaged in the act of making the world “real” by imbuing it with value.
Eliade prompts readers to reflect on their own organizing principles. What is your “stick”? What concepts or values provide the vertical axis of your life? Drawing upon these principles, therapists can help clients explore their own personal cosmology and examine how it shapes their perception of reality.
Bibliography
- Eliade, M. (1959). The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
- Eliade, M. (1954). The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History. Princeton University Press.
- Jung, C. G. (1964). Man and His Symbols. Dell Publishing.
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