Sacred Centers - Mushroom Pillars of Gƶbekli Tepe
All geomantic schemes involve belief in an omphalos, orĀ āworld naval,ā an Axis Mundi - the sacred center of the world from which order was created out of chaos. The holy center of Jerusalem - sacred to Judaism, Christendom, and Islam alike - is one place that has been considered the site of the omphalos. Another world navel was at Delphi in Greece. The omphalos there is a richly carved stone. The Kaāaba at Mecca in Saudi Arabia contains an omphalos fashioned from a meteorite.Ā
The notion of ancient monuments as focal points of energy has gained popularity with researchers in recent years. One theory is that aĀ āuniversal force,ā said to underlie all material objects, is especially concentrated in the sacred places. This force, unknown to modern science, was allegedly acknowledged in the past and sensed by worshipers at the ancient religious sites. Most traditional peoples have, or have had, a name for some sort of mysterious life force. The Chinese feng-shui geomancers, as we have seen, had chāi, the same energy supposedly involved in acupuncture. The Australian Aborigines have kurunba, which they believe is concentrated at their totem sites. In Japan the force is known as ki, and martial arts adepts can project this force from their hands. North American Indian tribes had at least a dozen names, such as po-wa-ha, manitou, and maxpe, forĀ āthe force that was with themā in life.
