Genius Loci

Do you believe in the spirit of place?
I don't mean in the sense of spirits inhabiting or protecting a place but in the sense of a place having a spirit - an almost tangible quality or personality ... or something ... hmmm ...

This is more difficult that I thought, let me instead give you a couple of very different examples.

Clubbing - by this I mean a "proper" club that plays great music for a crowd of people that want to dance and have a great time not a dodgy place filled with men and women more intend on getting drunk and getting off with each other.

I haven't been clubbing for years but even now when I hear certain old house or trance classic anthems, I get that uplifting feeling. Good clubs have a certain spirit. Everyone is there to have a good time, people aren't there to get drunk or to get into a fight. There are no pretensions in a place like - no-one will laugh at you for how you dance as that is the way you want to move. It's energetic, euphoric even. The best club I ever went to was Ministry of Sound. I experienced a bizarre form of sensory deprivation and overload at the same time. There were no superfluous neon, flashing lights so the room was virtually in darkness; whilst there were massive fans blowing in cool air it was hot with the heat from hundreds of people dancing for all they were worth; the sound is tangible, physical - I not only heard it but felt it throughout my entire body (I'm sure it's probably not good for you but not many things are!).

Jumping to the opposite end of the scale, but then again, maybe not ...

Taize - "Taizé, in the south of Burgundy, France, is the home of an international, ecumenical community, founded there in 1940 by Brother Roger. The brothers are committed for their whole life to material and spiritual sharing, to celibacy, and to a great simplicity of life. Today, the community is made up of over a hundred brothers, Catholics and from various Protestant backgrounds, from more than twenty-five nations."

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've visited there twice in my teenage years. This place is so popular that the main body of the church has add-on extensions to cater for the thousands that worship there in the height of summer.

From the outside it is a massive building, more ressembling a big shed than a church. But inside is a different matter. I've visited quite a number of churches and cathedrals in the past and I think the inside of Taize's main church is the most beautiful.

Behind the altar at the east end is the most simple backdrop - a jumple of open breeze blocks stacked this way and that with little candles lit at random in the gaps. It's like looking at a village on a distant hillside.

The rest of the building is very low lit, the strong smell of inscence fragrances the air, there are no pews to clutter the building - you can sit, kneel, lay down or stand. The hymmns are four part harmony chants in a variety of languages. Sonorous bells call you to prayer three times a day.

There is an overwhelming sense of peace in that place. It sounds strange to say this but indulge me - it would be almost immaterial whether or not you believed in God. Everyone could go there and find something in that place.

I am no longer a practising Christian, I now see myself as a humanist. However, should I ever find myself in the vacinity of Taize, I know that I'd visit that church on the hillside in a heartbeat.

Joyful Journeys.