Cold Fever - Spencer Beeson

The movie Cold Fever is a good example of sacred space. In Lane’s book he has four axioms that relate to sacred space. The first axiom is that sacred space is not chosen, it chooses. This is portrayed in the movie because at the beginning the man does not want to go to Iceland to pay tribute to his dead parents he wants to go to Hawaii to golf. But when practicing putting in his house his tv turned on by itself and on it was an old video of his parents. After this he had to go, so the place chose him he didn’t want to go. Secondly, sacred place is ordinary place ritually made extraordinary. Through the ritual of burial rights and his long journey to the place where they died the landscape is made sacred. The third axiom is sacred place can be tred upon without being entered. This is simple in that he is not experiencing sacredness all the time but at any point in the trip the place has the ability to become sacred. The final axiom is the impulse of sacred place is both centripetal and centrifugal. The landscape of Iceland made the man realize the sacredness right here right now but also gave him the feeling that sacredness can not be confined to any one place and thus, brought forth a universal feeling of sacredness.