Man Becomes Aware Of The Sacred Because

Man Makes Himself, And He Only Makes Himself Completely In Proportion As He Desacrilizes Himself And The World. The Sacred Is The Prime Obstacle To His Freedom. He Will Become Himself Only When He Is Totally Demysticized. He Will Not Be Truly Free Until He Has Killed The Last God.

In Imitating The Exemplary Acts Of A God Or Of A Mythic Hero, Or Simply By Recounting Their Adventures, The Man Of An Archaic Society Detaches Himself From Profane Time And Magically Re-enters The Great Time, The Sacred Time.

It Is Not Without Fear And Trembling That A Historian Of Religion Approaches The Problem Of Myth. This Is Not Only Because Of That Preliminary Embarrassing Question: What Is Intended By Myth? It Is Also Because The Answers Given Depend For The Most Part On The Documents Selected.

The Great Cosmic Illusion Is A Hierophany.... One Is Devoured By Time, Not Because One Lives In Time, But Because One Believes In Its Reality, And Therefore Forgets Or Despises Eternity.

For Those To Whom A Stone Reveals Itself As Sacred, Its Immediate Reality Is Transmuted Into Supernatural Reality. In Other Words, For Those Who Have A Religious Experience All Nature Is Capable Of Revealing Itself As Cosmic Sacrality.