Sacred Centers and Archangel Michael: Places of Spiritual Manifestation

in which passages can take place. These are passages where, under certain conditions, those who must experience the transition from death to life and from life to death can transit. These places take on the characteristic of CENTER. The most famous and important of these is certainly Golgotha, and its power and importance is certainly testified by the struggles that still infest the place for its conquest, but beyond this place there are many others that have had and have this characteristic of making possible this rupture of level and spiritual communication between the earthly world and the celestial world. In general, every altar being an imitation of Golgotha is a secondary representation of the primary center, but to be more specific, a place takes on the characteristics of CENTER when it is a SACRED SPACE in which a transhuman presence has manifested. Every sacred space to which a hierophany has been linked and which has manifested realities that are not of our world, but arrive from the metaphysical Heaven, has had the character of "center". P ALAMIDESSI T., The Christian Book of the Dead. Therefore, the places of the Grail, the places where hierophanies, particular apparitions have occurred have a character of Center, of place where a metaphysical presence has manifested to communicate with our world. 4ARCHANGEL MICHAEL. As far as we are concerned, there are some extremely important places where tradition holds that metaphysical manifestations or hierophanies have occurred. Some examples are: Mont Serrat: one of the special mountains indicated by Germanic traditions where a vision of the Grail would have occurred, the vision of the Word, whose key is found in the Gospel of St. John. Generally such exceptional apparition takes place at the end of a historical cycle of spiritual darkness, and today we are in the darkness of the black age. Mont Segur: in Ariege, which in pre-Christian times was dedicated to the God of Light, a temple of the Holy Grail was built, a true center of spirituality, where was the last refuge of the Cathars or Perfect Ones, when the crusade against the Albigensians blazed. Mount Gargano: where Archangel Michael indicated that place as holy to the local bishop. An ancient chronicle of 490 tells that a bull, escaped from its master (a certain Elvio Emanuele, nobleman of Mount Gargano), was found prostrate, almost in meditation, in front of the entrance of a cave. The master did everything to move the bull, which did not want to know, even shooting an arrow at it: the arrow returned to the launcher, wounding him. The fact was interpreted as a form of divination, as a warning not to approach a sacred place. The Bishop of Siponto, Lorenzo Maiorano, after having prudently proclaimed three days of fasting and prayers, saw Archangel Michael appear who told him "Know that Elvio Emanuele was struck by the arrow by my will. I am Archangel Michael and I always stand in the presence of God, I have established to preserve this place for myself, demonstrating that I am its guardian. What will be asked here in prayer will be granted. Go therefore to the mountain and dedicate the cave to Christian worship." However, the Bishop did not obey the angel for two years, but turned to him when the inhabitants of Siponto, besieged by barbarians, seemed to succumb; he obtained a truce of three days dedicated to fasting and prayer. On September 29, 492, at the expiration of the truce, the Saint appeared to him promising his help: a storm of sand and hail poured from Gargano onto Odoacer's occupying troops, who fled in fear. In 494 St. Michael appeared again to Lorenzo and said: "You must not dedicate the church to me, for I myself have consecrated it. Enter and pray under my assistance." Finally the Bishop obeyed, and once inside he found an altar covered with a red cloth, on which shone a crystal cross, while the imprint of an infant foot impressed on a stone confirmed the presence of Archangel Michael. Mont San Michel: sanctuary built in the center of the island of Le Mont Saint Michel (in northern France) is a traditional place of pilgrimage for the apparition of Archangel Michael. the Abbey of San Galgano: where Galgano -son of two devotees of Archangel Michael and frequenters of the sanctuary of Gargano- had the vision of Archangel Michael. In some of these places Archangel Michael has manifested with a sword, and has given a sword. The characteristic of the hierophany is indeed important. This character, Archangel Michael, represents a most important angelic entity because it is as if he were the minister of this power represented by the Sword since antiquity, since times preceding Judaism, because it refers to a metaphysical reality outside of time. The sword is one of the symbols of the center like the Cup or Grail, the Crown and the Prophet's Sword. When reference is made to the symbolism of the sword therefore one points not to any sword, but one must tune in with the sword carried by St. Archangel Michael and which is the symbol of an absolute power that resides in the Grail. The important point therefore to emphasize is that for meditation on the sword reference is made to the sword of St. Archangel Michael who in the Apocalypse defeats the demon Asmodeus and which is symbol of a metaphysical reality and not of something potential or to come. For example the sword can also be the symbol of one's own will, but this is still in a latent state and therefore the pointing does not have the same force. This is important from an operative point of view because it is the same difference that exists in meditating on one's own cup as symbol of one's own wisdom and love or a meditation on the Grail. When one meditates on the Cup one takes a physical symbol, for example a cup, but this in intention and pointing is the symbol of the chalice of the Grail, the cup in which the divine presence is collected, the Grace of the Holy Spirit.