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Sacred Shrines in Timbuktu under Siege: the Conflict of Light and Dark

Posted
July 11, 2012,
by
Claire Montanaro
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It comes down to serious conflict between separatists and Islamists in Mali which has caused significant but largely unnoticed devastation and displacement to those who try to live there. Islamist forces are now in control, but the group, which took over Timbuktu in April, believes shrines and other such sacred sites are idolatrous and so are destroying what is a recognised World Heritage site. I was saddened to hear that a 700 year old spiritual centre, a place of worship and ritual for so many and so long, was so carelessly attacked, and thought of the many other sacred sites which have been abused in our recent history such as the monasteries in Tibet and temples in Burma, Glastonbury Abbey during the Reformation and shrines in Iraq and Afghanistan. People at war, with a determination for power and aggrandisement, do not often regard the religious and cultural significance of the place they are fighting over, except when they want to change it to accommodate their beliefs or their desires. We remember this sacred destruction as relating to perhaps the last thousand years, but it has occurred regularly for many millennia. Any place of spiritual gathering and reverence attracts to it, over time, an increasingly strong purity of energy and light which is why a place like Avebury or Macchu Piccu has such a magic about them still. Wherever there is light there is true power, and other energies may, through fear and competition, wish to extinguish it. The established Church, for example, for many centuries attacked all that threatened its domination – pagan beliefs and ceremonies, the natural clock, Cathars, witches, speakers of truth…….and the great Temple of Light, the greatest spiritual centre of all time, was destroyed to enable the rigid establishment of the third dimension on Earth and the growth of the materialism which dominates human values now. So, the attacks on the sacred shrines in Timbuktu are not new, rather part of the pattern of the conflict between light and dark.  Sacred places will exist always, old and newly created as long as there is loving human intent – and as long as the Light shines from within and upon us. And more and more it will.]]>

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I am a spiritual teacher, channel and writer with a special interest in esoteric philosophy and the world in transition, who loves nature and wildlife.  My aim is to help your human and soul journey through spiritual wisdom, spiritual connection and the raising of consciousness.

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