The Wonders of Rock-Hewn Tuscia Part 2 - Parte 2 - The Energies Of Places. By Etruscan Corner

The first anchorites used caves as they stood. Only the devotion of the faithful, or the subsequent expansion of hermit communities, led to these natural refuges being partially adapted with stone wall enclosures. Doors and the construction of altars or chapels that fit into the limited context represented significant transitional elements between the original cult cave and the church resting on its foundations.

Visiting these lands also means recovering, to some extent, the original intention of the hermits who lived there: far from everything, isolated yet in contact with a nature of impressive splendor, a true creation of God. A natural environment that frames and enhances the sacredness of the places.

The transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages and from paganism to Christianity did not completely undermine the use of caves and hypogea as places of worship. Christian worship overlapped with pagan worship without erasing the sacred value of the places. In the beginning, as we saw in the first part, not all of Christianity accepted the idea of ​​the cave as a sacred place with all its symbolic meaning.

Functional needs undoubtedly stand out among the reasons that drove medieval man to occupy a rock space as a place of worship. Certain geomorphological conditions, in fact, offered the opportunity to carve a habitable space out of the rock as an alternative to a masonry building, thus saving resources, materials, and labor. Beyond practical needs, however, the reasons for the choice to use a rock environment as a sanctuary must be sought in the cultural substratum, that sacredness that the cave, understood primarily as a natural cavern, has acquired since the Archaic period.

In Tuscia, the predominance of rock elements over built elements is evident, a predominance that only began to assert itself during the second era of monasticism.

The analysis of the caves associated with the sacred and the religious phenomena that contributed to the development of sanctuaries, such as devotion to the Archangel Michael, hermitism, and the veneration of relics, is very interesting. The latter are the reason for the survival of the sanctuaries located within the catacombs, places of worship that have much in common with the world of rock art.

The construction of churches and monumental sanctuaries in the 6th century BC changed the appearance of the places of worship and settlements of archaic Tuscia. In medieval civilization, the presence of Christian occupation of the territory through the development of monasticism, with the foundation of monasteries and hermitages, had a significant impact on the transformation of the urban, territorial, and economic structure, as well as on cultural and artistic evolution.

Tuscia is one of the places in Italy that underwent early Christianization. Its proximity to Rome, the center from which all subsequent Christianization would radiate, is not insignificant in this regard.

But equally significant are the depth of the valleys, the rugged environment, the wild beauty, and the silent isolation, which have always stimulated in the inhabitants of this area a religious vocation, first pagan, then Christian.

The development from hermit life to community life was slow, first with the "Basilian laura", then with the cenobium, which enriched their places of worship with greater architectural and decorative elaborations, liturgical elements and iconographic and pictorial repertoires into which Western and Eastern cultural and religious values ​​were transferred.

In the 13th century, the final stage of the expansionist thrust of the monasteries, the Tuscia Viterbo area appeared divided into different areas of influence: Farfa (Ri) controlled the left bank of the Tiber, with the area between the port of Seripola and the vicinity of the confluence with the Nera River; San Silvestro in Capite controlled the territories of Orte, Vasanello, Vallerano, and Gallese; San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, the foothills of the Cimini Mountains with the territories of Soriano, Sant'Eutizio, and Santa Maria di Luco; the Abbey of Santa Croce di Sassovivo, the Sub-Amerinian countryside on the left bank of the Tiber (at least partially replacing Farfa); and the Hospital of Santo Spirito in Saxia, the territories around Gallese near the Via Flaminia.

Initiatory Cave

The Temple is not only a place where devotees gather, but also a sacred space where, in spiritual union among devotees, connection with the Transcendent, with the Divine, is realized.

The Temple is a clear allusion to the "Initiatory Cave." The cave's correspondence with the spiritual center represents the Initiatory Way, the path that leads to the center not only of humanity, but of the cosmos. Even the pilgrimage along the path of the labyrinth, which we mentioned in our articles on labyrinths, is a journey toward the center.

Access to the cave therefore corresponds to the rite of initiation; the very term "initiation," derived from the Latin in - ire, contains the very concept of access.

For the devotee, the exterior is the place of darkness; the interior of the cave is instead the place to seek light, where the second birth, spiritual regeneration, occurs: man from the "primordial state," once actively reintegrated into the fullness of his faculties, will seek to achieve his realization in the Supreme Principle.

Knowledge of the value of these places with their symbols comes to us from tradition—or rather, from multiple traditions—from culture, from the sensitivity of devotees who are left free to roam, to increase their knowledge and understanding, but also to refine their intuition.

Pillars and Columns

Since the dawn of civilization, the entrance to sacred places has been preceded by two pillars. In both art and architecture, columns serve both a supporting function and a decorative purpose. However, the two columns are archetypal symbols representing the point of access to the unknown.

In several caves and hypogea, we have seen columns carved from tuff, and in some cases, we also note the presence of decorated capitals.

The presence of pillars and columns suggests that our ancestors were familiar with the ancient technology of vibrational and purifying energies. The concept of the two pillars standing at the gates of sacred places can be traced back to ancient civilizations, most notably that of Atlantis, the lost source of Hermetic knowledge.

There are two columns to the right and left of the entrance to Solomon's Temple: the left column is named Boaz (grandfather of King David), which means "strength, firmness"; the second to the right is named Jachin (the priest who inaugurated Solomon's Temple), which literally means "stability, which God has secured."

The initial J of Jachin corresponds to Jod and indicates the masculine-active-solar, and the B of Boaz indicates Beth, the feminine-passive-lunar. Together, they symbolize the duality that is a fundamental characteristic of Nature.

Sacred Architecture

The Columns, according to the dictates of Sacred Architecture, are nothing more than a sophisticated reminder of the pillars omnipresent in the very first sanctuaries in history (along with the Caves): the Woods.

For Easterners, they are the main collectors of vibrations from the wide range of frequencies emanating from the Earth and perform the same role as columns: the accumulation and conservation of vibrational energy.

All the largest temples were located on mountains and hills or created an artificial hill to harness the Earth's energy flowing upward.

If we assume that columns are devices that transmit vibrational energy, then the greater their number, the more powerful the energy.

Obelisks deserve a separate discussion. Arches also have energetic principles: the famous Arcs de Triomphe are thought to be portals for instantaneous travel. But these topics will provide the basis for a further discussion.