Rising Up and Breaking Open: Mythologies, Conservation, and the Rebuilding of Notre Dame

In this inaugural episode of The Emerald we take a look at some of the more mythic implications of the 2019 Notre Dame fire, the place that buildings hold in human consciousness and myth, as well as the little-known history of the cathedral which involves a popular goddess of the ancient world. 

Architecture can tell many stories — at its best, it reflects a synchronous relationship between human beings and nature. The great temples and mosques of the world are designed to convey the proportions of sacred geometry that are found throughout nature, and many are built on former sites of nature spirit worship. Notre Dame is no different. There is strong evidence that Notre Dame is built on a former site of worship of the mother goddess Isis.

Of course, architecture can also tell a very different story — that of power, class divide, and the human preoccupation with size.  

In the Tantric traditions, external architecture is seen as but a poor reflections of a deeper architecture that lives latent in the human mind, an architecture which is revealed and shaped through meditation. 

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