The “Sacred Mountain” is at the heart of the cosmology and sacred geography of many forms of religion, from the archaic shamanic traditions to the great Abrahamic religions.
As a cosmic axis, the mountain crosses and connects three worlds – the divine, the human and the infernal. It may be a mountain of light or diamond, gold or crystal, with slopes covered by an inaccessible forest, while the top may be crowned by a garden of
delights in which gods and other immortals dwell. It may be watched over by hideous monsters or guardian angels. As an earthly refl ection of the sun, the moon, the pole star, or other remote constellations, its rivers divide up the earth’s surface at cardinal points, and fi ll the ocean with waters surrounding the eternally spinning island of the world.
Although a great deal has already been written on this topic, the specialists who contributed to this volume – Alessandro Grossato, Antonio Panaino, Domenico Accorinti, Carlo Saccone, Riccardo Fracasso, Giorgio Arduini and Enrico Comba – have provided
new materials and original ideas in interpreting one of the most signifi cant mythologems in the history of religions in various countries: from Hinduist India to Zoroastrian Iran, ancient Greece, Islamic Arabia-Persia, Taoist China, Shinto and Buddhist Japan, and the Amerindian cultures of North America. The thread connecting all of the studies collected here is man’s continuous quest not only for a symbolic centre of the world, but also a place to experience asceticism and divine revelation.