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My career as a photographer of sacred architecture and pilgrimage
sites began when I was a young boy. My father was in the US
diplomatic service and because of this I was privileged to travel
widely around the world. Archaeology and
photography were my father's hobbies and my mother was highly
educated in classical music and painting, thus from my earliest
years I was immersed in the arts and antiquities of foreign
cultures. When I was twelve years old our family
moved to India for four years. During this period I went on frequent
journeys, both alone and in the company of wandering holy men, to
the temples, mosques and sacred caves of India, Nepal and Kashmir.
Reading extensively in the
fields of Buddhism and Hinduism, and fascinated with the mystery of
the sacred places, I dreamed of one day producing an anthropological
guidebook and photographic atlas of the great Asian pilgrimage
shrines. After my family's return to the United States I entered the
University of Arizona with the intention of studying Mesoamericam
archaeology but soon left, drawn back to India by the call of the
spiritual quest and the desire to become a mountain hermit in the
tradition of
Theravada Buddhism. While living in northern India I became a member
of a monastic order and for the next ten years, both in India and
the west, cultivated a deep practice of meditation.
At the age of twenty-eight I left monastic life behind, returned
to the US, and started two travel companies. Within three years
these companies were moving thousands of people each year to the
Caribbean and Mexico, and I was becoming a very successful
businessman.
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Yet there was an emptiness in my
heart and soul for I yearned to do something more aligned
with my spiritual practices. My prayers were soon answered.
On a journey to South America, visiting the archaeological
sites of Easter Island and Machu Picchu, I experienced a
powerful reawakening of my interest in ancient sacred
places. So strong was this interest that I decided to pursue
my earlier ambition of photographing the world's great
sacred architecture.
Returning to the US, I sold my lucrative companies and began
an eighteen year period of traveling as a wandering pilgrim
to over 1000 sacred sites in more than 80 countries around
the world. |
Machu Picchu, Peru
Photograph courtesy of www.sacredsites.com
and Martin Gray
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Traveling mostly by bicycle and living as a monk at hundreds of
temples, monasteries and sacred mountains, I conducted exhaustive
mythological and anthropological study and extensive photographic
documentation of the sites.
While engaged in these travels and research, I also created a
multi-projector slide show that communicates the extraordinary
beauty and profound contemporary relevance of the sacred sites.
During the past fifteen years, I have presented this slide show to
more than 90,000 people at museums, universities and conferences
around the United States, South America and Europe.
There have been three primary motivations for my research and
travels to the world's sacred sites.
One motivation has been to gather evidence showing that pre
industrial cultures throughout the world recognized the Earth to be
a sacred being worthy of deep respect and gentle treatment. Studying
the development of sanctity at sacred sites, it is clear that many
ancient peoples had a reverential relationship with the living
earth. If such a relationship can be reawakened and encouraged in
our own culture, we will be better able to address the crisis of
worldwide ecological degradation. Many people, after seeing my
sacred site slide show, report a deepening of their connection to
and concern for the Earth. From such deepening arises a commitment
to personal behaviors and larger social actions which make positive
contributions to life. The slide show is thus a powerful tool for
assisting the emergence of global ecological consciousness.
A second motivation has been to photographically document the
world's great sacred architecture before it is forever lost to the
ravages of modernization and industrial pollution. Sacred
architecture represents the greatest concentration
and the most sublime example of humanity's artistic expression. Due
to their outdoor locations, however, these great art pieces do not
receive the protection which paintings and sculpture receive in
environmentally controlled museums. It is
my hope, through the frequent and wide presentation of my slide
shows, to stimulate an increased public awareness of both the value
and fragility of these wondrous works of art.
Golden Temple, Amritsar, India
Photograph courtesy of www.sacredsites.com
and Martin Gray
A third motivation has been to study the miraculous phenomena
frequently reported at sacred sites. A growing body of evidence
indicates that there is indeed a density of holiness that saturates
the locality of the pilgrimage places and
that this holiness, or field of energy, contributes to a wide
variety of beneficial human experiences. The living earth has much
to teach us human beings and the ancient sacred sites are classrooms
where this instruction is abundantly given. For further insights on
the above matters, please refer to my web site at www.sacredsites.com.
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Printed and bound
copies of the Places
of Peace and Power manuscript are now available for $20 (plus $4 shipping
in the US, $6 International).
The 120 page manuscript includes the Introduction, three
textual chapters and a bibliography, (but no photos).
To order copies, send a check to: Martin Gray PO 4111,
Sedona, AZ, 86340
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PLACES OF
PEACE AND POWER - The Sacred Site Pilgrimage of Martin Gray
This web site discusses Martin's pilgrimage journeys, features
many of his photographs and writings, lists calendar details of
upcoming slide shows, gives information regarding book and
photograph orders, and has links to related sites.
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Magic Planet
Magic Planet Productions is the on-line art print store for
Martin Gray’s extraordinary photographs of sacred sites around
the world. The photographs featured on this web site were
created during a twenty year period when Martin traveled as a
pilgrim, visiting and studying more than 1000 holy places in 80
countries. Martin is an expert in the scholarly study of the
anthropology and mythology of pilgrimage, archaeoastronomy,
sacred geometry and esoteric earth mysteries. These sacred site
images reflect Martin’s knowledge as well as his profound love
of the living earth.
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Articles by Martin Gray
(local link)
Contact
If you wish to be on my Sacred Sites email list and
receive a newsletter 2-3 times a year, send an email to me with the
word subscribe in the subject box.
Email: martin@sacredsites.com
Postal mail address:
Martin Gray
PO 4111
Sedona, Arizona
86340 USA
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