Cosmos of Meaning, Part 9 Sacred, Profane, Reflexive

Symbolic systems differentiate modes of being, establishing the sacred and the profane, the central and the marginal. The sacred marks what is stabilising, orienting, or ultimate; the profane is ordinary, mutable, and contextual. Reflexivity arises when collectives recognise the symbolic process itself, destabilising rigid binaries and opening space for new construals.

In myth, sacred sites, rituals, and narratives delineate thresholds between ordinary and extraordinary experience. Theology codifies the sacred in divine law, ritual practice, and moral cosmology, while science sometimes sacralises constants, laws, and mathematical forms. Reflexivity occurs when these boundaries are recognised as contingent: when myths, doctrines, or theories are seen not as absolute truths but as enacted relational frameworks.

Understanding sacred, profane, and reflexive distinctions illuminates how cosmoses guide perception, action, and meaning. The sacred stabilises, the profane situates, and reflexivity frees — allowing collectives to inhabit and reshape the cosmos without mistaking constructed orientation for immutable reality.