Non-conventional places of worship

[Svrtnsse]

I'm currently describing a big train station my characters are passing through, and the description starts out something like this:

Tin Jian Grand Central Station - a vast cathedral consecrated to the gods of dream and travel. ​

At first my thinking was that the station was formerly a cathedral to the god of travels and that it had been converted into a train station at some point. It seemed apt.
Then my mind wandered, and I figured the train station might still serve as a cathedral for these gods.

What other locations could serve dual purpose in this way?
- A shopping mall could be a temple to the god of wealth.
- A university could be a temple of wisdom.
Etc, etc.

Some seem obvious, but there could be other less obvious options as well, right?

 

[elemtilas]

You're thinking along the right lines: at Rome, the temple of Juno Moneta was where coins were struck for many years. Her name, Moneta, gives us our words money and indeed mint as pertains to the striking of coins.

Any of the grand old train stations in the US have that quasi-cathedral nature about them. Just take a look at the insides of Washington Union Station or New York Grand Central. DC's temple to Locomotion even has statues of her protective warrior angels up along the gallery.

Certainly a bar could serve as a temple of cheap wines and liquors. The bar's toilet could serve as a temple of regret.

The Archives can also be a temple of History.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Any of the grand old train stations in the US have that quasi-cathedral nature about them. Just take a look at the insides of Washington Union Station or New York Grand Central. DC's temple to Locomotion even has statues of her protective warrior angels up along the gallery.

Yeah, that was kind of what I was thinking about.

 

[Orc Knight]

Luck be a Casino.
Pleasure a resort. Or as in my stuff, Red Light districts and drug dens too. At least the more hedonistic and carnal pleasures, anyways.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Luck be a Casino.
Pleasure a resort. Or as in my stuff, Red Light districts and drug dens too. At least the more hedonistic and carnal pleasures, anyways.

This is where I can't help but mention the god who created the anfylk, who's referred to as Anna, goddess of lazy afternoons and other simple pleasures. One of the preferred methods of worship is napping - ideally in the shade of a tree on a warm summer afternoon.

 

[skip.knox]

Natural sites were long a home to gods--groves of trees. Along those lines, a volcano or even hot springs could serve nicely. An ocean grotto such as the one at the island of Capri as a home for a sea god. The Bridge of the Gods on the Columbia River comes to mind. I'm sure there are others.

 

[WooHooMan]

I wanted to do something like this for my own thing and the issue I find is that a lot of choices is based on conjecture or flimsy associations that we modern non-Polytheists would come-up with like luck=gambling=casino or wealth=shopping=malls. If I were a worshiper of the god of wealth, I'd be a little offended by people using a mall as a temple. Malls take away people's wealth. They're basically antithetical to a god of wealth. I'd imagine a mine, a mint or a bank would make more sensible places of wealth-worship.

Anyway, the way I saw it: worship and veneration is an act and the "temple" is just the place that act is committed. So, really, any place would do. Just prop-up a shrine in the corner and you're set.
In one of my stories, a sword is described as being a "temple" because of how it is used in rituals to give thanks to the gods. And the most prominent place of worship in the story is a bridge where people would make offerings by tossing things over the side - believing that the river washing it away was the gods taking it to the spirit world.

 

[TheMirrorMage]

What could be interesting is a "temple" in the form of an ornate, architecturally brilliant version of the usual location. Imagine if a blacksmith was given the same treatment as one of the train stations you mention, or indeed a "liquor house", which instead of serving just a relatively small selection of drinks (like other bars/pubs) served every conceivable beverage. Add shrines to specific gods within these locations and you have an interesting cathedral-type situation. These places would become the Mecca of each god and their respective profession or associated locations. Some of these places could serve as schools (of smithing, brewing etc) much like the College of Winterhold in Skyrim or the Citadel in ASOIAF/GoT.

I also imagine a society like this would have these "temples" located all over the place, and pilgrimages to these centres of industry/society/education would be a culturally significant thing, with some locations offering qualifications or additional titles. Parents would send their kids off. Maybe a class system prevents or discourages certain people from entering certain "temples", a system which is reinforced by this restrictive educational system.

Lots of scope for interesting settings/conflict/motivation here, at least compared to the regular approach to places of worship.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

For some reason this is reminding me of American Gods, which makes me wonder: would a funeral home be a suitable 'temple' for a god or gods of death? Likely not.

 

[Russ]

or indeed a "liquor house", which instead of serving just a relatively small selection of drinks (like other bars/pubs) served every conceivable beverage.

I would worship in that place

edit-

As I pondered this thread the historical geek part of me thought about a certain interesting historical controversy that seemed at least tangentially on point.

When Martin Luther was a monk he came up with the revolutionary idea of "Justification through faith alone." There is some significant debate as to exactly where he was when he did so.

In this table talks he said he did so in the "cloaca", which is the bathroom. There is substantial debate as to whether he meant this literally or figuratively.

Martin Luther’s Lavatory - Medieval Histories

(If you care I think he meant it literally for a number of reasons).

Anyways, if you can have the central doctrine of your faith come to you on the toilet, you can have a place of worship just about anywhere!

 

[skip.knox]

It's probably worth mentioning that places of worship are not the only places of religion. There are places, for example, where sacrifices are conducted. There are places where certain rituals are carried out--I'm thinking of Mithraism, for example. There are places where omens are read. Then there are processionals, which are simultaneously a religious and a civic ceremony. And don't forget monasteries, which were retreats for laymen, not clerics, and were places of constant religion, as it were.

We moderns have stripped religion down to a single place--the church--leaving all else secular. That is sort of unprecedented. Pre-modern societies are filled with religious spaces.

 

[Svrtnsse]

We moderns have stripped religion down to a single place--the church--leaving all else secular. That is sort of unprecedented. Pre-modern societies are filled with religious spaces.

This is a good point. The gods take a fairly active role in the world, and so it would make sense there are more places where that shines through.

 

[elemtilas]

This is a good point (.i., that "moderns have stripped religion down to a single place--the church--leaving all else secular.")

Some, perhaps. I'd certainly take exception with the notion. Sure, there is the church building itself, but that is certainly not half the story! Particularly in Europe, you can still find wayside shrines, chapels and sacred springs all over the place. There is a monastery not far from here (US location) with a very large outdoor rosary portico and meditation gardens beyond. Also not far is a shrine with a beautiful wooded mountainside trail with prayer and meditation stations all along. In Jerusalem, the whole Via Crucis is an outdoor trail for contemplation, adoration & prayer. The whole highway system of the US (particularly east of the Mississippi) is a great mobile shrine, whether you pass a stand of Coffindaffer crosses or take a moment to pray for someone who's died and is remembered in one of thousands of highway memorials. In addition, you'll find thousands of adoration chapels, home chapels, altars & shrines, home churches, hospital chapels, airport mediation rooms, and Bible study groups meeting in libraries, homes and schools all over the country. And this is just Christianity.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Sure, there is the church building itself, but that is certainly not half the story! Particularly in Europe, you can still find wayside shrines, chapels and sacred springs all over the place.

This is also a good point. I live in Ireland and there are shrines all over the place, both here in the city and throughout the countryside. They're common enough I didn't even think about it.

There could be more to it than that though, but I'll have to have a bt of a think about it to figure out what I'm really doing with this idea.

 

[elemtilas]

There could be more to it than that though, but I'll have to have a bt of a think about it to figure out what I'm really doing with this idea.

When I first read the OP, what struck me is that you might could be describing a civic religion more than a spiritual religion.

Just a for example, at Washington, there's loads of extremely temple-like monuments. Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson, the Archives, the Capitol. Any of these places could be seen as shrines or temples of an underlying civic religion of American Republicanism. Most of these grand edifices do indeed instill one with a sense of grand civic elevation, if not the kind of spiritual uplift you might find in the mighty gothic cathedrals of Europe, or the more Catholic-pagan sense of peace you'd find in an ancient sacred well in Ireland.