...help me out here.

This photo:
http://www.moroni10.com/LDS/Temple_Tour/SLC_Terrestrial_Room.html

is of the Terrestrial room. Is that the last room you are in before you go to the celestial room? So... is the "veil" behind those curtains behind the alter?

Just curious.

YEs

those 3 panel rouched curtains rise via electric system and become hidden behind the valance. What is revealed is a white piece of fabric that is the veil. It has the "L", "V" and "navel mark" holes cut out with flaps over them large enough for an oldster to stick his hands through. The navel mark is about waist high and you give him his secret squirel handshakes.

I believed such bullshit.

All temples are set up the same way. The terrestrial room is always the one with a veil or row of veils along one side (which you may see if you ever go to an open house), though they're not necessarily curved. They lift or pull aside mechanically to enable one to do the handshakes / hug before walking through to the celestial room. There's a 1912 photo of the room without the curtains (in Talmadge's photo book, iirc) that shows the rollers on the ceiling and both rooms clearly.

I should say, "the terrestrial room is always the one with a curtain along one side," which conceals the veil proper as Levi noted above. On an open house tour you won't be shown the veil with the marks, just the curtain that covers it.

I've also noticed that in open houses you don't necessarily go through the rooms in the "proper" order as an endowment, probably for traffic flow purposes. For instance, you may be led into the terrestrial room and then back out to the corridor before going into the celestial room, whereas in an actual endowment you'd go through the veil. If you pay attention during an open house tour and have a good eye for floorplans you can figure out how it would actually flow.

I went through the SLC temple just once in 1988. I was expecting the Celestial room to be huge. I was surprised that, despite the high ceiling, it was actually quite small.

Looks like a movie theater.....are all those seats ever filled?

Looks white and sterile to me...definitely not spiritually uplifting.

Can anyone say..."white and delightsome"

the area for the veil has been expanded. I don't know when. At one point, it was only as wide as the wall. Now that "curved box" had been installed to create more "stations" at the veil. Each "station" has its "own" veil with its set of marks.

Of course, the new movie theater temples only have one room.

I had always seen that photo and thought the room was huge, but when I finally got in there in person, it is much smaller. Wide angle lens, I guess. The old Talmadge photos represent the real scale better.

Now just imagine people in baker's hats around that altar, linked in a circle, doing spooky arm gestures and chanting, and you'll have it!

I wasnt that impressed, in spite of all the MORmON blathering about the divine supremacy of the LDS temple. I saw ceasers palace in Vegas, that was MUCH more impressive.

I think one of the most impressive Mormon Temples is the one in Independence MO on the hill. It is beautiful open to the public and dedicated to World Peace. It was built by the RLDS.

yes

Another point about understanding the interior of the temple --

The "Ordinance Rooms" are all in the basement and the ground floor. They're pretty small in the overall temple floor plan. The building wasn't "designed around" the ordinance rooms like a modern temple is.

Instead, the building was designed around the Assembly Hall. That's what dictates how tall, long and wide the building is.

http://www.moroni10.com/LDS/Temple_Tour/SLC_Temple_Assembly_Hall.jpg

The Solemn Assembly room is a giant sanctuary that takes up the entire top two floors of the building - side to side, end to end. It seats about 700 people, as I recall.



They had regular meetings in the Solemn Assembly room until maybe the 1970s? Now it just sits and gathers dust, as the use of the temple building shifted 100% ordinances and weddings, and no meetings. I bet 95% of temple-goers doing the little dance in the Terrestrial Room have no idea that there's a huge Victorian-era meeting hall directly over their heads.

Just a snippet of possible interest,
RG



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2012 12:36AM by reinventinggrace.

A&T -- cool, have you ever posted an account? I'd be fascinated to know what happens there.

In particular, what's with the low-budget folding chairs? I've read it's so folks can flip them back and forth depending on whether it's the M or A p'hood talking. I assume they've long since dumped the ones in that 1980? photo and gotten some seriously cushy chairs.

And with a room like that full of folding chair, bored folks must get to thinking about pushing the chairs back for a dance party or Stake B-Ball championship...

Do tell
RG

I came back to SLC a few days early (stupid, I know) to attend. I wanted to know more about solemn assemblies, see the room, and did not think I would have a chance again (I was invited - either by someone in the ward or a temple worker, but either way I'm pretty sure the assembly was for the workers). I just looked at a journal I came across a few days ago, and wrote nothing about it - I was never a journal writer.

To me it seemed ordinary with singing, and speaking like in any meeting, except everyone was wearing their temple clothes. Probably it was the temple presidency, and a GA, but I cannot say for sure. One would think I would remember. I do remember meeting James Faust in the temple, and almost met TSM, but accidentally avoided becoming a FPR. The room is white of course, not yellowish from the floor reflection, like in the photograph. I do not recall the chairs, and cannot say what the seating was like.

I wish I could be of more help. If I find any notes I can post them. You could start a new thread; there are probably people here who know a lot more than me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2012 01:28AM by atheist&happy:-).

AnH
Thanks for the accounting, sounds like it was a difficult time for you.
About what I expected. But -- temple clothes! Somehow I hadn't factored that into my mental imaging..
RG

I'm sure someone has played basketball or had a dance there. We already know they have no qualms about running the whole fraud, so what would stop them? Conscience? ROTFL!

I went thru the SLC temple and saw many photos of the interior including the Assembly Hall, but never realized it was on the top floor (ABOVE the Celestial Room!) until I saw that cutaway model that they had on display at the south visitor's center a couple of years ago. That put all the rooms into perspective.

Other temples have assembly halls too, including Nauvoo (new and old), Manti, Logan, L.A. and D.C. Maybe a few more?

Thanks for the lead on the cutaway model. It all makes more sense now.

Here's a basic shot of the cutaway model: http://jeffsly.com/gallery2/d/13310-2/SL+Temple+Cut+away.jpg

& for lily, here's the rundown:

The basics:
* First, you're baptized (but only if you're dead, of course).

* Living folks start out in the Garden Room. That's on the lower right in the basement. Originally Brigham wanted a greenhouse on the outside of the Garden Room, so it's up against the south wall at ground level. (the back of the room would have had the greenhouse -- how cool would that be?). Not pictured, in the model, is an all-seeing eye painted on the ceiling, about 2 feet across.

* After you're banished, you go out in that middle hallway, up the stairs, and into the World Room. That's on the ground floor on the left. It has the wasteland mural, with critters eating each other. You put on your robes to "cover your nakedness". There's that flight of stairs at the front of the room, this room has the most elaborate skits. Satan, Peter, James and John take turns traipsing up and down those stairs as they come and go in the skit. They're old geezers and they mess up their lines sometimes.

* Then, when you're good and ready, you go through those two arched doors at the front of the World Room and go into the Terrestrial Room (not shown in the cutout, but its behind those two arched doors, and it faces the other way, so the veil at the front transits you into the Celestial Room. The Terrestrial Room is the most boring of the lot, no artwork to look at, just some secret handshakes and prayer chanting and whatnot, and some more wardrobe reconfigurations. By this time everyone is wearing bakers caps of veils and the whole deal.

* Then, after you've learned all the passwords and handshakes, they empty the Terrestrial Theater out one row at a time to go to the veil, and then up a couple steps to the Celestial Room. That's the right hand side, ground floor.

* What's "cut out" in front of the Celestial Room is the Holy of Holies. That's where Laban's Sword and whatever other artifacts are said to be stored. I think there's a stained glass window connecting the two, but about 15' up in the air there's a clear glass window. I was always fascinated by this window connection, but obviously there was no way to get a little mirror up there.

* The rooms above the Terrestrial Room in the mezzanine level? They must be the Corporate Boardroom?

* And of course above it all is the 2-story Assembly Hall.

It's pretty cool. Much more bad-ass than the plain jane movie theater temples. Everyone should go at least once.

Any questions, comments, corrections?
RG
(Majorly edited at midnight pacific time)

**********************

And, more shots of the cutaway model --

* Close up of the interior, shows the backside of the veil and etc.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UbPmXYFwJr8/Tfm_1gYvAsI/AAAAAAAAAY0/2RtwdyMj1dU/s1600/IMG_0612.JPG

* Someone's blog post, with about 20 bad phone pics. But lots of detail. He points out where President Mackay saw Jesus, and writes "Part of why I'm excited that this exhibit is going on is that people like my grandparents, who aren't members of the church, can see inside the Temple. It must have been quite frustrating to not be able to go in and see your daughter's wedding. Maybe we can convince them to come out again to see this exhibit. . ." A nice consolation prize, no doubt...
http://u2720.blogspot.com/2010/06/salt-lake-temple-amazing-exhibit.html

* Someone else's blog post -- she was actually there when Elder Richard K. Hinckley dedicated it. "According to Elder Hinckley, the Salt Lake Temple is the 'icon of Mormonism worldwide'. He sees the new exhibit as a wonderful missionary tool and a way to pique visitors' interest in and desire to enter the temple."
More pics. http://209.188.95.163/~meridian/church/article/4735?ac=1



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2012 03:24AM by reinventinggrace.

The photograph makes it look like you can easily go from the baptistry to any of the other rooms. I know of two routes, and both are like traveling through a maze.