There Are Cathedrals Everywhere For Those With The Eyes To See

Q: What is There Are Cathedrals Everywhere For Those With The Eyes To See?

It is a catchphrase coined by Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson in a March 2023 X post that paired the line with a photo of sunlight through an Evian water bottle. Users later applied it to photos of mundane subjects like fast-food drive-thrus for comedic effect.

Q: Where did There Are Cathedrals Everywhere For Those With The Eyes To See come from?

Jordan Peterson posted the line alongside the Evian bottle image on March 9, 2023, and the post gathered over 15,000 likes within a year.

Q: What does There Are Cathedrals Everywhere For Those With The Eyes To See mean?

In Peterson's own use, the sentiment suggests sublime beauty hides in ordinary objects for anyone paying close attention. In meme use, the same line is attached to deeply mundane photos, either sincerely or as a joke about pretension.

Q: How do you use There Are Cathedrals Everywhere For Those With The Eyes To See?

Common convention is to caption a boring or ugly image, like a snowy McDonald's or a cheap purchase, with Peterson's exact phrasing.

Q: Is There Are Cathedrals Everywhere For Those With The Eyes To See still popular?

The format spread most heavily between fall 2023 and early 2024, with posts reaching tens of thousands of likes on X. Appearances since are rarer, though the line is still quoted when posters want to riff on unexpected beauty.

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Published October 16, 2026

Jordan Peterson posted a photo of sunlight passing through an Evian water bottle on March 9, 2023, captioning it 'There are cathedrals everywhere for those with the eyes to see.' Many readers joked that the psychologist sounded high, while others were surprised the aphorism was his own invention and not an older proverb1. By late 2023, X and Reddit users were captioning photos of snowy McDonald's drive-thrus with the same line5.

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Overview

The joke lives in the gap between Peterson's earnest, quasi-religious caption and whatever image a poster chooses to attach it to. A typical post puts the line over something aggressively mundane, a fast-food drive-thru lit up in snow, a fluorescent grocery aisle, or an Evian bottle refracting light the way Peterson's did2. Posters claim to see divine beauty in strip-mall architecture or in a convenience store receipt, playing the sentiment either sincerely or as pure bathos5.

Variants also target consumer banality directly. An Instagram account used the quote on a When You Get Paid Biweekly template, cutting Peterson's spiritual claim against a photo of someone splurging on something trivial6. Posters sometimes omit the caption entirely once the line is familiar enough that readers supply it on their own3.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

X (Twitter)

Creator

Jordan Peterson

Date

2023

On March 9, 2023, Canadian psychologist and conservative commentator Jordan Peterson posted on X a close-up of light reflecting through an Evian brand water bottle, captioning the image 'There are cathedrals everywhere for those with the eyes to see'1. Several replies joked that Peterson sounded like he was tweeting under the influence of mind-altering substances, while others assumed the line was borrowed from an older spiritual writer and were surprised to learn Peterson had written it himself4. The original post gathered more than 15,000 likes within its first year1.

How It Spread

The line migrated into ironic use roughly six months after Peterson's original tweet. On September 25, 2023, a user on Reddit's r/redscarepod attached the quote to a snowy photo of a McDonald's drive-thru, collecting over 500 upvotes in six months5. A little over a week later, on October 3, 2023, X user @_pem_pem applied it to another image and reached roughly 38,000 likes within five months2.

Momentum carried through the fall. On November 7, 2023, X user @ajbabyboi posted another version that reached over 40,000 likes in four months3. Instagram picked up the format on January 31, 2024, when @fish_guts_23_ mashed the quote with the When You Get Paid Biweekly meme and collected more than 1,000 likes within a month6. By early 2024 the catchphrase was common enough that it was documented as a standalone entry on Know Your Meme4.

Timeline

2023-03-09

Jordan Peterson posts the Evian water bottle photo on X with the caption 'There are cathedrals everywhere for those with the eyes to see'[1].

2023-09-25

A r/redscarepod user applies the line to a snowy McDonald's drive-thru photo, collecting over 500 upvotes[5].

2023-10-03

X user @_pem_pem posts a version of the format that reaches around 38,000 likes[2].

2023-11-07

X user @ajbabyboi posts another iteration that gathers over 40,000 likes[3].

2024-01-31

Instagram account @fish_guts_23_ combines the quote with the When You Get Paid Biweekly template[6].

How to Use This Meme

Common convention is to caption an unremarkable image, a parking lot, a convenience store ceiling, a cheap sandwich, with Peterson's exact phrasing5. The humor often lands by either playing the reverence straight on something no one would call sacred, or using the line sarcastically to point out that the subject actually looks miserable. Some posters skip the caption altogether once the quote is familiar enough that readers add it mentally3.