Planning a Pilgrimage: Seven pointers towards making a sacred journey
1. Pack lightly – the essence of pilgrimage is to find out who we are outside the cocoon of our familiar milieu, so don’t try to bring it along with you!
2. Take comfortable clothing and shoes – you will only get to know the land by walking on it, and many sacred places tend to be off the beaten track.
3. Be prepared to get dirt in your sandals – we are a society addicted to a lifestyle that promises to make us feel clean, safe, and protected from the environment, rather than free and open to explore it.
4. Less is more – if you try to pack in too many places to visit, you will spend precious time on the road – especially in countries where poor or narrow roads make distances deceptive. We can end up replicating our frenetic lives back home and return with spiritual indigestion, rather than feeling nourished. Choose two or three special places and prepare to spend time there for a few days, getting to know them – and the local people – in different lights, weather and moods.
5. Let go of expectations – pilgrimage is a gradual process of unfolding and discovery rather than a goal in itself. Spiritual experiences have a disconcerting tendency to happen at the least expected times and places, and require us to stay open to a higher agenda than our own.
6. Embrace your shadow – delays and inconveniences on the road or in less-than-perfect lodgings can make us annoyed and irritated. At these times, we tend to see these things as roadblocks to the spiritual experience we hoped to have, whereas they are all part of it. If we observe ourselves compassionately under stress, we can learn a lot about how we operate out of our comfort zone.
7. ‘Wherever you go, there you are’ – or as St. Brigit once told some pilgrims:
‘It's labor great and profit small to go to Rome,
Thou wilt not find the king at all unless thou find him first at home.’
This tip is provided by supplier M16806
