A Sacred Journey

practicing pilgrimage at home and abroad

It’s All About the Journey: The Process of Pilgrimage

Traditionally, pilgrimage has been defined as a journey to a sacred site.

It’s true—destinations such as the Holy Land, Rome, and Iona have attracted pilgrims for generations. However, when we focus solely on the destination, we can often miss the true invitation of pilgrimage, which is ultimately a journey of transformation. The old cliché “the journey is the destination” is, in fact, accurate. While tourists travel to destinations, pilgrims know that the process of journeying is just as valuable as the destination itself and is essential to transformation.

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Traveling Light: 3 Steps to Lighten the Load

In the 11th-16th centuries during the Golden Age of Pilgrimage, pilgrims on the road to popular pilgrimage destinations such as the Holy Land, Rome, or Santiago de Compostela would only bring with them what they could carry. 

A pilgrim’s possessions consisted of a cloak for warmth, a satchel or bindle in which to store a few necessary items, a coin purse for money, a walking stick to offer support, and a vade mecum (a small book with instructions and prayers) to give guidance along the way. Every other necessity, including food and lodging, was provided by the hospitality of strangers along the way. Their emotional load was light as well—before leaving for an arduous journey, all debts had to be settled, disputes resolved, and sins confessed. Free to journey without any burden other than the trials of the path before them, these pilgrims of old traveled uninhibited, fully present to the journey and its invitations each day.

Today, however, advances in the travel industry have allowed us to carry more with us when we travel. Large bags roll on wheels and airplanes can compress a multi-month migration into a single day. If something was left unsaid to a friend or family member before a departure, we needn’t worry; they’re always just an email or phone call away. Traveling light is no longer a requirement in order to reach our destination. Still, whether an ancient pilgrim traveling a well-worn path or a modern pilgrim jet-setting around the globe, one thing remains true: the greater the baggage, the heavier the load.

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The Pilgrim Practice of Welcoming the Stranger

Traveling on pilgrimage to far-off lands can have us all feeling a bit, well, foreign.

Though such a feeling is uncomfortable for many, to the pilgrim, it comes as no surprise. Encountering new territory and being immersed in new experiences is at the heart of pilgrimage. The word “pilgrim,” after all, originates from the Latin word “peregrinus,” meaning “foreigner” or “stranger.” What is different about the pilgrim, however, is their openness to what is foreign. Instead, it is engaging the unfamiliar and welcoming the stranger that invigorates the pilgrim, pushing them toward the growth that they might not otherwise experience in everyday life. 

“On pilgrimage the traveler is a foreigner in several ways,” Edward C. Sellner says in his book, Pilgrimage; “[The pilgrim is] a stranger to the companions she meets along the way, a stranger to the places visited, and a stranger to the inward journey of meaning and transformation.” This inward stranger is just as important as the outward stranger in a foreign land when it comes to pilgrimage. When traveling in foreign territory, the pilgrim’s senses are heightened and their vulnerabilities are laid bare, providing ample opportunity for unknown parts within to rise to the surface. Because the pilgrim’s surroundings are unfamiliar and disorienting, they are more aware of all that they encounter and are invited to practice presence to both themselves others in new ways, allowing the pilgrim to encounter the Divine and discover their True Self in new ways, too. 

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What the Landscape of Your Pilgrimage Reveals about the Terrain of Your Soul

When we initially think of the practice of pilgrimage, it’s likely that specific locations come to mind. 

These locations might be destinations that you travel to, such as Iona in Scotland or Lourdes in France, or they might include the journey itself, like walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela or hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Whether these sacred sites have attracted pilgrims for generations or they are locations that are unique to you, there’s something about these particular places that allows us to more readily connect to the Divine and the True Self within. 

Though these sacred sites might have a numinous quality to them, it’s not simply the location itself that draws Seekers of the Sacred. More likely, it is the landscape of a sacred site that invites us deeper—whether the natural features of a destination or the terrain of a well-traveled path. This reminds us that pilgrimage is at once an external journey and an internal journey. It is an embodied spiritual practice, with our outer journeys reflecting our inner journeys and our inner stirrings moving us toward outward action.

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Coincidence or Something More? Synchronicity on the Journey

For many, it is easy to believe that the Divine is somehow involved in life’s most significant events, from birth to death and the highs and lows in between. 

As a Seeker of the Sacred on a quest toward deeper meaning, however, the pilgrim knows the Sacred Guide is not simply engaged in such notable moments but is also present and at work in the small, seemingly mundane moments as well. This is because the pilgrim trusts that the Divine can be encountered and meaning can be found with each step if they are present to the journey. 

For the pilgrim, then—both on journeys abroad and in everyday life—even the most basic of encounters can elicit surprise with the unexpected shimmer of the Sacred. What might seem like a coincidence—a situation defined as ”a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection”—can often be interpreted as something more when viewed through the lens of the pilgrim. 

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What is Your Quest? How to Find Out and Where to Begin

There are many attributes that set the pilgrim apart from the tourist traveling abroad or the person simply going through the motions in everyday life.

One of the attributes that is essential to the posture and character of the pilgrim is intention—the purpose with which the pilgrim journeys and the deliberateness that accompanies each and every step.

That doesn’t mean the pilgrim knows where the journey is leading or is always confident of which step to take next. The pilgrim, after all, is a seeker, guided not by certainty but by sacred stirrings deep within and a faith that these longings are worthy of pursuit. In fact, psychologist David Benner defines faith as “a response to a call to a journey,” and a pilgrim, no doubt, is one who is called.

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Following the Thread: 5 Clues to Discover Where You’ve Been and Discern Where You’re Going

One of the essential tools for the pilgrim as they seek to uncover their journey and determine which step to take next is the practice of following the thread.

The poet William Stafford explains this practice beautifully and hints at how intrinsic this process is to the journey in his poem, “The Way It Is.” “There is a thread you follow,” he writes. “It goes among things that change. But it doesn’t change…. While you hold it you can’t get lost. Nothing you can do can stop times unfolding. You don’t ever let go of the thread.”

This thread Stafford refers to is reminiscent of the thread in the Greek Myth of Ariadne, Thesseus, and the slaying of the Minotaur. In the story, Ariadne gives Thesseus a thread to lay on his way into the center of the labyrinth so that once he defeats the Minotaur he can easily find his way back.

Just like the thread given by Ariadne which guided her suitor to safety through dark, labyrinthine paths on his quest to slay the beast within, there is a Sacred Thread woven throughout our journeys to help us stay close to the Source and guide us along the path. This Sacred Thread can reveal to us the movement and invitations of the Divine in our journeys as we look back as well as help us to discern which steps to take and which direction to follow going forward. This is true for our pilgrimages abroad as well as our journeys in everyday life. I like to think of it as a golden thread that shimmers throughout our journeys with the evidence of Divine Presence.

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The Purpose of Pilgrimage: What is Your Offering to the World?

It’s a story we know well from our favorite books and films.

An unsettled heroine or hero embarks upon a journey—planned or unbidden—that brings them to their edges, filled with trials, adventure, and new revelations. In the end, there must always be something that is surmounted—the game won, the dragon slayed, the challenge faced—but through this encounter, something is gained that has the power to change life entirely. In mythologist Joseph Campbell’s study on the monomyth or hero’s journey, this is called the “boon,” and it is not just a gift for the seeker—it is an offering to the world.

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Things to Consider When Planning a Pilgrimage

Are you ready to go on a meaningful journey?

While it’s easy to think the travel portion of a pilgrimage is the most significant part of a journey, oftentimes it’s the groundwork laid in the preparation phase that makes a journey meaningful. In fact, your pilgrimage actually begins in the preparation phase, from the moment you say “yes” to your inner stirrings. As you move from longing to action, thoughtfully planning for your journey can cultivate intention as you await your departure and allow for more engagement on your travels, clearing the path ahead for transformation. Here are eight things to consider when planning your pilgrimage: read more »

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