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Camino Portugues - three phases?

Malcolm

New Member
Time of past OR future Camino
2017
Hi everyone. You've probably all heard (or maybe experienced) the division of the Camino Frances into three "phases": the physical (from the Pyrenees); the mental/emotional (the meseta); and the spiritual (Galicia). Just wondering if people have a similar experience of the Camino Portugues, or if it is unique to the Frances? Or if this is true of any walk beyond a certain distance, or even if the whole thing is a myth?! No right or wrong answers, obviously, but I'd love to hear any thoughts on the subject. Thanks.
 
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I can't say that I have ever experienced the three stage division you describe. I do find there is a point usually around day 4 or 5 when my body has adjusted to the physical demands of walking and I have more time and energy free to observe and reflect. I do not know how one would draw any distinction between your categories of mental/emotional and spiritual. I have never experienced the ordered progression your post describes. Far less predictable.
 
I have experienced it on the Frances, it could be that I fitted experiences into a superstitious pattern with no basis in reality, but the experiences were so clear and definite that I am willing to believe it. Something similar happened on the Norte but less marked, less clear so it could be just me wishing for a pattern.
 
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Lisbon to Porto: the warm part
Porto to Valença: the part where you drink too much wine
Valencia to Santiago: the part where it rains every day and you eat a kilo of pork for lunch.

 


While the French way is a masculine way the sun's path, the Portuguese way is a feminine way, path of the moon. More spiritual. (Vitor Adrião)
 
I like you way of thinking beiramar, lol...
 
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first hunch: leave those division ideas behind and give the camino a chance to unfold on it's own terms, so to speak.
the physical / emotional / spiritual parts of you will be with you all along and won't separate out. there is no division, except the ones we create. though i might add that in the first week my body clearly had some adjusting to do. but my emotional/spirit part i did not leave by the wayside then.

your asking this question is marvelous -
it might be exactly what your experience will be, it might be entirely different. who's do know? except you in the moment of experience, and not beforehand.

"don't push the river ,darling" (as my landlady used to say) - live life as it is, presents itself to you...
bom caminho -
 
amsimoes said:
While the French way is a masculine way the sun's path, the Portuguese way is a feminine way, path of the moon. More spiritual. (Vitor Adrião)
Click to expand...
a ruta da mulher
Eu gosto dessa mulher (free to the Portugese song "mulher gorda". We allways sing this song at casa da Fernanda !
 
Malcolm said:
... Or if this is true of any walk beyond a certain distance, or even if the whole thing is a myth?! ...
Click to expand...

On any walk your body has some adjusting to do during the first few days or longer. At the same time your mind also has to adjust to the new situation. So, no, in my experience there is no neat separation in neat phases, everything can happen at ones and sometimes nothing happens and sometimes something happens

Buen Camino, SY
 
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I certainly experienced those 3 phases on my first Camino but it had nothing to do with the geography! I think it comes about from 'time on the road'...

Phase 3 was well under way 2 weeks from St Jean.

Not sure Galicia is the the place for the spiritual phase though. The crowds make that tricky I'm there now. Just enjoying a pleasant walk.... nothing more sadly...

we're thinking of the CP next so will be keen to hear thoughts from those who have walked it....
 
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