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Death on the Camino

Mony Dojeiji

Pilgrim. Rome to Jerusalem.
Time of past OR future Camino
2001
Although the title sounds daunting, it really has to do with what I feel is really dying when we undertake any pilgrimage. I wrote this reflection for The Camino Documentary blog (http://caminodocumentary.org/blog/?p=295), and thought the pilgrims here would also enjoy it.

Buen camino!
Mony
==================
"The pilgrim named Annie speaks of her fear of death as she walks the Camino. I couldn’t help but reflect on the entire theme of death while walking. If you stop to think about it, we are dying in every instant. Our very cells are in a continual process of dying and regenerating. It’s curious to note that the Camino itself is a path connected with death. We pilgrims walk in footsteps of those long gone, through fields and forests that have tasted blood, towards a place – a tomb – where the remains of an apostle lie.

So, when we take our first step on this Camino, we are inextricably moving closer towards death; but to me, what is truly dying is not in the physical. With every step, with every encounter, with every challenge, our concepts of ourselves, our ideas of how things should be, our thoughts of the world in which we live slowly begin to die. The emotions that debilitate us or that keep us small and living in fear, also begin to die off. This death of all that no longer serves us is a grand gift that the Camino offers.

With death also comes the opportunity for transformation. As we die in the physical, the spiritual within us awakens and is heightened. Our gaze turns progressively inwards, and so we begin to see the world through different eyes, perhaps ones more gentle. We begin to shut out the noise of the outer world, and to seek a higher voice; and so begin to hear our own unique voice, that voice through which Spirit can now express. We awaken to intuition, and allow ourselves to be led by the greatest master, teacher and healer: the heart.

The final destination of pilgrims of old was not Santiago de Compostela, but rather Finisterre. It was after paying homage to the apostle (perhaps where they embraced death) that they continued onwards to the end of the world. There, pilgrims burned their clothes and cast into the ocean all that had weighed them down along the Camino. They then bathed in the waters of the Atlantic in a symbolic ritual of purification and cleansing (a baptism of sorts). Emerging from the waters, they stood more firmly in their new selves – selves that were tested, that died and that were finally reborn.

When I finished my first Camino in 2001, I didn’t bathe in the waters of Finisterre. I’m not sure why. I visited the lighthouse and observed the waters, but didn’t step in. In 2008, long after I had finished my walk for peace to Jerusalem, I returned to the Camino to walk the final stretch from Santiago to Finisterre, and to celebrate my 43rd birthday. This time, I bathed in the frigid waters to celebrate the pilgrim who had died many small deaths on her journeys, and who now re-emerged a little more confident in herself and in the path of peace she continues to walk to this day.

¡Ultreya, pilgrims! "
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
Death is not a popular topic, apparently! But you are right, it is ever-present along the path, sometimes with skull-and-bones stone carvings, sometimes with the many old pilgrim cemeteries, and often in "real life." Pilgrims die along the Way every year.

We had one such event here in Moratinos a couple of years ago. A French couple was returning home from Santiago (they had done the walk in three increments, over several years) when their car went off the road and rolled over. The woman was killed. The man walked away. He walked to our house, and stayed while the funeral people "made arrangements." It was terrible and sad and quite powerful, just sitting with the man while the enormity of the situation hit him. Later on, at his request, I walked the camino using his wife´s walking staff, and left it out there when I was finished.

The man viewed his wife´s death on the road home as "somehow outrageously apropos!"

In the years since, the man has had a "profound revelation" about how the camino puts one part of your life into "before," and another into "after." Like many regular pilgrims who do the walk, a big part of you is left behind out there. You go home stripped-down to your skin, and you don´t feel so able to deal with what´s next -- your insulation is gone! But then you realize how much of the ordinary daily stuff is rich in detail and flavor and color, and how insensitive you had become, etc. etc.

I hear lots of these stories from pilgrims. But his, obviously, is the most harrowing and deeply felt. Imagine, all the pilgrims who have died along this Way, and all the loved-ones whose lives were similarly shifted into "after," or maybe "right now." Maybe we can learn something from them?
 
The first edition came out in 2003 and has become the go-to-guide for many pilgrims over the years. It is shipping with a Pilgrim Passport (Credential) from the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
Wow, Rebekah! This is the first story of "real" death I have heard on the Camino, and it is certainly an unforgettable one. I can only imagine what it must have felt like for you to walk with this man afterwards, and to carry his wife's staff. I have no doubt that you helped him in his healing journey.

I think this stripping-down that you speak of is one of the greatest gifts the Camino offers, because it forces you to move to your authentic self, that self that is perhaps buried under what we may consider our ordinary, mundane lives. It's funny that we feel more authentic on the camino than off it. I think the challenge and ultimate journey is to continue to live from that place of grace and gratitude, and to see beauty in all that surrounds us.... and that's the journey of a lifetime!!! (or lifetimes, depending on what you believe... :) )

Buen camino,
- Mony
 
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