chtonian aspects of the pilgrimage to Fisterra
Hi Bridget,
Thank you for your nice and personal reaction! I never use spellcheckers because they drive me crazy and they have no authority anymore. In our country those academics have lost their credibility by constant changing stupid rules, so now quality publishers use their own spelling dictionaries.
Of course
chtonian is easier understood adding
auto- or
allo-, about which groups there is a lot of discussion in our country too by people who've lost their way. Chtonian aspects of
The Way of Saint James will be discussed on posts like
Georgiana's Gems - 1 - bees and
King's companions -1- George Edmund Street on
pilgrim-books/topic4442.html and
pilgrim-books/topic4519.html.
I'm glad you asked me that question for I've got a similar one for you too. I have no academic background but see myself as a simple Friesian countryboy who can milk cows (at agricultural highschool I dreamed about it as a profession) and a woodsman with some experience in making walking routes wich became my job. As a professional pilgrim I did read a lot of pilgrim's reports and masterworks like
The Way of Saint James by the brilliant Ms Georgiana Goddard King and many other
connected publications of all denominations. But understanding comes very slowly!
With the Royal Dutch Touringclub I made about 50 walking routes (6-12-18 km's) per year from 1970 to 1974 when I eventually was asked to develop an old long-distance-walk into our national Pelgrimspad. So this was not borne as a true pilgrim's path but it now surely functiones like one. We planted pilgrim's books in 8 walker friendly restaurants and in one of them a lady wrote:
I'll keep the memory of this path in my heart forever! Now what greater compliment could one get?
For developing the spiritual aspects of walking in general the European Rambler's Association (ERA/EWV) and the publisher of the topo-guide Stichting Wandelplatform LAW gave me their 22nd
European Award for Walkers which stimulated me to make more new pilgrim's paths like our
Kustpelgrimspad along the Northsea coast and
pelgrimspad Overijssel in our eastern rural country on
http://www.pelgrimspaden.nl.
So I do understand little about a lot of things and least about the present pilgrimage to Fisterra. See
The Santiago Enigma on
miscellaneous-about-santiago/topic3794.html. I do hope you'll join us to find some very simple answers on seven very simple questions.
Now my question to you: do you still need cycle routes to Santiago and are you of Danish origin? In Haarlem near Amsterdam starts a quiet cycle route to SdC with excellent complete guidebooks (in Dutch). The other day I saw on this forum a question from a Danish pilgrim and I wondered if that is you. Please let me know by PM for I have some extra information.
Bon Chemin & Buen Camino!
Geert