- Time of past OR future Camino
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Nothing to do with today's reality, imho.It was a pagan journey long before it was a Christian pilgrimage.
There are still Pagans who walk as part of a reclamation of cultural ties in Gallic regions…Nothing to do with today's reality, imho.
This old pagan still undertakes the same old journey for the same old reasons. Why anyone else does it is their problem not mine. But I’ll give them a hug or stand them a drink if they look like they need itNothing to do with today's reality, imho.
It was a pagan journey long before it was a Christian pilgrimage.
I dunno why anyone else walks. I cannot speculate. Why do *you* walk though? That was the question in the title from the OP.It is a modern rite of passage undertaken in the main by financially safe people, many of whom have heard of "The Way". Few walk for reasons other than the glow that comes from being able to tell the tale of when that 500 miles was walked across a mountainous land. Little regard is given to any form of organised religion and the vast majority have antipathy to the religion around which the pilgrimage is based.
Many see it as a cheap drinking excursion and yet others as an enforced entry into regular exercise. Yet most walk with thoughts of others in their hearts and in their actions. Helping others becomes the norm. Sharing difficulties is second nature.
Aye, its a totally contradictory experience isn't it?
By 'pagan' I take it you are referring to journeys associated with religious faith or practice, and indeed, pilgrimages are a practice for very many religions, for example, Hindu and Buddhist journeys to the holy shrines. This suggests that long distance walking is something we are hard-wired or naturally inclined to do, and culture and beliefs provide an overt or explicit motivation for it - which only partly answers alexwalker's question, of course.It was a pagan journey long before it was a Christian pilgrimage.
Good point there. On all my Caminos I met very few of the devout yet poor and I do often wonder how many out there want to walk the Camino but never will do to financial and other restraints. A far away dream never realized. A light at the end of the tunnel that is never reached. I suppose that is why I never took it for granted when I did walk it. Just so happy to be there. Blessed. Who cares about shaving grams off a pack's weight when you are lucky just to get some equipment in the first place.It is a modern rite of passage undertaken in the main by financially safe people, many of whom have heard of "The Way". Few walk for reasons other than the glow that comes from being able to tell the tale of when that 500 miles was walked across a mountainous land. Little regard is given to any form of organised religion and the vast majority have antipathy to the religion around which the pilgrimage is based.
Many see it as a cheap drinking excursion and yet others as an enforced entry into regular exercise. Yet most walk with thoughts of others in their hearts and in their actions. Helping others becomes the norm. Sharing difficulties is second nature.
Aye, its a totally contradictory experience isn't it?
Maybe not for you, but it may very well be for others.Nothing to do with today's reality, imho.
No need to be sorry, its just another opinion. Here at home nearly all holy sites and pilgrimages were once pagan sites that were Christianised, it was part of the tactic of winning the hearts and minds of those to be converted.The Camino de Santiago to some extent follows the earlier Roman roads (the reason for a pilgrimage was to get directly to Santiago, after all) ... there is no evidence or proof that it was ever a pagan 'pilgrim route' of any form. Finis Terre was named by the Romans, not the Celts.
The main problem with any myths of pre-Christian pilgrimages, and for western Europe we are talking of the Celt tribes, is that the Celts didn't have a written language - so no records, no history.
The religious or ritual locus for the earlier pre-Celt people were to gatherings at the great standing stones in their various forms, and they were mainly in the north west of Europe (think Brittany) so pre-Celt people in Spain would have travelled there - eastwards and then north, from feast remains burials at such sites we know that they drove their cattle herds with them.
The route/s may have originally been a series of Celtic tracks that the Romans built over and made into roads but there is no evidence that ritual journeys were ever made by the Celts or any earlier people to "the end of the earth" on the western coast - after all, all coastlines are "the end of the earth". Sorry.
I walk the Camino to reflect and pray and have done eleven Caminos. I am religious and an Old Roman Catholic priest and dare say am skeptical about where or not the body of St. James is in Compostella. Nevertheless, the Camino is a special place for many hopefully next year will return to do another. Be safe and continue to do this journey of a lifetime.From ancient times, the Camino was for devouted pilgrims in faith, seeking relief from their sins at the tomb of Saint James in Santiago.
These days, people walk for many reasons, as reflected in the heading of this thread.
Why is it that an ancient pilgrim path of faith in rural Spain has become this popular, from all corners of the world?
IMHO, something is missing in people's hectic, and often meaningless daily lives, and the Camino has an ancient answer for some. Many can feel it when they do the walk.
As for myself, I am neither religious nor atheist. Call me spiritual/reflective. But I do not rule out anything: I simply do not know. There is a story to illustrate the importance of what we can not know and can not see, but which may still exist:
An astronaut and a brain surgeon were discussing the concept of an all-seeing entity (some call it God). The astronaut said:
"I have been farther out into the Univere than any other human being, but I have never seen any trace of a God"
The surgeon replied:
"I have operated deeper into the human brain than any other brain surgeon, but I have never seen a thought".
Think about it...
Along your walk... There may be more to it than what shows,
Well we are all decendants of nomads.I guess we carry a kind of "nomadic DNA" still inherited from the ancestors what drives our thirst for exploration. The internal motivation to satisfy it can be very different of course.
It is a modern rite of passage undertaken in the main by financially safe people, many of whom have heard of "The Way". Few walk for reasons other than the glow that comes from being able to tell the tale of when that 500 miles was walked across a mountainous land. Little regard is given to any form of organised religion and the vast majority have antipathy to the religion around which the pilgrimage is based.
Many see it as a cheap drinking excursion and yet others as an enforced entry into regular exercise. Yet most walk with thoughts of others in their hearts and in their actions. Helping others becomes the norm. Sharing difficulties is second nature.
Aye, its a totally contradictory experience isn't it?
My imagination was captured, not a simple temporal infatuationI guess we carry a kind of "nomadic DNA" still inherited from the ancestors what drives our thirst for exploration. The internal motivation to satisfy it can be very different of course.
I beg to differ. I've met a good number pilgrims who walked for more reasons than "the glow that comes from being able to tell the tale of when that 500 miles was walked". Some walk to remember loved ones, some are devout pilgrims who have walked to draw nearer to God or their form of spirituality, and some walk to close out one chapter before starting the next. With the pilgrims we've met, each one's story is different, and sweeping generalizations about pilgrims (for example, that "many see it as a cheap drinking excursion") really aren't helpful.
I know you are right but your comment reminded me of the article from a few years ago. They had found the complete skeleton of a human in 1903 which was recorded as being the oldest ever discovered in the UK at around 10,000 years old. Jump forward to modern day DNA testing and DNA was extracted from the skeleton. This then led to an appeal to locals to give DNA samples and a retired teacher still living locally matched!! 10,000 years and not much nomadic wandering. Sorry to go off Camino as it were.Well we are all decendants of nomads.
My feeling is that it's unlikely that people were making pilgrimages or any other type of journey to Compostella very much until the discovery of the body of St. James was announced - it was such an unimportant place it didn't even have a church. But Galicia was a stronghold of the Celts (Galicians are still very proud of their Celtic heritage) and there is an abundance of Celtic archaeological sites including Finisterra so it is quite possible Celts were making journeys and processions even before the Romans arrived: many of the Celtic remains are in very remote places. As for pilgrimages in general, Christianity can't claim to have invented that idea, but as a religion it has always had the habit of appropriating local customs and beliefs and absorbing them into its own beliefs and practices. From what I saw in South and Central America way back in the eighties, they are still doing it.It was a pagan journey long before it was a Christian pilgrimage.
Yes, I may have been unfortunate but my last camino was full of young, though some not so young, folks determined to drink their way across Spain. I have also mentioned in the past the number of YT videos extolling the pleasures of cheap carousing. Added to that a glance at the recent topic about how to behave in Albergues also mentions the drinking topic a few times.That said, last year I walked the Frances and met to amazing Spaniards with whom I'm going to walk it again this year. Along the way, our group grew until at one point we were a mass of 12. Unfortunately, the people added were looking exactly for a cheap drinking excursion, which was the exact opposite of what I was looking for, so after a week of that, I set off on my own to regain the experience I was after. One of the Spaniards broke off and caught up with me, which was nice since we had been walking since the beginning.
Anecdotal for sure, but the cheap drinking excursion was a lot more prevalent than I expected. Possibly because I can't fathom trying to walk 30km hungover and dehydrated! But I also met a ton of lovely people who were looking for something more profound. Just my experience from last year.
Nope, its 42.Always hoping that the real answer is something other than 42.
Oh god, I forgot about (or maybe blocked out) the albergues that didn't enforce quiet hours, where a majority of the room was in the same group and were all there for carousing. Meanwhile, I got up and was out the door every morning before 6. Thankfully they weren't the norm.Yes, I may have been unfortunate but my last camino was full of young, though some not so young, folks determined to drink their way across Spain. I have also mentioned in the past the number of YT videos extolling the pleasures of cheap carousing. Added to that a glance at the recent topic about how to behave in Albergues also mentions the drinking topic a few times.
Me too, mate. Me too. Though as I get older, I'm getting more comfortable with the answer being 42.The why is because I can afford to, because I love walking and because I have an inner urge to find a meaning to life. Always hoping that the real answer is something other than 42.
Whatever you believe and it brings you some or alot of comfort and peace and it isn't forced upon others or doesn't become a basis of judgement is fine by me. I have my own philosophy but not here to bore you with it. When it comes to filling a hole in our lives that may missing or the ability to have some realizations or answers I leave that to each person. One person's hole in their life has never even been a factor in another's.From ancient times, the Camino was for devouted pilgrims in faith, seeking relief from their sins at the tomb of Saint James in Santiago.
These days, people walk for many reasons, as reflected in the heading of this thread.
Why is it that an ancient pilgrim path of faith in rural Spain has become this popular, from all corners of the world?
IMHO, something is missing in people's hectic, and often meaningless daily lives, and the Camino has an ancient answer for some. Many can feel it when they do the walk.
As for myself, I am neither religious nor atheist. Call me spiritual/reflective. But I do not rule out anything: I simply do not know. There is a story to illustrate the importance of what we can not know and can not see, but which may still exist:
An astronaut and a brain surgeon were discussing the concept of an all-seeing entity (some call it God). The astronaut said:
"I have been farther out into the Univere than any other human being, but I have never seen any trace of a God"
The surgeon replied:
"I have operated deeper into the human brain than any other brain surgeon, but I have never seen a thought".
Think about it...
Along your walk... There may be more to it than what shows,
It is if you are a modern day Pagan. I see nothing wrong with acknowledging the extended history of pilgrimage.Nothing to do with today's reality, imho.
No wonder you were the cirst to reply when I first came in here...From ancient times, the Camino was for devouted pilgrims in faith, seeking relief from their sins at the tomb of Saint James in Santiago.
These days, people walk for many reasons, as reflected in the heading of this thread.
Why is it that an ancient pilgrim path of faith in rural Spain has become this popular, from all corners of the world?
IMHO, something is missing in people's hectic, and often meaningless daily lives, and the Camino has an ancient answer for some. Many can feel it when they do the walk.
As for myself, I am neither religious nor atheist. Call me spiritual/reflective. But I do not rule out anything: I simply do not know. There is a story to illustrate the importance of what we can not know and can not see, but which may still exist:
An astronaut and a brain surgeon were discussing the concept of an all-seeing entity (some call it God). The astronaut said:
"I have been farther out into the Univere than any other human being, but I have never seen any trace of a God"
The surgeon replied:
"I have operated deeper into the human brain than any other brain surgeon, but I have never seen a thought".
Think about it...
Along your walk... There may be more to it than what shows,
In my mind you have listed way more than enough universal reasons we walk. Of course it is a flexible list as we are all unique people we all have unique reasons to walk. Speaking of your reluctance of the label pilgrim. You are as much a pilgrim as our pilgrim forefathers. The church is a far different institution in so many ways as are pilgrims today than in 1500. My personal definition of a pilgrim and what I try to do when I walk is to strip down to basics. Simple donativos/albergues, communal or meals in the albergue with new friends, walk my own walk, eschew as many material trappings as possible. I walked my first two caminos without a phone. Now I carry one only because I am now married to a Latin woman and I don’t say hello every day I will be in deep doo doo when I get home. “How do I know you are not in a ditch somewhere if you don’t call Pinche Gringo??”I want to respond in depth to your question, maybe because I feel bad that I do not walk at all for religious reasons and that leads me to not classify myself as a pilgrim. Also because I have collected thoughts on this subject from this forum and my own ruminations as well as a French forum that I frequently read. And part of what I write below comes from the French forum.
I walk because I love:
Some other aspects that I think make these Camino walks successful:
- being on vacation - the cares and needs of life back home are mostly left behind
- the camaraderie on the trail, at the albergue or casa rurale, and at dinner
- the easy interchange with others as I walk
- the resultant feeling that we humans, despite cultural differences, can share a common experience - that we are all part of the family of man and woman
- the unknowns - what is over the next hill? What will the place of rest be like? Etc. And that every new day will have the same rhythm but be different
- feeling close to nature
- the simplicity of the hike - everything pared pretty much down to what fits in a pack
This is long already...maybe I will add more thoughts later.
- people on the Caminos leave their social status behind - a highly paid executive has no greater status than a shop clerk
- in addition to jettisoning whatever status we might feel, we also leave behind our lives back home, members of our family (usually children), and the routines of our daily lives. To me this opens us up to experiencing the world from a new and possibly more open perspective. So...
- walking a Camino is to walk as a seeker, whether we intend to or not- and we cannot help but to see things with new eyes
- using the Camino Frances as an example, a Camino is a long, easy walk given its infrastructure for readily available meals and lodging
- it is a cheap European vacation
Yes, I may have been unfortunate but my last camino was full of young, though some not so young, folks determined to drink their way across Spain. I have also mentioned in the past the number of YT videos extolling the pleasures of cheap carousing. Added to that a glance at the recent topic about how to behave in Albergues also mentions the drinking topic a few times.
However I did say "Yet most walk with thoughts of others in their hearts and in their actions. Helping others becomes the norm. Sharing difficulties is second nature."
I have been on pilgrimage a lot over the years, not all to Santiago. The why is because I can afford to, because I love walking and because I have an inner urge to find a meaning to life. Always hoping that the real answer is something other than 42.
Question 1: am I missing something or what is 42?Oh god, I forgot about (or maybe blocked out) the albergues that didn't enforce quiet hours, where a majority of the room was in the same group and were all there for carousing. Meanwhile, I got up and was out the door every morning before 6. Thankfully they weren't the norm.
Me too, mate. Me too. Though as I get older, I'm getting more comfortable with the answer being 42.
It's an insider joke. The late, and wonderful, Douglas Adams wrote a book, eventually a series of books which were made into a series of radio plays and even a godawful film.Question 1: am I missing something or what is 42?
Tinca gives the answer to your question, though the older I get I think the answer is as close to 42 as is possible even without the aid of one or two pan galactic gargle blasters.Question 1: am I missing something or what is 42?
Point 1: I have no idea if either of you have walked other caminos or not or when you walk. I swore I would never walk the CF after my second Camino for similar reasons and it was getting too crowded for
My taste. Since than I walked the Portuguese and Norte in late October early November as well as Le Puy and found them to be wonderful. Less pilgrims but plenty of wonderful ones. Walked the CF IN November/December 2019. More pilgrims than I expected but still wonderful. I tend to think that there are more pilgrims that walk in off peak times that enjoy walking alone. Far less emphasis on families even on the CF. My impression only. This October 15 I will start in Sevilla.
Maybe if you haven’t experienced a late fall, winter, early spring Camino it is something you may want to try.
Of course other considerations may prevent it. Or at least try a less traveled route.
I have heard/read this said multiple times but have never seen any substantial documentation of this in terms of academic research. Only in new-agey type books. And not certain what "it" would apply to here. A long walking route to a particular location on the Atlantic Ocean? A route to Santiago de Compostela? Would love to have citations of books or papers by respected academics in the field that explains the pre-Christian origins of specific pilgrimage routes if anyone knows of them.It was a pagan journey long before it was a Christian pilgrimage.
I can straight out agree with all your points.I want to respond in depth to your question, maybe because I feel bad that I do not walk at all for religious reasons and that leads me to not classify myself as a pilgrim. Also because I have collected thoughts on this subject from this forum and my own ruminations as well as a French forum that I frequently read. And part of what I write below comes from the French forum.
I walk because I love:
Some other aspects that I think make these Camino walks successful:
- being on vacation - the cares and needs of life back home are mostly left behind
- the camaraderie on the trail, at the albergue or casa rurale, and at dinner
- the easy interchange with others as I walk
- the resultant feeling that we humans, despite cultural differences, can share a common experience - that we are all part of the family of man and woman
- the unknowns - what is over the next hill? What will the place of rest be like? Etc. And that every new day will have the same rhythm but be different
- feeling close to nature
- the simplicity of the hike - everything pared pretty much down to what fits in a pack
This is long already...maybe I will add more thoughts later.
- people on the Caminos leave their social status behind - a highly paid executive has no greater status than a shop clerk
- in addition to jettisoning whatever status we might feel, we also leave behind our lives back home, members of our family (usually children), and the routines of our daily lives. To me this opens us up to experiencing the world from a new and possibly more open perspective. So...
- walking a Camino is to walk as a seeker, whether we intend to or not- and we cannot help but to see things with new eyes
- using the Camino Frances as an example, a Camino is a long, easy walk given its infrastructure for readily available meals and lodging
- it is a cheap European vacation
It is my experience, that some start out with that luggage, but end up with a different, better one.It is a modern rite of passage undertaken in the main by financially safe people, many of whom have heard of "The Way". Few walk for reasons other than the glow that comes from being able to tell the tale of when that 500 miles was walked across a mountainous land. Little regard is given to any form of organised religion and the vast majority have antipathy to the religion around which the pilgrimage is based.
Many see it as a cheap drinking excursion and yet others as an enforced entry into regular exercise. Yet most walk with thoughts of others in their hearts and in their actions. Helping others becomes the norm. Sharing difficulties is second nature.
Aye, its a totally contradictory experience isn't it?
Also skeptical, but if the walk is helping people to deeper understanding and reflection, it has done its (starting) job, IMHO.I walk the Camino to reflect and pray and have done eleven Caminos. I am religious and an Old Roman Catholic priest and dare say am skeptical about where or not the body of St. James is in Compostella. Nevertheless, the Camino is a special place for many hopefully next year will return to do another. Be safe and continue to do this journey of a lifetime.
Welcome to the club of Pilgrims Anonymous...I have a lot of similarities with you OP, I'm not religious, but also not atheist. That said, I love hiking and long-distance walking, so I did it last summer (2020) as a way of exercising post-lockdown, but more importantly as a way of getting to know myself better. And it was hands down the best experience of my life so far.
It was also the most difficult thing I've ever done, both physically (3 months of not being able to leave my flat beforehand) as well as mentally. I learned a lot about myself in that month, met some great people, and have thought about it constantly since I got back. So much so that I'm planning on doing it again (del Norte instead of Frances) next month.
You, of all, should know, receiving so much feedback. Thank you.I beg to differ. I've met a good number pilgrims who walked for more reasons than "the glow that comes from being able to tell the tale of when that 500 miles was walked". Some walk to remember loved ones, some are devout pilgrims who have walked to draw nearer to God or their form of spirituality, and some walk to close out one chapter before starting the next. With the pilgrims we've met, each one's story is different, and sweeping generalizations about pilgrims (for example, that "many see it as a cheap drinking excursion") really aren't helpful.
Holly, wouldn't we all. Though if you want some specific pre-christian stuff try Godgling Mithras, the mithraic observances of the Roman military and its links with Galicia. Particularly the Mithraic temples in Lugo and at Santa Eulalia de Boveda. As has already been stated in this thread the Celts, bless-em, didn't have a written language. They had an intense symbolic language as is evidenced by their jewellery, sword and axe ornamentations and the few surviving wood carvings. The Beaker folk also didn't have a written language. They just cremated their dead and buried the remains in little clay pots. What no-one can explain, perhaps no-one has bothered yet to try and explain is why some nice Neolithic / early Bronze age chaps who spent their lives frolicking the Danube delta ended up with their cremated remains (aren't teeth wonderful) buried in little clay pots in Galicia.I have heard/read this said multiple times but have never seen any substantial documentation of this in terms of academic research. Only in new-agey type books. And not certain what "it" would apply to here. A long walking route to a particular location on the Atlantic Ocean? A route to Santiago de Compostela? Would love to have citations of books or papers by respected academics in the field that explains the pre-Christian origins of specific pilgrimage routes if anyone knows of them.
I have heard/read this said multiple times but have never seen any substantial documentation of this in terms of academic research. Only in new-agey type books. And not certain what "it" would apply to here. A long walking route to a particular location on the Atlantic Ocean? A route to Santiago de Compostela? Would love to have citations of books or papers by respected academics in the field that explains the pre-Christian origins of specific pilgrimage routes if anyone knows of them.
First time I walked it was because my son had walked the year before and said I should try it so more curiosity than anything. By the time I was asked the question in the pilgrim office in Santiago I could in all honesty say 'religious'. I really felt my religion and closeness to God that I had not felt for many years. I had been what we call in Ireland 'a sunday Catholic'. Three more times I have been back and on the camino I can pray like never before. Because I find it tough, very tough at times I find it a bit hard to fathom others referring to it as a holiday/vacation. A holiday to me is lounging on a cruise ship sipping coctails. Struggling up that trail just before Orisson or O Cebreiro is not my idea of a holiday, more like torture. But I agree with the idea of camaradarie. No where else have I found it so easy to make friends. However I cannot get my head around people flying all the way from Australia or US just for a walking holiday. Its easy for me just coming from Ireland but something I dont understand must draw people from all over the world when there is no religious pull. 4 of the best guys I met came from Oz and they were basically on a long lads night out. I just dont get putting yourself through a tough trek just for fun. But I suppose we can all agree that the Camino is magical and regardless of reason it keeps calling us back and God willing, I will be back at least one more time. Of course, I have said that before each of my 3 subsequent pilgrimagesFrom ancient times, the Camino was for devouted pilgrims in faith, seeking relief from their sins at the tomb of Saint James in Santiago.
These days, people walk for many reasons, as reflected in the heading of this thread.
Why is it that an ancient pilgrim path of faith in rural Spain has become this popular, from all corners of the world?
IMHO, something is missing in people's hectic, and often meaningless daily lives, and the Camino has an ancient answer for some. Many can feel it when they do the walk.
As for myself, I am neither religious nor atheist. Call me spiritual/reflective. But I do not rule out anything: I simply do not know. There is a story to illustrate the importance of what we can not know and can not see, but which may still exist:
An astronaut and a brain surgeon were discussing the concept of an all-seeing entity (some call it God). The astronaut said:
"I have been farther out into the Univere than any other human being, but I have never seen any trace of a God"
The surgeon replied:
"I have operated deeper into the human brain than any other brain surgeon, but I have never seen a thought".
Think about it...
Along your walk... There may be more to it than what shows,
The funny thing is I did read that book in college. But I spent more time partying than studying. I remember I loved the book but between smoking alot of wacky weed and ingesting many different categories of psychedelics there isn't that much I can remember. But I wouldn't change it for the world. In about a month I will be meeting the "Boys" for our annual reunion. This one celebrates 50 years of friendship. It was supposed to be the 50 year celebration and 5 of the 8 of us walking the CP. But Covid and unfortunately cancer got in the way. But I will definitely bring up the Guide for further illumination . We all read it as well as the first three books by Carlos Castenada. If you haven't read his works on the teachings of Don Juan a Mexican Brujo I would recommend those also.It's an insider joke. The late, and wonderful, Douglas Adams wrote a book, eventually a series of books which were made into a series of radio plays and even a godawful film.
In the initial book The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, among various other conceptual leaps is the suggestion that this planet was established as a giant mega-computer to establish why a previous mega-computer when asked "what is the answer to life the universe and everything?" answered 42. Unfortunately, the planet is demolished to make way for an hyperspace by-pass before the computations are complete. The mice are furious. The Dolphins leave just before demolition but do leave the parting message "so long, and thanks for all the fish".
If you have not read the books I would say yes, you are missing something - some wonderful, humorous and yet profound fiction (well, I hope its fiction 'cos otherwise we have a problem).
Check out my response to Tinca. I think it sums up my question quite nicely hahaha.Tinca gives the answer to your question, though the older I get I think the answer is as close to 42 as is possible even without the aid of one or two pan galactic gargle blasters.
I take your point about the alternative routes and the winter/late autumn CF.
She will bust out the chancla on you...In my mind you have listed way more than enough universal reasons we walk. Of course it is a flexible list as we are all unique people we all have unique reasons to walk. Speaking of your reluctance of the label pilgrim. You are as much a pilgrim as our pilgrim forefathers. The church is a far different institution in so many ways as are pilgrims today than in 1500. My personal definition of a pilgrim and what I try to do when I walk is to strip down to basics. Simple donativos/albergues, communal or meals in the albergue with new friends, walk my own walk, eschew as many material trappings as possible. I walked my first two caminos without a phone. Now I carry one only because I am now married to a Latin woman and I don’t say hello every day I will be in deep doo doo when I get home. “How do I know you are not in a ditch somewhere if you don’t call Pinche Gringo??”
Others walk with pack services, 25 Euro plus dinners, paradores etc. That is not my idea of pilgrimage or a pilgrim but as the old saying goes my ideas and 2 bucks will get me on the subway. Nice to know you pilgrim.
very well said ... you covered itI want to respond in depth to your question, maybe because I feel bad that I do not walk at all for religious reasons and that leads me to not classify myself as a pilgrim. Also because I have collected thoughts on this subject from this forum and my own ruminations as well as a French forum that I frequently read. And part of what I write below comes from the French forum.
I walk because I love:
Some other aspects that I think make these Camino walks successful:
- being on vacation - the cares and needs of life back home are mostly left behind
- the camaraderie on the trail, at the albergue or casa rurale, and at dinner
- the easy interchange with others as I walk
- the resultant feeling that we humans, despite cultural differences, can share a common experience - that we are all part of the family of man and woman
- the unknowns - what is over the next hill? What will the place of rest be like? Etc. And that every new day will have the same rhythm but be different
- feeling close to nature
- the simplicity of the hike - everything pared pretty much down to what fits in a pack
This is long already...maybe I will add more thoughts later.
- people on the Caminos leave their social status behind - a highly paid executive has no greater status than a shop clerk
- in addition to jettisoning whatever status we might feel, we also leave behind our lives back home, members of our family (usually children), and the routines of our daily lives. To me this opens us up to experiencing the world from a new and possibly more open perspective. So...
- walking a Camino is to walk as a seeker, whether we intend to or not- and we cannot help but to see things with new eyes
- using the Camino Frances as an example, a Camino is a long, easy walk given its infrastructure for readily available meals and lodging
- it is a cheap European vacation
replying to:Nothing to do with today's reality, imho.
It was a pagan journey long before it was a Christian pilgrimage.
replying to:
For you and I, perhaps. For others, very much so. There are still people who identify as pagans in today's reality (some are friends of mine - I'm pretty sure some frequent this Forum). Just as many walk the Camino to connect with Christian pilgrims who walked the Camino in times past, others may walk to connect with pagans who walked along the same route.
It may be all myths. It equally may be a myth that the remains of St. James are to be found in Santiago. But the idea that the remains of St. James are to be found in Santiago is certainly relevant to why a lot of people walk to Santiago. Similarly, the idea that pagans walked the route, myth or not, may be relevant to why some walk it today, romantic myth or not.Can we be clear? There weren't any "Pagans" before Christianity. 'Pagan' is a pejorative Christian term that came into common use from the 4th century to describe anyone (in the Roman Empire) who was not a Christian or Jew - therefore a follower of a polytheist rather than a monotheist religion. As the root word came from 'provincial', 'country folk', it had strong connotations of 'country bumpkin, therefore stupid.
Those moderns who identify as pagans today do so mistakenly as they are not polytheists, not members of a 'many gods' religion.
Modern 'pagans' would appear to be some form of nature worshippers? Whatever they are they have no lineage that connects them in any way with the original Celtic or pre-Celtic peoples that once lived in Europe.
Mind you, the Welsh are the genetic descendants of the original Celts from pre-Roman times - but they tend to be Christians now - Dang.
As Celts and pre-Celt peoples didn't have a written language there are no records whatsoever of their journeys - especially any journeys for any sort of pilgrim purpose along any of the Christian routes to Santiago (or to the coast at Roman named Finis Terre). Also, we have no idea at all what their beliefs and practises were, none at all ...
It is all myths - romantic myths .....
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