The Turin Shroud enigma, OK; but the camino mystery?

Both are mysterious to me, at least. Like many people here, I've walked some interesting paths of the world, and like many here, I've walked a number of caminos, I return, and continue to do so.

Yet - I can't quite put my finger on what it is that makes the caminos special. I hope I've passed through valid yet clichéd answers. 20 odd years ago in an interview about walking from Le Puy -SDC, I glibly said that I was "taking part in 1000 years of history", an inadequate assertion I don't retract, even if I am 'shown the instruments'. Yet on a recent pilgrimage in India I took part in 3000 years of history and it spoke nothing to me. Thus, it's not that.

For many it is to do with Catholicism, rightly enough, despite the murky history, for that church has done very well in supporting this camino. So too have the people of Spain, those producers of all wealth and culture, now eaten alive by financiers.

For some it is New Age thinking, with ley lines, energies, Coelho, McLaine etc.
(On the meseta, no-one can hear you scream.)

For yet others, it is a good long hike, like others in the world.

For a few it is a sporting, competitive event, replete with a keen commercial interest in equipment and brand names. In comparison, the unbeliever is but a pale shadow.
(Nessun dorma.)

Perhaps the answer lies in poetry, this one from Han Shan's "Cold Mountain", trans. Gary Snyder. It has something to say, I find. (I substitute Meseta for Cold Mountain.)

In my first thirty years of life
I roamed hundreds and thousands of miles
Walked by rivers through deep grass
Entered cities of boiling dust
Tried drugs, couldn't make Immortal.
Read books, wrote poems on history.
Today I'm back on Cold Mountain:
I'll sleep by the creek and purify my ears.



I don't really have an answer; perhaps others do........

Lydia Gillen said:

Hi Caminando,
Yes the Camino is special,and it is a bit of a mystery what makes it so.

I think it has to do with the notion of pilgrimage, i.e. turning aside from the daily routine and consciously making space in ones life for God. God is Love. All of us seem to experience both the giving and the receiving of love whilst we walk the Camino.

Others will have different views, and all are valid.

But for me, I can honestly say that I have never been so conscious of God in my life as I have been whilst doing the Camino.

Lydia

Click to expand...

Thanks LG for these elegant words which affirm what it is to be human- to "give and receive", as you say - a survey showed that people were at their happiest when giving/relating to others. You speak of making space in one's life for Love and God, which suggests that, as many feel, that this is lacking in our lives, our societies, where these qualities are crowded out. Our "daily routine" as you imply, is inadequate or worse, and we often find what we lack on this Way, which could perhaps be said to be a fleeting return to Eden, though the meseta is a tough Eden!

Thanks LG