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The Pilgrimage: How to Follow the Ancient Path of Santiago de Compostela



They called this, their seditious and traitorous voyage, a holy and blessed pilgrimage; they also had certain banners in the field whereon was painted Christ hanging on the cross on one side, and a chalice with a painted cake in it on the other side, with various other banners of similar hypocrisy and feigned sanctity.


The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela became a consolidated tradition in Christianity around the 9th century and has been kept alive since, becoming more and more popular to this day. During 2018, more than 300,000 pilgrims reached Santiago on foot.




The Pilgrimage




Travelers obtain the pilgrim credential at parishes or local associations in the village where they start walking. In the Middle Ages, the credential served as a "safe passage" document that pilgrims would exhibit so that they were granted protection and were exempt from taxes during their pilgrimage. Nowadays it acts as a record of your journey, as you will get your credential stamped in each of the villages where you sleep.


If you are passionate about traveling and you have always wanted to travel in order to aid your personal growth, you have come to the right place. In this website, not only will I entertain you with my own pilgrimage travels, but I will help you open your own eyes to also become a traveling pilgrim. More than a mere tourist, but a pilgrim on a spiritual journey that complements the physical journey and with a sacred purpose.


The pilgrimage traveler discovers each and every sacred place, in the moment for what it is, unique and powerful, and as it may have appeared through time, through all its human and Divine experiences.


The pilgrimage traveler takes a journey to exotic and not-so-exotic spiritual sites that have great significance for the culture in which it lies. Every single culture has sacred sites, or special places to where people take sacred journeys. The best pilgrimage is one that requires difficulty to reach, either by walking or by rough and inaccessible roads. The spiritual journey is not the same if you can saunter up to it with minimal effort.


Walking long distances has long been known to help the seeker clear his/her head and become more in touch with him/herself. This is why I pilgrimage to mountaintops. It keeps me in the moment, requires effort that is more than physical and puts life and its problems in perspective when you reach that glorious summit.


The journey to the mountaintop is a spiritual metaphor for life. But then, isn't all travel a metaphor for your life's experience? Especially when you remove yourself from your ordinary existence to encourage something new to manifest? And what better way to stretch your personal experiences and take you out of your comfort zone than through pilgrimage travel?


In order for the pilgrimage traveler to be successful, he/she must move beyond their usual perceptions and be willing to open wide their senses to see, feel, touch and experience, not just the place, but the journey in a new way. It is perceptually seeing with new eyes, hearing with new ears, feeling in a new way, and spending the amount of time needed to open to these new experiences of the holy place.


Most pilgrimage travelers are seeking to find one, if not all of the following personal attributes as a result of their long journey; peace, healing, unity, worship, forgiveness, inspiration, clarity, spiritual instruction, life direction, adventure, connection and most importantly, Presence of Something beyond themselves.


For the pilgrim, the purpose is the search for personal transformation. In fact, one of the most insightful experiences of my life came when I discovered that you can have a spiritual journey and personal transformation, without ever going anywhere! This is a pilgrimage-in-place and can be just as effective as an actual journey.


Spiritual travel is about going out to go in as John Muir, the great naturalist, likes to say. The pilgrimage traveler is open to inner discovery through outer awareness. Experiencing the jolt of the unfamiliarity in the outer environment when you travel, causes you to examine yourself internally, doesn't it? Walking long distances also brings your mind to an internal place of contemplation, doesn't it?


When you journey as a pilgrimage traveler, you open yourself to a new way of experiencing the sacred site. Instead of insulating yourself with familiar food, hotel chains, resorts and experiences, you open yourself to feel all the sensations of being in the new place. If you are willing to open all your senses to become vulnerable, this can be a life-altering experience. The Pilgrim is opening him/herself, indeed to a new way of being.


The story begins in 1986 when Coelho undertakes his initiation into the order Regnus Agnus Mundi (RAM), which he subsequently fails. He is then told that he must embark on a pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago to find the sword that is the symbol of his acceptance into the ranks of RAM. He must do this to gain insight into the simplicity of life. The journey transforms him as he learns to understand the nature of truth through the simplicity of life.He begins his journey with a guide, also a member of RAM, who goes by the alias Petrus. During the journey Petrus shows him meditation exercises and introduces him to some of the more down-to-earth elements of Western mystical thought and philosophy, and teaches him about love and its forms: agape, philia and eros.


I visit Natchez yearly and Natchez Pilgrimage Tours is the place to purchase your pilgrimage tickets. Not only are they friendly and helpful, you feel like you are chatting with old friends who are glad to see you!


I travel to Natchez from Springfield, MO at least two times each year, for Spring and Fall pilgrimage. I always purchase tickets from Natchez Pilgrimage Tours and find them extremely helpful and friendly. Whether someone is traveling to Natchez for the first time or the 50th time, starting with Natchez Pilgrimage Tours is very helpful. I'll be returning in late September.


Ms. Tippett: It seems to me that, really, just a core theme that runs through all your writing is life itself as a pilgrimage, writing as a pilgrimage for you, but also reading as a step on a path to pilgrimage for modern people. So interesting.


The pilgrimage drew the devout from across Europe for several reasons. In the year 1122 Pope Calixtus II granted the city various privileges, including an indulgence for those who journeyed here on pilgrimage, with special consideration given to those who made the pilgrimage in a year when the Feast of St. James (July 25) fell on a Sunday.


For many centuries, the pilgrimage drew both the wealthy and the poor. A pilgrimage was seen as an enactment of the spiritual journey to Christ, and the hardships along the way were welcomed as tests of faith.


As the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela grew in popularity, so did the legends and lore associated with it. The scallop shell became the symbol of the pilgrimage, in part because the shells were common along the Atlantic beaches just west of Santiago. Travelers would wear a scallop shell to proclaim their status as pilgrims, and the motif was incorporated into many of the buildings, wells, churches, and monuments along the route.


The pilgrimage was not without internal controversy and civil rights leaders differed on its intent. A. Philip Randolph intended the event to relate to his 1941 effort to use the threat of mass protests to secure civil rights reform. When 77 church, labor, and civil rights supporters met on 5 April in Washington to finalize plans for the pilgrimage, moderates Adam Clayton Powell and Clarence Mitchell sought to ensure that the pilgrimage would not embarrass the Eisenhower administration, and would instead be used to commemorate the Brown decision through prayer.


The El Rocío pilgrimage is the most famous in the region, attracting nearly a million people from across Andalucia and the entire country, and beyond. Every Andalucian city, town and village has its own pilgrimages, for its patron saint, virgin or other much-loved local figure, but the El Rocio has cult status, and is the most important and most colourful.


Following two years of cancellation when the Hermandad Matriz del Rocio de Almonte, which organises the pilgrimage, announced on Monday 23 March 2020 "with pain, and yet strength" the suspension of the pilgrimage. The statue has been in the parish church of the Asuncion at Almonte since August 2019, as happens every seven years, traditionally during epidemics, disasters and acts of thanksgiving. She was due to return to El Rocio on 24 May 2020, just before the pilgrimage. However the pilgrimage was cancelled in 2021 as well so 2022 is expected to be an emotional event. On the 22 May 2022 the virgin was carried around the streets of Almonte. On the 29 May 2022 the virgin was be moved to the chapel at El Rocio ready for the main festival on Pentecost Monday.


This cult dates back to the 13th century, when a hunter from the village of Villamanrique (or Almonte, depending on which version of the story you follow) discovered a statue of the Virgin Mary in a tree trunk in the Doñana park. A chapel was built where the tree stood, and it became a place of pilgrimage. Devotion to this particular version of the Virgin was initially a local affair. Then, by the 17th century, hermandades (brotherhoods) were making the trip from nearby towns at Pentecost; by the 19th century, they came from all over Huelva, Cadiz and Seville, on a journey taking up to four days. Over the next century, the cult of the Virgin del Rocio became more and more widespread, and these days participants come from as far away as Barcelona and the Canary Islands - not to mention tourists who travel from abroad, around Europe and even further afield.


The object of the pilgrimage is a 13th-century statue of the Virgen Del Rocio (Virgin of the Dew), in the town of the same name. El Rocio is in Huelva province, in the heart of the Doñana park, between Almonte and the coast. Most pilgrims, known as rocieros, approach the town through the park itself. 2ff7e9595c


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