Magicraft:
Pilgrimage: The Art of Sacred Travel

Traveling is easy. Pilgrimage is an art. And as with any art form, it has the capacity to inspire and fill the soul with joy. When we make travel sacred, we create the opportunity to experience direct connection with the Divine. In this article, I share some of the techniques I have used to nourish my spiritual life through sacred pilgrimage, rather than simply being a tourist when I travel.

My first pilgrimage was to Mexico in 1989. Although I was not yet Pagan then, and I didn't consciously think of my trip as a pilgrimage, I was still called to focus my visit on sites sacred to the Mayans, and was able to have several deeply significant religious experiences there. Since then, I have traveled in 1999 on a trip to Ireland and Scotland, and again in 2000 was able to return to visit more sites in Scotland. When my partner offered to take me on these trips, it was with a much more conscious intention that I wanted them to be pilgrimages. One book that helped me greatly in accomplishing this intent was The Art of Pilgrimage, by Phil Cousineau. This book solidified much of my thinking about why and how to make travel sacred, and confirmed that others have used the same techniques that I used successfully.

Why Make Travel Sacred?

Cousineau feels that the purpose of sacred travel is to seek personal transformation through visiting whatever you consider to be sacred. This does not necessarily mean that your pilgrimage needs to be of a religious nature. If, for instance, the writings of a particular literary figure are what feed your soul, then a trip to that writer's birth place or home could be your sacred travel. For myself, sacred travel does have a religious focus. When I visited Ireland and Scotland, it was with the understanding that these countries were one of the birth places of our Pagan religion. I hoped to visit the sites that were sacred to our Pagan ancestors and connect with the energy there.

Long distance travel always has the possibility of causing you to step out of yourself, shake up your preconceptions of the world by connecting with paradigms different from your own, and thus rethink your place in the cosmos. Pilgrimage further offers the opportunity to experience direct connection with the sacred, and is thus a chance to revitalize yourself and your interest in life.

Preparations for Sacred Travel

With pilgrimage, your preparation is just as vital, and fun, as the actual trip. The better you prepare yourself and the sooner you start envisioning your trip, the more likely you are to have a soul nourishing journey.

Your first step is to direct your intention. As with any magical act, your intention is the single most important ingredient for success. By declaring to yourself and the universe that you intend to make a pilgrimage, rather than take a vacation, you have started a process that will allow the energy of your trip to align itself to your benefit. Your thought forms can begin to manifest and the sacred that is already there can prepare to show itself to you.

Your next step is to inspire yourself. Learn everything you can about the place to which you are going. This should be an enjoyable process in which you seek out that which seems unique and special about your destination. It should not become in-depth academic research, unless that is what nourishes you. Read travel guides, read literature or poetry from the area, watch videos with lush photography of the site, listen to the indigenous music, view the art of the culture or site you will be visiting. Cousineau terms this, "calling the visit to you." The more you know about the place you are visiting, and the more you have imagined it and lived with it before you ever arrive there, the more a pile of rocks will look like a sacred site and the less it will look like a ruin. The more you understand about the people who used the site, the more your imagination will be able to fill in the fallen walls and barren spots and let you be inspired by what you are viewing. By immersing yourself in your trip before you ever leave, you are creating a unique and personal poetry that will engage your imagination and read itself to you as your trip unfolds. Whereas the tourist has only hand held flyers and posted placards from which to create an understanding of a site, the pilgrim brings with them a vast tapestry of understanding that adds an emotional depth to their experience.

Your preparation should also include a careful selection of your destinations. You should always pass by that which you do not love. If a place does not speak to your soul, don't go there just because it is a well known attraction. For example, although I have been to Great Britain twice, I have never decided to add Stonehenge to my itinerary, because it is usually overrun by tourists whose access is limited to a walkway. I think it would be almost tortuous to be that close and not have direct contact with the stones, and to not have time alone with them. I instead chose to visit less well known sites, where I could interact with them in a way of my own choosing, and with fewer other travelers around. Sites you might want to look into that I can personally recommend include the Cliffs of Moher in western Ireland (where the land first spoke to me); the Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis, in Scotland (see cover photo and my article elsewhere in this issue); the Brigid sites at Kildare, Ireland (where the Brigidine sisters are relighting Her flame); and the island of Iona in Scotland (that was once a learning center sacred to Moon priestesses and Druids).

The Sacred Tools of Travel

Cousineau makes the excellent suggestion of creating a pilgrim's journal for your trip. While it had been obvious to me that I should take a journal on my travels in order to record the events I was experiencing, it had not occurred to me to begin writing the journal before I left on the trip. A pilgrim's journal can begin as soon as you begin to call the journey to you. In it, you can record the facts and flights of fantasy that you are discovering about your destination. It can also contain drawings or poetry or inspirational sayings that you can read during your journey as a means to continue to direct your intent toward the sacred. For Indiana Jones movie fans, a pilgrim's journal is much like the Grail Diary that Indie's father had in The Last Crusade, in which he painstakingly and lovingly kept track of all of the information he gathered that eventually led him to discover the holy grail and find "illumination."

My pilgrim's journal has become one of my most sacred items. I searched many bookstores looking for the right blank book to use, but eventually had to make my own cover in order to be satisfied. When choosing your pilgrim's journal, consider if you want it to have blank pages that would allow you to draw in it, or if you would prefer lined paper for neater writing. Also consider its size and heftiness, remembering that the pilgrim travels light.

Next, choose a talisman or amulet for your trip that you can carry with you to symbolize your sacred intent. The easiest way to do this is probably in the form of a necklace with an appropriate symbol that you can wear everyday as you travel. You could also take something small that fits in a pocket. Before leaving on the trip, you might want to bless and begin meditating with your talisman.

Also prepare offerings to leave along your trip. This allows you to express your gratitude for the gifts that come your way. You'll need to decide what you consider to be an appropriate gift to leave at a sacred site. There is a continuing debate among Pagans as to what is beneficial or harmful. Some find that leaving crystals or stones is appropriate, but others believe that the energy of the crystal can negatively affect the energy already present at the site. Some believe that all offerings should be biodegradable so that they will quickly decompose and not disturb the area. Others feel that our sacred sites are now being visited by so many people each year that it is not good to leave any offering at all, other than perhaps a prayer for the well being of the land. Check site protocols to learn about the needs of the site(s) you are visiting and listen to your heart. You will know what is appropriate for you. In addition to offerings that you might want to leave at various sites, you might consider taking along something that you can give to the people who help you along your way, and crystals do work very well for this.

Finally, a pilgrimage's luggage should be small and easily manageable. Do not burden yourself with an array of expensive traveling tools, or with twice as much clothing as you could possibly wear. An adage you will see time and again in travel books is that you should lay out everything you think you need on the trip, then take half the amount of stuff and twice as much money. Personally, I traveled on public transportation, and only took one large hiking back pack with which I could easily walk the distance from the bus stop to our Bed and Breakfast. I have yet to wish that I had brought more with me. When you simplify the amount of things you carry, it is like symbolically stripping away your personal burdens from the life you left at home, and leaving yourself room to take on new and nourishing experiences.

Traveling in a Sacred Manner

You have dreamed and imagined your journey. You have called your destination to you in many ways. You are filled with anticipation. The day of departure has arrived. How do you make the travel itself sacred? How do you find your connection with the Divine?

You can begin your journey with a prayer or ritual. Once again, clearly state your intention in whatever words are appropriate for you. Ask for blessings and guidance from the Divine. Ask that you be shown that which will nourish your soul on this journey. You might also ask an elder or your spiritual community to bless your trip before you leave. When it is time, depart with a sense of thanksgiving, for you have been given the rare gift of being able to undertake a pilgrimage.

You might also consider engaging in a daily ritual as you travel. You can begin and/or end each day with prayer, meditation, chanting, journaling, divination, or whatever other method of reaching your center and reconnecting with your intent works for you. I tried different methods throughout my trip, including reading a morning prayer from my pilgrim's journal, and doing morning rune divinations.

Throughout the day, as you travel, try to proceed with mindfulness. This is a Buddhist concept that means being aware of, and intimately connected to, the current moment in which you find yourself, rather than being focused on what lays ahead or what happened earlier. During sacred travel, you never know when or how the Divine will manifest itself to you. You will not necessarily have your moment of revelation at your destination. If you travel with mindfulness, the Divine may send you messages anywhere along your path, and you will be prepared to receive them. Do whatever makes you more aware of your surroundings on a soul level, rather than a superficial level. Reading the inspirational sayings that I had copied into my journal helped me greatly with focusing my intent and my attention as I traveled. The journey itself can become a meditation, and you can begin to see meaning and beauty in everything around you.

Always allow for serendipity. A pilgrim cannot be constantly bound by time tables and pre-planned destinations. Allow your journey to unfold by itself so that you can listen to your instinct about when to stop moving and when to keep going, and when to change the path. This allows the Divine to silently guide you to the destination that is right for you.

When you arrive at your destination, whether the one you expected or not, remember that you are walking holy ground. You have the rare opportunity to reconfirm the concrete presence behind our Divine mysteries. You can have direct contact with the sacred. The actual presence of the holy objects or sites will reach out to you on a gut level and become alive to you. No matter how many pictures or videos you may have viewed before arriving, that will never replace the experience of being in the actual presence of the sacred, in sharing with its energy, of mixing your aura with it. If you are lucky, you will be forever changed at a deep level.

When you are at the site, allow yourself plenty of time to meditate, chant, journal, dance, do ritual, or just sit still and soak it all in. See my article elsewhere in this issue on the Callanish Stones in Scotland for an example of one means by which I connected with a sacred site. For myself, the quality of the experience at each site that I visited tended to vary greatly according to how much preparation I had invested into understanding that site and how much I anticipated seeing it.

Sharing and Remembering the Sacred that You Touched

You have touched the sacred and been changed. Your trip has allowed you to see more deeply into your own nature and into the nature of the Divine. However, memory fades, of even our most cherished moments, and mundane life seems to effortlessly draw us in again. How do you keep your sacred experience alive after you return from your trip?

I have several suggestions. You'll of course want to create a photo album if you took pictures of your trip, but you might also consider creating a more indepth scrapbook. When I make a scrapbook, I xerox pages from all the guide books I used for the trip, and cut out the descriptive bits of the places I visited. I highlight the words or phrases that remind me most of what I did or what the place was like. While I am traveling, I collect ticket stubs, restaurant receipts, and the like to put in the book. These may seem insignificant while you are traveling, but ten years later a simple store receipt will reconfirm to your psyche that you really were there. I also buy lots of postcards, not to mail them to friends, but to include them in the scrapbook, because they have shots that I will never get with my own camera. I also pick up as many pamphlets or as much tourist propaganda as I can, because I can then use the pictures and the words included in them to decorate the book. I also xerox pages of my journal that I wrote in during the trip and include significant passages from them in the scrapbook.

All this collecting and xeroxing makes for large piles of paper that you need to sort through, cut out, and organize. I have found that it can take me years to create and finish my scrapbooks because of this, but the creation itself becomes an extension of the trip, keeping it alive in my soul and helping me relive every mundane moment. The resulting book is a treasure of memories, many of which would otherwise be lost to me.

I have also created altars in memory of my travels, and included on them the things that I bought on the trip that are precious to me. My partner and I are also great rock collectors, and so our altars are filled with bowls or jars of rocks from different areas. On my trip to the Callanish Stones, I found cards illustrated by a local Pagan artist that I have framed and that now hang in one of our rooms. This room has so much stuff in it displayed from our travels that we might as well say the whole room is an altar to our sacred pilgrimages.

I also have attempted to share the sacred I have touched on my travels by giving sacred gifts from the places I have visited (such as by giving away stones or copies of the artwork I have made on my trips). I have also given workshops on sacred travel, and I am now sharing my enthusiasm by writing articles. CIRCLE Magazine has a regular column on Sacred Sites. If you are interested in submitting an article about your sacred travel, please contact Circle for our writer's guidelines. Every time I write or lecture about my trips, I am blessed with being able to relive them in my memory.

Conclusion

Whereas tourists are easily bored and wearied by their trips, pilgrims are inspired and nourished upon their return. They have found and connected with the sacred Divine and return more whole and more loving than when they left. I hope that all of you may have the opportunity to engage in sacred pilgrimage, and that you may have many blessed travels.

Resources

Cousineau, Phil (1998). The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker's Guide to Making Travel Sacred. Berkeley, CA: Conari Press.
McLuhan, T. C. (1996). Cathedrals of the Spirit: The Messages of Sacred Places. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Telesco, Patricia (2000). Magickal Places: A Wiccan Guide to Sacred Sites and Spiritual Centers. New York, NY: Kensington Publishing Corp. (See page 62 for ordering information.)

Blessed Be,
Rev. Theresa Berrie
Circle Sanctuary
circle@mhtc.net