Discovering Pilgrimage

. . . a deep inward wandering, a spiritual journey of the human heart to the heart of the sacred

By Phil Cover for Sapira

Outward Journey, Inward Movement

A pilgrimage is a journey. For many people it is a journey to a place considered holy resulting from someone else's experience of a divine encounter, for example, to Mt. Sinai where Moses is said to have encountered God. For others pilgrimage means a place of personal significance where an unexpected spiritual experience occurred, such as a unique or surprising revelation, a new way of seeing the old, or an awareness of a deep indescribable knowing. Thereafter that site for them, be it a park, or a lake or an edifice, is regarded as hallowed or unique. It becomes a destination for pilgrimage.

People throughout the world have engaged in the practice of pilgrimage long before the time of recorded history. Pilgrimage is universal. The practice of pilgrimage is inherent in most cultures, religions and spiritual traditions, and yet pilgrimage transcends all these boundaries. Why, because, we are created as seekers. We are restless with deep personal questions, the answers of which must inevitably come from an absolute source that is unbounded and limitless.

The ineffable longings of the human heart . . . reveal the underlying spiritual intent of the journey.

A pilgrimage is not always what it seems to be. It is not a vacation, although moments of leisure, the experience of new places and peoples, relating to different cultures and histories could convey such an impression to the observer. Nor is a pilgrimage specifically a retreat, even though there are moments and occasions for intentional prayer, meditation, silence and shared reflection. In the broadest sense of the term, a pilgrimage is a deep inward wandering, a spiritual journey of the human heart to the heart of the sacred.

A Journey With Purpose

The expressed reasons why people go on pilgrimage are as varied as they are interesting. Beneath the surface however, the "real" motive is often very private, or deeply personal, or found to be too deep for words. The motivations for pilgrimage are frequently rooted in inner needs, expectations, and hopes for what we cannot provide or achieve for ourselves. As a pilgrimage unfolds, the initial intentions for its undertaking customarily yield to what is operative in the very nature of pilgrimage itself. During pilgrimage, the ineffable longings of the human heart for what is sacred, meaningful, and decisive begin to reveal the underlying spiritual intent of the journey. It is not uncommon for pilgrimage to transform the heart's insatiable longings into a life-altering experience.

Solitary Pilgrims As Community

The words community and solitary pilgrims may seem like they do not belong together in the same sentence. Yet, throughout the experience of pilgrimage the need for pilgrims to be alone and the need for them to be also in community complement and support one another. Pilgrims come together often with an innate contemplative attitude, a stance requiring periods of inner solitude and outer spaciousness so the spirit can be cared for by silence. Corresponding, when pilgrims come together and form a pilgrim community, the spirit of each pilgrim speaks to the spirit of the other, harmonizing and balancing the movements of each person's involvement in the divine cosmic dance of transformation.

The Spirit In Spiritual

If pilgrimage is ultimately a spiritual journey, what is the spirit in spiritual for the pilgrim? The answer begins with a premise-that we are not human beings seeking somehow to do something to become spiritual, but rather we are spiritual beings who long to become fully human. If that premise is accepted, then spirit is a constitutive element of being human, being alive. At times the pilgrim will experience the emotional qualities of spirit, inner promptings that reflecting certain conditions of the mind, the heart, or the body. Pilgrims often encounter the deeper life-giving spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and compassion, which affect the mind, the heart, and the body. Conversely, there is the dark side of spirit, revealed for example, in acts of intolerance, rebellion, hatred, malevolence, violence, or bigotry.

The spirit in spiritual seeks to guide, inform and alter the landscape of our hearts.

Most established religions view the spirit in spiritual in terms of a supernatural living being, a transcendental reality or soul belonging to the spiritual realm. In some instances, this Spirit is named as divine. In many instances, the Spirit is understood as being either present to or existing within the human spirit itself. There are those pilgrims whose system of beliefs may include the possibility of a mystical union of the human and divine Spirit. In whatever way one understands the spirit in spiritual, the stance of the pilgrim ought to be one of open availability — “here I am” — receptive to the influence and movement of the spirit who is at the heart of pilgrimage, that is, the presence of a greater wisdom who seeks to guide, inform and alter the landscape of our hearts.

The Outer And Inner Landscape

Each of us is a living story, a composite of personal anecdotes that comprise the told and untold narratives of our lives. Each story or event is lived out in the milieu of predictable and conflicting circumstances, situations and conditions. This milieu forms an outer landscape of interesting contours, eye-catching crevasses, fascinating layers, vast glassy plains and sheer mountainous terrain which come to symbolize various aspects of life's journey we have traveled thus far. Concurrently, each of us has an inner earth, a topography that reflects the outer landscape but whose geography contains its own distinct patterns and configurations.

On pilgrimage, our story becomes connected to deeper truths.

On pilgrimage, we roam our inner earth with its soft and hard edges, its soaring peaks and deep pits, its easy-to-touch and hard-to-reach places that together become the fodder for the spirit and grist for the mill of our inner transformation. On pilgrimage, we can discover in surprising ways what makes us most vulnerable, yet open to change. On pilgrimage, we can come face to face with our hidden wounds and what makes us broken, while receptive to the inner movement of spiritual healing. On pilgrimage, our story becomes connected to deeper truths and to the presence of an inner wisdom, yearning to alter the landscape of our hearts.

Pilgrimage - An Unfinished Opus

Most every journey has a specific beginning and a designated end. A pilgrimage as a spiritual journey however is very different. The beginning of pilgrimage, because it is a journey of the spirit frequently begins long before the journey commences and continues long after the destination has been reached.

An invitation from a friend, a suggestion by a stranger, an unexpected prompting from within one's mind and heart can set a pilgrimage in motion, sometimes a year or more before the day of departure. Because a pilgrimage is a spiritual journey, making the decision to go on pilgrimage may not come quickly or easily. To voluntarily displace oneself, that is, to leave the familiar and comfortable place and travel along an unknown and different path may require a season of prayer, the support of a praying community, and a process of discernment before the inner "yes" is freely and intentionally uttered. Once made, there comes the awareness of the pilgrimage having already begun.

The experience of pilgrimage is largely ineffable and remains ineffable.

In the same way, when the pilgrimage draws to a close and a group of pilgrims return home, there is a corresponding awareness that the inner work set in motion long ago is still at work. As a spiritual journey, a pilgrimage is truly an unfinished opus. A lingering period of inner processing continues. The recalling of events, anecdotes, conversations, people, food, and places becomes a new source of grist for insight, wisdom, and inner transformation. Now the eyes of the inner landscape see the panorama of life's outer landscape ever so differently. There is frequently a calling into question matters, which may have been previously ignored or just taken for granted. The pilgrim now has a deep inner sense that he or she is different. Why, because the outer landscape of life continues to be seen through the pilgrim's heart, a heart that is being transformed to see the presence of the sacred in all things.

It is not uncommon for a pilgrim to return home to the outer landscape of his or her life lacking words to adequately express what happened on their journey. Moving into the inner landscape of their heart, they come to realize that as a spiritual journey, many experiences of pilgrimage are destined to remain hidden indefinitely, and many others are forever ineffable because they are so deeply rooted in the mystery of the sacred.