One day I may be able to write what it is I have to say in a fluid, succinct and eloquent way. Until then the words of others do the job beautifully.......
'Pilgrimage walks a delicate line between spiritual and the material in its emphasis on the story and its setting for spirituality, it is pursued in terms of the most material details- where relics are or the holy water flows. Or perhaps it reconciles the the spiritual and the material for to go on a pilgrimage is to make the body and its actions express the desires and beliefs of the soul. Pilgrimage unites belief with action, thinking with doing and it makes sense that this harmony is achieved when the sacred has material presence and location.'
'When pilgrims begin to walk several things usually begin to happen to their perceptions of the world which continue over the course of their journey: they develop a changing sense of time, a heightening of the senses and a new awareness of their bodies and the landscape......In the experience of walking, each step is a thought. You can't escape yourself.'
'In going on pilgrimage, one has left behind the complications of one's place in the world- family, attachments, rank, duties and become a walker among walkers, for there is no aristocracy among pilgrims save that of achievement and dedication.'
Wanderlust Rebecca Solnit
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