If you read this blog regularly, you’ll notice that the subtitle has changed a few times. That’s because I’ve changed. Or rather, it’s because I want to change. I am seeking to grow both spirituality and artistically (two things that are, for me, inextricably linked). I want to have a deeper connection to my own spirituality, to the Sacred, to my writing and to my life. So, for the next year, I’m going to take a step every day toward that goal. This is the day I start.
I could see this new beginning as a project, the way Gretchen Rubin envisions her daily work toward happiness in “The Happiness Project.” Or as a journey, like Taoist writer Derek Lin, who refers to his spiritual practice as a “Journey of a Thousand Miles.” But the word that works best for me is pilgrimage.
I’ve always loved the notion of pilgrimage. There is something beautiful about the idea of journeying not to visit museums or ruins or relatives, but to stand in a sacred place. I love the pilgrims’ willingness to leave their comfortable living rooms and venture into strange new territory. To travel the long road. To climb the mountain.
Pilgrimage is an ancient act. Egypt’s temple of Karnak has been a pilgrimage site for at least 4,000 years, and worshipers of the Bronze-age goddess Astarte once traveled many miles to visit her shrine at the headwaters of the Adonis River (in what is now Syria).
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| Remains of Temple of Astarte Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons |
For centuries, Muslims have journeyed to Mecca, Tibetan Buddhists have made their way to the Potala Palace in Lhasa—sometimes doing prostrations for the entire route—and people of all three Abrahamic faiths have visited the Temple Mount in Israel. In fact, pilgrimage is such a central human experience, some Jungian psychologists consider it a universal archetype.
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| Potala Palace Courtesy of Ondrej Zvacek |
What form will my pilgrimage take? All I know at this minute is that it will involve spirituality and writing, and that I will record my journey here, in the Writing as a Sacred Path Blog. Beyond that, it is a mystery. I’m not sure where it will lead, and I don’t know whether I will discover a new way of being in the world and fresh sources of strength and joy, or end up regretting ever starting. That uncertainty isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s part of the excitement.
Writer Morris West has described humans as creatures who “trace upon the walls of their caves the wonders and the nightmare experiences of their spiritual journey.” For the next year, this blog will be the walls of my cave as I trace the wonders and nightmares of one writer’s journey.
Great, inspirational comment. Good luck with your journey – may you find many roads less travelled.
Thank you! And stay tuned for . . . ????!