February, 2013

Welcome to our second Pilgrimage Creations Newsletter. Read on to see some of the things we are offering at Pilgrimage Creations these days.

Early bird special

Beginning today we are offering you an early-bird special for our seven-day Finding your Camino Rhythms package. If you sign up before April 30^th, you can save $200 off the normal price.

As we introduced it to you in our last newsletter, with this offering we propose to teach, guide, and empower you to walk your pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago. We will do this with a pre-walk workshop, then to walk seven days on the Camino with you before releasing you to walk your Camino. Afterwards, we plan to contact you to see how your pilgrimage went and how you are integrating your changes into your daily life.

From 10 to 17 September we will walk with a group of 6 to 12 pilgrims. Then we have openings for two walkers who would rather walk individually.

We seek to help you get past your apprehensions and any other obstacles that may be in the way of you walking the often life-changing pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago. We want to help you find the spiritual, emotional, and physical rhythms that will help make your Camino experience not only rich and joyful but also a path to improving your life. We want to guide you into the spiritual retreat and personal quest that the Camino can be. We offer you spiritual and both masculine and feminine insights to the many faces of this pilgrimage route.

Go to our Finding your Camino Rhythms web pages to learn more about this great opportunity to begin your life-changing pilgrimage on the Camino with two well-seasoned Camino walkers. And now you can take advantage of our early-bird special.

Some background

The Camino de Santiago is known as The Way of St. James, or simply, The Way, in English. The Camino has been traveled by millions, including St. Francis of Assisi, over its 1200 years of existence. Every walker has his or her own reason for making this pilgrimage, not the least of which in the medieval days was for a plenary indulgence, the complete remission of your sins in preparation for immediate entry into heaven. This "free pass" is still available to Catholics who walk The Way in a Holy Year, a year when St. James' feast day, July 25, falls on a Sunday (2021 is the next one). Many travel the Camino just for the long distant walk. Others walk to take in the history and the architecture of the religious and secular buildings along the way. Still others take the walk as a retreat or a vision quest. Some walk simply to follow the path of the third most holy medieval pilgrimage destination after Jerusalem and Rome. Most wrap several of these reasons around themselves before they set off. Our Finding your Camino Rhythms will concentrate on the spiritual and internal aspects of the walk.
- Adapted from First thoughts on the Camino de Santiago written before I began my first pilgrimage walk on the Camino)

Steps

Our Steps page continues to present almost-daily sayings, meditations, and observations on our pilgrimage through life. Join me on this journey once each day. No one knows where it will take us.

Coming up

- In our next Newsletter we talk about three other pilgrimage routes: the Via Francigena, the Via de la Plata, and Chimayo.

- On March 14 through 17 the American Pilgrims of the Camino will have their annual gathering in Santa Barbara, California. Learn more about at their web site, http://www.americanpilgrims.com.

New for 2013! Finding your Camino Rhythms We will walk with you for seven days to help you begin your pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago September 10 to 17. This offering includes a workshop and follow-up contacts. Save $200 by singing up before April 30. Also at Our Offerings, Finding your Camino Rhythms on our menus.

Steps Take a moment to read a thought for today on Steps. Also at Steps on our menus.

From the pages of Pilgrimage Creations

In 2012, 192,488 people received their Compostela as testimony that they walked had at least 100 kilometers (62 miles) into Santiago. In August 2012 49,093 of those people came into Santiago. That is a lot of people walking the Camino de Santiago.

In response to people thinking the Camino was a totally tranquil way, we wrote the following about what the Camino is and what it is not on our page Some Thoughts for your Camino, our page giving advice to those thinking of walking the Camino.

The Camino is not a wilderness walk. It follows an ancient pilgrimage path, a path used long before the Christians started walking to Santiago. If you are looking for a walk in the wilderness on tranquil paths away from traffic and everyday life of Spain, do not walk the Camino. The Camino follows the path of a Roman road that took first the Roman and then Spanish armies and pilgrims across northern Spain. The original pilgrims were walking to Santiago, taking the shortest and most efficient route they could--it was the Roman highway. Though there are many quiet places along the Camino, a main road parallels that old road today. You are often close to it. You will hear traffic. You will be near people, often many people.

Yes, you have already heard it, many people walk the Camino these days. So if you do not want to be with many people, walk it in late fall, winter, or early spring. The interaction with your fellow walkers often is very enjoyable and, for many, a valuable part of the Camino experience. But if you do not want that and you want to walk in the heat of the summer, hike in the mountains alone somewhere. The Camino is not for you. Perhaps you could walk the Camino Portuguese, the Via de la Plata, or the Camino de Levante from Valencia instead if you want to arrive in Santiago in the end. All these have far fewer walkers (though less support comfort) than the main route, the Camino Francais.

Visit Pilgrimage Creations' Our Books page and browse through and consider buying one or more of them for yourself or as gifts.

Petra Wolf and Mike Metras
Pilgrimage Creations.