Places of Pilgrimage Searching the world of mystery and transformation By Jay G. Williams According to legend, there lived in ancient times a virgin by the name of Gwenfrewi, who was desired in marriage by Caradog, a prince of Cymru. His request refused, he attempted to carry her off by force. Gwenfrewi fled, pursued by the prince, who in a great rage struck off her head, which bounded down the hill into a vale to a church, and on the spot where it rested a spring of amazing capacity bubbled forth. Gwenfrewi’s uncle, St. Beuno, who was officiating in the church, rushed out, replaced the severed head, and with prayer, restored the virgin to life. Thus was Gwenfrewi Santes born. Places of Pilgrimage Searching the world of mystery and transformation By Jay G. Williams Gwenfrewi Santes Press “Wherever the head rolls” 2016 Holy places are undoubtedly centres of the out pouring of Divine grace because on entering the illumined site associated with martyrs and holy souls, and by observing reverence, both physical and spiritual, one’s heart is moved with great tenderness. Abdul-Baha Introduction I have long been intrigued by the idea and the reality of pilgrimage. As a result, although I have actually engaged in only a few “official” pilgrimages myself, I have visited many pilgrimage sites and seen, first hand, what pilgrims do there. The following pages include many examples of what I saw. No study of any topic can be complete, but this is especially true when dealing with pilgrimage. There simply are an uncountable number of pilgrimages and pilgrimage sites in the world. Some are moribund but, nevertheless, interesting. Many others are still active and attract thousands. No library could contain information on all of them. So I have stayed with those places I have actually seen, though in two instances I have injected pictures produced by someone else.1 That is because when I went to Lourdes and to Bodhgaya it rained so hard no photography was really feasible. All the other pictures, however, are mine.. Organizing these pictures was also a problem. At first, I thought I should organize them by religion or maybe by region. Finally, I decided on neither option, beginning with some remains of prehistoric pilgrimages and then with those pilgrimages connected with the life of the founder or an early disciple. After that we proceed to look at pilgrimages connected with some individual saints and then mountains, caves, flowing water, and finally islands. I conclude with the famous pilgrimage to Chartres that does quite fit any of these categories. In any event, enjoy the pictures and plan a pilgrimage of your own, even if it is to explore the mysterious wonders of Yellowstone or Jackson Pollock or Mount Vernon. Today , American pilgrimages reflect the secularization of our Democratic- Capitalistic society. Yes, many still engage in the ancient rituals---I have 1 The pictures on pp. 24, 25, 42 and 84 are courtesy of Wikipedia. friends who have been re-baptized in the River Jordan--- but many more are caught up in the joys of nature and history and the arts. Today we are more likely to visit a museum to be stirred by art or a concert hall to feel the power of music. Founding fathers such as George Washington have become our “saints” and the Grand Canyon or Mt. Denali, a stimulus for our awe. We have become “realists” who no longer are convinced by the old myths, but we still set off to see, to find our selves, to grow spiritually. The old questions still remain. Who am I? Where am I going? What’s the point? And so we become pilgrims in our own way to find the path for ourselves. Let us hope that each of us will find the Center in the center of ourselves as we travel through this place we call the earth. Jay G. Williams Pilgrimage Among the many features of what we in the modern world have come to call “religion” there is none more common than the pilgrimage. Whether you are a tribesman traveling alone to be blessed by a sacred stone or a modern Muslim on the way to Mecca, the pilgrimage is a vital way to express one’s spirituality. There are, of course, many reasons to go on a pilgrimage. For some, it is simply a way to get out of town, to see something new, to make new friends. From the tales that they told, it is clear that Chaucer’s pilgrims were not just on their way for purely spiritual reasons. Neither are the modern Irish pilgrims to Knock who buy in one of the several souvenir shops “I’ve been to Knock” squirt guns for their grandchildren. Nevertheless, within the pilgrimage there is a deeper meaning that even the most secular pilgrims sometimes glimpse, for it is an acting-out in the visible world of our inevitable quest for meaning within our inmost selves. Who am I? Where am I going? What really is the meaning of life? The pilgrimage is a return to the center, to the deep well from which all life flows, to what ancient Greeks called the omphalos. If it were not so, people would have stopped such travel long ago. But the quest goes on and so do the many pilgrimages around the world. From archaeological findings there are many indications that people in the prehistoric world engaged in pilgrimage. One outstanding example is Stonehenge where people, even today, come together to celebrate the vernal equinox and the cycle of the year. What happened in ancient times is still a matter of debate, but the event must have been considered very important to have warranted such a gigantic structure. 7 Stonehenge is huge, made partially out of stones transported all the way from western Wales. Its orientation, that relates to the vernal equinox, seems to imply astronomical significance. 8 That is also true of Newgrange (Irish: Si an Bhru) in County Meath, Ireland, though Newgrange seems to be oriented to the winter solstice rather than the vernal equinox. Newgrange, obviously repaired for modern tourists At the winter solstice the sun shines directly down the shaft leading to the center of this Early Bronze (3200 B.C.E.) site located in the Boyne Valley. 9 In Eleusis in Greece, just a few kilometers from Athens, we find remains of an ancient site where thousands came each year not only to learn of the sacred mysteries, but to be initiated into them. Eleusis attracted people from all over the world for more than 1000 years. There, pilgrims learned the secrets of Demeter’s descent into the netherworld to find her daughter Persephone. What they heard and what they saw and what they did, however, remains something of a mystery to this day. The remains of the temple of Eleusis where initiates learned the secret mysteries 10 Equally important for ancient Greece was Delphi, located on the southwestern slopes of Mt. Parnassus where, according to tradition, the center of the world (the omphalos) was located. It was here that Apollo slew the dragon and so saved the world from disaster. An eternal flame burned constantly there in Apollo’s temple where people came to worship the savior god. Nearby they consulted the famous oracle of Delphi to learn about the future. The great amphitheater of Delphi 11 The remains of an ancient temple in Delphi For western religions there is, of course, no place of pilgrimage more noteworthy than the Holy Land which today is partly in Israel and partly in the West bank area. Of all the innumerable sites related to ancient Israel and to Jesus, there is none more important than Jerusalem. 12 The most visible and beautiful of all the sites in Jerusalem, however, belongs to the Muslims. Of course, the Dome of the Rock, built on the site of Judah’s ancient temple, is not the most important place of pilgrimage for Islam. That title belongs to Mecca. Built in 691 C.E. on the command of the Umayyad Caliph, the Dome of the Rock, nevertheless, represents one of the oldest examples of Islamic architecture. The Dome of the Rock 13 Because Islam forbids the making of “graven images” the exterior is covered by beautiful designs and Arabic words from the Koran. 14 Inside is the rock upon which Abraham is supposed to have attempted the sacrifice of Isaac and from which Mohammed is believed to have ascended to heaven. It is thought that his footprint exists on the rock. Although little more will be said about Islamic sites in this collection, Islam has, apart from Mecca and Medina, many other holy places of pilgrimage; often they reverence mystic Sufi masters. 15 Outside the Islamic shrine is one of the oldest Jewish pilgrimage sites. It is the most visible remains of the Temple in Jerusalem that was torn down by the Roman armies in the first century C.E.. This picture was taken shortly after the Six Day War. Before that time, one reached the Western Wall through a fairly narrow passage way. When the Jews regained control over Jerusalem, they immediately opened the area so that more could make use of the wall for prayer. This is the only Jewish site we will mention in this book, but it must be recognized that the whole of Israel functions as a place of pilgrimage for Jews. 16 Christians, of course, have their many pilgrimage sites. On Good Friday each year, many follow the Via Dolorosa from the site of the Roman head quarters where Jesus was tried to the place where it is believed he was crucified and buried.