I've always loved to travel. When i'm traveling i feel more connected to my heart and i feel
connected to my life path and the path that the earth is laying out for me. I thought for
a long time that it was just travel itself that I loved, but I realize now that what i truly love
is pilgrimage. Pilgrimage is a particular type of travel, a travel with a purpose. It's travel in
which you are asking to be changed. Throughout our lives we will be called to pilgrimage, it's just
up to us to heed that call. I'm Asia Suler of One Willow Apothecaries and this is a video about how
to know when you're being called to pilgrimage and what to expect when you take those first steps.
Pilgrimage is movement and travel with the sacred or the divine at the center of your intention.
When we travel just as travel, we could travel for a lot of different reasons— for enjoyment,
for fun, for relaxation. Pilgrimage is traveling because you want to connect deeper to yourself,
to your soul's mission, and to the divine. To that flow of meaning that exists just underneath the
surface of our world. You know that you're being called to pilgrimage because you're going to start
to feel slightly uncomfortable in your day-to-day life. There will be this sense or this feeling of
being pulled into the unknown, but not knowing exactly where it's going to take you.
There might be a feeling like you need to shake up your perspective, like the routine
of your life has gotten a little bit stagnant. There may be a particular area in the world,
piece of history, or culture that's calling to you. And you will probably find that you
keep thinking about it or it keeps coming up as a synchronicity in your day-to-day life. Your
ancestors might also call you to travel— whether that's to travel to the lands that they came from,
or to undertake other kinds of sacred travel to connect into a religion or a practice that was
important to them. There's a big difference between being a pilgrim and being a tourist.
When you're in a tourism experience, you're trying to see as much as possible, you're
often ticking off a list, you're interested in immersing yourself in a culture to see
what hits and what doesn't. As a pilgrim, you're more interested in your inner experience. It's
less about ticking off a box, and more about bringing yourself to a place to see how that place
changes you. It's less about immersing yourself in a culture and more about understanding what
the roots are of that culture and seeing if you can have an experience of that within yourself.
It's kind of like the difference between climbing a mountain to get to the top and then turning
right back around, versus circumnavigating a mountain just to experience the mountain itself.
When you're on a tourist vacation you want to get from point a to point b. You're climbing that
mountain to get that view and then you're taking the picture and coming back down. As a pilgrim you
might not even ever climb the mountain. You might just walk around the base of that mountain to feel
the mountain's energy and let the mountain feel you. When we are pilgrims we listen way more than
we speak. In fact pilgrimage is really about being open to receiving the messages or the guidance
that come your way. And pilgrimage is nothing new. People have been undertaking pilgrimages since the
beginning of time. Pilgrimages can be undertaken for so many different types of reasons including
more deeply connecting to your faith or your religious beliefs. visiting the homelands of your
ancestors, or simply going to a place to steep in the energy that exists there on the earth.
What can you expect when you are on a pilgrimage? First of all, time will move differently. I often
find on a pilgrimage that so much can happen in a day, but it's not so much about what's happening
outside of me but what's happening inside of me. It seems that time slows down so that just a week
of pilgrimage will feel like I've been away for months. When you're on pilgrimage you will not
come back the same person that you were when you left and that's the point. You will also notice
increased synchronicity and signs, and if you slow down enough you will see that you are constantly
getting messages, metaphors, and affirmations to help guide you along the way of your pilgrimage.
Pilgrimages will also at times ask you to let go of your to-do list, to let go of your schedule
what you thought you were going to do, and just sink into the moment of what's actually happening.
On a pilgrimage you are going to be asked to feel, to experience, to drop into the senses. So
if your plans go awry, know that this is just the world's way of helping you become a
pilgrim on an even deeper level. On a pilgrimage, literally every step along the way has meaning.
Everything that happens on a pilgrimage is here to show you something, and is part of the wider
experience that is here to change your soul. In the essay "Bees of the Invisible," Václav Cílek,
the czech geologist climatologist and writer, talks about some rules that he has noticed when
it comes to these kinds of sacred pilgrimages. It's a beautiful essay and there's just a few
rules that i want to highlight here. One of these rules is the rule of home—
the idea that sometimes we need to travel out on these pilgrimages in order to understand where we
belong and what home actually means to us. It's kind of strange that we need to leave our home in
order to understand where we are home, but this is just one of the aspects of pilgrimages. It helps
you see that your home is inside of you, and it will show you where on the earth most resonates
with you as a home space. Another rule is the rule of resonance— this idea that a smaller place,
or a less flashy place that resonates with us, will be infinitely more important than the bigger
tourist attraction or the penultimate experience. So it might be that you have a more profound
experience simply sitting with a tree than you did visiting the Taj Mahal, and that's perfectly fine.
This rule of resonance actually shows us that it's these smaller places where we have these
ineffable experiences, that are actually here to teach us. So i know for example that when i was in
England I went to Stonehenge and I also went to a lot of other much smaller stone circles
that aren't really on anyone's map. And I had such a more powerful experience at these
smaller circles than I did at Stonehenge. And that's just showing me where my resonance is
and that these smaller places actually have so much important information to share with us.
So on this note, pilgrimage doesn't always mean that you have to travel across the world.
You might decide to take a pilgrimage by walking on foot to the next town over, or spending time
in nature. Cílek also talks about the rule of approach— the idea that when we're on pilgrimage,
it's important to actually have a slow approach to wherever it is that we're going. And this is
why traditionally pilgrimages were taken on foot. Even when there was access to things like carts
or horses, that approach on foot felt important. Nowadays most of us will fly to places that we're
going to pilgrimage, or we'll take a car. But for me I find that slow approach now comes in more
with my intention, with building ritual around before I enter this place, as i'm entering this
place. Perhaps slowing down as I enter, walking slowly, taking time to sit as I move deeper and
deeper into the place. Some places are a little bit shy and they will take this slow approach
in order to really be heard. I remember when i visited The Chalice Well Gardens in glastonbury,
I spent the whole day there when i visited. And it was really as the hours wore on, that i felt
the place open even deeper and deeper and deeper to me. Sometimes that slow approach and the time
taken is the very thing that will open the portal of your heart to receive the profundity of place.
My favorite of Cílek's rules is a rule that I notice time and time again, and that is the
rule of reciprocal awakening. When we journey to these places, not only are we journeying there
so we can awaken, but just by journeying there and awakening, we actually help to wake up that place.
This is why places that are traditional places of pilgrimage have this very alive,
spiritually-infused feeling to them. It's because of so many pilgrims coming there over the years.
So you have the ability to help wake up and reinvigorate a place,
just by taking a pilgrimage there. When we awaken, the place awakens. And vice versa.
I truly believe that all of us are here on this planet at this time because
we have an invaluable gift to give. Every time you go to these places, you are bringing that gift.
It's just about becoming conscious of what those gifts truly are. Over on my website
onewillowapothecaries.com i have a quiz and free class that will help you understand and isolate
your Earth Healing Archetype— the archetype that you embody that will show you the gifts that
you're meant to bring to this earth. I've truly found that by becoming aware of these archetypes,
I can become aware of the gifts that i'm bringing every time i take a pilgrimage,
every time i travel. So now I would love to hear from you, where on the earth are you feeling
called to go? Is it somewhere in the forest nearby? Is it somewhere in the next town over? Or
is it across the world? i would love to hear about which place is calling you now, and i also know
that just by writing it down you are making it a reality. So comment here in the section below, and
know that this whole community here is holding you in making that vision of a pilgrimage manifest.
you