Making Pilgrimages.

April is the time for pilgrimages according to Geoffrey Chaucer in ‘The Canterbury Tales’. These journeys, often on well trodden routes, had a religious purpose historically, but, in contemporary times, favour the secular too. They can be peaceful meditations or in contrast, deep challenges, with the aim of a personal transformation by the end. For both believer or non-believer, they can also be a thankful shout or a cry for help to the heavens. Even for the classic medieval pilgrim, they were a chance to explore the world, religious experience aside.

Around me, I hear of friends packing up for the South Downs Way between Chichester and Eastbourne in the UK or for the Camino de Santiago, taking one of many routes across Europe to the Cathedral de Compostela in Spain.

St Michael’s Way in Cornwall is an official English extension of the Camino de Santiago. It’s a beautiful rolling 20 kms of bridleways and paths from Lelant on the North coast to the awe-inspiring St Michael’s Mount in the South. Historically, pilgrims used this route across land to avoid the rough seas at Land’s End before settling sail for the continent.

Maybe take a wilder hike on The Pilgrim’s Way (part of St Cuthbert’s Way) to Lindisfarne, otherwise known as Holy Island in Northumberland. Cross the bay at low tide with salt and curlew cries on the wind, following the old route to the Priory that pilgrims have taken for 1500 years.

Or is something more humble needed – like a labyrinth? Often built from turf, rock or even as a mosaic floor in an ancient church, slowly dance the strange, snaking path to the centre. Originally built to encourage meditation, walking a labyrinth takes a little time to complete, allowing some kind of personal reflection on route.

The cliff top labyrinth at St Agnes on the Isles of Scilly off the West coast of England is an old example. Known as the Troy Town Maze, it was made for sailor pilgrims to pray for fair passage by methodically walking the pathway.

Perhaps I should consider embarking on a pilgrimage too.

The past 6 months have been both challenging for my own health and that of my family as a whole. We’ve been braving storms for a while now. Some of us have made it to safety. Some are still at sea, trying to ride huge waves and remain on board with each other’s help. These tempests have been, and still are, fraught with danger to life and I don’t yet know how they will end.

I, though, at least, am now on dry land.

Perhaps a pilgrimage would give me a chance to meditate on what has happened. Perhaps it would be a way of sending thanks somehow for my own survival. Perhaps it would allow me to explore this new world I have shipped up on and, in doing so, discover myself again.

Perhaps, a pilgrimage would be a way of sending prayers for kinder weather to the people I love so I can meet them on the shore…whenever they arrive.

All illustrations (by me) originally appeared in The Almanac 2021 written by Lia Leendertz and published by Mitchell Beazley/Octopus.