Coming home again: the return journey of a pilgrimage
A pilgrimage doesn't end at the destination, but continues beyond the moment when you once again cross the threshold of your home. How might we take that return journey with intention?
Hello friends,
Pilgrimage has been happening across the earth since before written documentation began. The human drive to walk with a deeper meaning in focus seems to be somehow hardwired within us.
And for most of history, across most of the world, once you reached your destination (if you had one), you had to walk home again.
The first multi-day walking pilgrimage I took was a three day walk from Rochester Cathedral to Canterbury Cathedral along the Pilgrim’s Way. My dad joined me for the last few miles into Canterbury (while it poured with rain!) and then, after evensong and a much-enjoyed dinner of pulled pork nachos, he drove me home in his car.
We took the motorway back towards East London, where I lived, and covered in just twenty minutes what it had taken me three days to walk. All of those impressions and experiences and steps flashed by in less than half an hour.
There is something to be said for having to walk all the way home.
You have made it to your destination, taken the time to honour that deeply significant moment - in prayer, worship, celebration, rest. And then you have to turn your back to that sacred space and begin the long journey back again.
What would have happened on that slow return journey? I think there would have been time to truly process the significance and meaning of the arrival. And as every step walked took you closer to your home, your thoughts, your heart, your soul would reorient itself back to that space, where life continues in its sacred mundane everydayness.
I like to imagine it like the prayer practice of walking a labyrinth - there is the journey in, the pause in the centre, and the outward journey - and all three are equally important.
So assuming you are unlikely to physically walk yourself home from your pilgrimage, what kind of practices and postures might serve that return journey?
Try and keep your schedule light. Sometimes we can’t avoid needing to return quickly to the rush and fullness of daily life, but if possible, avoid over-scheduling in the first days back. Your body, heart and soul need time to rest and process, and that will be harder if the days are busy with their own needs and impressions.
Approach the practical tasks mindfully. You’ll need to unpack, clean your boots, wash your clothes. Approach each activity with an awareness that it is part of that outward journey. What memories rise as you brush the dried mud from your soles?
Tend to your body. Whether you walked for days, or you used other means of transport to journey, your body has carried you on an uncommon journey. Make space for warm baths, foot massages, extra naps. This too is spiritual.
Gather your keepsakes. If you’re anything like me, you come home with pockets full of shells and stones, feathers and pinecones. You could simply display them in a bowl somewhere you will see them often, or you might like to create a home altar with them, or find a way to craft with them. What made you stoop to pick up this item? What does it speak to you now that you are home?
Journal your memories. This might come easily, but if you struggle to know where to begin, perhaps look through any photos you took until one catches your attention. With the photo in front of you, write about what you remember of that moment, how you felt, what you sensed, what you needed. Notice what themes emerge as you free-write your response.
Find someone who can listen to you talk about your journey. That might be your partner, it might be a close friend, or it could be a spiritual director. The process of sharing our journey with another in conversation can help recognise the golden threads, and weave them together in a way that reveals deeper meaning.
It’s now three weeks since I returned home from the St Cuthbert’s Way, and I am still allowing all the impressions and experiences to filter through me.
I imagine layers of meaning; some were immediately apparent, most particularly the way I felt so filled up by beauty over those days of walking. Beauty was a balm and a delight and I received it as gift.
But there are other layers that I know are still waiting to be revealed. There are moments that will be re-lived in my conscious and subconscious. There will be sudden memories or a conversation weeks from now when something will come together in a way that brings fresh perspective.
“Many believe a pilgrimage is about going away but it isn’t; it is about coming home. Those who choose to go on pilgrimage have already ventured away from themselves; and now set out in a longing to journey back to who they are.”
– L.M. Browning
This is possibly my favourite quote about pilgrimage because it rings so true to my own experience. The experience of journeying with intention is an experience of coming home to myself - that Self held in deep eternal connection to God and to all created things.
The return journey is the invitation to continue that homecoming.
How does this resonate with your own experience of returning from a pilgrimage (or any other significant spiritual journey)?
New Offering:
I’ve just added an offering to my website that I have been long intending to develop: spiritual direction for pilgrimage.
This is for you if you are planning a pilgrimage (whether walking or other modes of transport) and would like a sacred companion as you prepare, as you journey, and as you return.
Find out more on my website, and if you know others who will be making a pilgrimage soon, do send them my way!
This comes to me at the perfect time. Thank you so very much. I going to share it along with my reflections with my podcast audience and recommend you to them. Episode airing OCT 25, 2023 :: Spark My Muse | Soul School Lesson 281 What About Good Returns (sparkmymuse.com)