A spiritual pilgrimage is a mystic quest for the hidden treasure. Pilgrims on this mystic quest are not actually traveling to an outward destination but rather they are journeying along the mystical path in search their own spiritual center.
Spiritual pilgrimages can help pilgrims refocus their faith. Their purpose is to open themselves to a divine union where they can receive blessings from the spiritual source. The spiritual pilgrimage itself opens the doorway to the mystical mystery. The pilgrim enters the spiritual mystery because he lets go and doesn’t know what will happen along the mystical path. As a result, all of the experiences along the spiritual pilgrimage become teaching and learning experiences. A pilgrimage is the adventure of the self and the undertaking the spiritual journey is a matter of fulfilling a spiritual destiny to develop one’s spiritual consciousness.
Spiritual pilgrimages take place all around the world and in many different religious traditions. Often pilgrims travel to sacred temples, but natural areas with spiritual or mystical significance can also be pilgrimage destinations. Pilgrims may make solitary spiritual pilgrimages or they may travel with other pilgrims, including family members. When families make spiritual pilgrimages together they bring together their shared beliefs and highest goals.
The spiritual practice teaches that everything that occurs on a pilgrimage is taken along on the mystical path. To enhance the pilgrim’s spiritual experience, many pilgrimages include an element of austerity wherein the pilgrim suffers in some way or is tested before or undergoing the pilgrimage. The pilgrim often must leave his normal life behind, encounter difficulties, enemies, and overcome hardships along the spiritual pilgrimage. The pilgrim’s suffering are all part of their spiritual experience on the mystical path and demonstrate their willpower and determination to have the pilgrimage mean something spiritually.
Once a pilgrim reaches the end of their spiritual pilgrimage they present their prayers and hopes to the divine presence with the goal of receiving blessings from the divine entity back. Often the pilgrim presents their love of the divine presence with the expectation that that love will be returned to them in some seeable form. Pilgrims often have deep mystical experiences when visiting spiritual places with a long history of being sacred to the people. While a pilgrim may reach the physical end of their journey and even have a spiritual awakening from their experiences, mystics understand that the pilgrimage or mystical path never ends and is always ongoing as one continually seeks to elevate their spiritual essence and reach a closer divine union.
Featured in this series: Fr. Richard Rohr, Timothy Freke, Rabbi Aubrey Glazer of Congregation Beth Shalom, Mary Reed, Lama Palden Drolma, Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami at the Hindu Monastery in Kauai, Dr. Carol Weyland Conner Murshida of Sufism Reoriented, Sufi Hadi Paul Reicherz, Shankina Reinhertz, Pamela Desvernie, Itara O’connell, and Guy Douglas.
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