From time to time I write on Substack for a community involved in discussing what many call the metacrisis, meaning the complex set of problems we have in the modern world. It could be anything from climate crisis, planetary boundaries, Artificial Intelligence with the purpose of finding solutions and potential actions that we as individuals can make to find solutions. The set of problems we have in the world are such that many of them are interconnected meaning that solving one problem makes it worse somewhere else. 

As part of this I wrote a substack article on what I prefer to call the modern pilgrimage realizing that so many in the world are fascinated by the concept of travelling by foot and with other means. Traditionally pilgrimage has been for the purpose of visiting a holy place, but even in the past we have learned through literature and research that even that purpose was much more complex and people had many more reasons than religious to make the journey. A few that is well known are:

• Adventure – if you had the means a long journey was simply a way of seeing the world; if you had means it would be a journey to Jerusalem, but if you had less, it would simply be a few weeks of walking to the nearest cathedral.
• Economy – a pilgrimage could be a way of a way to get new revenue by selling goods you have made, entering into service, or procuring goods you needed for your business.
• Escape – many times people living in dire circumstances or under threat of being married or being ousted from your community was a reason to leave for a pilgrimage.
• Social – a pilgrimage was often a highly social experience, you often travelled together for safety anyway and you met at inns and taverns. Nowhere else is the clearer expressed than in “Canterbury tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer.
• Status – a pilgrimage was something that gave you status, which is expressed very well in all the little souvenirs that the pilgrims brought home.

All these have modern correspondences and maybe if we remove the religious part we may feel the sacred part of connecting nature to our own body. Maybe sleeping rough every now and then, maybe chopping our own wood or simply walking on unpaved roads feeling the unevenness and perhaps some physical strain is in some ways. 

When thinking about all the problems of society today I must say that doing a small (or larger) pilgrimage does not have to be religious, we do not have to have a real goal, maybe it is the journey itself that is the goal. Maybe you have a pilgrimage waiting for you at your closest wood, or maybe your pilgrimage awaits you in a library where we can follow in the footsteps of others.

I will just give a few examples of poems that may inspire you:

I rörelse (by Karin Boye)

Den mätta dagen, den är aldrig störst.
Den bästa dagen är en dag av törst.

Nog finns det mål och mening i vår färd –
men det är vägen, som är mödan värd.

Det bästa målet är en nattlång rast,
där elden tänds och brödet bryts i hast.

På ställen, där man sover blott en gång,
blir sömnen trygg och drömmen full av sång.

Bryt upp, bryt upp! Den nya dagen gryr.
Oändligt är vårt stora äventyr.

I love this poem which you can find in translation here and the fact that it focus on the journey itself and the movement rather than the goal or in case of a pilgrimage to the sacred shrine in the end.

Another example which to me can be a pilgrimage in the same way is Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Or think of Canterbury tales where the journey is more about telling tales in a tavern than to find and pray by the grave of Thomas Becket. 

I know that we have written to similar prompts before, but today I would like you to focus not on the end of the sacred target but on the journey itself which may find those additional reasons listed above (or any other you may find).

So think of a travel you have made, think of why you made it and maybe how it may have changed you as well.

When you have posted your poem on your blog, linking back to this prompt link it up using Mr Linky below. Then please go ahead and read and comment on the other poems linked up. Maybe this is the start of beautiful meetings and storytelling.

If you want to comment and expand on pilgrimage or anything else happening in your neck of the woods please do so below in the comment section.