by Phil Cousineau
"Pilgrimage is often regarded as the universal question for the self. Though the form of the path changes from culture to culture, through different epochs of history, one element remains the same: renewal of the soul. The shape can be linear, as with the goal-oriented journeys to Mecca or Rome; circular, as on the island route of Shikoku, Japan; or spiral, as in many mountain ascents.
The purpose of the pilgrimage it to make life more meaningful. Through sacred travel, individuals can find the path to the divine, the ultimate source of life. The essence of the sacred way is "tracing a sacred route of tests and trials, ordeals and obstacles, to arrive at a holy place and attempt to fathom the secrets of its power. As Francis Huxley points out in The Sacred, "The sacred itself is plainly a mystery of consciousness, using the word mystery to signify not a problem that can be intellectually solved, but a process of awakening and transformation that must be acted out in order to be experienced, and experienced if one is to make it one's own.'"
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