Learnings from My Pilgrimage
This summer, I traveled to two of the lands of my ancestry, Scotland and France, on pilgrimage. I want to share some of the medicine, the learnings, from my pilgrimage with you.
A few weeks before I departed, talking to a colleague who was traveling to the land of her ancestry, I heard myself saying “There are codes in our bones and in our blood that activate only on the land of our ancestors.” As a white person whose colonized, mostly impoverished, ancestors left their homelands in search of survival elsewhere, I’m one of a handful in my family able to afford to make the return journey. I went with my cousin to Iona, Scotland and to the south of France.
The first time I heard the word “Iona” 20+ years ago, every hair on my body stood up and my heart whispered “You have to go there.” Iona is one of the Hebridean islands on the west coast of Scotland, and most people who go to Iona, go for the day to visit the restored abbey. Yes, Iona is the last outpost of Celtic Christianity (before the Catholic church shut down the ‘heretics’ who believed in the divinity of nature and of all beings and eschewed original sin), but before that, Iona was sacred to the Druids and is the resting place of 42 High Kings of Scotland and Ireland.
It took 4 days of travel for me to arrive on the isle of Iona, and I could feel the island welcoming me halfway across the ferry ride from Mull. I felt like I was returning home. The beauty of the island enlivened me: tiny bunches orchids growing by the sides every path, sunlight sparkling on the calm waters of Loch Staonaig, the rhythmic dancing of the waves at the Bay at the Back of the Ocean, the green marble rocks.
Learning #1: Awe, which results from our appreciation of beauty, may be our true purpose as humans. Since returning home, I notice my capacity to be awed by beauty remains higher than before my pilgrimage.
Each of our 5 precious days on Iona we spent out on the land, discovering ancient sacred sites, like the heart-shaped spring called the Well of Eternal Youth, and the ancient joy-filled ceremonial area on the hill above the Hermit’s Cell.
Sometimes we had no directions to where we were going, sometimes we had vague directions and got lost in the swampy bogs; each time a bird showed us the way. Even locals acknowledge how easy it is to get lost on the land, saying “If a site does not want to be found, you won’t find it, even if you have a map, even if you’ve been there before.”
Learning #2: Ask permission to enter an area and ask the land to help you find your way. It worked for us every time. When I hike our mountains now, and even when I harvest the food and flowers from my garden, I now ask permission first. It’s an attitude of the heart that shows reverence, respect and capacity for partnership.
On our way from Iona to the Edinburgh airport, we stopped in the Kilmartin Glen, a world heritage site with more than 800 neolithic and bronze age stone monuments. I spent some time inside the burial chambers, honoring the ancient creators of these sites and honoring death itself.
Learning #3: Some things can’t be known with the mind, they can only be experienced through the body—with an open heart. During our time in Scotland and southern France, we hiked between 3 and 12 miles a day. Yes, we learned the history of each sacred site, but what we FELT from the land, in our bodies and hearts, that was what changed us.
During our 10 days following the footsteps of Mary Magdalene in southern France, I experienced a spiritual transformation that I will share more about later. [For those who don’t know: after the crucifixion, Mary Magdalene went to France to spread the good news of the gospel, and she is beloved there.] What I will say for now is that, as I walked where she walked, as I knelt where she knelt and prayed where she prayed, I heard her, I saw her, I felt her in my heart.
It was the trip of a lifetime. We had perfect weather: temperatures were comfortable while we were in both places, not too cold in Scotland, not too hot in France. But a week after we left, they had to close many of the sacred sites because of drought, heat and fire risk.
Since returning home, I’m back to work with private clients and facilitating my 9-month Empowered Solar Priestess circle and my first Wheel of the Year course, both of which complete this month. I’ve already recorded 3 more Agents of Transformation interviews which I can’t wait to share with you soon. I’ve written a chapter in a book that will be published soon and I’m planning a November online 2-day Grief Retreat (more on those later!).
I hope you enjoyed my learnings from my pilgrimage, and I hope the remaining weeks of summer will be blessed for you and yours.
Autumn Equinox will be here soon!
Melody Magdalene LeBaron