Pilgrimage Into Soul
November 29, 2023
Join us for this series of Daily Reflections on “Pilgrimage Into Soul.”
Some may think of pilgrimages as religious journeys, but they were going on even before religions developed.
The earliest evidence of human activity reveals that we have always yearned for contact with nature and love. The first peoples on earth were not unlike us; they reached beyond themselves to understand the seen and the unseen. They quested for something higher … something more. Their worlds had seasons, stars and family. They lived, laughed, loved, lost, celebrated and grieved. They may not have had formalized religion, but they were awed in the presence of what they considered sacred.
Imagine the earliest humans raising their children and teaching them how to live. Imagine the attachments and bonds between them, just as we have today. Somehow, they knew they were more than their bodies and that their spirits were hallowed, sacred. They had rites of passage at puberty, in marriage and burials. In time, deities were recognized and named.
They placed their deceased in the ground, on a pyre to be burned or on an elevated platform for the birds and elements to consume them. In whatever manner they chose, they returned their loved ones to Mother Earth with dignity and sacred ritual.
Just as we visit the sacred resting places of others, the earliest humans did the same. And just as we visit sacred geographical locations, the first humans did the same.
Our ancestors’ visits to the graves of loved ones were sacred journeys regardless of the distance traveled. Deities and the holy places associated with them also became the objects of pilgrimages. These were the first pilgrimages. They are archetypal; they are in every culture in every era, and they go on today, just as they did in the dawn of history.
The sacred pilgrimages of yesterday and today have the same profound intention of bringing the soul closer to transcendence.
Inquiry: How is your large or small journey a pilgrimage?
Dear God,
Your presence is in every sacred place. I pray that you bring me to these places and that my soul grows nearer to you. Amen.
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