My sleep was somewhat restless and broken that night – I think in part due to my excitement over ending my short Hontanas stayover and getting back out onto the ever unbroken Way – and yet I still felt fully alive and refreshed as I woke before dawn and headed out into the still gloamy […]
“It was the early hour in which objects lose the consistency of shadow that accompanies them during the night; the hour when they gradually began to reacquire colors, and yet seemed to cross meanwhile an uncertain limbo, oh so faintly touched by the Sun, just barely breathed on by its light. It was the hour […]
I flowed smoothly thereafter into and through the magical 14th century ruins of St. Anton, a old monastery and pilgrims’ hospital (originally founded in 1146 AD) that was once an important stopover for pilgrims along this portion of the Camino. I found the peace I felt here difficult to pinpoint or place, only knowing that […]
I am to this day unsure about the source of the deeper peace I feel whenever seeing the city of Castrojeriz from afar, and yet that solace is immediately palpable from its very first appearance on this path’s horizon and – for me at least – lasts until I leave that city on its farther […]
One of the great joys embedded within any conscious pilgrimage is the way in which symbolism, archetype, and metaphor wash continually over & around every step of the way; so much so that if one is attentive enough (and humble enough) it readily seems as though the world itself is carrying on a personalized conversation […]
Once more I entered the outskirts of a lovely little Camino township, once more I stopped in at the first pathside cafe to drink some water and sit with a few of my fellow pilgrim life-travelers, and once more Luis from Brazil – like he did yesterday in Hontanas – graciously offered me a smattering […]
I found myself deeply admiring the architecture of (& radiating calm flowing from) the large cathedral across from the cafe where I was resting, and so I decided to enter the same and spend some time there before leaving town. Unfortunately, the societal malaise that is the cousined partnership of capitalism & Christianity kept me […]
The 11th century fortress ruins on the mount overlooking Castrojeriz provided a steadily glowing reminder – poignant to the ego, transcendent to the Soul – that “this too, shall one day pass”; that no matter how “civilized” or “advanced” or “awakened” we might claim to be, our community too will one day fall away and […]
The horizon-long ridge just past Castrojeriz proper may not seem like much from afar, and yet all pilgrims soon come to know its steeper & more tiring truth. The small train of early pilgrims steadily slowed both before and behind me as we all trudged up that hot & dusty path. The way was a […]
At the crest of the previously summited mount, I had been told by fellow pilgrim Ferdinand (once again well met) that I had officially arrived at the famed Maseta – a huge, flat, dry, and dusty plateau; the northern portion of which was traversed by roughly 200km of the Camino Frances upon which I was […]
It was gloriously smooth & easy walking that day (a path-trait that would prove to be a common one for much of the next several weeks) and I soon enough found myself at the famed Ermita de St. Nicolas*, the famed donativo hostel of which I had heard so many wonderful things. It was places […]
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