Walking in nature is a very healthy thing to do. It’s exercise, it fills your lungs with good air and your eyes with beauty, it reduces stress and blood pressure and depression. It is a sacred activity and, all by itself, constitutes an “informal” Atheopagan ritual.
This article is about adding a symbolic, ritual dimension to a hike in nature: turning a walk into a pilgrimage to a special place with meaning and significance.
Here’s how:
1. Identify a destination for your hike: a spring, a pool, a waterfall, a rock formation, a particular stand of trees, a mountaintop, a spectacular overlook.
2. Decide what that destination stands for (a theme or intention for the ritual), and name it: “The Fountain of Good Fortune”; “The Glade of Restoration”; “The Pillar of the Ancestors”. It is to this destination that your pilgrimage will proceed.
3. Bring a libation to pour, or other (completely non-artificial, non-aesthetically-displeasing) offerings. Be aware of the potential impact of any food items on wildlife: non-toxic flowers, nuts and thin-skinned fruits are generally okay; bread and citrus fruit are not.
4. At the outset of your hike, prepare yourself by observing a moment of silence and contemplating the goal of your pilgrimage. Any special practices you prefer for centering and calming your mind are appropriate here.
5. As you walk, identify “special places” along the way—a large tree or one with a hole in it, for example, or a rock outcropping, or a spring: anywhere that seems special—where you will pour a libation or leave a little offering. Make each offering “in the name of” a Quality with which you wish to imbue your pilgrimage or a commitment you make in the name of securing the blessings of the destination.
6. At your destination, set out symbolic items to create an impromptu Focus. Make your final offering and speak your wishes at having completed your pilgrimage. You may want to stay and eat a snack at the destination, to “share a meal” with the essence of the place. If it’s a water source, you may want to gather a little water in a bottle and keep it for usage in rituals later.
7. Thank the place for its blessings before you go, pack up your Focus and leave the destination looking as you found it (save, perhaps, for a small, biodegradable offering).
Pilgrimage hiking can help us to “overlay” a sacred, metaphorical landscape of symbolic meaning over the physical landscapes of the natural places we love. Over time, your landscape can come to be filled with special places that have particular meanings. Perhaps you can develop mythology to explain why these places are associated with these meanings.
In any case, it’s a way to enjoy our sojourns in nature in a different, intentional way.
Give it a try!
What a great idea!
I did a pilgrimage to Darwin’s house once, and walked along his “thinking walk” (a loop of gravel path where he walked and thought about evolution) and had a conversation about evolution. Very satisfying.
I always try to be thoughtful about the offerings I leave outdoors. I hadn’t heard not to leave citrus fruits before. Why is that?
The thick skins can take weeks or months to decay, and many animals can’t (or won’t) chew through them. Thin-skinned fruits don’t have that problem. Thanks for asking!
Thank you for educating me about them! My conclusion is that I could leave peeled citrus fruits and take the peel back home to compost instead.
What do you think about grains that have been cooked? For example rice and quinoa, I know they’re bad for birds when raw but if I cook them plainly (so soaked and boiled with nothing but maybe a little salt if I’d made it for myself) do you think that would cause trouble?
Currently the only offerings I’m able to leave outside are water or the pieces of plants, shells, etc that I’ve found and then return later after being on my altar, so this is mostly about future knowledge.
Yes, I think cooked grains and peeled citrus would be fine. Thanks for being considerate of our Earth!