The Art Of Pilgrimage: The Seeker's Guide to Making Travel Sacred
First published in 1998 and updated with a new preface by the author, The Art of Pilgrimage is a sacred travel guide in book form that is full of inspiration for the spiritual traveler.
Award-winning writer and filmmaker and host of the acclaimed Global Spirit "Internal travel" television series seen on PBS and Link TV, Phil Cousineau weaves stories, myths, parables, and quotes from famous travelers with practical suggestions and accounts of modern-day pilgrims to show that there is something sacred waiting to be discovered in virtually every journey. Connecting these voices is a series of meditations that suggest different ways to practice what pilgrims and poets have done for centuries, to see with the “eyes of the heart.” With over 70 illustrations, this book is for the traveler who longs for something more than diversion and escape. The Art of Pilgrimage shows that every journey can be sacred, soulful, and transformative if it is undertaken with a desire for spiritual risk and renewal. Whether traveling to Mecca or Memphis, Stonehenge or Cooperstown, one’s journey becomes meaningful when the traveler’s heart and imagination are open to experiencing the sacred.
Praise for the original edition:
"Of all the books I've ever read about pilgrimage, this is the most poetic, personal, and timely. I recommend it to everyone I lead around Ireland." - John O'Donohue, author of Anam Cara
"This book made me wish I could retrace my footsteps with Joe [Campbell] when we traveled the world together." - Jean Erdman Campbell, dancer and choreographer
"What makes travel sacred? The sense that gods are watching as we walk the myth-ridden heights of Ephesus, yes. The awareness that rocks almost as old as time ride the cliffs above our heads in Wyoming’s Wind River Canyon, almost certainly. I have made pilgrimages all my life. One, along the sea-roads of Charles Darwin, consumed more than 20 years. Then I found Phil Cousineau and now he is my guide on every wandering." - Georgia I. Hesse, founding travel editor, San Francisco Examiner
"An excellent guide book . . . . the quintessential traveling companion with its juicy quotations and stories, its ample spiritual insights, its perennial wisdom, and its vibrant enthusiasm for the deep pleasures and rewards of soulful travel." - Spirituality and Practice