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    A Primer for Pilgrims
    A Primer for Pilgrims
    A Primer for Pilgrims
    Ebook128 pages1 hour

    A Primer for Pilgrims

    By Steven McFadden

    ()

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    About this ebook

    In a wealth of ways across a wide span of traditions and hundreds of generations, pilgrims have sought out holy places: forest groves, healing wells or springs, pyramids, mountains, churches, temples, stone circles or labyrinths. Millions of people have traveled for a host of reasons.

    In the end, whether we go willingly or unwillingly, whether we regard ourselves as tourists, business agents, or sacred travelers, we are all, pilgrims. A pilgrimage is a journey, not only outward to a faraway place, but also, inevitably, inward toward spiritual understanding and growth. In our era pilgrimage can be as well a critical geospiritual deed to help maintain the balance of our land, our planet, our lives.

    This eBook is an invaluable guide to personal spiritual growth, as well as to earth healing. It’s also a collection of riveting and beautifully told true stories about critical geospiritual actions in North America

    This nonfiction eBook by veteran journalist Steven McFadden also acknowledges, honors, draws from and strives to integrate the many cultures and traditions which have streamed onto Turtle Island (North America) over the last 500 years or so.

    We have long needed, and finally have begun to find ways to graft the far-flung traditions from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, Asia, and beyond — onto the rootstock that is so deeply embedded here: Native ways. So many teachings make beautiful sense, in both the short and the long term, in ways both common and rare. We need all the wisdom we can summon to meet the challenges of our times, and native pilgrimage teachings offer a deep foundation.

    The book offers a wealth of insight about the challenges that arise in pilgrimage and the profound good that such a spiritual exercise may bring – not just for the individual pilgrims, but also for the world at large.

    Pilgrims may set out to do penance for past evils, to find answers to questions, to invoke blessings, to pursue spiritual ecstasy, or to seek a miracle for a friend or family member. Increasingly in our era, pilgrims also set out to help heal the earth.

    In most mystical traditions it is said that the human soul itself, every human soul, is on a pilgrimage, consciously or unconsciously. He or she is bound for a holy place and therefore life is not just for enjoyment, but the soul also has dharma, a purpose or objective that must ever be kept in focus.

    Now as you set out on the literary pilgrimage of reading this book, my hope as the author is that it will offer up useful compass points to help you maintain your bearings.
    Journeys to luminous locations are often undertaken by people with scant understanding of what pilgrimage is and the principles that have been found to enhance it. Thus, they may see only what they have come to see, whereas intentional pilgrims may more readily open doors of perception, encounter revelation, and gain constructive power.

    To the extent any or all of us are alienated by modern life from the natural world, a pilgrimage to a sacred place can help heal and restore this. The energetic atmosphere of sacred places can awaken a slumbering soul, providing not only renewal, but also a clearer sense of purpose. The energy can invigorate and promote balance — assisting human beings to realign through physical, mental, and emotional planes.

    A Primer for Pilgrims delivers nonfiction insight, excitement, inspiration, adventure, and more.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSteven McFadden
    Release dateJul 11, 2014
    ISBN9781311608222
    A Primer for Pilgrims
    Author

    Steven McFadden

    I've been an independent writer since 1975 when I graduated from journalism school at Boston University. Since then I've been happily involved with my life's work writing, and consulting. Over the years I've authored hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, blog posts, and over a dozen nonfiction books.It's my honor to have served as the author of an epic, nonfiction saga of contemporary America, Odyssey of the 8th Fire. It's freely available online at www.8thfire.net Odyssey of the 8th Fire is the true, epic saga of a historic pilgrimage for the earth across North America by people of all colors and faiths under the Sky Sign of the Whirling Rainbow. The 8th Fire arises from the deepest roots of our land. In it, circles upon circles, elders make a great and generous giveaway of the teachings they carry.The titles I have listed on Smashwords arise out of the Soul*Sparks publishing venture in which I partner with my wife, Elizabeth Wolf.As of 2019, I'm designating Chiron Communications, my umbrella publishing venture, as the publisher for the book I've recently finished writing, "Deep Agroecology: Farms, Food, and Our Future." The eBook version will be available here on Smashwords.Peace and good cheer, Steven

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      Book preview

      A Primer for Pilgrims - Steven McFadden

      * * * * * * * *

      ~ A Primer for Pilgrims ~

      By Steven McFadden

      Copyright - 2014 by Steven McFadden

      Soul*Sparks Books

      2nd edition – February, 2018

      ISBN: 9781311608222

      Cover design by Rita Toews

      Cover photo by Brian,

      courtesy of Creative Commons

      Discover other titles by this author

      soulsparksbooks.com

      chiron-communications.com

      License Notes

      This e-book is created and licensed for your reading enjoyment. I offer it as the result of my travels, my experience, my encounters, and my labor.

      Acknowledgements

      Many people have earned my respect and appreciation for their influence and for their

      help. I thank especially my Muse, and my partner in life, Elizabeth Wolf. Great thanks also to the pilgrims and elders, whose enduring messages are woven into this e-book. My appreciation and thanksgiving to all. ~ Steven McFadden

      For a pilgrim soul

      Marie Dolores Fitzsimmons McFadden

      (1921-2014)

      As well as for All of Us

      On The Road

      We are summoned by circumstances.

      Time to step forward.

      Table of Contents

      Passage 1 – Compass

      Passage 2 – Threshold

      Passage 3 – Sacred Places

      Passage 4 – Broken Places

      Passage 5 – Placemaking

      Passage 6 – Spinning the Medicine Wheel

      Passage 7 – Odyssey – 8th Fire

      Passage 8 – Longriver

      Passage 9 – Overcome Evil with Good

      Passage 10 – Walks Far Woman

      Passage 11 – On the Road

      Passage 12 – Consider Odysseus, Making All His Travels

      Passage 13 – Pilgrimage to the Poisoned Heart of Avanyu

      Passage 14 – Redeeming an Unholy Fire

      Passage 15 – Precepts for Pilgrims

      Passage 16 – Rite of Return

      About the Author

      Reviews

      Soul*Sparks Books

      Passage 1 - Compass

      "The journey is the thing." ~ Homer, Odyssey

      In a wealth of ways across a wide span of traditions and hundreds of generations, pilgrims have sought out holy places: forest groves, healing wells or springs, pyramids, mountains, churches, temples, stone circles or labyrinths. Millions of people have traveled for a host of reasons.

      In the end, whether we go willingly or unwillingly, whether we regard ourselves as tourists, business agents, or sacred travelers, we are all pilgrims. A pilgrimage is a journey, not only outward to a faraway place, but also, inevitably, inward toward spiritual understanding and growth. In our era pilgrimage can be as well a critical geospiritual deed to help maintain the balance of our land, our planet, our lives.

      When I was a child of seven years I journeyed with my parents to the western end of New York, the Empire State, to the Canadian border. There — as millions of others have done — I beheld the mighty rushing waters of Niagara Falls. I was suffused with awe. Such power, such magnificence. As it is every day on the rim above the falls, the air was alive with chi or ki or prana, different ways of naming the naturally invigorating cascade of energy which distinguishes this Wonder of the World, and many other holy places as well. The rush of energy fills the body through the lungs and permeates the soul. The utter holiness of the falls made an indelible impression.

      In the decades that have followed that first pilgrimage I’ve been to dozens of sensitive places: the sacred mounds of the Midwest, the temples and pyramids of Mexico and Central America, the roiling ocean shore at both the Eastern Door and the Western Gate, and many a mountain summit.

      I’ve been privileged to participate in journeys to the Grand Canyon, Chillicothe, the National Cathedral in Washington, to Agua Azul Falls in the Yucatan and Chickamauga Mound at Moccasin Bend in Tennessee. I also experienced an epic prayer walk of eight months across the back of Turtle Island (North America). From all of this, insights have arisen. This book shares some of those insights, and serves as a primer for other souls summoned by life and by the extreme circumstances of our era to set foot upon pilgrim pathways.

      Niagara Falls

      Predominantly, the passages and tales in this book are focused here in North America and draw heavily from the root traditions of Turtle Island (North America) — the teachings of the land and of the human beings who have served for thousands of years as keepers of the land.

      But the book also acknowledges, honors, draws from and strives to integrate the many cultures and traditions which have streamed onto Turtle Island over the last 500 years or so. We have long needed, and finally have begun to find ways to graft those far-flung traditions from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, Asia, and beyond — onto the rootstock that is so deeply embedded here: Native ways. So many teachings make beautiful sense, in both the short and the long term, in ways both common and rare. We need all the wisdom we can summon to meet the challenges of our times, and native rootstock offers a deep foundation.

      Readers will discover as the books progresses that three of the Passages, or chapters, relate facets of an epic walk from the Atlantic to the Pacific that took place in 1995-96, a pilgrimage that was guided by Native elders. I was privileged to be part of that expedition, and from it gained many lessons. Two other chapters concern a walk of historical importance. Pilgrims came to America from Japan bearing with them a lantern lit with a flame that had been ignited on August 6, 1945 when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The pilgrims came in prayer to extinguish the flame.

      Both of these long walks offer a wealth of insight about the challenges that arise in pilgrimage and the profound good that such a spiritual exercise may bring – not just for the individual pilgrims, but for the world at large.

      Pilgrims may set out to do penance for past evils, to find answers to questions, to invoke blessings, to pursue spiritual ecstasy, or to seek a miracle for a friend or family member. Increasingly in our era, pilgrims also set out to help heal the earth.

      In most mystical traditions it is said that the human soul itself, every human soul, is on a pilgrimage, consciously or unconsciously. He or she is bound for a holy place and therefore life is not just for enjoyment, but the soul also has dharma, a purpose or objective that must ever be kept in focus.

      Now as you set out on the literary pilgrimage of reading this book, my hope as the author is that it will offer up some useful compass points to help you maintain your bearings.

      Temple of KuKulkan - or El Castillo in Chichen Itza, located on the

      Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico - a UNESCO World

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