Stone stacking

[Felipe Sanchez]

> Felipe, or anyone, perhaps you can illume another area . . .

I, Felipe, cannot but I found a passage in FOLLOWING THE MILKY WAY by Dr.
Elyn Aviva, page xxiv and xxv that speaks to this point.  You might want to
read the entire passage for I quote only the last part of the ultimate
sentence:  "This tradition, like the cairns, appears to have been invented
in the last few years."

As to the motivations involved with stone stacking or cairn building I have
heard a plethora.  One of the most bizarre entails identifying each pile as
a "power point."  I suspect that unconsciously as pilgrims pass along the
Camino they feel the inner tug or pull to be more intimately involved with
the activity as opposed to superficially transiting the surface.  To deposit
a stone, much like carving "I love you" in tree bark, affords the
perpetrator an emotional connection to the moment, the place, the activity.
But, like so much of life and the Camino, I admit that my musings are purely
speculative.  Dr. Aviva discussed much of this in the forewards of her work
which I recommend highly.  Felipe Sanchez