pre-christian camino, etc.

[Galen Wilkerson]

Hi Sally,

I think I see what you mean about accessibility to the logical, modern
mind, and I do agree to some extent about that, that we can only see
things that fit in our world-view, and are often blind to many things - an
extension of "when you have a hammer, everything's a nail".
Unfortunately, I am one of those who is turned off a little by things that
are very openly mystical (though I love celtic music and movies such
as "lord of the rings", so I'm a contradiction).  This could be my problem
to some extent :)  Also, though, I am actually looking for real
scholarship: anthropology, archaeology, etc.  I'm afraid I could
easily "make up" feelings or "facts" about what it was like back then,
which might be more based on romantic wishfulness on my part than actual
fact.  I do think that "science" is subject to this blindness just as much
as any other way of finding the "truth", but I am interested in so-called
cold, hard facts as much as possible.  Then, speculation can be built on
top of that, as long as it is acknowledged to be speculation.  I.e.
something like:  we found these and these relics and symbols, etc. and
these shoes and burial methods, and we can infer that this and this is
what they believed, as a possibility based on this.  It's dry, but I tend
to trust it more, partly _because_ it is "boring" and not dramatic.

I do think that if one is trying to infer things about daily life in pre-
historic (before writing) times, and for instance wondering what it was
like to travel such a long distance on foot, it is valuable to actually do
it, and to actually feel part of the landscape, so to speak, and go ahead
and be a human being in those terms.  All of those who did the camino
probably noticed a subtle but constant change in themselves as they
traveled on foot such a long distance, something to do with the people
around them, and with the actual concrete process of walking that far and
long and being outdoors and in that place.  I think all of this experience
is valuable for many things, and one of those things is trying to get in a
mind-set to understand what it would be like to live in a more basic,
less 'modern' way in northern spain and travel that distance.

I'm guessing that when you say "the rocks along the way will still hold
the knowledge", you don't mean it in the literal sense, or in a sense that
I can sit down and have a conversation with them :), but in the sense that
those rocks, trees, landscape, etc. is probably similar in many ways to
what it has been like for hundreds, and maybe thousands of years, and we
are all still basically the same human animal that has walked over that
similar landscape, so we can probably get a similar experience, maybe
emotionally, etc., and in this sense, we can 'communicate' with the rocks,
etc.  I think there is a great value in this myself, too, although I think
it should be taken together with "dry facts" as I said above.

Maybe you would like to read "the brendan voyage" by Tim Severin, or his
book about the Argo - (I forget the exact title, might even be "the
argo" :)  Severin is a modern historian/adventurer, etc.  who researches
ancient voyages, mostly ocean-going, and re-enacts the voyage using the
technology of the time.  So, for the Brendan Voyage, he built the leather
boat as closely as he could using the available information, using
craftmanship available at the time, and actually sailed to Newfoundland
from Ireland, via Iceland.  St. Brendan was an irishman who supposedly did
this before Columbus.  Of course, you can read the books by Thor Heyerdahl
too (Kon-tiki is the famous one, re-enacted a possible voyage from Peru to
Tahiti by the possible ancestors of the Polynesians).

Anyway, the point is, for me the connection to the past is interesting,
and somehow important.  The other point is that through a combination of
finding whatever evidence is available, _as_well_as_ personal experience,
we can possibly find a personally and culturally important and meaningful
connection to the past.   And somehow this all has a spiritual value on
many levels, and can try to satisfy the 'modern analytical' mind as well
as the 'spiritual mind' if you will.  You can also probably sell a heck of
a lot of books if you do this. :) :), and maybe win writing awards for
2500 euros!! :)

So I think we agree. :)  Sorry I didn't respond earlier.

Galen




On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 09:38:16 +0000, Sally Haden <hadense1948aHOTMAIL.COM>
wrote:

>Hi Galen and all,
>
>>I am interested in knowing more about the early camino.  I've heard
rumors
>>that it had pre-christian roots, but would welcome soem substantial info.
>>The more factual the better! :)
>>Any sources - books, etc. backing up anyone's info would also be welcome.
>>Maybe it is the part from Santiago to Finisterre that is thought to be
pre-
>>christian    gracias,
>>Galen
>
>This is an interesting subject to me.... anyone got any info??
>
>Here are a few of my thoughts on the subject.
>
>It isn't easy to find substantial information about such things because
>facts from times long-gone tend to become myth and not believed by modern
>people; what there is is then even more easily mixed up with fantasy or
>conjecture, madness and the plain silly.
>
>Also sometimes in these cases one has to approach the subject differently.
>It would be excellent to get some substantial, factual information, yes -
>excellent.  But also the subject shouldn't be approached with a modern
>logical mind!  Part of the way we think today, which has come about with
the
>industrial revolution and the need to compartmentalise information and
>become scientific and objective, precludes the kind of holistic,
imaginative
>and sensitive approach that would help in understanding what any
such 'road'
>might have consisted of.  "Knowledge" obtained in such a way is easily
>ridiculed, even by our own logical mind.  It is a tender process.
>
>Galen, you have walked the Camino already.  So what does your experience
>tell you?  Go and walk it again and see if you were right!
>
>If it is true that there is a pre-Christian, even prehistoric route there
of
>some sort, the rocks along the way will still hold the knowledge.  The
>passage of humans on the earth is recorded in the book of records that
>nature holds.  When we visit nature, we can peek into the book if we wish.
>Facts from history and the records of men will help but they are only part
>of the story.  They can be helpful as clues, but the knowledge is deeper
>than that.  Not unavailable, just deeper.  And hidden to those who do not
>take the right angle when they search.  Perhaps that sounds too mystical
for
>some. And I am not an expert at all.  But it does seem only sensible to me
>that there is an abundance of knowledge on our planet which the great
>majority of modern people just don't have a clue about because we live in
>urban environments, caught up in the bind of machines, mortgages, and the
>perceived need to be somewhere else in the next five minutes.
>
>Okay, so I don't know where all that (which I just wrote) came from!
Maybe
>I should apply it in my upcoming ten days in Donegal!  I have heard there
>are some old 'roadways' in Donegal which used to be trod as part of a
>circular pilgrimage there.
>
>Sally
>
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