[Gocamino] Rites of Passage

[Eileen Hamer]

There seeems to be a flod of Camino books coming out, but for those who want to go a bit more deeply into the experience, perhaps an old one would be helpful.

Arnold Van Gennep, The Rites of Passage, 1909, formulated his theory of the form and attributes of rites of passage--the way we change.  He shows that all rites of passage have three stages: separation, limen, and aggregation.
  
Separation is pretty clear: we leave all we know, all customs, obligations, ways of thinking, comforts, responsibilities, our fixed point in our social structure.  For us today, this is crucial.  The more of our life we bring with us on the Camino--calls home, GPS, etc., the less the Camino  can have its way with us.  

Limen is the stage of the unknown.  We are cut off from home, in a strange land, strange customs, not knowing where we will eat or sleep--a free state, where old habits and expectations can no longer define our actions, an ambiguous place, having few attributes of our 'normal' state.  We are vulnerable, but like children, able to find new answers to our problems.
 
Aggregation: perhaps the most disconcerting to modern pilgrims.  This is the stage where we come home, back to our 'normal' lives, and don't quite fit.  Because we are changed by the new experiences and possiblities of the Camino. 

Victor Turner has written about pilgrimage in several books, expanding on Van Gennep's seminal work in relation to pilgrimage.

These are not easy books; they were written for anthropologists and academic audiences, but have been enlightening to me and perhaps to you.  Having some sense of the pilgrimage process helps me to do what I can to facilitate it--I'm leaving my life at home at home as much as possible, taking with me only the barest necessities, and will try to have as few expectations as possible (except those of getting there and flying home eventually).  Liminality is a difficult stage (other liminal times are adolescence and, to a lesser extent, moving).  Expect the unexpected--aches and pains, insults, anger, hunger, boredom--as well as the good stuff--a new friend, sunrises, new insights, hot shower after a horrible, painful day, wine, a really clean shirt, silence.   Let my values get readjusted.  And be prepared for the shock of reentry.

    

Eileen Hamer
ehamer at earthlink.net
EarthLink Revolves Around You.