Carpe Diem #1116 Saint James Scallops

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at this belated episode of our Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. As you maybe have noticed I have a slight problem with the lay-out of our Kai. Both side-columns have mysteriously disappeared. I don't know what the problem is, but I have already emailed the "blogger / blogspot" - crew. So I hope they will find the problem. If not then I think I will go to another blogging space such as WP. We will see.

Okay ... this month we are on a pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela while reading Paulo Coelho's "The Pilgrimage". After arriving at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port we were informed about the history of this pilgrimage route and now we will encounter the one who will help us on our way, not our guide, but Mme Lourdes, an old woman who walked the Road to Santiago herself several times ... and she is part of one of the orders of the Tradition, a kind of spiritual society.

A Peregrino, as the pilgrims to Santiago are called

Why a pilgrimage? Sometimes because you want to do it yourself, just for fun, just as a kind of holiday, but in this month we will be "peregrino's" to grow spiritual and we are doing that together with Paulo Coelho. So let us take a look at a part of his novel "The Pilgrimage" in which we will met Mme Lourdes.

‘You must be another pilgrim to Santiago,’ she said, without preamble. ‘I need to enter your name in the register of those who walk the Road.’ I gave her my name, and she wanted to know if I had
brought ‘the Scallops.’ She was referring to the shells adopted as a symbol by pilgrims to the tomb of the apostle; they served as a means of identification for the pilgrims when they met.
Before leaving for Spain, I had made a pilgrimage to a place in Brazil called Aparecida do Norte. There, I had purchased an image of Our Lady of the Visitation, mounted on three scallop shells. I took it from my knapsack and offered it to Mme Lourdes.
‘Pretty but not very practical,’ she said, handing it back to me. ‘It could break during your pilgrimage.’
‘It’s not going to break. And I am going to leave it at the tomb of the apostle.’

scallops

identifying a goal

© Chèvrefeuille

Mme Lourdes appeared not to have much time for me. She gave me a small card that would help me to get lodging at the monasteries along the Road, stamped it with the seal of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to indicate that I had started the pilgrimage there, and said that I could leave with God’s blessing.
‘But where is my guide?’ I asked.
‘What guide?’ she answered, a bit surprised but also with a gleam in her eye.
I realized that I had forgotten something very important. In my eagerness to arrive and be attended to, I had neglected to say the Ancient Word – a kind of password that identifies those who belong to the orders of the Tradition. I immediately corrected my mistake and said
the word to her. In response, Mme Lourdes quickly snatched from my hands the card she had given me a few moments earlier.
‘You won’t be needing this,’ she said, as she moved a pile of old newspapers that were sitting on top of a cardboard box. ‘Your road and your stopping places will depend on decisions made by your guide.’
Mme Lourdes took a hat and a cape from the box. They seemed to be very old but well preserved. She asked me to stand in the middle of the room, and she began silently to pray. Then she placed the cape on my shoulders and the hat on my head. I could see that scallop shells had been sewn onto both the hat and the shoulders of the cape. Without interrupting her prayers, the old woman
seized a shepherd’s crook from the corner of the room and made me take it in my right hand. A small water gourd hung from the crook. There I stood: dressed in Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt that read ‘I LOVE NY,’ covered by the medieval garb of the pilgrims to Compostela.

Traditonal clothing of a peregrino

The old woman approached me and stopped only a foot away. Then, in a kind of trance, placing the palms of her hands on my head, she said, ‘May the apostle San Tiago be with you, and may he show you the only thing that you need to discover; may you walk neither too slowly nor too fast but always according to the laws and the requirements of the Road; may you obey the one who is your guide, even though he may issue an order that is homicidal, blasphemous, or senseless. You must swear total obedience to your guide’.
I so swore.
‘The Spirit of the ancient pilgrims of the Tradition must be with you during your journey. The hat will protect you from the sun and from evil thoughts; the cape will protect you from the rain and from evil words; the gourd will protect you from enemies and from evil deeds. May the blessing of God, of San Tiago, and of the Virgin Mary be with you through all of your nights and days. Amen.’
‘Leave Pied-de-Port by following this street to the city gates at the end of the wall,’ she told me. ‘And when you get to Santiago de Compostela, say a Hail Mary for me. I have walked the Road so many times that now I content myself with reading in other pilgrims’ eyes the excitement that I still feel; I just can’t put it into practice anymore because of my age. Tell that to San Tiago. And
tell him also that any time now I will join him, following a different road that’s more direct and less exhausting.’
I left the small city. (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

a new path I seek through the mountains flowers on my hat

© Chèvrefeuille

In this part of The Pilgrimage I was triggered by the deeper meaning of the hat and cape well preserved and the modern clothing of Paulo (Bermuda and T-shirt). Because in that scene I see what this pilgrimage is going to do with him, but also with us I think. Through the ancient works of St. James and by walking the Road to Santiago we will learn that the old, ancient values, still are existing in our modern times. Through the spiritual growth we will learn that all is one. There is not only the past, the present of the future, it is all here right now and while we are walking to Santiago De Compostela we will see that and maybe we can find our way back to the base of our existence as haiku poets.

A wonderful adventire has started and we are on our way ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 9th at noon (CET). I will publish our new episode later on.