Julian has sent through a new post – he’s now got all his gear, and he’ll be a black caped crusader! He will be very distinctive on the Camino!  Here’s his post –

JULIAN LORD:

Well, here’s my kit.

Taken me a year to gather all this, and well you don’t need to be a genius to guess which colour I like best …

But cripes, black hat is just noooooooo, the backpack is the Sister’s, and black sleeping bag is also nooooooooo ….

Awesome BLACK socks just arrived today, so my collection is now complete — the white paper thingy is my beautiful Compostela map ; don’t have my Credencial yet. Also carrying the French liturgical Bible (in photo), a BLACK Smartphone, BLACK camera, and my stainless steel hip flask — engraved:

“Not all those who wander are lost”
(from my brother)

Weight ? Who cares ?
I have a BLACK PILGRIM CAPE !!!!

In preparation for my trip to India in about six weeks, I’m currently reading the Dalai Lama’s book – The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality. 

I had the good fortune to meet His Holiness about two years ago in Delhi. We shook hands, and he looked into my eyes with that mirthful gleam of his, and I was suddenly incapable of speech. I walked away feeling like I had plugged into an energy stream that was boundless.

I want to quote now from this book – because I think the point His Holiness makes here is very relevant –

There are many people, both scientists and non scientists, who appear to believe that all aspects of reality must and will fall within the scope of science. The assumption is sometimes made that, as society progresses, science will continually reveal the falsehoods of our beliefs – particularly religious beliefs – so that an enlightened secular society can eventually emerge. 

In this view, science is perceived as having disproved many of the claims of religion, such as the existence of God, grace, and the eternal soul. And within this conceptual framework anything that is not proven or affirmed by science is somehow either false or insignificant. 

Such views are effectively philosophical assumptions that reflect their holders’ metaphysical prejudices. 

Science deals with that aspect of reality and human experience that lends itself to a particular method of enquiry susceptible to empirical observation, quantification and measurement, repeatability, and intersubjective verification – more than one person has to be able to say: “Yes, I saw the same thing. I got the same results.”

So legitimate scientific study is limited to the physical world, including the human body, astrological bodies, measurable energy and how structures work. This is effectively the current paradigm of what constitutes science. 

Clearly this paradigm does not and cannot exhaust all aspects of reality, in particular the nature of human existence. 

In addition to the objective world of matter, which science is masterful at exploring, there exists the subjective world of feelings, emotions, thoughts, and the values and spiritual aspirations based on them. 

If we treat this realm as though it had no constitutive role in our understanding of reality, we lose the richness of our own existence, and our understanding cannot be comprehensive. 

Reality, including our own existence, is so much more complex than objective scientific materialism allows. 

I’ve recently been contacted by a couple of people asking if we’ll be running another Portuguese Camino tour.

Seems like word got out that the last tour was something special.

Which it was!

Jennifer and I will be leading the St. Francis Assisi tour next April – from Florence to Assisi. That’s locked in, and we’re almost fully booked already on that one. We only have a few places left. We’ll be going to Italy in late September and doing our scout, and we’ll publish a full itinerary and costings shortly after.

But we do have a gap in our schedule for mid to late October – which in fact is a wonderful time to be walking in Portugal. Cool, and not crowded.

I know that Catarina, our beautiful and gloriously hilarious van driver/interpreter/liaison/fixer of all problems will be available, and keen to join us again.

So please let me know if you’re interested, or if you know of anyone who might be interested, because we’ll only mount the tour if we get sufficient numbers.

Contact: bill@gonetours.com

Since publication less than twelve months ago, the reviews for my Camino book – The Way, My Way, overall have been very positive.

I’ve received 65 ***** (five) star reviews, four **** (four) star reviews, one *** star, one ** star, and recently I received a shocker of a * star review. Here is that review:

The reviewer calls me, amongst other things, a self-indulgent bore and not a very nice person. Ahem. I’m sure my mother would beg to differ. I was going to say: I’m sure my wife would beg to differ but I might just check in with her first…

I disagree though that I was singularly ill-prepared. I’d prepared thoroughly. Perhaps too thoroughly.

I’d driven most of the route on a prior trip to Spain, I’d read just about everything there was to read, I’d watched documentaries and YouTube videos, and of course the film The Way. And I’d trained for about eighteen months – testing boots, backpacks, on different terrain, over short and long distances etc. I felt that I’d prepared as best one can when undertaking such a spiritual journey.

Anyway, I feel like I’m defending myself. I shouldn’t have to defend myself.

Then today I received an email out of the blue from a lady named Rebecca Bishop from Washington State. She’d just finished the book and had taken the trouble to track down my email address, to let me know how much she’d enjoyed it.

She then wrote this five star review:

It’s as though Rebecca Bishop and Geoffrey Collier had read different books.

I don’t get it.

When you write something that’s very personal, as this book was for me, then you open yourself up for all sorts of criticism. Especially on the internet. I’m used to it from my film work. I’ve had good reviews and bad reviews. You only ever remember the bad reviews!

Reviews aside, this was a book I had to write, to complete my Camino. I’d come back from the pilgrimage with a lot of deep issues unresolved. For me, the only way I could find resolution was to write about my experiences, and in writing about them it was like I’d lain down on a psychiatrist’s couch. In having to examine them through the rigours of writing, I found a certain clarity.

So I wrote this book for myself. To help me work out my stuff. What’s been pleasing lately though is that I’ve heard the book has impacted on several other people in ways I never could have expected.

I won’t go into details because of privacy concerns, however I’ve been thrilled to hear that several people who are going through some personal hardships have read the book and it’s inspired them to undertake their own Camino. And having made that decision their hardships are already starting to melt away.

I’ve also heard that a few people who have completed the Camino and read the book have gained a new perspective in the light of my experiences and insights.

What I’ve discovered is that walking the Camino is just the beginning of your pilgrimage. It doesn’t start in St. Jean Pied de Port or Pamplona or Burgos or Astorga – in many ways it actually starts when you get home.

That’s when it gets really difficult.

Am I a good pilgrim ? No more than I could possibly describe myself as “a good man”.

The Pilgrimage to Santiago is no kind of magical nor mythical odyssey that will automatically provide any sort of moral nor spiritual advancement in life.

The Camino is a TOUGH path, made of several weeks or months of sweat-filled toil, pain, disappointment, hardship, and constant struggle against doubt, fatigue, and oneself.

It is a Crucible where the Self is tested and revealed, and where you can make or lose a friend in an instant ; but it’s also a pathway where your innermost needs and the depths of your toughness will emerge, no matter the consequences.

NONE of my pilgrimages so far have ever been in comfortable nor easy conditions, and this year will be no exception — not a single pilgrimage of mine has been anything other than a sacrifice ; and this will be, and already has been, the most difficult pilgrimage I will ever have attempted.

There’s still a part of me, as I think there is in all pilgrims, “true” or otherwise, that would like to slip into the easier world of the “tourigrino” experience, into the straightforward 5-6 weeks of a more leisurely social Camino, with no real worries about whatever — except that the one time that I actually attempted it, all of my money was stolen anyway, so I was back at the usual ground zero pilgrim life that seems to be my lot … Ultreia (Carry On) e Sus Eia (and away with you) …

One makes jokes and criticisms about one’s fellow pilgrims along the Way, even simply as a means to relieve one’s own tension, but at the end of the day we are ALL of us imperfect pilgrims, and there’s not a “true pilgrim” among us.

Every rich man and pauper, every “purist” and every bus-pilgrim, every devout Catholic and every self-seeking tourist-pilgrim, we are all of us just as much “true pilgrims” as fakes, because none of us has any better right to the Way than any other, and because we are ALL of us headed towards Santiago.

The hands down BEST Camino advice that has ever been given me was in a little booklet distributed back in the 90s by the legendary mademoiselle Warcollier, Founder of the Paris Association and Archivist of the Camino (and Editor of the modern edition of the Codex Callixtinus) — “La seule chose importante c’est d’arriver à Saint-Jacques” — “The only important thing is to reach Santiago”.

No matter any of our own imperfections — that is the perfect advice for ANY pilgrim.

No matter how, no matter the hardships, no matter how others will look at you, criticise you, misunderstand you, think you’re mad, attempt to discourage you, hinder you, laugh at you, or simply disdain you — the only true pilgrim Way is to the end of the Way. Let nothing and nobody prevent that, and you’ll be as true a pilgrim as any other.

I am advancing my departure date from early August to the end of July — and to the four winds with the consequences !!!

That is my Camino.

Julian Lord…

I can’t believe it.

I posted that at 4:44pm

Did not intend that at all…

(It’s now a bit after 5pm, and I’d just like to add – with that post, I pressed PUBLISH on the WordPress site, then straight away I picked up my iPhone to check for emails. I have my clock on my iPhone as a screensaver, and I saw that it was 4:44pm. Prior to that I had no idea of the time. It could have been 4pm or 5pm or 6pm – I didn’t have a clue. I must admit, this has really knocked me sideways. I find this so weird… )

Further to my dream last night, and the 4:44 message that the angels have my back – today I booked flights out of Australia on… yes… the 4th of September.

Jennifer and I will be heading first to India, which is where I’ll start filming.

I’ll interview scientists and sadhus, psychics and physicists. I’ll go to sacred cities on the Ganges, and I’ll go up into the holy regions of the Himalayas.

I’ll also go to Dharamsala, the home of the Dalai Lama.

One thing I’ve read which has stuck – if you have purpose and you get a clear message to get on with it, then you have to get on with it.

You can’t ignore these messages.

So I’ve taken the first step. And I’m excited…

(I took this photo below of a holy man on the banks of the Ganges two years ago, while attending a pilgrimage to celebrate the first monsoon waters)

My wife and I took our son to lunch yesterday at one of the more picturesque wineries outside of Mudgee. Clancy is 25 years old, works in the music industry, and doesn’t visit us often. So we figured a lunch was required.

I’d got dressed yesterday morning in readiness for a walk – brace, stocking, Asolo boots etc – but I never got the time. Phone calls, a leaky tap, a work-related Skype call to LA delayed me – and then it was time for lunch.

So I went to lunch at this upmarket winery restaurant dressed in my walking clobber, including rain jacket. Luckily I did, because suddenly some very bad weather moved in.

Gale force winds, a big temperature drop, and driving rain.

The restaurant was outside on a patio, enclosed by transparent plastic blinds that were whipped into a frenzy by the wind.

Clancy had ordered a pork chop that looked delicious. Jennifer a walnut salad, and me an anchovy and tomato pizza. We drank some of the winery’s beautiful Barbera.

The weather got worse. It seemed like the wind was going to blow the blinds away. The trees outside were whipping from side to side like they were going to uproot.

We finished our meals, the skies outside darkened even further as the storms kicked up another notch, I said my goodbyes to my wife and son, and walked out.

I began to walk the 8kms home in the gale.

As I walked along the beautiful country lane leading away from the winery back into town, it began to sleet. It was freezing. And the winds unleashed their full ferocity.

I bent my head to keep out the horizontal rain. I put my hands in my pockets to keep them warm.

Some time later Jennifer pulled up alongside me in the car and asked if I wanted to hop in. I smiled and shook my head. Once I set my intention I’m hard to deflect. She drove off and I kept walking. Soon I found my rhythm and began to warm up.

Above me, the clouds swirled.
Around me, the wind roared.
Inside me, I only heard music.

It has to go down as one of the most glorious walks I’ve ever done.

(I wasn’t able to take any photos, because I didn’t want to get my iPhone wet, but here is a shot from one of my Mudgee walks when it wasn’t raining…)