A Seasonal Pilgrimage

This idea for attuning with a season comes from William Whittmann, a Seattle therapist, who sponsored pilgrimages on the equinoxes and solstices to sacred sites in the city. He chose to align himself with the solar markers of the seasons, those days when the season shifts (or reaches its peak): the equinoxes and the solstices. During the six weeks before the pilgrimage date, he meditated on the season and its metaphors (such as the element (earth for winter) and the direction associated with it (north). By the time the day arrived, he had a sense of which sacred places in the landscape were calling him and he guided a small group of pilgrims to those sites to meditate upon the qualities of the season and ask for guidance from the spirit of the land.

I first attended one of these pilgrimages on the autumn equinox in 1996. Having just returned from a summer spent in Wales, which is rich in sacred sites, I was feeling lost in the secular landscape of Seattle, until Whittman started mentioning the places he goes on pilgrimage like the very old and beautiful cemetery near my house which he likes to visit in winter or the marshes of Foster Island where he often goes for autumn equinox.

Whittman himself was a transplant from the Midwest who consciously set out to find the sacred sites of Seattle, simply by visiting different places and paying attention to the energy he felt there. Once he mentioned the places which were sacred to him, I realized that in a much more unconscious way I had been attracted to particular sites. Some were wild places and others were created by people, often in conscious alignment with nature, like the little park a few blocks from my house which features a sculpture shaped like standing stones.

Of course, the scope of your search for sacred sites is up to you. You could drive many miles from home to find your sacred site, like my pilgrimage to Mount Saint Helen’s on summer solstice. Or you could find a place in your own back yard or on your block which best evoke the essence of each season.

On the autumn equinox, Whittmann took his group of pilgrims to three watery sites, since he was working with the correspondence between water and autumn. Each site had a distinctly different flavor. One was on the bank of a waterway, dense with animal and plant life. Another was on the northern shores of Lake Washington–very cold, very majestic. And the third was at a popular beach, where the energy was light and playful. Whittmann asked the question, which came first. Did the light-hearted energy of the place attract people to that particular beach? Or had a century of beach-goers, picnickers and lovers created a playful energy in that place?

After the first pilgrimage with Whittmann, I adopted the practice of solitary pilgrimages on the equinoxes and solstices. Most of the places I choose are within walking distance of my house, so the journey becomes part of the pilgrimage. But for me the heart of this practice is sitting in some natural spot for an extended period of time, soaking up the feeling of the season, praying for guidance from the tutelary spirits of the place. As with any reflective process, I find that deep answers and feelings well up from inside when I am silent and attentive to my surroundings.

Sidebar:
Holiday Pilgrimage
1. Make a commitment to undertake a seasonal pilgrimage. Mark these dates on your calendar. You can choose the closest weekend to a holiday or give yourself the gift of time off work. These are religious holidays.

2. Let your intuition guide you to the sacred sites in your area which you associate with each season. Spend time, at least an hour, preferably longer, in silence.

3. To emphasize the spiritual aspect of this activity, create sacred space before you leave your house or when you arrive at the site. Greet each of the directions or outline the place where you will sit with a ring of leaves or by drawing a circle in the sand. Greet the spirit of the place and ask for guidance. You may want to bring a gift: cornmeal as in the Native American tradition or a few pretty rocks for the fairies (they also like sweets and coins). When you leave, return the site to its original condition and thank the directions and the local spirits.

Article by Waverly Fitzgerald

Photo by Louise Rocheleau-Lamoureux

This is an excerpt from the seasonal chapter of my Slow Time book.