I would like to share my thoughts on the mystical and spiritual aspects of walking the Camino.
I walked a Camino in July and August of 2024. The full Frances from St Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostella.
I did this without any preconceived ideas or expectations. With the aim of increasing my spiriatuality and also in memory of my brother who died from bowel cancer the previous August.
Basically I went into the travel agent and booked a flight to Madrid and then Pamplona and flights from Santiago to Madrid and back to Sydney.
I made no other travel arrangements and allowed myself to be at the mercy of the universe – and it worked – more than my wildest expectations.
I had a real feeling of being looked after at all turns – the thing that I hadn’t considered was the goodness of people who in many ways went out of their way to be helpful – often not speaking any English.
We hear all these horrible stories on the news but my experience were the antithesis of this.
While I was doing the Camino I didn’t actually feel the millions of people who had walked it before but I was aware of the supercharged spiritual energy that was there!
There was only one spot where I thought “Oh, I wonder what has gone on here!”
When I came back I read about the Spanish Civil war in the 1930’s – the attrocities on both sides and how half a million people were killed out of a population of 24 million.
Ernest Hemmingway graphically described some of these in his book: “For Whom the Bell Tolls”.
Halfway through the trip, while walking the Meseta I had this revelation that my soul was being stretched and becoming part of all that was around me – the fields of wheat, the sky, the trees, the fields of ripening corn.
I was a part of everthing that was – nothing was important that was not part of the moment that was!
I thought “yes” you could say this was enlightenment. I thought that this is what happens when you die and leave your body. Your soul becomes stretched – becomes a part of all that is – becomes a part of what is to glorify the whole.
Could I have come to this conclusion at home – I don’t know!
All I know is that being in the moment – totally – certainly made it possible to access this. My mind was very clear and there was nothing clogging it up.
I’m carrying no baggage – past or future, I was really living in the moment. Probably this is how we should always live our lives.
I also saw very clearly the peacefulness and purity of that which was around me.
From the moment I arrived there was a “syncronicity” to everything that happened. A girl on the bus from the airport in Madrid who spoke really good English directed me where to get off telling me the history and significance of the fountains. A French woman on the bus from Pamplona who took me under her wing and escorted me to the Pilgrim centre. There were many things which happened such as these.
At Zabakduja I stayed at the albergue beside the 13th century church Iglesia de San Estaban. The church commemorates St Stephen, a saint who was a local (My brother’s name incidentally was Stefan). In the evening after dinner we went up to the mezzanine level for a meditation session with the Sisters of Mercy. There were quite a lot of people from many different countries – Croatia, France, Spain, Italy and a fellow from the UK. The Nun conducting the meditation and played some really nice music and then said she was not going to play the normal music that night as we had a famous opera singer in our midst. The dark haired girl sitting at a table in front of the church with her partner when I first arrived was Christina Bonnelli (originally from Syria). She sung the requiem Pie Jesu by Gabriel Faure – it was just lovely in the acoustics of the old church. She sang it again at the end – it really took me to a very spiritual, peaceful place. There was also a reading from Luke 24 verse 13-15 where Jesus having risen form the dead is walking along the street where he is recognised.
At the ridge of Alto de Perdon I was sitting on the steps of the the stone pillar commemorating a basillica and pilgrims hospital built in the middle ages under the name Our Lady of Forgiveness. This is where you will see the life size metal statues of pilgrims past and present. As I was having my lunch a Spanish guy started play some music on a casette player – soft guitar music. It was very surreal and you could see for miles – my emotions were very close to the surface. It was as though nothing else was important at that moment – everything was as it was – and nothing to be added to make it perfect. I felt the oneness of everything I asked him later about the music – he said it was a spiritual tape about the light in the forest.
Of course like everything else there were some things that I would have preferred to have left behind. Walking the Meseta I suffered quite badly from hay-fever and ended up taking anti-histamine tablets and eventually a course of antibiotics to get rid of a persistent cough. I don’t mind the heat – July and August are not as busy as other months – Europeans were all complaining – but living in Penrith I am used to this.
Make your journey on the Camino as simple as possible to allow the universe to step in and make the experience a mystical one.
Blessings
David spoke at our Camino Meetup in Glenbrook – July 2025, thank you for sharing your story and thoughts with us.