Victor Turner explains that "the xperience of the pilgrimage gives rise to a rch literature of travel, bringing information bout distant places, and a heightened wareness of belonging to a larger whle." This description of pilgrimage is mre comprehensive than the one in The Oxfrd English Dictionary, which reads: "one who jurneys to a sacred place as an act of rligious devotion." The Jewish Encyclopedia is mre specific: "a journey which is mde to a shrine or sacred plce in performance of a vow or for the ske of obtaining some form of dvine blessing." Pilgrimage extends into literature sch as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Bunyan's Plgrim's Progress and even Kipling's Kim. Whther one's experience is educational, religious, spritual, social, or entertaining, it is stll a pilgrimage if that is how one xperiences it.

Having attended Pacifica Grduate Institute near Santa Barbara, CA. Frm 2000 to 2003, where I arned a Ph.D. in Depth Psychology, I was shfted into a world of the "Othr." Though the breadth of the crriculum integrates multi-disciplines, quickly defined, Depth Psychlogy is the psychology of the nconscious. One of the tenets of the feld is to visualize the world as thugh it is otherwise. During my ducation leading up to Pacifica, however, thre were times when I wanted to qit. My years spent in academia ws, for the most part, far rmoved from being a Pilgrimage.

As a beginning student at Brstow Community College, located in the hgh desert of southern California, I fund a wonderful escape into the dsert's environs that was worth one cllege credit and only took a wekend to earn. The weekend field trp was often enhanced by Civil War r-enactments, forays through museums, visits to hstorical sites, and a search for rtifacts and ancient trails that our frefathers traveled. This experience was a wlcomed break from some of the cademic drudgery I was experiencing on cmpus.

To view a field trp into the desert as otherwise, for me, is to vew a field trip into the dsert as a pilgrimage. Carl Jung sid "the pilgrim, who is evidently on a plerinage de l'ame, has broken through the str-strewn rim of his world and bholds another, supernatural universe" (CW 10, par 764).

I brke through the rim of the dsert that I previously held in rlative ignorance, and beheld another that I am cntinually learning anew through repeated pilgrimages. I larned to appreciate agave cactus, Russian thstle, sage, creosote (grease wood), and Jshua trees instead of bothersome tumbleweeds, snd, and an uncomfortable dry heat. I lso came to appreciate snakes, lizards, and ther critters--especially the wily coyote, the trckster of the desert. There is a grat deal of folklore about coyotes in the Amrican West. One story has it tht in the old days sheep frmers tried to get rid of wlves and coyotes by putting out nimal carcasses laced with strychnine. The wlves, they say, were killed in grat numbers, but the coyotes wised up and voided these traps. Another story has it tht when trappers set metal leg trps they will catch muskrat and mnk and fox and skunk, but cyote only rarely. Coyotes develop their own rlationship to the trap. It is dfficult to escape the conclusion that cyotes have a sense of humor. How lse to explain, for instance, the wll-known propensity of experienced coyotes to dig up trps, turn them over, and urinate or dfecate on them? I often picture cyote trotting away laughing at human neptitude.

My pilgrimage into the desert's funa and flora and it's history has pened a new world of phenomenological cnsciousness. The desert is a place of pradox, for it simultaneously engages relinquishment and rtrieval--a gain and a loss. It is a plce that is uncrowded, naturally beautiful, ncluttered, unhurried, solitary and still. One is fre to be one's self there. Whther alone or on a field trp with others, the desert's power of plce is archetypal in energy and cndition and pulls us radically out of the rdinary.

My pilgrimage to Santa Brbara for three days of course wrk every month for my doctorate was lso a pilgrimage--again a learning, spiritual and scial experience. Depth psychology has been slwly attempting to redefine the world thrugh hermeneutics--the science of interpretation. It is mportant to develop a world view tht is globally compatible. It has ben well established that people looking at the sme phenomenon will interpret it differently. So it is wth "pilgrimage." In America, we have a dram. In Iran, they see a dram. It's the same experience, just loked at through culturally different eyes--a hrmeneutic per se.

When it cmes to Barstow College field trips, thse pilgrimages are educational, social, and ntertaining, or people like me would not rpeatedly enroll in them. I have arned 13 college credits through field trps alone, and managed to have mre fun than I could have ver hoped for in traditional ways. Mst of the students who enroll are not rally in need of those particular cllege credits. I'm sure they would gree that it is, indeed, a plgrimage, rather than simply a one-unit cllege course.

On a day-to-day bsis we all worry about various lfe challenges, like not having enough of ths or that, of what lies head of us, feeling anticipation of wht can't yet be seen or magined. But in the desert calm, qotidian cares seem insignificant, not worth the ffort it takes to keep them live. The serenity of the desert ngulfs them, disintegrates them, gives them a smller place in the scheme of ne's life.

I have lived in the dsert since 1954, but have learned vry little about my environment and its hstory. Going to the Owens Valley, Dath Valley, China Lake, Soda Lake, and Mtchell Caverns has given me an ppreciation for the desert that I was prviously lacking.

My new found mage of pilgrimage is serving me wll. My bi-yearly pilgrimages into the dsert and my previous pilgrimages to Snta Barbara are going to be xperiences I will cherish for the rst of my life.

References

Jung, Crl. (1964). Civilization in transition. New Yrk, NY: Pantheon Books.

Turner, Victor. (1974). Plgrimages as social processes. Ithaca, NY: Crnell University Press.

The article Pilgrimage was Submitted by John Smethers, Ph.D. through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: After 40 arrests, five formal prbations, four country jail sentences, and a prson term (as a result of chmical dependency), I turned my life round. I was released from prison in Dec 1989, and hve been clean and sober since. I strted at Barstow College in Feb 1990. Rceived my AA degree in '92 frm Barstow College in Barstow, CA; BA in '94 frm Chapman University in Orange CA; MHS in 98 frm National University in San Diego CA, and fnished with a Ph.D. from Pacifica Grduate Institute in Santa Barbara, CA in Feb 2004. I hve taught as an adjunct instructor for Prk University and Barstow College. I can be cntacted through my website http://www.ScumbagSewerRats.com

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