When thinking about what the definition of a pilgrimage is, I would have to say that I have always thought similar to the Turner definition rather than Eliade. I have always thought that pilgrimage means that people have a journey to reach a certain goal or to find a spiritual identity/reason for living. I didn’t really think of it as people trying to go to a sacred space to feel safe because I thought that people would have to go through a journey that might not be so safe in order to find their true identity. I do think that both Eliade and the Turners are correct I just didn’t realize that there were different reasons for pilgrimage.
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Callie, I can definitely relate with your thinking. In several religions I can think of concepts of the Eliade where there are three complex levels, Heaven, Earth, and Hell and people act within the guidelines and restrictions of the religion to attain the ultimate place in the afterlife, Heaven. I never thought of this basic concept of religion though as a paradigm for pilgrimage, wherein people pilgrimage to sacred sites to be closer to this axis where the three levels connect. That was a completely new way of thinking for me as well because I had never even heard of the idea of an axis mundi. as we discussed these concepts in class I could comprehend how a lot of the concepts in the Eliade could be seen in pilgrimages to holy ground and even in our own homes with the idea of sacred space. It definitely changed the way I thought about pilgrimages because, like you I had always conceptualized pilgrimage in the form Turner talks about.