While reading the article Goddess Pilgrims, I became aware of a new connection I had never thought of before: between pilgrims and tourists. My husband and I were just in Mexico for our honeymoon so the idea of being a tourist is fresh in my mind. Early in this article it mentions that, “A tourist is half a pilgrim, if a pilgrim is half a tourist.” Could it be possible that I was on a pilgrimage… or that every time we travel we are on some kind of a pilgrimage?
I started to think about that fact that tourism could be the modern day version of a pilgrimage. The article mentions the connection that tourists often return home with relics/souvenirs. Both of these excerpts from the article support the connection:
“MacCannell (1999) has claimed that tourism functions as a surrogate religion in connection with modern mass leisure and Graburn(1989), also in the Durkheimian tradition, has demonstrated how the vacation acts as a symbolic time marker of ordinary (profane) time and non-ordinary (sacred) time, thus structuring the passage of modern lives”(478).
“Unlike the traditional religious pilgrim who typically journeyed to a single sacred center (‘out there,’ according to Turner 1973), the Goddess pilgrim’s itinerary like the tourist’s, frequently incorporates a number of sacred ‘attractions’ in a given area”(478).
Further into the article it starts to talk about the differences between being a pilgrim and being a tourist. When you are a tourist you are seeking pleasure and enjoyment and when you are a pilgrim you are seeking a religious experience.
The difference with the Goddess pilgrimages is that these women seek both, personal enjoyment and religious experiences. What these women (or any pilgrim about to travel) need to decide is what the sacred purpose is for their travels. One of the main reasons for a Goddess Pilgrimage is healing:
“Goddess pilgrims believe in the earth’s power to heal body, mind and spirit to create an uninterrupted and whole self “(486).
I think I want to make it a personal goal that every time I travel somewhere, I make it more a bigger priority to have a religious experience. It will vary from place to place but I think there is a lot of value in it.