Karl Brown Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture Chapter 1 10/20

I found the idea that once you could no longer confess to your sins you would go on a pilgrimage very interesting. The concept that confessed sins could pile up and become unmanageable seemed very interesting to me, as I had previously been under a different impression. I had thought that there was never a full buildup, and that confession was an end-all in all cases for Catholics looking for a way out of their misdeeds. However, the concept that a “load can no longer be borne” makes a lot of sense to me.

The fact that there is an initiatory quality of pilgrimages seems intuitively obviously to me. How can someone undergo such a journey without something first happening to them to start them on that path?  I understand one can simply dive headfirst into a pilgrimage, but upon doing so I still believe that it would be impossible to avoiding an initiation of sorts upon entering if properly embarking on a pilgrimage. I was wondering if this applies to all sacred journeys, or just pilgrimages? I understand that in many cases there is not even a distinction, but when there is a sacred journey that is not a pilgrimage is an initiatory quality involved? I’ll ask this during our next class that I remember.

What is the main distinction between a pilgrimage and a sacred journey? From my interpretation, a sacred journey is simply going from A to B in a potentially sacred environment according to the 4 axioms. However, a pilgrimage is a sacred journey to officially predetermined sacred places and usually includes others of the same faith joining you. Am I on the right track with this distinction, or not? Once again this is something I am going to have to ask about in class.

I like that the pilgrim is not expected to anticipate any remedy upon his journey, in contrast to the tribal ritual. This goes along with what we have studied in other texts, in which anticipating a cure or result may even put you in the wrong mindset for such a sacred occurrence to happen. As the book says, “magical beliefs do in fact abound” but they are a result of the will and the attitude of the pilgrim as they set out, not the mere fact the pilgrimage was undertaken. This seems to have a parallel to the axiom of sacred place, “Sacred Place can be tread upon without being entered”, in the sense that it is not just participation that is required to reap the reward of the journey.