”For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.
I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
This summer I joined a “Scottish Odyssey” organized by Gillian Schoemaker, a native of Scotland who lives now in Pennsylvania. I had travelled with her and 12 others to Egypt last Christmas (just before the Arab Spring) and found that I liked this way of travelling. To journey with a group of like-minded people is for me the ultimate travelling experience because, not only were new landscapes continually appearing, but we were also in a group and we had each other as companions to help digest the new impressions.
On the trip to Scotland we were 15 including a driver and Celtic storyteller. We all met at the Glasgow airport on July 18th and transferred to our minibus. Our first stop was the Burrell Museum with its eclectic collection in a beautiful park setting. Then we travelled on to New Lanark with a visit with the 18th century social experiment of Robert Owen. Next was a visit to Kilmartin and nearby Dunadd Hill which we climbed. At the top of the hill we took turns to put a foot into the place where the early kings of the ancient Dalriada stood and were crowned. Such power being in this place! I stood on the raised centre of a large flat bowl with high mountains on the periphery and these mountains appeared to have their full attention on me. Did the early kings choose this place of crowning as a way to centre themselves?
Iona was another special place. Not much seems to have changed since Columba brought Christianity to Scotland. The mood here is captured so well in the writing of Fiona Macleod (‘the dream self’ alter ego of William Sharp, 19th century Scottish writer and intellectual):
A few places in the world are held to be holy, because of the love that consecrates them and the faith which enshrines them. One such is Iona…It is but a small isle, fashioned of a little sand, a few grasses, salt with the spray of an ever-restless wave, a few rocks that wade in heather, and upon whose brows the sea-wind weaves the yellow lichen. But since the remotest days sacrosanct men have bowed here in worship. In this little island a lamp was lit whose flame lighted pagan Europe. From age to age, lowly hearts have never ceased to bring their burden here. And here Hope awaits. To tell the story of Iona, is to go back to God, and to end in God.
Our next stop was Skye, the largest of the Inner Hebrides with its mist-laden Cuillin Hills. The Outer Hebrides followed with the Isles of Harris and Lewis and miles and miles of low-lying peat moorland and hundreds of tiny loch and tarns. This landscape reminded me a lot of Nova Scotia. We were very fortunate to meet a remarkable woman, Margaret Curtis who has studied the Callanish stones on Lewis for decades. She and her late husband documented celestial events uniting the moon and the stones and the “Sleeping Beauty Hills” in the distance.
Callanish Standing Stones
Next we headed for Scrabster and the ferry to the Orkney mainland. As we travelled the north coast we noticed the landscape changing – the views of empty glens and lochs and lonely cottages and grey beaches disappeared and we met villages and rolling hills and fences enclosing cattle and sheep.
On the Orkney mainland we travelled to the Neolithic village of Skara Brae, and visited also Maes Howe, a huge burial mound dated to 2500 BCE. It was amazing to see graffiti dating back to the Vikings! We also spent time at the Ring of Brodgar, an impressive circle of 36 standing stones dating from 300BCE.
Skara Brae
Our journey took us back over the water to the Scottish mainland and the Cairngorm Mountains. On the way we stopped at the eco-village of Findhorn. We were hosted one morning by Mari Hollander, a 30 year resident of Findhorn. It was fascinating to listen to her presentation. Findhorn still attracts many different groups of people who seek to put the values of living the truth of the terconnectedness of all of life into practice. I had the impression that this community was vibrant and still sustainable after so many years.
barrel houses at Findhorn
One of Findhorn’s core activities is to teach newcomers how to connect with their own inner wisdom. The people who live here follow many diverse spiritual paths and philosophies. “How does this work?“ I asked. The simple (and wise) answer was that there were frequent round robin “check-ins” with all the working groups. All members were encouraged to speak up and share any tensions arising in their own souls. I had the impression that Findhorn had mechanisms or release valves in place for dealing with the inevitable stresses that arise in communities with a common purpose.
Edinburgh
On to Edinburgh and the Fringe Festival (I saw three shows!) and then a stop at Rosslyn Chapel and a talk about its importance by former Waldorf high school English teacher Peter Snow.
On our last day we visited Margaret Colquhoun who is active with the Pishwanton Project in East Lothian. Using art activities and the “gently empirical” method of Goetheanism science they attempt to work with the Spirit living in landscapes. More details about this approach can be found on the project’s website: pishwanton.com
What a joy to travel this way – “on the move” with a bus load of friends. Sure, some difficulties came up but somehow they easily evaporated as our next adventure loomed ahead.
"the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round..."
Oh –to keep this mood, back home, of being an explorer in one’s own life!
